Some of you may remember a few years ago when there were many pub games - darts, skittles, shove ha'penny, bar skittles, russian billiards, pushing the pea with your nose - and the like. Most of these seem to have declined or disappeared except for darts which is now, allegedly, a "sport" and its champion (Phil "The Power" Taylor) ought to be BBC Sports Personnality of the Year and it ought to be included in the Olympics! Yeah, hand-and-eye co-ordination needed - just like shove ha'penny and all the other bar "sports" (except pushing the pea, that requires eye-to-nose co-ordination).
On the pastimes front a new interest has overtaken my local which (I may have mentioned before) is a place of extreme grumpiness - if not rage - with the world and all within it. The new interest is Celebity Sweepstake. You may be familiar with this. It is where you pay to pick a celebrity name out of a hat, all celebrities being over 80 years, and that is your runner for who is going to die first race. Winner takes all. The draw was over by the time I got there but the two blokes I was talking to had drawn Hugh Heffner and Bruce Forsyth respectively. The second guy was not happy: he complained "That b*st*rd is never going to die". The other suggested that this might be a bit morbid. Still it does give them an interest in life outside wondering what colour the Queen's hat will be at THAT wedding.
