Who knows Uno?
Perhaps one of the most popular, addictive and vindictive card game around. There’s nothing like receiving the dreaded Draw Four. And there’s nothing like having one in your cards to hand back.
Uno was a childhood experience I never really picked up on. I can remember my mates playing it at school and at the time, I was always wondering what the fuss was about… and what the ‘R’, ‘S’ and ‘D’ cards were all about. Maybe it was the fact that nobody ever really told me how it had to be played, or the fact that I was never really invited to play - largely because I probably showed no interest or was off playing Soccer or Handball.
It was more recently, my MINI years in fact, that truly introduced me to the world of Uno. The wonders it contained and the laughter it conjured. It was a club run down to Eden, near the Victorian border that saw the re-introduction of the card game to my life. We had settled for the night at our hotel when someone, an enthusiastic female, owner of an electric blue/white roof Cooper S, whipped out the Uno deck.
Since then, my life has never been the same.
I remember thinking at the time.. ‘oh.. I remember that game’. And once again, I have to admit a lack of enthusiasm when the familiar red pack was juggled around the room and the cards were shuffled. Though perhaps because this was a group of people I really enjoyed hanging around, or maybe it was just because of the overwhelming anticipation the card game had created amongst the group, I got quite excited about it and proceeded upon a crash course in Uno-dom.
We’ve been playing it ever since.
I had never realised the extent of Uno’s effect on the population. It’s everywhere. Everyone has a deck tucked away in the corner of a wardrobe somewhere, sitting on a top shelf covered in a layer of dust, its still at the shops too; Even staying modern with special editions like the Fantastic Four.
You can play it online. Microsoft even supports it as a plug-in to its (often hated) Messenger. And you can buy it to play on your Xbox and probably just about any other system around…
My only regret is I missed so many years of playing Uno in between.. and now have to make up for lost time.
