One of my favourite books as a kid was A kid from the city by E.M Watkins. I grew up in a concrete town and this book made me dream of a life in the countryside with nothing but rolling fields, farm animals, and plenty of fresh air.
When I was old enough I would ride my bike out of town to the nearest stretch of countryside and spend many an hour cycling down country lanes and up and down hills stopping for ice-cream or fudge at the country stores sitting by dry stone walls or winding streams.
At the end of the day I’d always have to return home, vowing that one day I would live in the countryside.
I finally achieved my dream and I now enjoy every minute of it. I still go cycling, exploring further afield taking in churches, ruins, and the odd manor house. I bought a copy of A kid from the city for my kids and read it to them but they didn’t seem to appreciate it like I did. I guess they already live in the countryside so maybe they’ll have different dreams of adventure.
Tag: adventure
Broken Sword
Occasionally while out walking or passing through high streets I catch brief snippets of conversation. Nothing interesting. Walking by a couple in their 60’s I hear the man say the words “Broken Sword”. I pause, trying to work out if I heard that right and what the context could possibly be.
They continue walking away from me clearly having a conversation about classic point and click graphic adventure games. Cool. Nostalgia triggered from an unlikely source.
As I continue on my walk I thought more on this and realised that we all age and the gamers of yesteryear are now well over 40, like yours truly. I’ve seen people in their 50s sporting Zelda T-shirts, others carrying Atari and SEGA bags. One lady had a Psygnosis T-shirt. Remember them?
So why should I be surprised to hear someone talking about Broken Sword? Anyone can be a gamer in this day and age.
Retirement is wasted on the old
What would you do if you didn’t need money?
Think about that for a moment. Most of what we do each day is dictated by money. Going to work, shopping, holidays, going for a drive, eating out, etc etc.
If money was no longer an issue, what would you do?
Travel the world, visit family and friends more, write a book just for fun, learn to paint, get fit, sleep more, spend more time in the garden.
I’ve been hanging out with a few retired friends recently and they had faced this very question. They no longer needed to work. They either reached retirement age and had enough saved, or they inherited money or sold a business and decided they were done working for money.
So what did they end up doing?
One learned to paint and spent more time in his garden, joining a few clubs such as a book club, mahjong and scrabble, and a dining club. Another tinkers with old cars in his garage and buys stuff that he couldn’t afford when they were younger just to tinker with or display for no one but themselves to see. Another travels and writes about their adventures.
Thinking about it, there is nothing stopping us non retirees from doing any of this. We can travel, paint, garden, tinker. Why put something off til the tail-end of your life? I mean, there’s no guarantee that you will get there so why put the fun stuff off? Why not have mini retirements? Save up and take breaks throughout your career. Six months here, a year there, and so on.
Retirement is wasted on the old.
Make a list of what you would do if you could and start doing them now.
Distances as a kid
When looking for work distance is something that we generally take into consideration. How far do we have to travel to get there each day? How much is it going to cost in time and money? We consider distance when we consider going shopping, collecting something or someone, holidays, and buying a home; how far is the nearest pub, shops, or public transport?
Yet when we were children distance was something to be conquered. The further the better. When I was twelve I cycled on my single-speed Raleigh Tomahawk all the way to my Grandma’s. Eight adventurous miles through dodgy housing estates, parks, open land, and beside busy roads. My folks thought I was still playing in our street until Grandma called to say I had arrived.
In my early teens I once cycled over thirty miles from a caravan site back home on my own after my mate, who had cycled there with me so we could spend the day with family, suffered a bike accident meaning he and his damaged bike had to be collected and returned home. There wasn’t space for me and my Raleigh Phantom so I decided I’d race them home. They gave me a ten minute head start and I got there twenty minutes after them but it was an exhilarating fast ride back! Not a thought entered my head about how far it was or that I’m having to cycle on my own with no one to talk to. Just the drive to get back as fast as possible, just me and my bike against the world.
Half the fun of travelling is the journey.
Don’t be in a rush to get somewhere.
Graphics adventure nostalgia
I grew up in the 80s and 90s, the era of the point-and-click graphics adventure games. Games like The Curse of Monkey Island, Broken Sword, Universe, and Dreamweb.
I have a large tome on my shelf dedicated to the graphics and storylines of these games. Simon the Sorcerer, Beneath a Steel Sky, and The Legend of Kyrandia to name but a few. I spent many hours of my youth immersed in the worlds conjured up by these games. Sailing the seven seas, exploring foreign lands, looking for treasure, saving fair maidens from dragons, or just hanging out in bars talking to the drunken natives in the hope of eliciting a clue in order to make further progress in my adventure.
People say that when they dream they can’t recall if it was in colour or black-and-white. When I dream I can recall not only the colour but the resolution! I recall many a happy hour spent exploring the world of Valhalla and the Lord of Infinity to many calls of “It’s a skull!”, or “It’s just a book”.
I’ve explored many a low-resolution pixelated world in my day. Minecraft players don’t know what they are missing!
So long and thanks for all the 8 and 16-bit memories!