Unenthusiastic card games and the circle of life
Consonant reader,
My sister came down to visit over the weekend, along with my girlfriend, my brother and his girlfriend and my grandma. Along with my mum and dad, it was a busy affair.
On the Saturday we all met up in the day, had a massive chat and then watched the Wimbledon Ladies Singles final, which really was a smashing bit of tennis I must say. Afterwards we all went out to a Chinese restaurant, and would you believe it, we all ate chinese food too.
When we got home, my girlfriend went to bed because she'd had a very hectic week doing supply work and also she's a bit of a lightweight too (!). So the rest of us minus Grandma too, (who had also flaked) were sitting twiddling our thumbs in the lounge. It is tradition at this point, in any family gathering in our household to have a game of Twizzle.
You may have heard of it under a different name and the rules may be slightly different. It is much like Uno if you've ever played that, but this is played with real cards and I think is a lot more fun. The rules vary from place to place but essentially:
- You start off with 7 cards and have to get rid of them all to win
- You lay your cards in the middle of the table and follow either suit or number
- The no.8 of any suit skips a go
- The king reverses direction
- 2's and 3's means you have to pick up 2 or 3 cards unless you have a 2 or 3 to also pass on
Thats the card game in a nutshell. Its great fun and you have to do the whole thing really quick otherwise you get 'twizzled' which means you have to pick up more cards.
Now, I was at Uni many moons ago and attempted to introduce this Non- Playstation high brain- concentrate group participating activity to my mates, most notably Crumb and Worzel, who in the course of a few minutes, totally panned me for trying to explain this ace game. It fell flat on its face I must admit and I couldn't raise the same kind of excitement as I could when playing it at home. The lads were unimpressed and sat there, gawping.
"But everybody loves twizzle." I pleaded.
Now, if ever I try to introduce any concept which I think might be a good idea, and it could be anything, I get a load of verbal, most notably in the form of, "Yeah Bonobo, everybody loves.. INSERT CONCEPT HERE". Bastards!
Anyway, crap card games aside, I got chatting to my sister soon after the meal and she began talking about her boyfriend's best mate, who had studied to be teacher and who had just finished his first year as a teacher.
Well, he only happened to be teaching in the same area of the world I am teaching at the moment. And apparently, this chap said he knew a girl who works at the school I'm at, who had been on the same teaching course as him.
And the person is only the same teacher who I take the register for each morning!
I mean, you couldn't plan that in a million years could you? Amazing, just pure chance, yet there is a cyclic connection in so much as I know my sister, she knows her boyfriend, he knows this guy, who knows this other teacher who met me because I take her form register! Weird or what?
I'm sure we all know pretty much everybody else simply by a few other people in between...
(Twilight Zone intro music kicks in..)
B x.
My sister came down to visit over the weekend, along with my girlfriend, my brother and his girlfriend and my grandma. Along with my mum and dad, it was a busy affair.
On the Saturday we all met up in the day, had a massive chat and then watched the Wimbledon Ladies Singles final, which really was a smashing bit of tennis I must say. Afterwards we all went out to a Chinese restaurant, and would you believe it, we all ate chinese food too.
When we got home, my girlfriend went to bed because she'd had a very hectic week doing supply work and also she's a bit of a lightweight too (!). So the rest of us minus Grandma too, (who had also flaked) were sitting twiddling our thumbs in the lounge. It is tradition at this point, in any family gathering in our household to have a game of Twizzle.
You may have heard of it under a different name and the rules may be slightly different. It is much like Uno if you've ever played that, but this is played with real cards and I think is a lot more fun. The rules vary from place to place but essentially:
- You start off with 7 cards and have to get rid of them all to win
- You lay your cards in the middle of the table and follow either suit or number
- The no.8 of any suit skips a go
- The king reverses direction
- 2's and 3's means you have to pick up 2 or 3 cards unless you have a 2 or 3 to also pass on
Thats the card game in a nutshell. Its great fun and you have to do the whole thing really quick otherwise you get 'twizzled' which means you have to pick up more cards.
Now, I was at Uni many moons ago and attempted to introduce this Non- Playstation high brain- concentrate group participating activity to my mates, most notably Crumb and Worzel, who in the course of a few minutes, totally panned me for trying to explain this ace game. It fell flat on its face I must admit and I couldn't raise the same kind of excitement as I could when playing it at home. The lads were unimpressed and sat there, gawping.
"But everybody loves twizzle." I pleaded.
Now, if ever I try to introduce any concept which I think might be a good idea, and it could be anything, I get a load of verbal, most notably in the form of, "Yeah Bonobo, everybody loves.. INSERT CONCEPT HERE". Bastards!
Anyway, crap card games aside, I got chatting to my sister soon after the meal and she began talking about her boyfriend's best mate, who had studied to be teacher and who had just finished his first year as a teacher.
Well, he only happened to be teaching in the same area of the world I am teaching at the moment. And apparently, this chap said he knew a girl who works at the school I'm at, who had been on the same teaching course as him.
And the person is only the same teacher who I take the register for each morning!
I mean, you couldn't plan that in a million years could you? Amazing, just pure chance, yet there is a cyclic connection in so much as I know my sister, she knows her boyfriend, he knows this guy, who knows this other teacher who met me because I take her form register! Weird or what?
I'm sure we all know pretty much everybody else simply by a few other people in between...
(Twilight Zone intro music kicks in..)
B x.