Mon 12 September 2005 - Rain brings on the aliens
I had it all worked out — 15 more minutes mucking about, then we’d go outside. I’d bring my laundry in off the line — it would be about dry — the kids could jump on the trampoline, or get their bikes out, whatever.
15 minutes later I glanced outside. It was pouring with rain. It did so for the rest of the day. No trampoline, no bikes, and my laundry was drenched.
Damn.
So instead of enjoying the non-sunshine, we went to Bunnings to get some storage boxes. On the way we stopped at the game/arcade place on Huntingdale Road and fed a couple of dollars into a retro video game for some geek nostalgia. It offers Frogger, Ms Pacman or Galaga.
We each had a go, and by the time it was my turn, I was blasting away aliens in Galaga at a rate of knots, my button finger on rapid-fire. The kids were cheering as I cleared through them, got the double ship on level 2, shot everything on the first challenge stage. The pace picked up and it got pretty tricky, I lost the double ship, but I eventually got as high as level 10 before bowing out. It was high-fives all round — a real WarGames moment.