Along with the children I knew at one primary school, we all specialised in various forms of torture
One of the most common forms was vividly describing pain and letting the victim stew in their own tense juices.
At the time it was popular to give exotic names to the different styles of torture.
Jungle Torture, for example, involved inflicting a sequences of techniques that would ascend in their intensity.
This would begin with a series of tickling finger-flicks across the chest while describing ants, then progress to pummelling as elephants negotiate the terrain of the victims torso.
Some of the most severe actions came from Asian countries, such as the wrist burn attributed to the Japanese.
It would involve the torturer grabbing a wrist with both hands, then twisting in opposing directions.
My skin was supple back then and I don't recall it caused more than a brief rash, but now I wonder if my dry wrist might catch and rip open on that bony bit that protrudes.
However, there's something about anticipating the touch of my torturer that also feels different now.
I hold hands so rarely with anyone now my kids have grown up -- and not because I scared them away with wrist burns!
My body feels a bit tingly just thinking about someone grabbing me.
Another approach might be Chinese Water Torture, which uses dripping water to slowly frustrate then irritate then madden a victim.
Thinking about this while I lay in the bath recently hearing the shower head drip, I realised it seems underwhelming.
I expect the sound of dripping would barely register among the hum of daily life or even my tinnitus.
The tortures I knew as a child all seem out of date.
Now there's something appealing about the idea of being touched or having enough silence to find dripping water sound loud.
And, of course, the real tortures of waterboarding, electro-shocks or locking-up refugees on remote islands has been well-documented.
