More about the brain, finances, lasers, and bowling...and also the piano

Going back briefly for this post, in the late evening of August 6th, the day we returned to Stratford-upon-Avon, the boyfriend of one of my cousins arrived at my grandparents' house. He had been invited to come up and join my cousin/his girlfriend in visiting my family; neither my brother nor I had a problem with this because it meant meeting a new person.

Now onto the 7th of August. This day was different from every other day in the week because the morning consisted of a lesson covering some aspects of the brain (a few months ago my grandfather provided several members of the family with a DVD course on improving memory and keeping the brain healthy), followed by a lesson and debate over finances. To sum up both topics, the main point of the first lesson was about keeping our brains exercised and not letting them degrade through inactivity, while the second was about the lack of knowledge numerous people have about money - from banks to renting or buying a house. I thought we all had a very worthwhile morning.

Our afternoon activities were also indoor events, as the sudden rain disrupted the schedule. Instead of visiting a place called Wollaton Hall we went to the tenpin bowling/entertainment facility from last year's trip. The first game we played there was a laser tag shootout, with me and my brother appointed by our uncle as the captains of our respective teams; it became up to us to choose the rest of our teams from our group, and with five members out of nine my brother's team ended up with a numerical advantage. Worse yet for my team, my uncle's laser didn't work (although he only became aware of that in the second game), rendering him nothing more than a target and making the game five versus three. Needless to say, my team was defeated twice - narrowly on the first game and handily on the second - with the majority of our hits against our opponents coming from my cousin's boyfriend being on my side, as he turned out to be the best player overall by a wide margin. At the end of the day it didn't really matter who won: it was all good fun and there were plenty of laughs all around, and that is what's most important.

The running and laughing from the laser games had made us hot and sweaty, so we had a rest and some drinks before heading off to the bowling alleys. Most of us were running fairly even in our scores during the bowling, although my brother, aunt, uncle, and cousin's boyfriend were all the best; my aunt beat my uncle by one point in the first round and then defeated my brother by four in the second - as she was on my brother's team during the laser games she was the only person to win in both events. I did not pass one hundred points in either of the two rounds of bowling, and much to my chagrin I caused a foul by throwing my ball too early on one go and it hit the barrier; worse yet, the ball had stopped, and when I rolled the ball on my subsequent both balls went into the gutter and ended up jamming the barrier. Fortunately, someone quickly remedied the problem, and as with the laser games it was all fun.

We had pizza for dinner when we went to my aunt and uncle's house later on in the day. After the meal my brother, cousins, and my cousin's boyfriend all went to watch a film while my aunt gave me a lesson on learning to play to piano. She told me that within three-quarters of an hour I had learnt more on how to play than she did in five lessons! By the end of the lesson I knew middle D, middle C, and middle B, and I do have an interest in learning how to completely play the piano, although I'm not sure how feasible that is at the moment. I'll have to see what happens.

When the film was finished we returned to my grandparents' house; we were exhausted, but there was a positive atmosphere and we eagerly awaited the next day.