Oh, Wii console, how you have traduced us!
Not sure if it’s a terribly American thing to do, but on the 4th of July, the George family went bowling. This was largely at the request of Hallam, who has rediscovered Wii Sports and was curious to see what it was like to bowl for real.
Like so many things in the real world, it was hard.
This is harder than on TV.
Bowling balls are heavier than Wii remotes, you see. It was a bit of a struggle for him to lug one to the line and then send it down the lane without dislocating a shoulder. Neither Christina nor I wasted nearly enough time in bowling alleys growing up, so we weren’t much help. My advice that he should swing the thing a couple of times to gain some momentum almost resulted in his flying down the lane still attached to the ball, when his fingers got caught in the holes.
Catherine, bless her, was much worse, but luckily she has inherited her mother’s antipathy for any kind of sporting endeavor and so didn’t mind in the slightest when she missed completely. She was far more concerned about having to wear those unattractive, utilitarian shoes – not a bow or spangly butterfly in sight. Oh, the horror. Her first solo effort took about two minutes to get from one end of the lane to the other, though, so after that we concocted a new technique which involved plonking the ball on the ground in front of her and then the two of us would kind of push it towards the pins.
(Don’t be fooled by the dramatic-looking action shot, by the way. Christina just hasn’t yet worked out how to use the focus on her camera.)
All around us people were crashing their balls into the pins, scoring strikes and spares and generally being rather good, but we noticed that none of them seemed to be having an especially good time. The family next to us literally did not exchange one word with each other as they scowlingly sent the pins flying, time after time. We were by far the most hopeless lot out there that afternoon, but if you’re going to be really rubbish at something, best to do it en famille, and to have a good time while you’re at it.