When Google maps was first released for the US I wrote a post on the old version of this site about the joy of scrolling aimlessly through middle America imagining how people lived around the streets and reservoirs that the map showed in its abstract way. When they added the satellite imagery the experience was enehanced and i discover the joy of aimless roaming again, losing a day to mountain ranges and deserts. This (sometimes it seems not to work but you should reload and retry becasue it’s worth it) brings back those first experiences simply by robbing you of context the ‘game’ presents itself as pure exploration, you can’t zoom out or get the overlay of street names. We’ve been having point to point races at work, testing our London geography and recognition of landmarks.

Here I am, flying over a cool hexagonal block of flats near our house. Reminds me of a particular board game, the name of which I can’t find out ‘cos boardgamegeek has crashed and I can’t remmebr because of the internet’s pernicious effect on my memory over the last 13 years.

Here I am recreating the bombing run which destroyed the house accross the road from us over 60 years ago.

PS. I just remembered the board game is heroscape.