Observe these photographs:
They're covered in scratches from blackberries, full of burrs and thistlethorns. Despite the sunscreen, I expect they'll have a few burns. Yet from where I can sit, I can hear screams of delight from the Mau-mau, and wild cries from both Jake and Genghis.
They're sliding down a grassy hillside on a hot summer day.
But that's not the extent of the win. Oh no. It's much better than that. Y'see, the thing they're sliding on is the remnants of a large cardboard box. Yep.
Best of all, that cardboard box is the one which, less than 24 hours ago, was wrapped around the big, shiny, new LCD flatscreen TV which I bought to replace the beat-up, phosphor-failing Dick Smith cathode-ray-tube TV (for only fifty bucks more than the CRT thing cost us six years ago, or so.)
That's right. The brand-new television is sitting there in the lounge room, on its own. I've plugged a USB stick full of favourite tunes into the side of it, and it's playing the Imperial March from Star Wars as I write. Meanwhile, my kids are sliding down the hillside on pieces of cardboard.
I...fucking...win.
I'm behind on everything at the moment - but the hell with it. You don't get to slide down a hill with your kids very often, do you?
I'll catch up with you all soon.
Win? Big Call, but I reckon you might be close. The Big Cardboard Box is always a hard one to beat.
ReplyDeleteImperial March is awesome, my fave version is Symphonic Metal as done by Epica... Their Pirates of the Caribbean is pretty special too...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52JnyjJ4YHY
Thank you kindly! Another band to look out for. You know Apocalyptica, I presume?
DeletePriorities. You'll have the spiffy new television for many years. The box may well disappear very soon.
ReplyDeleteYep. You can never replace a day, an afternoon, an hour. We had a good time out there.
DeleteThe box will disappear, but the moment of fun will not.
ReplyDeleteYou haven't won until you are present when your grandchildren experience a similar moment, if you get my drift. If I were a betting man, which I am not, I would bet on your eventual win, as I've defined it.
It seems a decent thing to hope for!
DeleteOne of my highlights as a kid was doing that. Loved it.
ReplyDeleteIt's still fun, mate. I only stacked it once. Got my very own blackberry scratches to show for it...
Deleteyeah, the pictures say it all, the gloss would have been the sounds, laughter and squeals of delight..AINT FKN NOTHING BETTER! and its not got batteries or cost you a fkn bomb for a specific purpose..well other than replacing the TV.
ReplyDeleteWell, hell. I got a decent TV out of it, too. What's not to like?
DeleteWhy is the best toy a cardboard box? Looks like a lot of fun.
ReplyDeleteThere's a simple scientific reason. Non-specific toys (cardboard boxes, bits of wood) are wayy better than carefully purposed toys precisely because they call for imagination, and they can be anything. That complicated remote-control Transformer toy will always be exactly what it was designed to be - but the cardboard box is a fort, a castle, a submarine, a secret cave, a race-car, a train, a robot suit...
DeleteYou get the picture. But really: slab of cardboard plus grassy slope plus sunny day equals endless fun.
To true ;)
DeleteI love your kids FH - can I have them when you've finished with them?
ReplyDeleteBTW - that MS is still coming - just a few last minute revisions.
No worries, Hughesy. Next week I'll be at an intensive manuscript-workshop thing with the ROR writers, so I won't be collecting mail, but I'll get onto it as soon as I get back.
DeleteYes. Win.
ReplyDelete