PROGRESSIVE PONGS

No, not Richard after a night on the curry, 'Progressive Pongs' is a Mah Jong term meaning pongs which have been levelled up by one digit........ mmm, maybe that doesn't explain it well and in fact sounds even ruder.

Let's try Wind Seat, no, that sounds rude as well. How about Matching Chows? No, maybe not.

So why Mah Jong you ask? Well, TSB returned from the wilderness and his new blog post recounted a trip to Whangamata to play Mah Jong. Good on him. See HERE

I like Mah Jong although I haven't played it for many years.

In Wellington in the 1970s Roger was given a nice Mah Jong set that had belonged to his grandmother. It was a real nice set made from bone and bamboo and was most likely a valuable antique.

Roger, Geoff, Tony, Mike and I set about learning to play this game and spent many evenings and sometimes almost all nights playing it. The exoticism was the big attraction along with the esoteric terminology like 'pungs', 'kongs, 'twittering the sparrows', plucking the cherry blossom off the old tin roof' etc. Playing was accompanied by copious wine consumption as we were all keen oenophiles as well as practising alcoholics.

I can't remember if Richard was at these games. If he had been no doubt we would have thrown him out for some indiscretion or other. Richard has a low attention threshold when it comes to activity like this - anything cultural in fact. We used to throw him out of wine tastings as well. In the 1970s he used to get evicted from parties, music faculty events, libraries, official university clubs, Cosmopolitan clubs, poetry readings, concerts and pubs  - and those are just the ones I knew about.

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I searched for my own Mah Jong set only to remember that I lent it to a neighbour a couple of years ago. She was learning to play Mah Jong at the local community hall and I stupidly offered her my set to practise with. She hasn't returned it. I hate it when this happens and always tell myself (after the event) not to lend favourite books, CDs, DVDs, LPs etc. Now I'm going to have to knock on her door and ask for it back.

NEVER A LENDER NOR A BORROWER BE

(Good advice that).

My set I bought in the late '70s. It isn't bone (or ivory) and bamboo but is a real quality plastic set in a beautiful wooden case. 

Imagine the image here. I couldn't find a suitable one on the web and obviously can't photograph mine.