28 August 2010 : Written by A Camping Ninja
We've been playing hide and seek this afternoon and I thought I'd be able to use my ninja skills to my advantage. I'd been reading all about this 'uzura-gakure' famous ninja earth technique in my ninja book (How to be a Better Ninja) which is, according to chapter 2, 'the art of curling up into a ball and remaining motionless in order to appear like a stone'. I thought, well I'm too big get away with looking like a stone so aimed for a more convincing rock.
Morphed into my brilliant disguise, I could hear the count down from 100 begin. '99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94'...... My heart was racing (and my ankles aching from squatting into a pretty unorthodox rock position). '6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, coming ready or not' they called.
Oh no, not ready, not ready! I wasn't ready at all by this time, as I had one foot poking out the side of my rock persona from stretching while I was waiting. Quick, tuck it back in before the others see I told myself. OK. Now wait... and wait I thought, hoping that it wouldn't be too obvious that it was me.
But I wasn't waiting very long because I was the first one to be found. Disastrous. We play hide and seek amongst the pine trees and tents and I go and choose an exposed, bare patch of grass to hide on, as a rock! So I stood out like a sore thumb. Note to self not to try the uzura-gakure trick again!