On why having only a little reading ability can lead to a lot of confusion.

We've got this game. It's called 'Travel the World', and it's supposed to teach children basic Geography. It's a great game, not in the least because I know know where Venezuela is. I know this on account of having spent four consecutive go's missing a turn with my little yellow piece sadly sittling in Caracas because I couldn't spin a boat to get out of the goddam country. Because obviously, as everyone knows, you can't cross the sea in a bus or a car.

Anyway, there are two ways to play 'Travel the World' and the second way involves one player choosing a 'postcard' card. There are heaps of postcard cards, each one has a city written at the top, and then a picture relevant to that particular country. So, for example the 'France' postcard has a picture of the Eiffel Tower and the word 'Paris' on it.

The idea is, a player describes the picture or reads the capital, and everyone else guesses which country it is. (And by the way, the capital of Zaire is Kinshasa, if you didn't know.)

Simple no? You'd think so, wouldn't you? But what happened for us was this:

Harry chooses a card and says the following: "You find them in fun-fairs, they're big, scary but lots of people still like them."

Blank looks all round.

We think. "Big wheel...London...UK?"
Harry: "No."
We think some more: "Roller Coaster...Orlando...America?"
Harry, gleefully: "Nope!"

After about ten minutes of racking our brains, wrongly guessing and Harry dancing round and round the table apparently delighted at our uselessness I finally take the card from him and have a look. Instead of describing the picture (of two people Flamenco dancing) and reading the city out, he's apparently decided to try and describe the city. The city is Madrid.

Me: "But Harry, this says Madrid!"

Big silence.

Harry goes red.

"Oh," he says, sheepishly.

"I thought it said Mad Ride."