May The Force Be With You

As you've probably noticed if you're a regular reader of The Singapore Sling, Number 1 and Number 2 - it's just so hard to remember the kids names - are absolutely mad about Star Wars. What started as curiosity sparked by their deviant mother who has always had a Trekkie buried deep inside her has blossomed into an all-consuming, totally absorbing obsession. I can't blame them really. After all, I can hum the entire theme music to Star Trek (Next Generation of course, I couldn't tolerate that ridiculous twit Captain Kirk, thought Deep Sapce Nine was so-so, and as for the Voyager series, puh-lease!).

My fascination with sci-fi dates back to when I was a little girl. I can remember finding a battered and dusty collection of Arthur C Clark and Orson Wells books in the library at intermediate school when I was nine years old and practically devouring them. The first time I read War of the Worlds I was around ten, and by then I'd already listened to the album - on real vinyl in those days! - a dozen times, breathless with excitement. Remember Day of the Triffids when it came on t.v. way, way back in the 1980s? I'd already read Wyndams book several times by then. The new worlds that sci fi opened up, the endless possibilities they seem to propose, were addictive. Many of those old authors thought we'd all being living on protein pills in bubble shaped houses by now, a perfect planet of ageless beings who had conquered hunger, poverty, and conflict. If only they'd known! One of my lasting impressions is the generally optmistic tone of so many of those books, with a few exceptions of course. At the end of the day humans always beat the aliens, justice always prevailed, and the future was guaranteed to be a better place.

So yes, I like my sci-fi. Somewhere in the past 15 years I seem to have gotten off track, or more correctly I got a life, and haven't read any particularly memorable sci-fi for ages.

So I'm quite pleased to plant the seed early in my kids, although I will draw the line at dressing in space suits for school or talking Klingon at dinner. Carl seems to show the most promise. He was playing with the neighbours' Darth Vader mask when I took this photo, and shortly after he announced to me in all seriousness: "I've gone over to the Dark Side".

As if we didn't know already.