Bowling

Unlike me, my brother Robin sees his friends from time to time and they meet at the "Taverne de Herve" to have a drink. This time, they decided to go to the bowling alley in order to play, well, tenpin bowling. (Yeah, I checked out my dictionary.) The bowling alley being located in Fléron, 20 km away from home, someone had to drive him there. My parents being quite busy, I had to do that — but I was willing to: my brother said I could come if I wanted to. And I was longing for it: the last time I played bowling was two years ago.

We left home at 1.30 and went to Fléron. Normally, I wasn't allowed to drive the car with my brother in it: the Belgian driving licence system is extremely silly. The first version I had was one allowing me to drive with an adult and another passenger. The second version allowed me to drive with only one adult who was at least 26… But with that same version, I could transport 500 kilos of potatoes, or a horse in a trailer, or drive a small camper van!!! I told you the system was crazy!

At the bowling alley, we played two games… and I lost both. My average was 60 points, which was quite a disaster. Maybe because I'm forced to play with my right hand, even though I'm left handed. But that's no excuse. I paid the drinks, though: I was their guest. My brother's friends are nice guys, one of them is particularily aware of politics and of movie references — when I was his age, I hardly knew someone who was fan of The Godfather, for instance.

We also played pool (i.e. with 16 balls, unlike snooker: this one is played with 15 red balls and 6 of other colours) on an automatic table (we had to insert a one-euro coin to get the balls).

This day was great fun. I wish I did that more often.