This Friday I fulfilled my civic duty of getting vaccinated against Covid-19. As someone with chronic bronchial asthma — and who knows what respiratory illnesses can do — no precaution is good enough for the sake of keeping myself healthy and in shape. In a very convenient deal, they offered me the Influenza shot as well at the vaccination center, and my response was, “Where do I sign up?”
Three days of mandated rest followed, for having two viral — albeit weakened — strains injected into the body really does a number on you. At least I could disappear under the bedsheets with the relief of no loose ends untied, though I did miss going on walks during the weekend and seeing all those cute doggies enjoy life with their moms and dads.
When Simpler Was Better
During the past week I also delved into my memory bank to retrieve the sensations of being 15 again, playing games on my computer — or the original PlayStation — when not reading the entire home library from top to bottom. Of the many titles which provided happy moments in an otherwise rough childhood and adolescence, Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars stands among the best. Set in “Paris in the fall, the last months of the year and the end of the millennium,” according to its intro, it’s still considered the best game in the Broken Sword series thanks to an outstanding plot; great characters; and a flashback to a world where you actually needed to interact with people and write things down if you wanted to remember them.
Usonian tourist George Stobbart and French photojournalist Nicole Collard team up as a series of mysterious murders involving a costumed killer are systematically ignored by the relevant authorities — George himself nearly died in an explosion caused by an accordion bomb left by a clown at the café he was visiting. While trying to make sense of the murderer and their motivations, George and Nico come across an ancient manuscript bearing the logo of the Knights Templar. Said manuscript is their ticket to dive-head first into trying to stop a megalomaniacal conspiracy by influential individuals wanting to reforge something known as “The Sword of Baphomet.”
With the old, illustrated scroll as their only major reference, George begins a cross-country journey to remain one step ahead of these “Neo-Templars” as he makes the most of his trademark wit, improvisation talents, and hammerspace pockets.
Random Notes
The 198th Clásico Universitario didn’t disappoint as Universidad Católica — with a marvelous bicycle kick goal by Fernando Zampedri — ended Universidad de Chile’s 12-match unbeaten streak. Chunchito still leads the Chilean Premier League with 28 points, though its lead over 2nd-place Deportes Iquique is now down to 4. The Crusaders are 3rd with 24 points but a slightly worse goal differential (+5 vs. Iquique’s +6).
Since Chile loves to imitate all bad stuff coming from abroad — particularly wokeness — we now have our own, Fruna-like version of Eleanor Williams: a college student in Concepción reported having been kidnapped and raped by illegals, but her story was revealed as fake less than 24 hours later thanks to security cam footage near the area of the “incident.” Turned out this girl had spent her monthly tuition fee on God knows what, so she made up the whole I-was-kidnapped-and-raped shtick to avoid telling the truth to her family. Eventually she broken down and confessed, which led her father to report her to the cops. If I had a daughter like that, I’d disinherit her on the spot.
There’s a 65-percent chance of heavy rain during the next four days — and that means a good dose of civilized climate: ice-cold mornings, snow-capped mountains, humid air, coats and umbrellas all around, and no traces of stale frying oil. Just the way Chile should be in winter.