Addictions…
They come in all forms and I don’t think that any of us is immune to them.
I think back to my Gran-Gran. She was addicted to making hundreds of crotched articles. Her favourite cotton was called Ecru, a sort of pretty beige. The finer the cotton, the happier she was.
I still have some of her table cloths that she made. I can’t remember how many were given away as gifts after she died, and how many are still found in houses around the place. They were works of art.
Her other addiction was playing cards. If she couldn’t find a foursome for bridge, she would stay sitting up in bed, a piece of plywood on her lap, playing solitaire at night. She, like most of us in the family, was not a good sleeper.
My mother in turn was addicted to knitting and reading. Both these activities carried out where ever she found the odd free moment. I think I mentioned once before that when she was 93 and I was trying to get her to give away some of her 37 hand knitted jerseys, she couldn’t chose which ones to let go. She loved them all.
She knitted for each family member – including the grand children as they were growing up and looking for designer labels – and they were kind enough to wear them on the odd occasion when Gran came to visit.
My father, on the other hand, was addicted to brandy, straight from the bottle. Now this was a more “acceptable” form of addiction. Fortunately I never saw him drunk, except on the night of his 60th birthday at midnight.
He walked me down the long drive way of 262 Stateway in Welkom where he lived and we stood at the gate looking up at the stars. You see, his family had all died before reaching 60 years of age and he was sure that he would have the same fate. That night was a celebration that he had broken the curse! He went on to live until 75, a record!
My addictions…
My first addiction was a game called, Donkey Kong. I wonder if any of you remember it. A little hand held game with a gorilla whose main objective was to jump over barrels, if I recall correctly.
I was absolutely hooked on this silly toy. Then as I matured and had a computer at my disposal, I tried the chat rooms when they first came out.
I remember speaking to someone in New Zealand at the time, and it was exciting to meet someone who was showing an interest in my mundane, divorced life. But very soon I tired of this and discovered a game about farming.
I remember waking up in the night to plant my crops and then to harvest them when they were ripe. My mother came to visit and looked at what I was doing, and just shook her head. She believed that knitting would have been a better thing for me to spend my time doing! She was most probably right in that regard.
And so, as can be seen, the internet has captivated me for decades. I believe that it is my only vice. It can be lonely on one’s own, and to keep my brain active I still use it daily.
Wordle, Dordle, Sudoku, Number Match, Cryptic puzzles, jigsaw puzzles and my all time favourite, Rummicub.
I don’t play Candy Crush, Mouse Hunt any more, but I did for a while.
The current dangers…
Lately, while playing Rummikub, I have been seeing the adverts that are shown before the start of each game.
They are 5 seconds long, with stunningly realistic graphics, and in those 5 seconds my blood pressure rises each time.
These “games” that they are advertising are most upsetting. They depict zombies being shot to pieces by advancing troops, Sharp shooters taking out victims, gangster shootings and any other number of violent, horrific apps that they are trying to get people to play.
I am not naïve in any way, but surely with all the slaughtering that is going on in the world, the school shootings, the mass murders – these are not the type of games for young minds to play?
Might this not be why there is so much crime around? I think we are on a very slippery slope if this is what the young are addicted to.
Tenpin today…
We had a full turnout this morning and I was absolutely delighted to join the fun again. We were in two teams. The A team finished well before our talkative side did, and had a score of 449 to beat. We were way behind their score right until the last round, when we actually managed to pip them at the post!
Slower we were, but like the hare and the tortoise, we persevered and came up trumps! Thanks for a lovely game.
