Vanilla Sky with Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz and Cameron Diaz is a strange film. It might be quite good but it wasn't easy to tell as it threw in some life extension and schizephrenia alongside some run-of-the-mill time slips and flashbacks. To add to the confusion Tom Cruise acted out dream states in between the odd glimpse of reality and was living two lives 150 years apart. As it was not too easy to figure out who did what to whom my poor simple mind was confused most of the time. The film wasn't good enough to be worth seeing again but I suppose I could call a friend and ask her to explain it to me.

I was up early to get my weblog written before setting out for Purton. I dropped off my rented DVD at Glandy Cross and by midday was on my way. My route took me past Carmarthen, Swansea and Cardiff and over the Severn Bridge to a service station on the M4 half an hour west of Purton where I rested up for an hour before driving the final leg to Purton Farmhouse.

Richard St George and Yolanda Pot from the Schumacher Society were in conference with John Papworth when I arrived shortly before five. I joined them and put in a plug for Part IV of Schumacher's Small is Beautiful...a campaign I kicked off last year with the American Schumacher Society. Meanwhile John was plugging the human scale and persuaded Richard to provide a human scale link on the Schumacher website.

I had a more complicated agenda and promised Yolanda I would be in touch in our mutual capacities as webmasters. The Kohr Online webpages are a good place for us to go to work. But the Cliff's Edge Signalling Company website is the only place where visitors can download Schumacher's essays on Organisation and Ownership...the subject matter for the fourth part of Schumacher's classic book...so links to these webpages from the Schumacher Society website would make sense.

With the business of the day over, John took the opportunity to give Richard and Yolanda a background briefing on the Thirty Years War between Fourth World Review and Resurgence. John insisted it was not personal but concerned fundamental disagreements about the direction of the Alternative Movement. In private John tends towards hyperbole by claiming that Satish Kumar has singlehandedly done more damage to radical politics than anyone else on the planet by taking Resurgence down the spiritualist road instead of sticking to the original brief of people reclaiming the power to control local affairs.

The rest of us listened politely and mumbled some well-meaning platitudes about how nice it would be if everybody made up and became good friends as this was the fortieth anniversary of the launching of Resurgence in 1966. But I don't think there's much chance of friendship and fraternity breaking out in the forseeable future.

After the Schumacher delegation had left John served dinner and then dragged me off to The Angel for a drink and a few games of three card brag. This is a simple game where each player has three lives. Once you have lost your third life you drop out until just two players are left to play a final round that decides who wins the kitty.

At the start each player puts in a small stake of £1.50. If you come out as the winner just once in an evening you can reckon to go home a few quid in. I made it to three out of the eight finals and had some really good hands on the way. But I lost by a whisker in each of my finals. John was eliminated first in three of the rounds but made it to one final...and won it. So he went home with a broad grin on his face and his pockets jingling while I lost nine pounds.

One of the peculiarities of three card brag is that the way to win is to avoid losing. You get nothing for having the best of the seven hands around the table. But you lose a life if you have the worst one. Triples are magic as everybody else loses a life. But flushes, runs and pairs are good and even something like a King or a Queen high is usually enough to keep you ahead of at least one other player.

If you get a really bad hand you can throw in your cards and take the three from the kitty...one of them always face up. But otherwise if you have a run or a pair of twos or even an Ace high it pays for you to call...or knock as they call it at The Angel. This ends the round once everybody else has had their turn. A good weak hand like ten high is normally better than somebody else's hand so you keep your life. This avoiding coming last strategy is new to me.

Unlike poker or bridge...or snap...you don't need to give your full attention to the cards...and no great feats of memory are required. So conversation goes on and everyone comes away from the table feeling pretty good. I have never come across this game before although when Heidi was here in Purton with me on my last visit four weeks ago she mentioned that it reminded her a little of canasta.