bingo belles!

I am lucky to have a very large family. Among my relatives my brother has three beautiful and lovely daughters of whom I am very fond. I also have a younger sister who is equally fond of these young ladies. The beautiful young ladies aforementioned wanted to mark the memory of their Nan's birthday, today, in a special way. Their Nan used to go to Bingo with my own mother once a week. At Bingo their Nan and my mother would drink brandy, smoke endless cigarettes and also mark their bingo cards. Multi-tasking as it were. The girls thought it would be nice to go to the same Bingo Emporium to celebrate the Nan's birthday memory this evening. They thought it might also be nice to share the experience with two of their fond Aunties. You can see where this is heading. Therefore, 7pm found me rushing to the metropolis of Skegness, to a place called North Shore Bingo (?) and paying £20 for a few bits of paper with numbers on them. Before I could blink a DOBBER was pressed into my sweating hand, and the numbers were being called out at the speed of light by a man with a speech impediment! I couldn't make it up. Brandy and cigarettes did not feature in my evening's entertainment. By the time I had adjusted my ears to the timbre and pattern of the Caller's impeded diction the first game was over! Two of the nieces and my own sister had some experience in these matters and found the sight of myself and the third niece struggling with paper, dobber, hearing and technique absolutely hilarious. No talking seemed to be permitted, and the air was thick with the scent of body odour. Several people had actually brought their dogs 'to the Bingo' for the evening. My eyes were on stalks. One niece fell prey to a fit of the giggles, and it looked momentarily as if we would be ejected for causing a stir! About 3o game cards were eventually completed by our party, with mixed success, as some of us (who shall remain anonymous) were not able to catch all the numbers for every game, so frankly stood absolutely no chance of winning anything anyway. It was a very interesting experience, not for the faint hearted, though I think next year we should try to think of another way to help the girls mark their Nan's birthday memory..... On the strength of this experience, and the advice of the Landlady at the Countryman Pub, Ingoldmells, I have actually volunteered to experience an evening at the GALA BINGO in Boston. Honestly. I can hardly wait.