Whimsical blog entry is whimsical

Yesterday, because it was Earth Day and unseasonably warm, and because I hadn't done so in Arcturan Mega-Donkeys' years, I decided to get out among the trees, birds and basking lizards by doing a circuit of Centennial Park. Thousands of others had the same idea. There were casual strollers like myself; dog walkers; joggers; proper runners; folk on all manner of bikes, scooters and pedal cars; horse and pony riders; pram pushers; and a lone rollerblader. On the grass, people kicked footies, flew kites, canoodled, played badminton, punched focus mitts held by their personal trainers, threw Frisbees that were rarely caught, took pampered pups to the mobile dog wash, and picnicked. So many picnics - Yogi Bear would've had a field day if he wasn't serving a life sentence on Rikers Island. The coolest thing I saw was a bunch of young fellas preparing for a NERF war (as opposed to a turf war). They were armed to the teeth with oversized, fluoro-coloured weaponry and extra foam ammo. I'm pretty sure one lad even had a sidearm strapped to his leg. It looked like mad fun waiting to happen. In my day, we made do with water pistols and water balloons. Since those don't present much of a physical threat, we'd hold our skirmishes on cold nights when you really didn't want to get soaked. Dressed in dark clothes - tip: a black T-shirt converts into an effective "ninja mask" - we'd hunt and hide across the suburb, paying little heed to fences or the privacy of neighbours, in "capture the flag" scenarios. You had to return to you base camp if you were shot or you wanted to stock up on the water bombs you'd spent the afternoon filling and placing gently in buckets. There was no way to avoid getting wet. If you weren't ambushed while "reloading" at an inviting tap, your crappy spare gun would spring a leak in your pocket. These battles were hilarious but also deadly serious... My bestie, BP, was worried he'd be an easy target 'cos his only sneakers were a pair of shiny white Reeboks. His solution: rubbing them all over with charcoal.