My pinbll adiction

I have been a pinball addict since my early teens.I first walked into a games arcade when i was eleven and was immediately sucked in by all the colour and noise.It didnt take long to realise that video games sucked you of your money but with pinball if you were good enough you could last all day.Soon i was bypassing the video games and just playing pinball,i coulnt get enough.I would ride my bike to town every day for my fix.There was two main arcades in my town,one had Flash,Playboy,Black-knight and Black-hole.My favorite was by far black-knight.The other arcade had Meteor,Superman,firepower an catacomb.my fave was firepower.I kept playing into my 20s, diferent arcades and diferent games came and went.A few faves were t2,funhouse,dr who,and fishtales.In 1999(was 26) read about a pinball auction in Perth our capital city 400km away.Spoke to the guy and he reconed the games would go for $1,500-$2,000.Hooked up a trailer and did the 800km round trip,came back empty handed as all games went for well above this nomater how bad they were.Was playing at a local the next week,they had a wwf royal rumble and a tommy pinball wizard and i asked the guy if he was interested in selling a game.He said i could have the tommy for $800.I could not drive to the bank fast enough!Wow,my first pin.We played the hell out of that game over the next few weeks.That was it i was hooked,over the next five years i bought another 8 pins.My wife and i then seperated.I did a deal with her she could keep everything in the house(ie-furniture)and i could keep everything in the gamesroom(my pinballs and pool table),hey you can always buy more furniture or just play pinball and sleep on the floor!My colection got stored in my brothers shed except for fishtales,it came with me.Hows that,my twin brother had all those pins in his shed and never played a game!To get back on my feet i ended up having to sell a couple of pins.Last year was back on track financialy so decided to rekindle my pinball desire!!!Moved all of my pins into my house and needed more.Not sure if it is a midlife crisis or not but have spent $25k since last november(turned 40 in april).In nov got a 1968 in 1 video game for $1k and diner for$3k.In dec got dirty harry for $3k.In april got an air hockey table for $1k and a jukebox for $3k.In june got pin-bot $3k and episode 1 $4k and in july got judge dredd $3k.Also spent $4k on parts along the way but now what i have is an awesome collection lovingly restored to as close to new as possible.Atm find myself playing pinball every day and are keen to take it to the next level and compete in the next pinball championships.Oh well,happy training.