christmas – tales of samwise

Do you remember Bop-It? It was around a few years back, very addictive and quickly irritating? Well, Mum thought it would be a good present to us all this Christmas.

You basically have to hold a sideways-S shaped controller and follow a rather irritating American man’s instructions to pull/twist/spin/flick or bop. If you fail you get mildly insulted by the machine and promptly feel obliged to have another go.

My mum perhaps didn’t count on my sister’s incredible competitiveness (and like Monica from Friends her favourite kind of competition is with herself) or the newly minted ‘Party’ mode (you use assorted body parts to really ‘Bop-it’).

We are a family of game lovers, and have often ended up howling with laughter/frustration during a board game or two. Perhaps my sister should stick to board games because she has become a bit of a Bop-It ninja. On the other hand, she has managed to turn it into an hilarious spectator sport.

On beating her high-score she was heard to yell “YEEESSSS!” in a rather manly register, sadly while filmed by her understanding boyfriend. Cue endlessly re-watchable hilarity and a perfect Snapchat opportunity.

Later she broke through the 100 ‘Bops’ barrier and celebrated with (and bear in mind she is a none-more white middle class medical student) an attempted finger flicking celebration of the type more commonly used by 90s scallys. Her thoughtful brother handily caught that on video too…

So thanks Mum and little sister for really bopping up my Christmas. I may just have to start filming more people while playing games. Though I suspect I would have to wait a long time for a similar moment of hilarity during a game of Scrabble. But then again my grandma is coming to stay today, so anything could happen…

Merry Christmas!

What can you do with a pomegranate?

Having come across three pomegranates this week, I feel like I need to come to a decision about them. Friend or foe? Fruit or vegetable? Corey or peely?

It doesn’t fit into any of my ‘fruit categories.’ There’s the eat the fruit and throw away the core/stone type (apple, pear, peach, plum etc.), the peel and eat type (banana, pineapple, orange, kiwi etc.) and the pop the whole thing in type (berries, grapes etc.).

I guess you do peel a pomegranate, but then what? Crazy little mini-grape-like seeds and an explosion of red juice. The seeds are almost berries and they do have a pip in the middle which you could chuck away. It confounds categorization!

It seems that while vegetables are here to cheer me up in my pre-Christmas stress, pomegranates are here to infuriate and confuse me.

I’ve been collecting some opinions about this perplexing ‘fruit’. My mum said that you’re supposed to ‘roll it on a table, collect the juice and eat the seeds’. My colleague recollected eating the seeds with a pin?!

I presented one to my class and gathered their ideas. Apparently it smelt like a ‘gone off apple’ and tasted like a grape/cherry. There was much ooing and aahing at the pretty star pattern inside. I can’t deny it is a rather handsome fruit (inside at least).

In short, pomegranates are perhaps the most bizarre fruit in existence. I sure can’t get my head around them.

Pomegranate

Just thought. Rhubarb – where the heck does that fit? Good for sword-fighting though. Pomegranates can’t do that. Ha!

tales of samwise

Category: christmas

Christmas Time (Or what happened when we got Bop-It)

but pomegranates are here to confuse us