Wednesday, February 21st, 2007: Bowling in Helsingborg

What I think:

Last Saturday, I was supposed to meet my mate the Yank for a few beers. He was out with a Brit in the afternoon for a few drinks, and told me to give him a call if I wanted to join them later.

It turned out that I did indeed fancy some over-priced crappy beer that evening, so I gave him a call.

When he answered, he said he was at the bowling alley. I remembered that I had been invited to this a couple of weeks back (a mutual friend had booked a couple of lanes), but had kindly declined. Not really my scene, plus I was a bit skint (US/CAN: broke).

But that night, since I hadn't had a beer with the Yank for a while, I thought I'd go along anyway, and just drink beer and have a bit of a laugh.

When I got there, I had a look around, but couldn't see the gang who was supposed to be there. People did seem to be enjoying themselves though:

Then, while continuing my search for Yank & Co., something caught my eye.

What was that between the screens that show the scores?

Was that..?
Yes it was.

It was a bloody telly (US/CAN: goddamn TV):

I couldn't believe it. Between every pair of score-screens, there was a television, showing a chat show (US/CAN: talk show), with the sound turned down. At a bowling alley. On a Saturday night.
(In the photo above, there's an advert (US/CAN: commercial) showing.)

I finally found the Yank & the others (they had just finished bowling and were about to grab a table) , and pointed out the ridiculousness of this.

This one guy, one of the most interesting people I've ever met, tried to convince me that this wasn't such an odd thing. He tried to justify having television in bowling alleys because people in this country are into Eurovision, and that they wouldn't want to miss anything.

Here's me not looking terribly convinced that this was a very good explanation:

I mean - hello! Firstly, Eurovision is a (crap) song contest. Most songs that I know rely on the concept of sound. And the sound of the songs being sung.

It would take a genius of more-than-Brian Enoesque proportions to come up a song dependent on the sound of a bowling alley in Helsingborg, Sweden.

And secondly, Eurovision is not on all year long, thank the Baby Jesus's straw nappies (US/CAN: diapers).

In any case, I dropped the issue for now, and went and sat with the other guys, who seemed to be having a great time.

Here's what guys from Helsingborg look like when they're having a great time:

And, thanks to previous Swedish measures of beer, the Yank was also pretending to have a great time as well.

Here he is in his "auditioning for the made-for-TV (UK: Telly) movie (UK: film) called "Gene Simmons: Give Me A KISS" (based on a true story)" mode:

Sorry ladies, he's taken.

Within about fifteen minutes or so, me and the Yank got bored, so decided to leave.

One the way out, we couldn't help but stop and admire
the beautiful mural near the entrance:

Pretty symbolic, eh?

Although I'm not really into it myself, I've always thought that going bowling was about spending time with friends, and having a few beers and a laugh.

In this context, Television is a totally unnecessary distraction. They should not be allowed in bowling alleys, and it's time that the Swedish government did something about it. That's what I think.