A Typhoon On The Table And Some Dragon’s Gates

Getting back into the click and clack.

Two days on the trot! What a treat! First with my regular olds and then with some friends i haven’t seen for ages. Did I win? Of course I won a few. Today’s new game to me was Typhoon. I nearly got it but ended up winning on Jean’s Medley and again on Three Philosophers, I think. I should remember but I was impressed with my friends doing Dragonette and Dragon’s Gates. Two that are rarely in my vocabulary - I will have to learn them by heart.  Today’s games were punctuated wth tales to tell and catchup stories, I’m glad all won at least one each.  Yesterday’s have already floated out of my mind except that I think I won one game with a Crazy Chow.

I think I’ve worked out how my friend wins so many times She knows her Dragons and their combinations better  than she knows her ordinary chows.

I know Dragonfly but to do the others requires an eye on pairs or a run and a pung. Can’t be that hard to memorise says I struggling to get them into my head. When i first learned to play I would draw out a winning hand, tile by tile and put them into a note book so that I could learn them.  Then I got lazy and started to rely on the learnt ones instead of continuing to build my repertoire. Time to build again I can see.  I wonder where that old notebook is.

Dog sitting for a friend as I write this, a mahjong friend actually.  There’s nothing quite like the taking of the tiles from the wall when playing. Some groups just pick up the tiles from a bag in the centre but the lack of tradition loses me and my motivation in such a situation. I was asked over to play wth another kind of friend at her house but she played without building the wall.  Just not mahjong.

A stickler for the rules? Not exactly but it’s one of the few games you can’t cheat in. Do I cheat? Only in Scrabble where I might insist on words that don't really exist or were Old English or Middle English words. Shocking I know although I’ve not tried to cheat when playing with an English Teacher (retired) I know.

Sorry for such a long wait for the blog. Did I tell you I played in Vietnam? I will fill you in on those games soon and I promise to get back to you all on a regular basis.

Games played

JEAN’S MEDLEY - a red and a green dragon and four crazy chows

CRAZY CHOWS - four mixed (crazy) chows and a mixed pair

DRAGONETTE - one of each wind, one of each dragon, any wind or dragon paired with three pairs in a single suit - no 1s or 9s.

DRAGON’S GATES - a pung of dragons, one suit run 2 - 8, any suit tile paired and a pung of 1s or 9s.

DRAGONFLY - one of each dragon, a pung in each suit and a pair in any suit

THREE PHILOSOPHERS - a chow in each suit, a mixed (crazy) chow and a pair in any suit

TYPHOON - three crazy chows with one of each wind and one wind paired

No new Mahjong facts today except that in US Rules they use Flowers as Honour tiles. Strange huh?

Pip Pip Everyone and be kind to each other and yourselves

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