kiss chase!

Phoo, the rain, the rain! Is this our weather now? Will the wet summer drip and splash and bleed on into Autumn and further into a global warming wetter winter til we're all washed away?

My bedroom window is leaking. Will my bed soon be afloat?

On a different note, Twenty bemoaned the demise of verboten, violent playground games the other day. It reminded me of something I meant to talk about. I'd been chatting to someone about Kiss Chase. And my boarding school educated father who'd learned Latin, and been unimpressed to discover we said 'tax' instead of 'pax' for a chasing time out. It turned out that my kiss chase nostalgia was lost on my friend, as he'd attended an all boys' school in Waterford. I'll refrain from Christian Brothers and kiss chasing jokes, I think.

Oh, but kiss chasing. The pre-pubescent exhilaration! The thrill of the hunt, or the excitement of escape. Before the comments get to dirty, the kisses were chaste, we were in the country not some sophisticated or skanky suburb. But there was still an element of innocent sexual tension - the running, dodging, the moment where someone gets too close and you shout Tax! and stood there panting, sweating, in the sunshine and smell of cut grass, in a truce but waiting for the moment when you leap and run again, at such close quarters, it's a face off, will you make it to freedom, fingers scrabbling at your tshirt, or will you get grabbed?

I think adults should still play chasing. Think of the exercise, and so much more fun than running on a treadmill. I read an article about playground exercise classes for adults- spacehoppers etc. Sounds like a good idea to me.

Next summer, if there's a sunny day, head to the park with a crowd. I wouldn't last two minutes now, though, I'd be on the ground in a heap in an instant. I hope somebody tasty is 'on' :)