ICBM

Apparently, what you do is insert the pencil-shaped things into the holes (silos?) provided, push down on the springs and then let go. The pencil things are released to shoot across the room. This is great fun. Archie taught me how to do this. I improved on it somewhat by matching the colours on the projectiles to the colours of the holes. Archie was obviously of the opinion that the colours didn't affect the ballistic properties of the projectiles, so he didn't see why he had to bother with colour-matching.
This heresy was demonstrated by ejecting the red missile out of the yellow silo, and although the blue one was correctly located, it was purely a matter of chance, unless of course he was teasing his grandpa - which is entirely possible.

Other news - I had to unblock the downstairs bog this evening. Not a pleasant experience, but successfully accomplished.