Wii

My friend's just got a wii. Despite being an outdoorsy person who shuns the idea of spending hours gazing at a games console playing automated characters, I must admit it's actually quite fun!

We warmed up with:
- Tennis - no buttons involved, should be simple. I am now covered in carpet burns from over-enthusiastic head dives, sliding shots and general flinging around. My friend merely twitched his controller and thrashed me.
- Bowling - much easier than in real life, but without the funky shoes. I still managed to throw a ball backwards...
- Golf - still boring.
- Baseball - would be good if I could actually hit the ball. I managed once while gesturing in frustration, forgetting the controller was still attached to me.
- Boxing - excellent! Shaking the controller as hard as possible and screaming death threats seemed to do the trick. Knocked out my experienced friend in a few minutes (on the screen, despite my best attempts in real life!)

We then moved onto MarioKart and used some funky fake steering wheels. We could hook up with players from all over the world, resulting in a very surreal morning spent throwing banana skins at 'HungryHobo' from somewhere else in the UK and dodging squid attacks from 'Fifi' in France. My vivid imagination conjured up images of an actual homeless bearded guy frantically steering Mario round a racetrack in his nearest games shop before being chucked out, and little Fifi training hard on her brother's game console in rural France, hopeful that one day she shall be champion. As for me, well, I should have been doing work. But sometimes it's nice to escape.