Rear Window

'Rear Window' is not one of the first films I would have thought of when I considered possible boardgame adaptations, but it exists, and it's surprisingly good. But then it's from Prospero Hall, who have made something of a name for themselves doing games like this.

I'm assuming you know the basic plot of 'Rear Window' - a photographer laid up in his apartment with a broken leg begins watching the lives of the various people in the apartments opposite his own, and becomes convinced that one of them has committed a murder. He and his friends set out to prove it.

The game is mostly a cooperative deduction game, and is similar to Mysterium in that one player must guide the other players to a solution by means of pictures on cards, and everyone wins if they get it right. However Rear Window does have a twist on this, which I'll come to later.

The lovely artwork on the game starts with the box.

One player is the Director, and they set up a board like this. Each of the four letters A-D corresponds to four apartments, and for each one he assigns a person and a motivation/background. This is done semi-randomly. So on this board Apartment A is occupied by the Songwriter (Blue) who is a Athlete, Apartment B by Mr Thorwald (Purple), who is a Writer, Apartment C by Miss Hearing-Aid (Orange) who is a Globetrotter and Apartment D by Miss Torso (Red), an Animal-Lover.

The players have four turns (Days) in which to work out who lives in each apartment, and what their motivation/background is. On each day the Director draws eight cards from a deck. The cards show characters or scenes through apartment windows, and he places these on a board showing the windows on the four apartments - two for each apartment.

The players then make their guesses or deductions, and the Director tells them how many they have right, but (obviously) not which ones. Note that the Director is not allowed to speak or communicate with the players in any way, shape or form, aside from through the cards.

Once they have made their deductions, the Director moves on to the next day and lays out eight more cards. By the end of the four Days the players need to have worked out all eight people and motivations.

The players represent photographer L.B. Jeffries and his allies, and they have character cards. Once per game each character can use their special ability to help the players gain more information. For example, Lisa Fremont can break into an apartment and force the Director to indicate what element, on one card, they are trying to bring to the players' attention.

Anyway, we played two games last night, with me as the Director (because I'd read the rules) and Catherine and Maya as the Watchers.

The first game had the setup I described above, and a good draw of cards meant that I was able to easily steer the Watchers to  correct solution in three Days. They didn't even use the character abilities.

The second game didn't go so well, but here's a picture of the final position so you can see the cards and windows in all their glory. By Day 4 they'd worked out the occupants of apartments A, C and D (a writer, a gourmand couple and a drunk police-officer), but whilst they knew Apartment C was occupied by Miss Lonelyhearts they couldn't pick up the clues I was leaving about her motivation.

And that's where the wrinkle in the game comes in. One of the possible, randomly-selected, motivations may be Murder. If Murder is in play then the Director is no longer working with the players; the game is either won by the players (if they successfully deduce that a murder has taken place) or the Director (if the players fail to spot the murder). However in both cases the players must still correctly deduce what's happening in the other Apartments, otherwise no-one wins. So the Director must still steer the players right, whilst trying to conceal the murder. Since the players have no idea if a murder is in play or not, it means they must always be slightly suspicious of the Director, even in a game where the Director is actually completely on their side.

Anyway, my complete failure to demonstrate to the players that Miss Lonelyhearts was a photographer led them to believe that she was actually a killer. She wasn't, and we lost.

There are some advanced motivations which feature a second person, who must also be identified) but otherwise that's the game. I love the idea of the cooperative game where there's the possibility that the person you're supposed to trust may not be entirely trustworthy. I found it easier to play than Mysterium and it's certainly a lot shorter.

As you can see the artwork has a lovely period feel to it, very much adding to the enjoyment of the game. My favourite detail is the player-screens, with the outer side showing the facades of the apartments, so you're effectively playing the game across the courtyards and gardens shown in the film.

Oh, and there's a Hitchcock cameo on one of the cards ...

52 Games - Game 49

The Ghost And The Darkness

 This is another HOTT piece from the original Stronghold. My only contribution has been my usual light editorial hand. The lists are based on the 1996 film of the same name.

Army Lists for 'Hordes of the Things'
by 'heath'

In 1898, two extraordinary lions went on a man-eating rampage that claimed over 130 lives. Nothing like this had happened before and it hasn't happened since. These two seemingly invincible beasts brought Britain's plans for an East African railway to a dead halt and literally stopped the greatest colonial empire on earth from one of its grandest engineering feats, absolutely cold. A bridge-building engineer, John Patterson, aided by an acclaimed wild game hunter, Remington, set out to find and kill these demons that the African's called "shaitaini" or "Devils of the Night." These two unbelievably cunning lions, "The Ghost" and "The Darkness," set their sights on the two men who were hunting them. Despite rivalry and animosity, the two men must trust each other with their lives to vanquish the two fearless man-eaters and prevent their frightened basecamp at Tsavo fromfulfilling its Swahili namesake--"A Place of Slaughter."

The “Ghost and the Darkness”

Stronghold: A cave full of bones

God (Male lion, 'The Ghost') @ 4AP	1
God (Female lion, 'The Darkness') @ 4AP	1
Beasts(Pairs of lions rules over by The Ghost and The Darkness) @ 2AP	8

Special army rules:
Both gods can be deployed for 6 PIPs, but only a single one leaves the battlefield if a '1' is rolled. A god that has left the field may be returned by a subsequent expenditure of 6 PIPs. The army has no general's element. However no element in it is counted as being out of command.

The Army of John Patterson

Stronghold: A train carriage on tracks surrounded by tents

Hero general (British railway engineer John Patterson, and wife) @ 4AP	1
Hero (Remington the hunter) @ 4AP	1
Magician (Local witchdoctor and tribal council) @ 4AP	1
Blade (The lion killer warrior, native assistant to Patterson) @ 2AP	1
Shooters (Remington’s bearers, armed with rifles) @ 6AP	3
Hordes (Imported Indian and local African railway workers) @ 4AP	4

Jaws!

Nearly three weeks after the event (and at least six weeks after ordering it), my birthday present arrived today!

Needless to say, Catherine and I played it this evening.

The Jaws boardgame is for 2-4 players, although really it's a two-player game where one of the players is a team. One person plays the Shark. The other person, or people, play the Crew - Brody, Hooper and Quint. It's a game of bluff and deduction, and ... well, actually it's two games of bluff and deduction. Let me explain ...

The game is split into two Acts, which are (and can be) played as distinct games in their own right. In Act One the shark stalks the beaches of Amity Island, picking off swimmers as they venture into the water in a card-driven random manner. The shark's movement is kept hidden, with only the result in terms of triggered motion sensors (see below) or eaten swimmers fed back to the other player(s). The Crew each have distinct roles in this one - Brody runs about on land, closing beaches, scanning the sea with his binoculars and delivering barrels to the docks. Hooper has a speedboat and can cruise the waters around the island, rescuing swimmers, moving barrels around and using a tracker to try and find the shark's generall location. And Quint cruises around in the Orca. He can also rescue swimmers, but his role is to launch the barrels the other two crew are moving around into the water. If he launches one into an area without the shark, then it acts as a motion-sensor, triggered is the shark moves through that space. But if he can correctly launch one into a space containing the hidden shark, then it attaches.

This game ends when either the shark has eaten nine swimmers, or if the crew manage to attach two barrels to the shark.

Here we are, set up and ready to go.

A lone swimmer off the North Beach disappeared. Shark attack!

Quint shouted at some swimmers off the South Beach to get out of the water.

More swimmers off North Beach - and Brody spots the shark!

This triggered a fairly quick chain of events. Catherine was playing the shark, but it being our first game she hadn't quite worked out how the Crew can coordinate their efforts. Quint got round to North Beach and attached a barrel to the shark, but Catherine's next move ended in a feeding-frenzy at the West Beach which, whilst it cost me four swimmers, allowed me to deduce that the shark was still off the beach. Thanks to an event card Brody was able to rush a barrel to  Hooper, who used his boat to deliver it to Quint who attached it to the shark ...

... and Act One was over.

Catherine had eaten six swimmers in total. Not a bad score for a fairly short reign of terror.

The board was cleared and flipped for Act Two - The Orca.

In this Act, Brody, Quint and Hooper head out on the Orca to hunt the shark. The results of Act One dictate how much gear they have with which to fight it, and how many special ability cards the shark gets for the inevitable fight.

The Orca is made up of eight segments. A segment can be flipped to show it's damaged, or removed when it is destroyed. The shark's goal is to either destroy all eight segments of the Orca or to kill all three crew. The crew simply have to kill the shark, using the various weapons they acquire as part of their gear allocation.

Each turn, the shark secretly chooses one of three card-driven locations in which to appear. The crew know the possible locations, and move round the boat trying to target them with weapons.

Each card not only dictates the location, but also the shark's attack and evade scores, and they are visible to all players, so the crew can use deduction if they think they can understand the shark's strategy.

Here's the shark popping up at the rear of the boat. Quint had guessed this would be the spot, hence the green target marker, and rammed a flare into the shark's mouth. This does continuous damage until the shark can shake it off (a process also drive by the location cards).

The shark has ability cards it can play each turn. In the first turn it used one to attack two sections of the boat, damaging the stern. Then it hit the port side, and knocked Hooper into the water. Once in the water the shark can opt to directly attack crew, instead of the boat, but also gets a basic bonus attack against them if they are close.

The shark shook off the flare, so whilst Brody and Hooper used a rifle and pistol to take on the beast, Quint went in with his trusty (and potentially lethal) machete.

The Orca was now badly damaged. Hooper had used all the ammo for the rifle and Brody was down to his last pistol shot. Quint was in the water, hunting the shark with his machete.

(Yes, you can use weapons whilst in the water. It's a bit of an abstraction, but keeps the game simple. And crew in the water ar more vulnerable to attack, so it's riskier than being on what's left of the boat.)

Where's that shark gone now?

.Quint managed to entangle the shark in a fishing net, reducing its ability to evade attacks.

The Orca was almost gone, as the shark picked off the remains of the stern.

The badly injured Quint was attacked again, and escaped death only by use of a shark-cage. The shark had also accumulated a fair bit of damage and had run out of ability cards. But the entire crew were down to hand weapons, and the boat was almost gone.

The shark attacked again, and Hooper, in a splendid display of aggression, bashed its head in with a hammer as it tried to chew the vessel's bows.

So a win for the crew. Quint was one hit away from death, Brody fairly badly hurt but, somehow, Hooper had received but a single hit. And got to be the shark-killing hero.

This is a splendid game. It took us a couple of hours to play it, but we were learning, and I think the game's claim of 60 minutes is about right once people know what they're doing and can crack on. It captures the feel of the film, and has the lovel components you'd expect from Ravensburger. Highly recommended.

Next time it's my turn to be the shark.

Zulu!

Our local cinema chain does a Hollywood Classics series, showing a classic film every three weeks or so. And look what we got today!

We do quite well for 'classic' films here. As well as the cinema itself doing them, Wollongong University has a film society which shows an 'oldie' at the cinema every month. It's a great opportunity to see favourite films on the big screen. In the past year my wife and I have been to see '12 Angry Men', 'Singin' In The Rain', 'It's a Wonderful Life', 'Alien', 'Die Hard' (at Christmas, naturally) and, greatest of them all, 'Casablanca'.

Anyway, 'Zulu' was fabulous. The sound was a bit iffy, but once it got going we didn't really notice. If you haven't seen it on the big screen, then you should. It looks amazing, and there's so much detail that you miss on a TV screen.

And next week we'll be going to see 'The Princess Bride'.

Where Would You Rather Die? Here? Or In A Jaeger?

Having now printed and painted the five key jaegers from Pacific Rim, I thought I'd post my Mighty Monsters stats for them, for comment, criticism, or simple adoration. Each one is built to roughly the same cost - roughly 320-330pts. Obviously this means that I have had to simplify a few things and make compromises. But each one has been designed with what I hope is its own distinctive style.

General Notes

The jaegers are mostly designed using Samurai Robots Battle Royale, but I have included a couple of bits and pieces which are exclusive to Mighty Monsters as well. I used the Pacific Rim Wiki as my main source of information. This draws on the film, as well as the novelisation, graphic novels and some production notes. I'm not sure how canonical some of the information is, but it all helped to flesh out the designs. 

Strictly jaegers are designed to operate with two (or in one case, three) pilots, with a neural link, and a cheap design would reflect this by simply classing the crew as one pilot. However the film does feature single crew-members piloting the jaegers in an emergency, so I went with the multiple pilots option. The neural net option does add an element of uncertainty.

All of the jaegers have the amphibious trait because they are unaffected when wading out to sea or when operating on the sea-bed.

 Gipsy Danger (330 points)

Head - Q3 C2 - Two Heroic Neural-Net Pilots

Body - Q3 C4 - Spikes (One Use)

Arms - Q3 C3 - Blade, Elbow Thruster x1, Plasma Gun C4S

Legs - Q3 C3 - Amphibious

I made Gipsy Danger a simple all-rounder, as befits the star of the film. It's not brilliant at anything, but with the Heroic pilots should be capable of taking on a range of opponents. The ‘Spikes’ are vented coolant. 'Single use' isn't an option for this ability, but I simply halved the cost. Its use should be declared when a grapple attack is made. 

Crimson Typhoon (330 points)

Head - Q3 C2 - Three Neural-Net Pilots

Body - Q3 C4

Arms - Q2 C4 - Twin Blades, Plasma Cannon C4S

Legs - Q3 C3 - Amphibious, Free Disengage

Crimson Typhoon is my favourite design. I tried very hard to fit it with two sets of arms, but 330pts wasn't enough to do them justice. Instead I gave the one set it has a good Quality and high Combat factor; it should generally be able to get three Arm actions each turn and make them count. The Free Disengage represents its agility in close combat. And close combat is really this jaeger's forte.

Striker Eureka (325pts)

Head - Q3 C2 - Two Neural-Net Pilots

Body - Q3 C4 - Missiles C4L

Arms - Q2 C3 - Blades, Elbow Thruster, Martial Arts

Legs - Q3 C3 - Amphibious

The Australian jaeger is described as a 'brawler', so I gave it the Martial Arts ability that is normally reserved for Tokusatsu Heroes in Mighty Monsters. Otherwise its special feature is the rack of missiles in its chest. Like Gipsy Danger, this jaeger is an all-rounder.

Cherno Alpha (330pts)

Head - Q3 C3 - Heavy Armour, Armoured Cockpit, Two Neural-Net Pilots

Body - Q3 C4 - Light  Armour, Massive

Arms - Q3 C4 - Light Armour, Elbow Thrusters x3

Legs - Q3 C3 - Short Move, Amphibious

Cherno Alpha is pretty much lifted from one of the sample mechs in 'Samurai Robots Battle Royale', with a few adjustments and additions. According to the background fluff for the film, this jaeger does have some kind of short-ranged attack - incinerators mounted on the cooling tower 'helmet'. I didn't have the points for them, so have skipped them. This makes Cherno Alpha the only jaeger design equipped solely for close combat.

Coyote Tango (327pts)

Head - Q3 C2 - Two Neural-Net Pilots

Body - Q3 C3 - Twin-Linked Mortars, C4L with Unlimited Missiles

Arms - Q3 C3 - One-Shot Shooter C3S (Plasma Cannon)

Legs - Q2 C3 - Amphibious

Where Cherno Alpha is equipped entirely for close combat, Coyote Tango is built for ranged combat. It is described as having less armour than other jaegers, sacrificing defence for speed. Rather than increase its move to Long, I increased the quality of its legs, so that it gets more opportunities to make multiple moves and stay at a distance from its opponents whilst attacking them with the massive firepower offered by its big guns. As an early model jaeger, the plasma cannon in the arm was experimental, so I have assumed it has a long recharge time (or is simply unreliable) and given it a single shot.

I have tried three of these designs in combat. Gipsy Danger performs well, as befits an all-rounder. Cherno Alpha suffered badly against a kaiju with a ranged combat capability; it was too slow to close quickly, and the kaiju was using an attack that ignored the armour. Crimson Typhoon works very well, but needs a understanding of how to best make use of multiple actions within one activation. I have yet to try Coyote Tango or Striker Eureka; they will feature in my next game, I hope. 

The Picnic Train and Priscilla

On New Years Day 1915 a train left Broken Hill in far western New South Wales carrying townspeople to a picnic in nearby Silverton. Just outside of the town it came under fire by two men, Gool Mohamed and Mulla Abdulla. Both were originally from the area that is now north Pakistan, the former having originally worked in the mines that dominated the town and then as an ice-cream seller, the latter as a butcher for the local camel-driver encampment. The men used the cover of Gool Mohamed's ice-cream cart, which flew an improvised Turkish flag. Two passengers on the train were killed immediately, whilst several others were wounded.

Gool Mohamed and Mulla Adbulla then fled the scene, as the police and local militia were mobilised, and troops from a nearby army base were sent for. During their flight they shot and killed another man, and wounded a constable who seemed unaware that the men he was confronting where the attackers he was looking for. They took cover in an outcrop of quartz boulders abut two kilometres from the original attack site.

A ninety-minute gun battle ensued, during which another man was killed - not one of the combatants, but a man chopping wood in the yard of a nearby hotel. Mulla Abdulla was killed and when the police, military, militia and civilians stormed the men's position around 1pm they found Gool Mohamed seriously wounded. He died later in hospital.

The townsfolk later burned down the local German Club in misguided retaliation, and a lynch mob was stopped from assaulting the nearby Afghan cameleers' camp by a line of bayonets.

Although the attack was initially thought to be politically a Turkish attack on the Australian people, accounts now seem to suggest that it was at best a misguided pro-Turkish terrorist attack, and at worse aa simple criminal act. However the links to the war make the six people killed the first, and only, direct casualties of WW1 on Australian soil.

I first read about this incident when I was in Broken Hill last year. I went there again this weekend, and took some photos relating to it.

In a local museum is this front page of the local newspaper.

The hill on which the attackers made their last stand is now a reserve, and has this unusual memorial; a reconstruction of the ice-cream cart, made from an examination of contemporary photos.

 This is the rock outcrop they used as cover.

This is the view to the north. Normally this is far less green, but the area seems to  have had a decent amount of rain recently (including the first night we stayed there).

And here is the view in the other direction; the outer suburbs of Broken Hill.

You can read the Wikipedia account of the incident HERE

And this newspaper story from a couple of years ago fleshes out the story some more.

Whilst we were in town I took pictures of two more memorials. This was constructed in memory of the fallen of WW1

And this is, apparently, the towns first ever memorial - constructed in 1912 it was erected by the town's band in memory of the band on board the Titanic.

So why was I in Broken Hill in the first place? Well, they hold an annual festival devoted to 'The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert', some of which was filmed there in the glorious Palace Hotel, and surrounding area. Needless to say I though that, despite an 800 mile drive each way, it would be a great chance to give my alter-ego a chance to spend a weekend being fabulous at a great event in what is, in NSW terms, the middle of nowhere.

For Saturday's daytime events, which included a parade and a show in the town square, I went for this retro-cute ensemble. Before we headed out for the day I posed by our campsite's field gun. I think it's an 18pdr horse-artillery piece. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

In the evening we went to the big party at the Palace Hotel itself. Here I am posing against one of the stages - the original bus prop from the 'Priscilla' stage show.

Sunday's activities took place in nearby Silverton. I went for a more subdued look, but couldn't resist accessorising it with the bowler hat I acquired recently. Everyone should have a bowler hat in their wardrobe. I then posed outside the Mad Max II museum.

I did take some figures and terrain, but the only time I had chance to set up a game (I planned to play one of scenarios from Grant's WRG book using Liberated Hordes) it was too breezy to be practical; we were camping again, so all of our activities were outdoors. We did, however, spend a few evenings in local pubs, and Catherine and I played a lot of 'Love Letter', as well as some 'Exploding Kittens', 'Fluxx' and even a couple of games of 'W1815'. Because I know how to show a girl a good time when I'm in the Outback.

A Visit To The The Mad Max 2 Museum

I bet you didn't know that there was a Mad Max 2 Museum. Well, there is. It's in Australia, of course, in a small ghost-town called Silverton, just outside of Broken Hill in New South Wales. Silverton was a thriving mining town in the late 19th and early 20th century, with a population in the thousands. Now it's a handful of buildings - mostly galleries and museums, plus the obligatory pub - with a population of about 50.

Mad Max 2 was filmed in the Silverton area, and many of the locations used can still be seen. The museum is the labour of love of another migrant from the UK, and has proved very popular since it was opened a few years ago. Silverton is really all about the tourists, so anything which brings people there is good.

For the past two weeks I have been on holiday with my wife and a couple of friends, on a camping road-trip through New South Wales. We made a point of visiting Silverton, and the museum. Indeed Silverton, and the Broken Hill area generally, is so interesting that we stayed for four days.

Here's our route from Wollongong, with a red arrow showing Silverton. We went out by the southern route and home by the northern. For UK readers our entire two-week trip was the equivalent of doing Land's End to John O'Groats. Three times. And we didn't leave New South Wales*.

And here we are outside the Mad Max 2 Museum. Left to right: Me, Claudia, Jon and Catherine, plus one of the cars. The one with the four-barreled spear-gun thingy on the back.

The obligatory 'I'm At The Mad Max Museum in Silverton' selfie for Facebook.

Catherine mourns the dog. The owners have a cattle-dog (of sorts). It's deaf, but wears a red neckerchief.

The museum is well defended.

 Here's some more shots of the vehicle outside.

 

The spear-gun thingy.

The museum is a large shed, with a covered yard at the back. You can't take pictures inside of the shed, so you'll have to take my word for it as to what's inside. It contains small items of memorabilia (such as the original steel boomerang), plus walls covered in photos and production information about the film. It's a real mine of information - like all of the special features of the DVD in one place that's not the DVD. We spent a good hour in there.

Outside are the vehicles. They are stuffed in the covered yard, so perhaps not displayed to best advantage, and are a mixture of replicas and originals. I can't remember which were which, although I know that both of the Interceptors are replicas.

I took a few random pictures.

 

A bike.

A couple of the buggies. I like the one enclosed by wire and will have to make one sometime.

This is a replica of the Landau seen in the opening sequence.

The red car - I can't remember if this ir original or a replica.

Another Interceptor.

For anyone wanting to model the tanker properly, this is the logo on the side; the banners at the back of the yard were all the originals from the film, as hung on the truck you see at the beginning.

There is a slight time-lag between the photos taken outside of the museum and those taken inside. This is because we stopped there briefly in order to see where it was and when it was open, then went off exploring the road out of Silverton to the north-west. Because that's where a few key sequences of the film were shot.

This is Mundi Mundi Lookout, about 15 minutes out of town. This is where Max finds the abandoned truck after the opening chase sequence. The road in the distance was used in that chase as well.

Looking back towards Silverton from Mumdi Mundi. We think the brow of the hill is where Wez the biker appears and roars at Max.

I took my Interceptor, so it could sit on the hallowed road. Actually this was my wife's idea.

This is the view down from the lookout. Just to the right of the sign is lay-by - the lighter brown soil. This is where the tanker was rolled in the final chase sequence. The hill down to it is the one Lord Humongous comes a cropper on. The road curves away to the right

This is the view down the road to the corner.

Catherine and I drove round the bend onto the stretch of road beyond. Here I am walking it like the cool road-warrior dude I'm not. The opening chase sequence was filmed along this road.

Back to Mundi Mundi Lookout. Priscilla broke down here in 'The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert'. This makes it doubly important.

You wonder about every piece of wreckage or stuff you find around this site; pieces from the original filming still turn up from time to time. I have no idea about this bit of metal which I found in the sand, but it looks cool next to the road.

We did see other locations from the film. On the day we left the Broken Hill area we headed to the small town of Menindee, along the road used to film most of the tanker chase sequence. I didn't take a picture because, frankly, one bit of road looks very much like another out here. About 10km out of town is a hill with a distinctive red gully to the right. This is where Max's interceptor is run off the road, and where the dog dies. I didn't stop to take a picture. To the south-west of Broken Hill are the Pinnacles, which are the distinctive hills below which the refinery settlement is situated. You can't go out to them, because they are on private land now, but you can see them from several places in Broken Hill. Sadly none of thee places offered a good place from which to take photos. They still look just like they do in the film though. As you'd expect.

Later that day we went to the Silverton Hotel, a pub which has featured in a few films, TV series and commercials over the years (including the classic Razorback). In the pub is this:

Yes - Lord Humongous' gun-case. You can even open it up.

The pub has more memorabilia around the wall, not just for Mad Max 2, but for all of the other things filmed in the area. And it was a nice place for a drink and meal as well. If you go there, ask about taking The Challenge. I did, and I don't regret it. I have a certificate to prove I've done it too.

One thing I wanted to do was play a game of Machinas at the museum. I took the stuff with me, but it wasn't really that practical in the place itself. But next door was a cafe, and we had to stop somewhere for lunch. But that's for the next post ...

*This is a lie. We left it once to cross the border into Victoria in order to shop for food in the town of Mildura. And Catherine and I crossed the border into South Australia to have coffee one morning.