This is a more detailed post on what happened during our observation of Earth Hour on Saturday. I found out that four of us in a small room makes for very strange conversations that no scriptwriter can ever dream up. Especially when we have our resident comedian, Andre.
Doing justice to the event, Lesley-Anne tried to explain the concept of global warming to Andre. There was a long garbled exchange between the 11-year-old conscientious environmentalist and the 8-year-old sotong. Part of it went something like this:
Lesley-Anne: When the power company makes electricity, it releases carbon dioxide.
Andre: You mean they can make electricity?
Lesley-Anne: Electricity is made, where do you think it comes from?
Andre: From the wires lah!
Kenneth: Right, just like milk comes from the refrigerator!
Me: When we want to use electricity, we turn on the switch and the electricity comes through the wires, but we have to pay for it.
Lesley-Anne: So when we use a lot of electricity, more carbon dioxide is released.
Andre: I don't know what is carbon dioxide!
Lesley-Anne: It's a type of gas, the type you breathe out. It creates a layer in the atmosphere and traps the heat.
Andre: I'm confused.
Lesley-Anne: Aiyah, the carbon dioxide makes the earth hot, that's why there's global warming!
Andre: Global warning?
Lesley-Anne: WARMING lah, not warning!
Kenneth: Actually, it's not just carbon dioxide...
Lesley-Anne: I know, there's also methane, which is from cows' farts.
Andre: HAH?!!
Kenneth: And do you know why some people don't want to eat meat?
Andre: Because the cow is smelly!!
Environment lesson fail! Kenneth suggested playing a word game, where we would tell a story with each person saying just three words at a time. It went something like this:
Me: Once upon a
Andre: time, there was
Lesley-Anne: a boy called
Kenneth: Andre who liked
Me: eating smelly cows.
Andre: Oy!! Everyday, he went
Lesley-Anne: to school with
Kenneth: Paul who also
Me: liked to eat
Andre: hamburgers and french fries.
(Me: That's four words!)
(Andre: no what, hamburgers and frenchfries!)
(Me: French fries is two words!)
Andre: ok, ok! hamburgers and fries.
Lesley-Anne: When they went
Kenneth: to eat hamburgers,
Me: their mothers shouted,
Andre: "This is disgraceful!"
(interruption due to laughter all around)
Lesley-Anne: It costs ten
Kenneth: sheep and goats.
Me: The boys said,
Andre (delightedly): "I love it!"
It turned out to be really fun and you can always count on kids' creativity to come up with something very unexpected. We also played one round where each one could only say one word at a time (this is easier) as follows:
Me: Once
Andre: upon
Kenneth: a
Lesley-Anne: time
Me: there
Andre: was
Kenneth: a
Lesley-Anne: mermaid
Me: who
Andre: hated
Kenneth: swimming.
Lesley-Anne: Everyday,
Me: she
Andre: ate
Kenneth: seaweed
Lesley-Anne: that
Me: tasted
Andre: poisonous.
Kenneth: Unfortunately,
Lesley-Anne: she
Me: fainted
Andre: happily
Kenneth: ever
Lesley-Anne: after.
Me: The
Andre: end.
If you're looking for an innovative way to occupy waiting time, especially in the car during long journeys, this is fun and easy - no preparations needed. Try it!
OMG hilarious! I've played the 3 word game with Sean and his friends while driving to Hua Hin. Almost drove into the ditch at the things they were coming up with. Andre..Andre...he cracks me up. Keep it up!
ReplyDeleteBtw, Sean refers to you as the Aunty Monica who always beats mummy at Scrabble :(
Yup, the game is so much fun, isn't it? Best thing is, no fiddly pieces to deal with, no complicated rules, and it's always different!
ReplyDeleteNo lah, tell Sean his mummy has thrashed me good too many times to count!
MOnica, you're the Uber Scrabble Queen! I'm shivering behind my computer in case you summon me to complete the game we didn't finish! That's why I have to blog so hard mah! To show you I have not time!!
ReplyDeleteThe 3-word game is hilarious, and you guys have such great fun playing it, tks for the reminder! I'm gonna try to entice my guys here - ket you know how it goes!
Hahaha Ad, you're so funny! Aiyah, our Scrabble game expired long ago already.
ReplyDeleteYes, try the 3-word game with your guys - with RK's intelligence and wicked sense of humour, I'm sure you'll end up in stitches!
Mon, thanks for sharing this 3-word game. We will do this the next round.
ReplyDeleteWe participated in the earth hour too. Was thinking of going cycling but later decided to stay home so the gals could experience the darkness. We turned off all lights, computers & TV. *They had to sacrifice their Starwars Cantoon at 9pm*. We had our pre-cut fruits in candle light. The surrounding is so quite. We made each of us stood up in the front to make a speech. Opening started by my younger gal, telling us the reason that we are doing this. Followed by my older gal, sharing about her school & friends and my husband told a few jokes. Me, I sang 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' *LOL*. After the fruits, they took turns to play the piano without the scores. We had our door open so we could make used of the corridor lights.
My gals were so excited, the older one suggested to do this every month. So we have decided to do this every last Sunday of the month, not Saturday *due to starwars*.
Chris
Chris: wow, sounds like you managed to make the event very meaningful! Good on you, also for making it a regular occasion. We all need constant reminders to save the earth :)
ReplyDelete