Earth Hour and Game On

With Saturday came the ever-popular Earth Hour idea, of switching off lights and un-used appliances for an hour. As it approached 8pm we were still waiting for our take away to arrive so the doorbell stayed plugged in, but after making the last cup of tea for an hour and turning off lights, we settled down to some delicious Indian food arriving at 8pm on the dot, lit the candles and spent some quality time together (we being Kat, Trav and myself). After I’d eaten my dinner I headed to see if I could get any photos of the city, lack of tripod proved the main problem here. However, the view was impressive, with most of the taller city buildings switching off their buildings including the Eureka building and Rialto towers (although apparently viewing platforms were both open during this time – presumably packed full of people). Some houses in our neighbourhood had switched what seemed like all their lights on, but the majority seemed to be doing their bit. I came home to find Kat and Trav playing Uno by candlelight, but both cheating and finding that green and blue cards looked the same!! Checking the colour by candlelight also proved dangerous, so instead we moved the iTouch next to the deck so we could see!

After I had an earlyish night on Saturday, I woke up early enough to go for a swim on Sunday morning. Around lunch time I woke up Trav so that we could go to the Game On exhibition at ACMI in Federation Square. A range of arcade, console and computer games from 1960s to now. At $15 for entry it seems a little steep, but being able to play them all for free was fantastic! After I beat Trav in most of the street-fighter-esque games, he beat me at Ms Pacman, which is only a little embarrassing. I then persuaded him to play Pro Evo 2006 with me, and after I scored a penalty (from his violent tackle in the box), I only mocked him a little bit. The guys behind us waiting found it quite funny too! Quite a good exhibition really, a good range of games – including portable games like Game Boys and PSPs. There were some information displays, but the majority was interactive based, which was great! Any people who believe that Earth Hour is contradictory and pointless will be glad to hear that plenty of electricity is in use for this exhibition.