Dorje and I have been playing quite a bit of 30 Seconds recently.

It’s a great game. There are five words on a card, and a questioner has 30 seconds to guide the listener to as many correct words as possible without saying any of the actual words in the answer. So, “your mom’s dad” might be a clue for “grandfather”, but not “your father’s father”.

Since he’s nine, we play the Junior edition. I’ve played quite a few Junior versions of games, and most quickly become as boring for Dorje as they are for me, highly simplified versions without any of the enjoyable gameplay of the original.

Junior 30 Seconds is an exception. The senior edition contains all sort of politicians, celebrities and sports stars even the most TV-addled junior would barely have heard of, so a junior edition works well. Most of the words are generic, some very easy, for example “ears”, others a little trickier, such as “venom”.

It’s fun to see which words Dorje understands, and the creative explanations he comes up with. “Not frenzy but?” was one clue, which had me scrambling for adjectives for “calm”, missing the correct answer, “peace”.

It’s equally fun to see which words he doesn’t understand. It’s normally just the two of us playing, so we play co-operatively, and it’s rare that we get all five.

So where is his education lacking?

Geographical place names understandably almost always stump him. Botswana, Paris, Asia are all as mysterious as Phuntsholing and the Chambo River to most adults.

Similarly difficult are, “My Little Pony” and the like, being both a bit dated and him having little exposure to them, and he was equally at a loss to explain “the bibble” (the Bible)

Dorje is however crippled in one area compare to me, my childhood knowledge in the area far surpassing his. “Melrose”, “NikNaks”, “Oros” and “Milo” would all have been easy for nine-year-old Ian, but to Dorje they’re as arcane as the simple “quinoa”, “spirulina” and “amaranth” were to me.

Long may he remain blissfully ignorant of such horrors lurking in the world.