Fun and games at The Sanctuary Café

When we were children our lives seemed very simple compared to the lives of many children now. We didn’t have a TV until I was probably about eleven or twelve but I was a compulsive radio listener. I’m not complaining, nor am I pretending that the past was superior to the present, it was just different. We played outside, we went swimming, we rode our bikes, we went on the river, and when it was wet we would entertain ourselves inside. My addiction to reading started early, probably as soon as I was able to read, but we also played games.

We had jigsaws, we had a game – or activity I should say, where we arranged little coloured balls on a card to make patterns – I think it was  Mosaic, but maybe it wasn’t and we just called it that. We had playing cards, we had board games like Ludo and snakes and ladders, and we had Scrabble. My sister particularly loved jigsaws, and when she was bored with doing them, she would do them upside down, or do them face down, with only the shape of the pieces to guide her.

Once I had children of my own, we were back to playing games and doing jigsaws, but of course, by then, other things were available to entertain. We did play games, but we also watched children’s programmes on TV rathe than listening to them on the radio. We had videos of their favourites which they would watch again and again – including Fireman Sam, Joshua Jones, Rosie and Jim. As they got older we occasionally played games still, mainly when we were on holiday in Northern Ireland and the weather wasn’t kind! They grew up, went to Uni, and my daughter returned to stay with us for a while, and she and I played games again, our favourite was Continuo, but there were others too.

Since she left home again, I haven’t thought much about board games, although one of my closest friends plays regularly with a group of friends. However, now a marvellous thing has happened, a new and very lovely café has opened in town, and its a games café! You can drop in and have coffee, or tea, and delicious homemade cakes – including my favourite, flapjack, and play board games. There’s a huge array, some far too difficult for me – I’m still at kids level. Apparently cafés like this are quite a thing. You don’t have to play games, you can just enjoy some refreshments, but if you have an hour or two to relax, there’s a huge library of games to entertain.If you are in Weston-super-Mare, the place to go is The Sanctuary Café.

I came across this great YouTube video which tells you all about the café and by coincidence shows the game that we played!

https://youtu.be/GTi2jZ1VBo4