Bowling

Alla invited me and some local interns and friends to go bowling. According to Alla they used to go regularly, but lately people have split up into groups and don't do as many things together. The bowling alley, called 300 San Jose, is around six to seven minute drive from Alla's place. I picked up Stefan on the way and we got to the place around 9.10 p.m. The alley has been recently refurbished. On the wall there was a series of large projector screens that were at least three meters in diagonal. If you follow the wall of these three or four screens you hit the bar, which is perpendicular to that wall. This just means that you don't have to go there just to bowl, you can watch sports on huge screens and have a drink.

As an aside, in California it's the law that all bars and night clubs must shut at 1.30 a.m. At times this is the time people GET to the clubs in NZ.

Anyway, the bowling itself is pretty similar to everywhere else. First, if you didn't have spare shoes you hired special bowling shoes. Then, you get a ball that has a suitable weight and the correctly sized finger holes. This step was new to me as the only other time I've played the balls were already there and I didn't get to chose my own ball.

We split up into four teams and played two games in those teams, after which we all headed home as it was close to 11. I did better than the first time I ever played, but nothing outstanding. 112 in the first game and 109 in the second, but I did win both times :) By the end my thumb was getting a little red and sore from the friction from the hole. Others were experiencing that too. I guess you just have to get use to it.

One other thing, the touch screens for every team was cool. You could control some things from there, such as input names and correct the scores. The one in Wellington, I think we had to ask the operators to input that data. Having said that, the team right beside us had their lane "break down" and the assistant had to fix it. Because that happened in Wellington also (AND we had to reset the whole game and start again), I was still impressed with the quality of the whole thing.

Pricing. Shoe hire is $5/person, games are $3.50 after 9 p.m. which is not bad I thought.