google earth

I'll admit it. I'm an armchair traveller. It's cheap, and I can go anywhere in the click of a mouse thanks to Google Earth. I'm addicted to it. It's fun cruising down a street and checking out the world that's outside my door.

But how recent are the street views I'm looking at? When I was in in LA in 2005 (Sunset Blvd to be precise), I saw a billboard for a show called The Triangle. It sounded good so as not to forget the title I snapped a photo. So this morning I noticed the same billboard in 2009. It got me wondering how often it updates. At the same token it was thrilling, if only for a second to see the same billboard.

vintage games

There was something simple about the old board games of the 1960’s. They didn't require electricity or plugging in to the TV, you didn't need super human co-ordination. You simply had a dice or a spinner (if the game was slightly deluxe.) You'd roll the dice and move your plastic marker across the board. Fun huh!?

Games got slightly more sophisticated as time progressed. You'd place a balloon under a box and start to hammer nails in. Sounds stupid but it made an enormous amount of money. Imagine building a mouse trap as the game goes along and in the end catching a plastic mouse! Oh the frivolity.

Games were manufactured by Ideal, Milton Bradley, John Sands to name a few. Those companies ruled when we were kids. The box graphics are what grab me today. The art on KerPlunk and Poppin Hoppies are fantastic. Christmas morning was always special when you spied a big box under the tree. You knew Santa had delivered another fun high class game to your home. I got the games alright but with mother cooking the Christmas lunch, father working in the shed - a game requiring 2 or more players, the games got pushed aside. Maybe I would have been better off with a computer game?