Mah Jongg

Remember the 'old' days when women did not work outside the home? 

When there was no Starbucks? 

And when meeting at coffee shops was not a 'thing' everybody did? 

Do you remember how women got together? 

They played Bridge!

Every week.






They met in each other's homes. They had coffee, they chatted and caught up on gossip and recipes and the latest fashions - they may have even had lunch. Or maybe they played in the afternoons and maybe they sipped on light cocktails. Not really sure there, since that really was before my time.

Well, here in Thurso, it's Mah Jongg. At least for a small group of ladies.

Well, it's small now, but it was not always small.  When Katrina lived in England, there was a large group of women who played weekly. 




If I got the story right, there were 20+ American women who had all accompanied their husbands to England for their work. Playing Mah Jongg once a week was a way for the women to get together to do all the things I mentioned above. It was a way to socialize and make friends.

It seems that they would meet in the morning, stop for lunch and continue through the afternoon. Every week. 

And I can imagine that it was a highlight of each week - a time to look forward to. A time to mingle with other women.

So when Katrina moved here to Thurso 4 years ago, she started a group, getting together the wives of men who were working at Dounreay to create a 'community.'

There used to be enough players to play with up to 3 tables. However, husbands have returned to their old jobs or moved on to new ones and taken their wives with them, so the group is much smaller now.  There are only 5 members now.

'money' on the left side of the rack, dice and flower tiles

We play on Tuesdays - and when I first arrived, it was an all-day affair (from 10 am to 4 pm)!!

I had never played Mah Jongg. Although the first Christmas Mike and I were married, I bought him our first game called Mingh. It is a simpler, card version of Mah Jongg and we played it for years.





The game has a ton of tiny details and random things to remember.

Each person, based on where they sit, is either East, South, West or North. This matters. And it changes each round, based on who East is.

East starts. East rolls the dice and pulls tiles first. East gets paid double if they Mah Jongg, but they also pay double if they don't.

East rolls the dice and based on that number, another person rolls them a second time. Based on that number, the 'wall is broken.' In a very specific way of counting, fourteen tiles are taken and put aside as 'the flower wall.'  

'fling your bling!'

The person who 'breaks the wall' moves the flower wall and 'flings their bling.' That means they push the flower wall of tiles to their right, and as they do that, they pass their left hand/wedding band ring finger out into the middle for everyone to see.

'curtseying'   and 'keeping her money close'

The person  who 'broke the wall' now 'curtsies.' That means she pushes her row of tiles out to the middle. It's very important here to ensure the tiles go out the proper way - One must always "keep your money close" - so you keep the money end close to you and push the opposite end out to the middle. 

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The 2 end tiles are turned perpendicular so that everyone knows which end to take tiles from. (That has actually been a very helpful tool) Then everyone takes 4 tiles at a time (in order, starting with East) and for the 13th tile,, East takes the first and third top tiles (giving her 14 tiles), and the others each take one more, in order.




Are you completely lost and skimming over the words now? Indeed, the game is full of these tiny details. After playing for 5 months, I am just starting to feel like I have a handle on most of these little 'rules' of play. 

The dice that were thrown earlier are placed on East's tile board with the number of the person who broke the wall. This will matter later for scoring purposes.

The play actually goes quickly, as each person draws and discards a tile. The round is over when someone completes their hand and says, "Mah Jongg."

Now, the rule book has 85 different 'hands' that a person can make, plus all the scoring for the end of each round. 

And different hands have different rules. Some hands allow you to pick up off the board what someone else has discarded and others do not. 

So, that's not complicated, right?

Riiight.

the flower wall

I will just say now that I have not even looked at hands past #21. In fact, I play mostly between #1 and #15 and rarely use the honors (winds and dragons) if I can help it. (They just seem to complicate things for me). And only twice have I played a hand that allowed me to pick up someone else's discard (that requires absolutely ALL my concentration!).


And just to keep things interesting, there is a 1 pound buy-in to play. (Coffee money/egg money for the big winner. )

scoring with tiles

Also to keep things interesting, Katrina usually comes with a list of conversation topics. She watches a lot of newsy type shows, especially one called 'The Right Stuff,' and pays attention to things that are happening in the UK and around the world. So the topics can range widely - from politics, fashion, building regulations in Thurso, to the latest BBC show on TV. 

I cannot say more on this because it has been agreed that 'what is discussed at Mah Jongg stays at Mah Jongg." 

Let me just say that I have learned a few things at Mah Jongg.

It seems that I might have turned a corner with this game.

Two weeks ago, I Mah Jongged the first 3 rounds before I had to leave early because our shipment was arriving that day.  

And then last Tuesday, I Mah Jongged like 6 rounds! 




And because I was East several of those rounds, everyone had to pay me double!  I even won the pot!!  Woohoo!  Four pounds are burning a hole in my pocket!

So, we play Mah Jongg on Tuesdays, and we take turns hosting it. But we no longer play for 6 hours. We usually now only play from 10-12:30, which suits me fine.  And there are only 5 of us - Katrina, Leah, Carol, Kirsteen and me. 

Kirsteen, Leah, Katrina and me.  Carol was still on holiday.  I didn't think to take a picture weeks ago when all 5 of us played.

If all 5 show up, there is a system for working in the 5th person. But usually we play with 3 or 4.  But even that is changing. Kirsteen will be leaving at the end of November to move back to Aberdeen.  And Katrina will be leaving to go back to the US sometime in the next few months. So, it seems that weekly Mah Jongg may be coming to an end.

We may have to replace it with card games or movie afternoons or something. 

In fact, that reminds me. When we took our trip south to England this summer (Katrina, Leah, Carol and I) we talked about what movies we owned and as we talked about them, we learned what people liked and some that sounded interesting. 
We decided then that it might be fun to take turns hosting movie afternoons, where the host got to pick their favorite movie to show. I already know I will show "You've Got Mail." That's like my favorite movie. Imagine my surprise that they have not seen it!
Movie afternoons sound like the perfect way to get through these next months of dark days/rain/wind/winter activity to me.
With hot chocolate.
And popcorn. Popped on the stove with oil and salt. 

NOTE: Popcorn kernels -  They are only sold in the specialty store (!!)  You can only buy a bag of kettle-corn-like already-popped popcorn or microwave popcorn in the grocery store.

Seriously!
(The Scots don't know what they're missing!)