The Puddle.
13:42 | 
Posted by
Tony Foster
Thurs 27.11.09
Its parsonage road and there's a huge puddle in the road, like swimming pool huge. Looking out across the driveway I see that Adam and his friend are indeed swimming in it, diving underneath and all sorts. As I look a fast, souped up GT Car comes hurtling down the road at speed, and I realise Adam's mate is in the firing line and very likely to get seriously injured. I shout, but the car hits the water, ploughing into the pool. The way he does it looks deliberate, but fortunately the deep water cushions the speed, and his mate is unharmed. The car reverses and drives away. I go across and tell them both not to be so stupid, they could be killed at any moment. They get out and both get into an Audi TT which is paintjobbed with beautiful graphics and has a GT spoiler and sport-kit. They drive off.*
We are together with Carole and mum and they start arguing again. I am pissed off and frustrated that they can't get on and tell them so. I hate this atmosphere and know they are both to blame. Mum probably more so because of her fiery nature. Carole is normally submissive unless you catch her on the wrong day. These wrong days always seem to take place when they are together and I hate them both for it in that moment.
Later I am attempting to install or procure a game for Daniel at mum's request. She has brought some instructions to our house and is typing into the computer. She needs me to the next stage, but I am impressed with how knowledgeably she keys into the command prompt, having memorised a complex cipher and retyping it at several stages**. At one point she puts Daniel's I.D. which is a long word containing the word 'finesse' and I notice she has made a typo. I tell her and she says, 'no, it looks as if I have, but see' and when she hits enter a different, shorter word appears. I have to admit I am perplexed, but I manage to get the game up and running. It is some sort of GTA game with a military bent, and I realise it is a hard game to grasp and get into. There is a helicopter part where you have to land on water, and after completing a long opening tutorial to get me to that stage I immediately find the chopper impossible to control and land in the water, bursting into flames. I remember feeling frustrated that I'd come this far and there was no save facility. I'd have to go through the whole thing again. I tell mum Daniel would be better off using a joystick for this bit, where the twist grip would offer better hovering capability and I am rummaging around in the drawers, knowing I have one somewhere.
Later on and we have already been to one concert and are queueing up to get into the second. It is someone contemporary, from the pop charts even, but it is just me and mum. She has turned into someone adventurous and urbane, wanting to try different things. As we queue I think 'this is something my kids would enjoy, why didn't I bring them?' We get inside and there's some confusion at the ticket desk. My mum says something about 8 seats, but its only 2 I explain, she means blocks, 8 blocks. It is sorted out and we wait in some kind of foyer. Around us and through into the next rooms are table tennis tables, and I see from the posters there is a tournament. I wonder where the concert will be held, whether they'll move the tables out or if it is somewhere else. It's not that big an area to be holding a few thousand people, I reason.
Then I see a window and through it a line of people, five or so deep, queuing through the ante room and down some stairs. I gather that this is the end of the line and that it probably goes on for ages. I nudge mum and show her. There is a concert excited atmosphere and she smiles. We don't worry.
* Bit weird. The next evening Jemma phones me to say Adam isn't coming tonight (Friday) because he's going to some light show by Worsley canal with his mates. First time I'd heard anything about it. Of course I worry and phone him to make sure what it is and how he's getting back. Strange though, that I should dream about him messing about near water. There was no prior inkling that this was coming up, and it's the first time he's ever been somewhere like that. I still don't know what it is properly, and he was vague about it too.
** A few nights before I spent a couple of hours softmodding Adam's wii, which involved a long, complicated process of keying in various commands and loading up different hacks onto the machine.
Its parsonage road and there's a huge puddle in the road, like swimming pool huge. Looking out across the driveway I see that Adam and his friend are indeed swimming in it, diving underneath and all sorts. As I look a fast, souped up GT Car comes hurtling down the road at speed, and I realise Adam's mate is in the firing line and very likely to get seriously injured. I shout, but the car hits the water, ploughing into the pool. The way he does it looks deliberate, but fortunately the deep water cushions the speed, and his mate is unharmed. The car reverses and drives away. I go across and tell them both not to be so stupid, they could be killed at any moment. They get out and both get into an Audi TT which is paintjobbed with beautiful graphics and has a GT spoiler and sport-kit. They drive off.*
We are together with Carole and mum and they start arguing again. I am pissed off and frustrated that they can't get on and tell them so. I hate this atmosphere and know they are both to blame. Mum probably more so because of her fiery nature. Carole is normally submissive unless you catch her on the wrong day. These wrong days always seem to take place when they are together and I hate them both for it in that moment.
Later I am attempting to install or procure a game for Daniel at mum's request. She has brought some instructions to our house and is typing into the computer. She needs me to the next stage, but I am impressed with how knowledgeably she keys into the command prompt, having memorised a complex cipher and retyping it at several stages**. At one point she puts Daniel's I.D. which is a long word containing the word 'finesse' and I notice she has made a typo. I tell her and she says, 'no, it looks as if I have, but see' and when she hits enter a different, shorter word appears. I have to admit I am perplexed, but I manage to get the game up and running. It is some sort of GTA game with a military bent, and I realise it is a hard game to grasp and get into. There is a helicopter part where you have to land on water, and after completing a long opening tutorial to get me to that stage I immediately find the chopper impossible to control and land in the water, bursting into flames. I remember feeling frustrated that I'd come this far and there was no save facility. I'd have to go through the whole thing again. I tell mum Daniel would be better off using a joystick for this bit, where the twist grip would offer better hovering capability and I am rummaging around in the drawers, knowing I have one somewhere.
Later on and we have already been to one concert and are queueing up to get into the second. It is someone contemporary, from the pop charts even, but it is just me and mum. She has turned into someone adventurous and urbane, wanting to try different things. As we queue I think 'this is something my kids would enjoy, why didn't I bring them?' We get inside and there's some confusion at the ticket desk. My mum says something about 8 seats, but its only 2 I explain, she means blocks, 8 blocks. It is sorted out and we wait in some kind of foyer. Around us and through into the next rooms are table tennis tables, and I see from the posters there is a tournament. I wonder where the concert will be held, whether they'll move the tables out or if it is somewhere else. It's not that big an area to be holding a few thousand people, I reason.
Then I see a window and through it a line of people, five or so deep, queuing through the ante room and down some stairs. I gather that this is the end of the line and that it probably goes on for ages. I nudge mum and show her. There is a concert excited atmosphere and she smiles. We don't worry.
* Bit weird. The next evening Jemma phones me to say Adam isn't coming tonight (Friday) because he's going to some light show by Worsley canal with his mates. First time I'd heard anything about it. Of course I worry and phone him to make sure what it is and how he's getting back. Strange though, that I should dream about him messing about near water. There was no prior inkling that this was coming up, and it's the first time he's ever been somewhere like that. I still don't know what it is properly, and he was vague about it too.
** A few nights before I spent a couple of hours softmodding Adam's wii, which involved a long, complicated process of keying in various commands and loading up different hacks onto the machine.
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