Any Monopoly junkies out there? My father was SO happy for me when I found a girlfriend that had a passion for Monopoly! 
It meant he wasn't cajuled into spending the next four hours trying to beat me. It'd been in our family for years, and I've been married thirty-five years. We have our own set of rules and have a letter rack in the shape of a pig, which we put the money into whenever anybody if fined or hit for street repairs etc. That stays there building until somebody lands on Free Parking, so everybody actually likes being in jail because they then have three cracks of the whip at throwing a 10 before having to get out. I've won with over £6000.00 once. It's a terrible, terrible time waster though! We normally break for tea halfway through. Ironically the original one was set in the streeets of New York.
I'll play with you: oops 
I'm always the car, the wife is always the cannon and my daughter is always the ship. It's very sociable at first - we buy properties which other people need and sell it to them at a profit, but once we're up and running, all daggars are drawn! Three people round a Monopoly are best, four or more, you never get anywhere. Not so much with my wife, but my daughter and I are exceedingly competative, whether it is Monopoly, cards or Scrabble. We have a Scrabble dictionary listing all the eligable words, and a special section of three letter words if you're struggling. When I see my daughter leafing through the three letter words I always tease her saying: "There's no need to check it out, cat is definitely spelt C A T "
Do try to find it. The very early versions had houses and hotels made of wood with the box bearing the picture of a millionaire character with a fist full of money. My very earliest memory of one whas where you didn't have any dogs or hats etc, but you had a thin piece of cardboard with a picture on it, which you slotted in to a wooden holder slightly bigger than a house. Like Buccaneer, if complete it would now be worth a king's ransom. We tend to keep the money from other Monopoly gaes and instead of there being somewhere around £16,000.00 in the bank, in this case I counted it out - it contained an incredible £147,000.00. Oo, if only it was for real
On the very occasional Euromillions ticket I'll buy, I'll always say what Bob Monkhouse used to come out with, and that is the sinner's prayer:
"Lord, I know I'm a sinner,
but please, make me a winner!"
I always thought Monopoly was complicated!!,, all this buying Park Lane business and the little Charms like Dogs and suchlike that you played with. I much prefer Trivial Pursuit!!. 
