Saturday, November 19, 2011

Tσys and Bσys

Phew, I don't know where that week went either.  Well I do, it was full of my car breaking down and needing expensive repairs to the engine's cooling system, of Climber going off to School Camp for two nights (he came home exhausted having enjoyed the activities but not the lack of sleep) and of my excitement at receiving glowing reports from the Spicks and Specks Show as they smashed their opening week at the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney.


But the car is mostly repaired, and back, the boy is back and our life is now back to normal.  That's if you don't count the excitement of Fixit firing up his old Galaxy Invader 1000 handheld game for his sons to see.  (Periodically, Fixit brings home some treasure from his boyhood that has been stored at his parents' house in their meticulously organised cupboards.  I sincerely hope my children are not hoping to do the same when they are in their 40s, I do not have or ever expect to have meticulously organised cupboards.)

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Climber was very keen to have a go, and while he waited (patiently) for Fixit to relinquish his turn, he asked about what it was. I said, thinking I was being pretty funny, It's a DS! meaning those little hand-held games that kids nowadays all play with, and which I was always too mean to let our kids have because of their basically antisocial nature ie kids stop playing with each other when the DSs come out and turn into screen zombies.   Anyway, I was soon put to rights because Fixit said it's a Single Screen, it can't be a DS.  Turns out DS means Double Screen (because they fold up): I did NOT know that!

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I wandered off then only to be followed by Mister Fixit who wanted me to admire the pristine condition of the Galaxy Invader 1000, which extended to the box it came in.  Look, he said, showing me the box, only a tiny rip in it!  Pretty impressive huh?  Pretty good for a kid? This made me shake my head at him and his obsessive orderliness and the way he nags the kids to be careful! with their toys, so I said Why don't you go off and write a list or something?

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Cherub, in the corner building his new lego, (a belated birthday present from my Dad), missed the note of sarcasm and derision in my tone and clearly thought this was an eminently reasonable suggestion.  When Fixit retorted that he would write a list, of all the silly faces I pull at him, Cherub piped up You could make a list of all your toys Daddy.  At which point I laughed, and Fixit walked off shaking his head at us.

11 comments:

  1. You make me laugh. I could hear you so clearly saying Why don't you go and write a list or something?

    Boys. My mister is on a perpetual mission to find a particular soccer board game from his youth, convinced the boys will find it mesmerising. (Which they probably will, being boys).

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  2. Fixit, I had one of those !!!! and loved it.

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  3. DS = double screen?

    You learn something new every day.

    And was Suse really awake at 4.43am this morning?

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  4. I had no idea DS meant double screen. Thankyou for enlightening me... and giving me a chuckle too!

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  5. I too had no idea what DS actually stood for....mind you.none of my kids have them!!!

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  6. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/GALAXY-INVADER-1000-CGL-VERY-RARE-SHOP-DISPLAY-UNIT-HANDHELD-GAME-1980s-/360407478151?pt=UK_VideoGames_VideoGameConsoles_VideoGameConsoles&hash=item53e9f5af87

    and that's also news to me about whaat DS stands for. When I was a kid, DS just stood for Deads**t. :)

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  7. Retro toys rock! I love watching the kids play with my Smurfs and Ministeck. Was not happy when they ripped the pencil box, which had been perfectly preserved in my Fashion Plates box for 25 years, the first time they played with it.

    And I obviously had no clue about the DS thing.

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  8. Retro toys are big around here too - only we find them in the oppy/hard rubbish rather than as well preserved relics from our childhood.

    I didn't know about the DS either - the things you learn!

    Bummer about the car. They are pesky like that.

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  9. I love the idea of the cupboards at your parents-in-law's house full of meticulously organised things from the family's history, very cool.

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  10. I am in awe of Fixit's parents. Keeping all those toys-from-youth AND having the space to do so. No fabric or wool stash?
    Hmm, I had no idea what DS meant either. In my teens it was dip sh*t or dead sh*t.
    And all those toys, I was so deprived growing up in the boondocks. No TV reception at all until I was about ten. No toy shop in town. SO much other stuff to do. In retrospect it's a wonder we didn't drown, be burnt by fire, break many limbs (actually we did), we all have skin cancers (too much sun exposure).

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