Tuesday, September 22, 2009

First Times

New experiences, anticipation and excitement go hand in hand for me. I look forward to the event/experience from the day I know I will be a part of it. Like the first time I went for a grand slam final. The first music concert I attended. The first time I went white water rafting. First time I visited New York, London. First time I went on that crazy ride in a theme park, first time skiing.

For the most part First Times turn out to be fun. But sometimes, they don't live up to the expectations. Its probably cos all that anticipation builds up the expectations sky high. The experiences though have always been worth having. And even though at the end of the day on some occasions it might seem anticlimactic, I've never regretted any of them so far.

I'm about to go on another First Time. A trip to Las Vegas! In all the time I've been here, which is quite considerable BTW, I've never been yet. As usual the anticipation and expectations are high. I know how they say expectations are not a good thing. But alas I am but a base human being and could never separate the two. And so Las Vegas here I come, looking forward to a dazzling experience!

Monday, September 14, 2009

Board Games

Its a kind of family pass time which has been around for as long as I can remember. Since the first pin ball board long ago to the dozen or so I cart along with me to every new place I move to. Summers past wasted away pursuing a marathon run of monopoly, caroms, etc. Its almost a tradition now with the cousins and us playing board games late into the night whenever we happen to meet up. The monotony of the game never gets to us, we can keep going at it forever and not get tired. Can keep at it till more urgent and unrelenting needs like hunger pangs and droopy eyes finally drive us to pursue deeds beyond the board.

Last week the games were revived again... my sister and cousin visited and old habits it seems die hard. Had fun playing game after game of monopoly, like we used to all those summers. With a game of scrabble thrown in here and there. Over the years spent in the US, I have collected close to a dozen board games thanks to the multitude of friends who introduced me to new games and the inner addict in me.

This is probably one of the few pursuits my whole family involves in at various times. I still remember the long ludo games played with my Grandmother; chess which our father introduced to us; chinese checkers... and the list goes on. And even though I never remember my Grand-dad ever playing with us, I still do have memories associated with him and board games - like the time he threw all the jackpot cards (resembling in shape and size to playing cards) away cos he didn't want us getting addicted to gambling. In retrospect I realize he didn't want us getting addicted to games which waste time either, but unfortunately that lesson was never learnt. And a new tradition was born.