Breakfast of Champions for the Merry Pranksters
“So if you’re lucky enough to live. To see love come your way”
Star Date: Tuesday 17th September 2024
Destination: Ironbridge
Reason: The sun firmly had her hat on and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky
Number of Swans: Five (FIVE!)
Number of Pug Dogs named “Bear”: One
“Old Fashioned Sweets” purchased: Sarsaparilla and American Hard Gums
Song for the Day: “Love Can Move Mountains” by The Proclaimers
Why?
Because even though he beat me fairly and squarely by two games to one over a bacon sandwich and under a blazing sun, my own particular son chose it.
And he has wonderful taste.
“Uno” Result
Dad 1
Lad 2
Tucking into our bacon and sausage sandwiches (tomato sauce for the Lad, barbecue for the losing Dad) the tale of the tape and story for our Uno battle of card playing wits was one of comebacks in all three games. The Lad dashed into a 39 points to 0 lead in Game 1 before I reeled off 5 winning hands back-to-back to fly past the young scamp with tomato sauce dripping off his chin, and past the 100 point threshold for Game victory, and by an eventual Game 1 score of 101–39. Games 2 and 3 followed suit but with even larger leading margins for the eventual loser (me) and the winner and giggling fool beside me chanting “The comeback is on Dad! The comeback is on”. My dominant leads of 82 (Game 1) and 55 (Game 2) were slowly eaten into, game by game, and by the time two delicious apples and two packets of Worcestershire Sauce flavoured crisps had disappeared beneath the hottest sun of the late morning so far, the smiling assassin scampered past me in both games to triumph 126–82 and 103–55.
“The comeback is on Dad! — I should have poked him in the eye!
Another defeat soon followed.
“Yahtzee” Result
Dad 174
Lad 207
Quite frankly our game of Yahtzee descended into outright farce as neither of us could score consistently and at one stage, I barely scored at all. If was enough to force anyone to reach for the Sarsaparilla and American Hard Gums and stare wistfully into the distance as my score sheet began to resemble a game of “Noughts and Crosses” and I did well to only lose by 33 points.
“Two wins out of two at Yahtzee, Dad!” — He’s keeping score, I thought.
I definitely should have poked him in the eye!
“Tri-ominos” Result
Dad 274
Lad 234
A battle of attrition this one with our one and only game going the distance and until the very last triangular shaped tile. Another comeback story too (of sorts) as the Lad was in the lead throughout the game but only by a handful of points and as the spare tiles disappeared and we scrambled around to place the remaining pieces…I overtook my young apprentice and held on for victory as we reached a game ending stalemate.
“You always win at Tri-ominos, Dad” my son lamented.
“Not always mate” I responded, “but it makes me smile when I do!”
And for the first time in this strangest of English summers, the sun had her hat on and was shining magnificently from an entirely cloudless sky above.
Thanks for reading. Ironbridge features heavily in almost all of my writing and none more so than in my trilogy of rambling musings. Here’s volume three and whisper it, volume four coming soon in the new year.
"Tales I Tell Myself" - link to Amazon
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering, and the right way up in an upside down world.