My Aunt went to Paris...

The new hub didn't work. Still no internet. The problem is still floating around somewhere between people who don't know what to do, people who don't care, and people who really need to check their email (us).

It has caused us to become more creative. Our Saturday night involved a game of 'My Aunt went to Paris...'

It's a memory game, where you have to repeat and add to a list of items. Eg:

Person 1: My Aunt went to Paris, and she brought me a hat.

Person 2: My Aunt went to Paris, and she brought me a hat, and a pie...

And so on...

You can choose anything you want, which makes it quite interesting. Lucy and I came up with some good stuff, which I can still remember. There were many diversions and digressions, but the basic list was thus:

My Aunt went to Paris, and she brought me:

a FingerSpatch (a new kitchen implement used for making omelettes: it's a spatula you wear as a glove - heat-resistant, non stick, versatile and dexterous, containing little pouches of herbs in the fingertips)

a Murray Mint

a 2 litre bottle of BinDye (a fictional ceremonial dye used to make Bindis, made from holy animals)

a half-used Yankee candle that smells of a forest

a credit card with a hologram on it, depicting Barack Obama doing a kung-fu kick

a visor

a sketch, drawn by Daniel Kitson (aged 14ish) of Newcastle Utd's then goalkeeper Pavel Srníček

a large collection of mounted butterflies

a tank-top

a bag full of Shakespeare's thoughts (like squishy globes)

I think that was it. The game also involved many probing inquiries into My Aunt's character (she was in the Resistance during World War II, may possibly have an alcohol problem, lives is Hull, etc)

She's such a well-rounded character, I'm thinking of adapting her life into a screenplay. It can be a quest to acquire all these items, so that they may be given to a frankly ungrateful niece or nephew.

I'll get in touch with Winslet's people, and we'll take it from there.