Mark Szeliga Szolkowski's Blog

I bought a "Magic: The Gathering, Portal Second age" box set at the back end of of 1997, but at the time could only play with somebody who thought that tapping a land card for mana literally meant dropping a fingernail onto it. "Kim" rhymes with "Dim", n'est-ce pas? *

Fortunately, I now have young Millicent (who at ten years old is two-fifths the age of the imbecile implied above) who has shown an interest. I have also dug out my old PC game of the same name, but am finding it either ridiculously easy or difficult. Irritating, but not a bad game.


* This is the same "Dim" that was listening to the news one night (a remarkable occasion in and of itself), when the BBC announced that the RAF had accidentally taken out the Chinese embassy in Kosovo during a bombing raid. She asked me, "How have they managed that? China is nowhere near Kosovo, is it?"

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I didn't realise it was Steve Ovett's birthday this week - until I saw a two page spread in Athletics Weekly. It was enough to make me renew my subscription.

I also managed to pick up a bargain on eBay. Harry Wilson, Steve Ovett's late coach, wrote a book in about 1982 called Running Dialogue which is no longer in print. They go for over £60 used on Amazon, but I managed to get it for a quarter of that. Which is nice.

Steve Ovett stuff I found in an idle moment:

• In Mumbai


• ... and again


• A look back to the Coe & Ovett Games


• ... and more

I've always wanted to learn a bit of Polish (more than just the "Thank you" and "yes" that I know anyway), so if I ever get a spare minute I'll have to take a look at this site.