Knights of Wands | Annoying little gaming dudes

Published by Alison Cross on

Forget the bare arms –
pull on a sweater, woman!

So, it was Sunday.  I am alone in the house.  I am luxuriating a la Queen of Pentacles mode on the sofa with the soundtrack from Gypsy playing discretely.  Well, as about discretely as you can have Miss Mazeppa and her bugle,  a pot of posh coffee on the go…..the Sunday newspapers….I was in heaven.

Until.

My son and his equally computer-mad friend arrive at the door, asking whether they could just have ‘an hour’ playing a game on line.

Don’t ask me what it was.  They tell me that it’s building space-craft but there seems to be a LOT of shooting involved in building spacecraft the way they do it.

Anyway, I acquiesced, determined to keep my Sunday Morning Pentacly Vibe going for as long as possible.

And so I read the paper, ignoring the explosive noises coming from next door and supped at my coffee and let Ethel Merman do her lung-busting thang.

And the house got colder.

And colder…..

And colder……

Until it was colder than a nun’s, erm, HEART.

I turned the radiator up the sitting room.  Nothing.  My heart sank – we only had a new boiler fitted in August. Surely it wasn’t on the blink already?

It came with a fancy new wifi thing called Hive. Which is MAGIC.  When it works.  You can turn your central heating up or down or on or off from anywhere in the world.  But not from the living room radiator by the looks of things.

I went into my son’s room and tapped the Hive unit anxiously.  No lights.  No nothing.  Surely that wasn’t right?

‘Have you done anything to this?’ I ask a small gaming Knight of Wands.

‘To what?’  his fingers dance over the keyboard, his gaze locked on the screen.  His face lit up in an eery blue light.

‘THIS’ I say, resisting the urge to smack him round the back of the head with the Hive hub.  The Queen of Pentacles’ relaxed, nurturing energy was spiralling down the plughole faster than the incoming Queen of Wands wrath was climbing up it….

‘Nope.  Not touched it.’

I fiddle about with the settings at the back of the Hive hub and pull gently on the cable that runs to the wall socket.  It feels suspiciously NOT PLUGGED IN.

I trace the path of the wire, crawling beneath the computer desk and emerge with the plug.  In my hand.  Not plugged in.

‘You’ve unplugged it!’ I bellow fearsomely.  This time I do give him an irritated smack – it ruffles his hair and his pride, but not much else.

‘Oh is THAT what that plug’s for?  oh right! Sorry! Yeah, I unplugged it.’  His fingers don’t miss a beat on the keyboard.  His small gaming friend won’t make eye-contact with me.  They are a couple of guilty puppies.

I sigh and pick up the telephone to the helpline…

And lo! dear reader,  it took about an hour of running from room to room with the phone clamped to my ear, taking batteries out of thermostats, switching off the boiler, switching it back on, moving booster plugs….until the heating went back online….. and I headed straight to the drink’s cabinet for a celebratory (and warming!) whisky and ginger ale.

Well, it was 5 o’clock somewhere, right?

Court insights:

Knight of Wands behaviour – action without thinking.  Mindless gaming activity.
Queen of Pentacles behaviour – luxury and self-care.  Includes restorative whisky.
Queen of Wands behaviour – fast-rising wrath that is unabated by motherly love.  Or even chocolate.

Enjoy the Gypsy toon πŸ˜€


Alison Cross

The Tarot's Court Cards are my specialist area.Β  They talk to me. Not LITERALLY though ....

14 Comments

Las Magas · 2nd October 2014 at 4:35 pm

Sorry!!! My comment has to be written in "Add comment" πŸ™‚

Las Magas · 1st October 2014 at 5:42 pm

Delicious post Alison! Well done, cheers! Muchas Estrellas!!!!

    Alison Cross · 1st October 2014 at 9:59 pm

    Hello! I think that you are my first ever Argentinian reader, so it's lovely to meet you (((hug))) *waves from Scotland*

    Las Magas · 2nd October 2014 at 4:26 pm

    Thank you very much Alison!!! My pleasure!!! πŸ™‚

Margo Benson · 1st October 2014 at 2:34 pm

Remarkable restraint and a well deserved whisky! I don't so techie stuff very well but have to laugh at the fact my phone gives a loud buzz when going into silent mode πŸ™‚

    Alison Cross · 1st October 2014 at 9:58 pm

    I'm not too bad at techie stuff, but I'm not good at the gymnastics required to remove batteries and then re-insert them both AT THE SAME TIME as pushing two other buttons on the other side of the thermostat. Needs a wee redesign, I think, Margo πŸ˜€

    mind you, the older I get, the more baffling I find mobile phones lol!

Vivianne · 1st October 2014 at 9:18 am

And you kept your Swords in control so well too πŸ™‚

    Alison Cross · 1st October 2014 at 9:24 am

    The Swords are totally reserved for his Father. Mainly a big rusty kitchen knife ;-D

Joanne Sprott · 30th September 2014 at 3:18 pm

I'm with Ellen. We seem way too dependent on this new tech stuff for home appliances of various sorts. My hubby still complains when the oven beeps at the end of its pre-heat cycle; I know it means well, but we're so used to working without such information that it's just annoying.

Seems to me, Ali, that the Hive system should not rely on being plugged in somewhere, but should be wired in permanently, if it takes all that work to restart it. Talk about your weak link in the chain…

Good excuse for the whiskey and ginger ale, though…:)

    Alison Cross · 30th September 2014 at 5:38 pm

    I love a bit ot techie gadgetry though! Hmmm – which court card would THAT be? πŸ˜€ I love logging on to the computer to see what temperature the house drops to during the night and what not. And shave off a half degree here and there where I can πŸ˜€

Ania · 30th September 2014 at 1:51 pm

You mean you didn't unplug the computer (and fling it out of the frosted-up window)? You iz chilled!

    Alison Cross · 30th September 2014 at 5:36 pm

    I did do a mental calculation on whether I wanted to tell them to turn everything off, but then I would just have had two unhappy boys who didn't deliberately do anything wrong, and I would have absolutely no chance of getting back to my coffee and papers πŸ˜€

Alison Cross · 30th September 2014 at 1:49 pm

Anything that takes me away from the Sunday papers and coffee is liable to turn me into a furious little thunder-cloud πŸ˜€

Ellen · 30th September 2014 at 1:01 pm

I can feel the cold and the wrath vibes over here. Where is the time boy played soccer outside. or when a room was heated by turning the knob.
Life has a way to divert us from our simple pleasures…

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