Hide and seek

Thought I'd put the hide & seek cue in the rack but after 5 years plus away from this childhood game of obfuscation & discovery, my 13 year old son was keen for a game this afternoon at his mum's place  I was up for it so with the help of a timing device, his smart phone (for the "coming ready or not" part), we were off.  He led off with standing behind the drapes, which I gleefully pulled back to reveal him.  I went for the boo from behind a bush for my first turn & then serious attempts at not being seen commenced.  He hid in the pantry & after 20 minutes I still hadn't found him - his wait was so long he was forced to gorge himself on biscuits while he waited.  As the game unfolded I quickly realised there were many less places to hide my 110 kg, 190 cm, 56 year old self than for my son, less than half my size, to secrete himself.  I surveyed a number of places and rejected them for their likely accompaniments of bees and/or spiders, or the failure of my inner tree climbing Tarzan to come to the fore.  The game escalated slightly with his mate from over the road joining in.  I clearly remember, back in the old days, that the sought person would be sought by the others in the game and there not being one seeker seeking two others, but that's the way they wanted to play it.  Fortunately for me, this played into my hand because when they hid they were bigger & the earlier small target strategy was further compromised by the two boys being inclined to laugh as I, unbeknownst, passed close to them.  My son's mother drew the line at him wanting to hide in the boot of her car, but hidden elsewhere he artfully deployed the remote control boot release button to mock me while I scratched my head looking for my quarry, trying to work out where the boot release was being operated from.  Almost two hours later the game was over but I issued a challenge to my son saying I'd be a lot better at hiding during our next game of hide and seek played at my place, where my unrivalled local knowledge of nooks and crannies would stand me in good stead.