Curse the man who invented the common cold

I'm still all bunged up. Practicing memorising cards with a runny nose reminds me of the MSO championship in 2003, when I was similarly afflicted. I had to pause every couple of minutes to wipe my nose, without making too much noise - sitting in silence for long periods of time when you've got a cold is difficult.

Attempted to boldly go where no one except Andi Bell and possibly a couple of others have gone before today, and tried to memorise 36 packs of cards in an hour. That gives me time to go through each pack twice, and about three-quarters of them for a third time. But my recall had way too many gaps in it. Still, I'm pretty sure it's something I could do with a bit more practice, and it's good to aim high in these things.

On the other hand, I could stick with 30 in the world championship and get most of them right, and still win the discipline comfortably, if nobody else does much better than in previous years. I'll have to decide closer to the time and see what everyone's achieved in the half-hour cards at the German championship, and hour cards at the MSO or British Championship, if any of these promised events actually happen this year. But if Andi's not competing, or not properly competing this year (and who knows what he's going to do, if anything?), I wouldn't expect anybody else to go much over 20 packs. I'd like to be proved wrong, though - if I keep up the kind of form I'm in at the moment, I'm going to be well ahead of everyone else, touch wood. Always with the proviso that someone else might have improved too, and people usually do...