After the ignominy of choosing the incorrect code in my game of Turing Machine yesterday, the shame compounded by my steadfast belief that I was going to breeze through to a win, I decided to play again today, racking up another three plays on BGA. I would much rather play the physical copy, given a choice, but I do like the online interface, especially the ability to block out options that have been eliminated.

I stuck again to the slightly easier level of only having five verifiers, but although I guessed the code correctly on all three occasions it turned out that I had entirely forgotten that bit about beating the machine. On the first play and the second play it made it to the solution once maddeningly frustrating question before I did, but I am glad to report that on the third I got there first, and with only five queries made.

At that point I wrapped up my little set of plays, having spent a happy fifteen or so minutes putting my brain through some gentle paces which I might not otherwise have done. With more time and a little more application I could have been sitting there happily with the actual cards themselves, but I played when I might have just ended up doomscrolling, so there is that.

Next time through I am going to return to what I think of as the adult level and go back to having six verifiers now that I feel that I have reminded myself what the game entails. It took these plays for me to remember that winning this game is not just about asking questions but about being as efficient as possible with them as well.

It is good to know that the interface on BGA is so easy to get on with, because I do have a couple of jaunts abroad later in the year which always end up with a fair amount of dead time to deal with or, if things are busy, the need to play something. At least this option seems to be viable, something to remember.

In other matters…

A belated greeting to yet more new subscribers. It is a delight to have you along for the ride, however long that ride may turn out to be, and hopefully you might find something here to interest you. Again, thank you for joining in.

Yesterday was a real day of swings and roundabouts, the losses in real life more than balanced out by the musical gains. Having waited in the unheated burrow for an engineer to come and fix the heating, he eventually arrived three (three!) hours late, took one look at the machine and announced that he only dealt with gas boilers, not electric ones. He was gone within five minutes, and now we wait until the next opportunity to have things sorted out.

At least the weather has turned milder, so the urgency of the fix is not what it was, but this was still a classic example of everything that I worry about when it comes to these kinds of things - reliability and competence (or, in this case, any kind of knowledge at all). You take a deep breath, let out as much frustration as you can and carry on, I suppose.

On the other side of the coin, the nascent children’s choir at the church had its highest attendance thus far of its brief existence, with some enthusiastic singing as well, and I wonder whether it might just have reached that critical point at which it establishes its own gravitational field. The aim it to have them singing occasionally with the professional choir so that they can perform without any kind of worry at all, but also be surrounded by inspiring and wonderful voices themselves.

In the evening we continued work on the St. Matthew Passion, evidence of Bach’s exquisite handiwork manifesting itself pretty much in every bar, his attention to musical and textual detail depressingly extraordinary. In our work on this I have also felt that Picander, who wrote the non-Biblical text, needs to be mentioned in the same breath, because his writing is superb, the rhythm of his words elevating the music at nearly every turn - or is it the other way round? In either case, this work is going to thrill and inspire me constantly until we reluctantly leave it behind in a couple of months time.