In answer to today's plinky prompt: Name a board game you will never get tired of.

Albino Mouse

Bluey was standing out in the open, something he rarely ever did. Crouching down low with his tail wrapped around him for comfort, his mottled red hair helping to conceal him in the shadows of the monstrous contraption that had piqued his curiosity, he twitched his whiskers in the vain hope that he could sense any danger lurking about him. He was ever the nervous one of his family.

He stood only one inch tall and two inches long, four if you counted his thin reddish tail, but was ever so proud of himself. His small round eyes perfectly placed either side of his nose which sported a well groomed set of whiskers. He was considered by his friends to be quite the best looking mouse in their circle.  This, combined with the attention he attracted from those of the fairer sex, caused him to be quite narcissistic at times.

His ears twitched first, somewhere in the tangled mess of steel and plastic behind him he could hear a faint sound. All senses alert, he strained to listen, trying to work out what the strange noise was. 

At first he thought he could hear the sound of wood creaking and knocking together followed by, in quick succession, by a loud smacking sound and an old metal bucket being kicked over.

As he listened intently, he slowly turned his body to meet the growing clangorous sound as it steadily creeped nearer. The sound changed, it was like a heavy ball was had been pushed down the stairs, thumping on each tread, shaking the ground he was crouched on. 

He could see the ball now, heading straight down the stairs towards him. It was an immense shiny metal ball. That seemed to have him in its sights. His natural inclination was to run away, as fast as his tiny legs would carry him, but he caught his reflection in the shiny metal and stood mesmerized for a second before his mind snapped back in realisation of his precarious position.

Just as Bluey thought he was surely done for, the ball dropped off the step into the gutter. He sighed anxiously and wiped the sweat from his little furry brow as he watched the ball roll slowly away from him.

He did not consider himself to be terribly religious, but after that near miss, he found himself thanking the Great Mouse of the Cheesy Moon. 

While he was piously crouched in prayer, he was only barely aware of the other sounds happening around him until it was too late and a huge basket came thunderously crashing down on top of him.

TRAPPED with no way out, he sat there, scared and alone. His friends Buttercup, Aloe and Perriwinkle came scampering up behind to try and help him get free. The basket proved too heavy for the three little mice to lift.

Just as all hope looked lost, a huge fleshy human hand loomed over the basket and lifted it free and placed it back on its stand. The big shiny ball was put back in the bucket and Bluey was freed to carry on his adventures another day.

Now I'm sure that you all can guess what board game I'm talking about here, if not comment below and I'll fill you in.

In answer to today's Plinky prompt: List three political issues you feel strongly about.

Train

This is an easy prompt today, as we are heading into both local and State elections this year.

Affordable public transport is a major issue for me at present. Our Queensland Labor Government had sat on its hands milking the coffers of the state owned railway to prop up losses in other areas for 15 years. Instead of putting some of the profits away for future capital works and major maintenance problems.

Now that they are opening up new areas for developers to build on and have decided that a railway line in this area would be of benefit, which it would, they had to fund it. Let's go to our savings, oooops, there are none. I know, let's just hit up the people who use public transport for more cash.

For the last 3 years, our fares have risen by 20%, 15% and 15% respectively, while inflation ran at 2% - 4% over this same period.

The real kicker is that they have done this in concert with their marketing campaign to try and increase patronage on these services. Obviously this has backfired for them. People are leaving in droves to get back in their cars and drive to work.

Secondly, education is a big one for me as well. We, as a family, are by no means rich. But we have HAD to send our girls to a private school. I say HAD to as we were left with no choice after successive public schools have failed our daughters. The last school in which they were enrolled, the teachers role was more that of a juvenile prison officer than a teacher. A good 40% of their time, in our experience, was spent on behaviour management.

The last straw for us came when a child had grabbed a pair of scissors and threatened to kill the teacher. The teacher, worried for herself, and rightly so, locked herself out of the classroom. This meant that this child was locked in the room with the other kids. Even though after the teacher left he put the scissors down, he was still worked up enough to get up on a desk and launch himself at another child in the classroom and fight with him.

The end result, the principal suspended this child for three days. Yes, you heard correctly 3 days.

The seems to be a culture in society at the moment that lets children get away with almost anything because they are kids and they don't understand what they are doing. As such principals will not expel students anymore.

I shouldn't be penalised for the lack of action taken by a few principals. The state needs to ensure the performance management process in the Department of Education is overhauled and hold senior positions accountable for the conduct and performance of their subordinates at all levels.

Lastly, judges and criminal sentencing. Court judges are a political appointment and as such we see most of the appointments going to academics. These people are out of touch with the common man. They mostly don't care about the crime/s in itself but how the law pertains to that crime in an academic fashion. Add on top of that sentencing laws that are far too lenient and as such do not dissuade would be criminals from committing crimes. If we have to build more jails, so be it.

I could go on but plinky only asked for three issues today and I believe I have taken up enough time and space already.

Have a good one

Pete