I’ve been neglecting the blog. ar arr arrr.

That’s because, er, I’ve been playing.

We have a Wii. For eight years Sherm and I have been debating what game system we’d get for ourselves and the family (yeah right!) someday.  When E3 2006 introduced the Nintendo Wii, that was it. We had an unanimous decision.  The Wii it would be.
We’d decided on our trip to the US, the mission would be to get a Wii, and we dutifully started saving. But it was not to be, Nintendo pushed back the release date. So when the launch occurred November 19th, like many of the 70 thousand other people that live in this rather large district, it became our mission to get a system.

ar arr arr! There aren’t a lot of stores here that carry  game systems: Wal-Mart, Zellers, and lucky for us two EB Game outlets, one at each side of town. We checked. And checked. And checked some more. We kept up to date online, phoned the stores, went to the stores and kept telling ourselves we were adults and could delay our gratification. (yeah right!)

I had to call Sherm about a meeting on Tuesday and talk turned as it usually does to, ‘let’s check the stores to see if any Wii’s have arrived’. They had! Some had just come in, and the dash for a Wii literally came down to minutes.  Being in the north, the population isn’t a priority in terms of volume like it would be in an urban area, if the town gets in 10 units these days, that’s a very big deal. There were 11 we knew about, 2 at the EB store near me, 9 at the EB store near Sherm. That probably meant Wal-Mart had 2 and Zellers had two. Probably, but we knew nine had arrived while we checked and if we didn’t get moving, they’d be gone.

The dash was on.
The EB staff here are excellent. I go into their stores just to chat, the staff are fun and customer service is outstanding. I knew they couldn’t hold one, that like everyone else we’d have to take our chances.

I grabbed a cab, told the driver what mission I was on, and he started laughing. He’s a gamer, completely understood what I was after, and got me there in record time. That was half the fun of it actually, his merriment added to the adventure.

I ran through the mall and got there before Sherm. It had been less than an hour since the phone call, and there were two left, and I didn’t have enough money in my account to just get one. I had to wait for Sherm to show up and chip in. 
I admit it, I was was worse than a kid at Christmas and kept muttering under my breath at people walking through the mall, ‘don’t come in here, don’t come in here, hurry up Sherm!’
So much for being a mature adult and delaying self gratification.

Sherm came flying into the store at a run too. Didn’t even see me. That’s pathetic for a twin, don’t you think? And a guy came charging in right behind Sherm, he’d booked off work and made the same dash we did. ar arr arrr!

We got the second last one. Whoo hoo!

What an easy set up this machine is, that took no time at all, and we started playing the sports disc. Right now remotes are as scarce as hen’s teeth, so we are happy to share the one that came with the package. To be honest it’s such a work out, sharing is a good way to take a break.

I’m sore. Happily sore.
I don’t know if it’s just from playing or it’s from laughing. I think it’s a healthy dose of both. We didn’t stop playing and exploring what the Wii can or will do for eight hours. So much for behaving like grownups. 

What a fun system! It’s been well worth the wait, now I’m really looking forward to having family up and friends over. Games are fun again, immersive, uncomplicated, shared fun.

We have a Wii.:^)