Listography–Games I Used To Play

The lovely Kate from Kate Takes 5 is encouraging us to relive our youth this week and remember some of the games we used to play. A couple of them came to mind immediately but others took a little head scratching before they surfaced. Nothing like a trip down memory lane to make you feel a bit old. I am sure once I hit publish I will think of an absolute doozy, but this is what I have put together.

Grocery Store/Video Stores
Mum has two fold out corner cupboards in her kitchen that when positioned just so could be made to look just like a little store cart. One of the cupboards served as mum’s pantry and other other held all the pots and pans. My brother and I spent hours pretending to serve customers and discussing how busy our respective businesses were that day. It saved mum and dad trying to find the money and space for some garish play kitchen and for some reason it never occurred to us to move any of the stock beyond the store front so there was little clean up. Being the eldest meant that my brother was the one that had to run the pots and pans store. 

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Murder in the Dark
Basically hide and seek in the dark. Someone would have to wait outside a room while the others hid in the dark. After counting to 20 they would enter the room and proceed to search for the people hiding.

Popstar
Please tell me someone else remembers this game??? You and your opponent would stand facing each other roughly 4-5 metres apart with a half way marker of some sort (the squares of concrete in the school walkways seemed to work best) one person would call out the name of a song and the other would have to name the artist. Once the artist was guessed correctly both would run to their opposite side, return to their original end and then back to the middle line, the first to reach the line and call out "Popstar” won and got to lead the next round. I recall spending the better part of Year 3 and 4 playing this game in my little and big lunches.

Handball
This one carried on well into High School, played in pairs, round robins or quads this pretty much signalled the death of “Popstar”. Best described as human table tennis on concrete squares for court markers.

My Lounge Room’s Got Talent
I doubt very much we called it that at the time but one of the older ladies that lived down the road had a granddaughter about my age and we would spend many weekends dressing up in the clothes that were stored in the spare room and staging performance mime to the latest Top 40 hits and being critiqued on our skills. I can distinctly remember Transvision Vamp “I Want Your Love” being a favourite, possibly because I desperately wanted pink lipstick. Even the guy second from the right is a little freaked out by Mr Far Right and his pants holding…

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Listography–Guilty Pleasures

Kate said it herself, this week is a hum-dinger of a list. I have to admit, at first I thought maybe I was a bit too cool (cough) to have any guilty pleasures to share. After all, I despise girly movies of any kind, I don’t eat a whole lot of ‘naughty’ stuff or have a hidden collection of ABBA on my iPhone so really what was I going to confess to? Um, things far worse than the aforementioned that’s for sure…

Listography–Things I’d Change About Myself

The lovely Kate at Kate Takes 5 is asking us to look inwardly this week and list a few things that we would like to change about ourselves. She hasn’t made it easy either, she has specifically instructed us to not focus on physical appearance but rather examine some of our perceived personality flaws. As I read through her list I realised that I probably would have listed these things too especially to be more affectionate and more patient, but lucky for you it turns out I have quite a few things that could use a little work…

Listography–Lessons I Learned From My Parents

Sending a little love to my mum and dad for this Listography courtesy of Kate Takes 5.

Mince is one of the most versatile and inexpensive ingredients you can use
Spag bol was a regular meal in our house but mince also was used for mexican, meatloaf, lasagne, rissoles, pizzas, you name a mince dish, mum probably made it, and it was delicious.

Netball is not the only sport girls can participate in
Actually I have never played netball. Mum and I started Tae Kwon Do when I was about 8 and trained together for roughly 5 years before I became a teenager and lost interest in any kind of sporting activities. Thankfully I got past my ‘I’m too cool for exercise’ phase and it’s once again a passion. Martial Arts taught me respect, discipline and how to kick someone in the temple – which I can still do. That would be my mum with her back to the camera on the left.

Your education is your own responsibility
I went to Public Schools through my whole education and still did very well. I was not sure what career I was interested in but I knew that the better marks I got, the more options I had. The fact that mum and dad did not fork out a small fortune to send me to a Private School did not disadvantage my choices in any way.

Many different genres of music can be considered good
Most of my family is musical in some way. Dad plays the drums and mum plays guitar. There was almost always music playing somewhere in the house and I still know all the words to INXS The Swing. Their extensive vinyl collection opened my mind to the times of Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull and Jimi Hendrix when current radio was offering fabricated tripe of the “Barbie Girl” variety. Depending on my mood I will listen to just about any type of music and I know that is because of the varied exposure I received during childhood.

Your parents will love you now matter what
Beyond our immediate family, due to distance and circumstances we have little contact with our relatives which can be hard on all of us. All three of us have tested our parents (some more than others) at some stage but I have always been certain that I could never do anything to stop my parents loving me unconditionally. They are my safety net and I know above all else they are there for me.

I could still kick my brother for getting married 6 weeks after I had Skye though, how inconsiderate!

Listography–Ice Creams

I don’t generally write on a Sunday, but I have been keen to get involved with the the Kate Take’s 5 Listography Linky for a while now and this week Kate has made it a no brainer topic for me so I am jumping on the band wagon. The fact that it is winter here makes no difference to me when it comes to ice cream, I will eat it any time of year and regardless of how full I already am.

1. Choc Mint Drumstick

Worth every damn calorie this one. I can’t believe I only discovered these in the last 12 months. Unfortunately these are also Luke’s favourite so the box does not last very long at our house.

2. Bulla Ice Cream Sandwiches

Vanilla, chocolate or cookies and cream, they all work for me. I wish they came in bigger packets.

3. Street’s Golden Gaytime

Mmmm crumbled up cookie things. I can’t believe it has taken me this long to drop a Simpsons reference. These things take me straight back to the little corner store from my childhood.

4. Almond Magnums

The grand daddy of ice creams. I rarely treat myself to one of these because they are just soooo naughty, and rather expensive. The mini ones are not allowed in our house either, Luke gets most cross if I don’t buy the real deal.

5. Cadbury’s Caramello Ice Cream Bars

I ate copious amounts of these while I was pregnant. The chocolate on them is so delicious and there is just the right amount of caramel swirl. Oddly I can’t find a single picture of this one, I sincerely hope it has not been taken off the market, I might just cry.