Happy New Year.
I hope you had a good Xmas, and I wonder if we held a quick poll, how many of you would possess a Nintendo Wii?
I suspect quite a few of you who have children will do, and this Xmas we weakened, and Santa brought Chalk (our daughter) a Wii.
She loves it!
I must admit that as a racquet player, the tennis in the sports pack is quite addictive. We must have played for hours and hours over the Xmas period, and quite often until late. There was lots of leaping about and shouting – mostly from me!
One of the funniest moments out of many (nearly destroyed hanging lights etc) was when the indian takeaway delivery man arrived with our bhuna and madras.
Where we play there are 2 extremely large windows that overlook the front door. Chalk and I were involved in a close game of tennis and a particularly long rally, both leaping around like Skippy on drugs.
Chalk won the point and turned to gloat, and looked out of the window. I followed her gaze, and there was the delivery guy on the front door step almost doubled up laughter. He had been watching for a good minute as he realised that we were not going to hear his plaintive knocking on the door!
Paying for the meal we learned that he was amazed at how many families were playing this game, and he is getting the best laughs he has had in ages.
Dragging ourselves away from the Wii for a moment, we celebrated Chalk’s 11th birthday in style by deciding to go ice skating. A mini bus was hired and 8 excited girls and 2 nervous adults (management and me) set off for the Life Centre in Newcastle. This was an outdoor facility for January that they especially build each year, and it is very impressive.
Now I remember ice skating 40 years ago at the old Durham rink when I was but a lad. I could indeed skate, and of course if I fell I would simply bounce. Well, it was not quite the same this time!
I found I had totally forgotten how to skate, and when I lost my balance (which was frequently) I certainly did not bounce. The others had mixed success, but all had a great time, with my little daughter showing her determination to skate by persevering for over an hour.
By the way it was freezing! So it was off for a hot chocolate and then back in the mini bus to take us to Pizza Hut. Those pizzas did not stand a chance.
Finally it was back home, and the girls decided to utilise the free Pizza Hut balloons in a certain way. Being helium filled, they undid the knots and proceeded to breath in some helium, resulting in hilarious squeaky voices. This kept them going for ages.
There was a bit of time left before the various parents arrived to pick up their offspring, and so guess what?
Wii!
