Moving home. Again.

Since arriving in Paris, I have built up something of a reputation for itchy feet. After band practices of old, Noël the bassist used to complain that I took a different route home every month. This weekend sees a move into my sixth Parisian home and, as Mike points out, in the not at all geeky gimpofactual moment of the day, it also means I've nearly completed a full sweep of the outer arrondissements from XV onwards.

I am looking forward to solitary confinement after a year of flatsharing. Living on my own. Bohemia. I can sit there sketching portraits, before sipping absinthe and composing maudlin guitar ballads about some bitch who left me.

Meanwhile, it is the summer, and the season of Nun Cricket. This game was initially conceived and popularised during Timber+Chakkers' European Tour of 2001. The concept was further developed by Olly and friends on their InterRail trip two years later. In the spirit of sharing the joys of this unparalleled game with all ye blogreaders, I shall outline the rules, so that ye too can partake in its incumbent splendature.

*Find some friends. Any kind of friends will do, as long as they're willing to travel around with you for a few weeks (Test match nun cricket) or a few days (limited overs nun cricket). Interrailing around major European cities is ideal, particularly in catholic countries, although it is indeed such a splendid sport that you could doubtless have a perfectly adequate game of Nun Cricket riding in a horse-drawn carriage around southeast Wales for a month.

*The aim of the game is to score more runs than your opponents. Runs are scored by spotting nuns in the wild, i.e. on the street, in the woods, in the lingerie section. Wherever, as long as it's not a convent.

*Scoring is as follows.
Each person who spots a nun scores one run. One run per nun. Nun-a-run. Etc. Sighting a minibus containing nothing but nuns could easily score you 23 in one go.
A monk is worth four runs.
A bishop is worth six runs.
Seeing the pope wins the contest outright, game, set, match, bang, finito, over.

*You cannot score in a convent, church, or monkery. (Unless you pull a nun. But that's a different story and those allegations were unfounded.)

And that's all there is to it. Happy gaming...

Coming up in your next blog entry: International Poohsticks.