Nelson turns 3. I'm writing this post later than Saturday the 20th June, but Saturday the 20th was Nelson's birthday. He's three and the two of us held a joint party at Gamestation arcades at Natal's Midway Mall. A great time was had by all especially us who enjoyed the unlimted access to the games for 3 hours. Our party was VW Beetle/Fusca themed. Pictures here for a limited time only.

The day was fantastic, but it looked briefly like all would be doomed. We arrived at a little before 9am (the party was to start at 10am) with all our decorations and food. And what we found was that where there should have been a door, there was now a wall. Three chaps were gainfully employed plastering a wall and there was dust everywhere. The party organiser showed us the "new" entrance to the party room, a metre-wide space between two ancient arcade machines. The only problem was that there was a metal bar loaded with electricity wires running across the gap at about a foot high. Perfect tripping height for anyone, but especially children and how was our wheelchair-bound friend Adriano going to make it past that? (Caz, if you're reading, we wondered what your reaction would have been if this was a party for one of your kids and whether you would have preferred to have the party in the multi-story car park - at least you know where you are with a car park!).

The party lady assured us it would be ready and (remembering my recent blog posts on what people say is not necessarily what you get) I was thrilled to see the bar removed and the opening widened. Masking tape hid the unsightly cracks in the floor and all party guests seemed happy and at ease.

The only notable incident occurred just before 10 when a huge POP reverberated around the arcades. I saw a flash of light to my side and after a lot of murmuring and checking everyone was alright, it seemed like the dodgy electrics (TIMAE: #7) hadn't hurt anyone this time.