The Ladies of SportUnion Beckenried are meeting up for a game night @ the restaurant Rössli. I wonder how the evening will turn out as I park my car & make my way to Panoramasaal: a cozy room with views of the lake from every window. I find about 30 women from teenagers to graceful seniors sitting across tables laid out along the windows.

I check-in with the organisers & they ask me what I'd like to play: DOG or Jass? "Ich habe einmal DOG gespielt" (I have played DOG once before, I answer in Deutsch) so i choose Dog. The organisers smile a sympathetic smile.. with a language handicap & without the necessary experience, i stand no chance in this boardgame of Strategy. "Well, I'm here to have fun & get to know some women, winning is not my Goal": i tell myself as i sit at a table. The DOG board is laid out at the centre. At first glance, it's reminiscent of Ludo, but with a couple of twists: The token movement is based on cards instead of Dice and it's a partnership game. On the other side of the room are women in groups of four, playing Jass: a favourite Swiss card game.

Soon three other women join me at the table. After a quick round of introductions: I know Marlene and Marissa from Fasnacht and Monika works at the local Postoffice; we order drinks, and it's time to get the ball rolling.... Monika helps me out in the beginning.

There's quite a bit to grasp: the best use of each card, the exchange of a card with your partner.. All this is moot if Lady Luck doesn't deal you with the right cards. You can watch the others play from the sidelines. Boy.. oh boy.. some of these women are professionals, and i soon have all my tokens locked back home. 

But slowly & surely, as the evening goes by, i get a hang of using the Jacks, the 4 & the 7 to not only further our team's tokens, but more importantly to thwart the opposing team's chances! Talk about Viciousness.. A generous blessing of these cards in your hands is the easiest way to wipe off the smile from your opponent's face.

By the third game (after each game, we get to mingle around & play with different women), I think i'm getting pretty good & manage to get all my tokens into the target zone. A repeat on the fourth!! WooHoo!!

Soon it's 10:30PM -- Time sure flies quickly when one is being vicious! The organisers make some long speeches in Swiss-Deutsch & announce the winners. Everybody gets a prize tonight.. and out of the twenty women playing DOG, i'm at twelfth place!! Not bad i'd say. I get to pick a prize.. A Rosemary plant.. Perfect for my grilled veggies!

As I get ready to leave, one of the Organisers (whose PowerFit Class i join on Thursday evenings) asks me to stay for another game. She hasn't played the entire evening.. Well, Why Not? After all I'm getting good at it! But, as soon as i get a token out & begin the clockwise movement to the target, within the next couple of moves, my tokens are sent back home. Now I know why she was twitching to play.. I'm such an easy target. These women are professional strategists.. Everytime i patted myself on the back thinking I'd made a good move, it would boomerang. All the ideas i had been nurturing of being good at it after winning the earlier games, came crashing down... I'm in awe of their tact & opponent bashing skills. I agree to continue on with a second game, but i find as the clock inches closer to midnight, my Deutsch is starting to fall apart. I have to concentrate hard to understand simple sentences. I give up totally on even trying to understand Swiss-Deutsch. My partner & I manage to win the second game & i decide to call it an evening -- what better way to make an exit than on a winning Note..

I bid Goodbye and thank them for a fun-filled evening with tact/stratgey lessons thrown in. As i make my way back to the car, i take a loooooooonnnng whiff of the Rosemary in my hands... uuuhmmmm.. fresh & Divine. Can't wait for Rosemary potatoes. Well, a li'l late in the night today, but perhaps another day..