Here is one of the greatest games of All - (the Octopus) - feel free to download and realise that chess is easy in comparison. You don't actually need anything but some sand, a stick to draw an octopus and four light stones and four dark stones. It has been played since the dawn of time - from the Golden Age of this round to the current kali yuga Iron Age of concrete jungles, iron horses, the iron cross, iron curtains, steel towers, Wall Streets, iron ladies and cold, hard cash. The game is free and a delight to fellow travellers.

You will notice that i have not included the technological advances of Silicon Valley as a 'negative'. Without the tribes of Geeks, Nerds and Tweakers the chance for the average 'Joe Blow' to have his say worldwide on Blogs, Plogs and websites wouldn't be possible. This attempt at a world-wide connected painting is dedicated to you. Your devotion and passion to that which you love deserves praise beyond earthly description.

The instructions are from Our Space - Te Papa - the museum of the trees of wisdom of Aotearoa, and the octopus is Muturangi (and those in the know will know who that is!). Do a chess board on the back, or more appropriately back-gammon.

I was not much into games - except for immoral ones - when I travelled as a Lonely Planet writer, so my travel toolkit then consisted of a Swiss Army knife, a Psion 5 hand-held computer, a Sony Walkman, a Lonely Planet guide (if there was one at the time) and rival guidebooks, a string of remembered Monty Python gags (including the Phi-losopher's Song) and a remarkable capacity to bullshit.

So, on my next painting gig I am taking Mu Torere in my backpack. As for my paintings and writings, I leave them in my trusty SmugMug vault, accessible to me anywhere in the world the moment i type in 'hogproductions' on any broadband computer network connected to a server.

Enjoy the Octopus - once it was played with live warriors, battling to prevent the opposing warriors moving - the patu swang and blood flowed freely - see my novel 'The Dream of the Night Fishermen' in its own gallery when it is loaded for an epic tale of Aotearoa.

inanga