As is my usual custom every year, I started on a health kick.

We have a wedding to attend in March so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to lose a few kilos.

I’m not going overboard.

Simply mindful eating, more whole foods and proteins, less sugar and refined foods, lots of rest and sleep. Throw in some strength training at home and daily walks and I think I should be right.

Gone are the days of being able to shock the body into quick weight loss. I figure that this more comfortable pace will mean that I enjoy the process, less hard on myself and frankly, to be honest, the weight loss is more about keeping healthy – and mobile – as I age.

Yesterday I encouraged my mum to take a walk with me around their two local parks (unfortunately no luck with my father who chose instead to head into his studio to paint). We walked for an hour and stopped near a group of rocks where she was jumping across them. I was freaking out and asking her to stop in case she slipped (we’ve been having a lot of rain and the rocks were slippery) but also the fear of any snakes around.

She sat down on one rock and asked me to do the same as she had something to show me.

Begrudgingly I sat down while looking around me.

“This is my rock where I sit down and watch people here in the park,” she said. “And this is the pebble game I play by myself”.

She showed me a grid scratched out on the rock with a few pebbles. Three larger and three smaller ones.

“We used to play this game as kids. You need to get your pebbles in one line by moving them around the lines. Stop your opponent from making their pebbles into a row”.

So we played this game for a while and she beat me each time.

As we were playing, I wondered how old this game might be. Here we were playing a game that was simple, used things we found around us, and passed some time with a bit of laughter.

The rock and pebbles are still there at the park and I wonder if people who walk by and see the layout might play. Or even wonder who set it up.

Maybe they know it’s my mother because she’s seen sitting on the rock?

When I came home, I looked the game up. It’s a version of an Ancient Greek game called Petteia. Over the years, these games have morphed and are still played in some version or another.

Now, every time I walk past that rock, it’ll remind me about the pebble game with mum that afternoon.