Tuesday 19 January 2021

Keeping amused during lockdown number 3

Lockdown number 1 was surreal. No one could quite believe what was happening but it was a glorious sunny spring and we all thought this virus nonsense would be over by summer. 

Lockdown number 2 saw me full of excitement welcoming Daughter back to Leicester. After living over 90 miles away for the best part of 20 years it was and is a joy to have her just round the corner. Once she had done the necessary isolating we bubbled and were able to help her settle in to her new home. 

Lockdown number 3 has arrived. Daughter is busy working, there's no sign of our vaccination call (not that a jab would release us instantly back to our old ways) and the weather is wet, cold and grey. So I'm trying to keep myself amused with:

The predictive text monkey: Most of our conversations are now conducted over various messaging services and so the predictive text monkey is having a field day. My friend messaged this morning to say she was off to her dramatist. There ensued a lengthy thespian exchange... Oh for a muse of fire... let slip the dogs of war... Of course it should have read dentist not dramatist but I rather fancy having an appointment with a dramatist right now. I was so meant to tread the boards, dahling!

Number awareness: I think I may be mildly dyscalculia. I've never been good with numbers but my immediate problem - and one which my Facebook friends will already be aware of - is working out sizes of food packages when doing online orders. Last week I ordered 2 kg of oats. I would never have believed that a 2 kg bag of oats could be so big or so heavy. I've made flapjacks, muesli and plenty of bowls of porridge but the bag is still so heavy that it requires both hands to lift it safely... and I'm still trying to forget the recent purchase of a large mixing bowl...

Puppy love: Yes, I've fallen in love with two dogs - two adorable internet dogs. They are Andrew Cotter's Olive and Mabel. If you haven't seen his videos on YouTube then I strongly recommend you seek them out. He is a sports presenter who, during the first lockdown, posted a video of his commentary on his two labradors eating their breakfast, building tension as to which dog would wipe his bowl clean first. It was an instant YouTube hit and he has posted many more hilarious videos since. This is a link to that first video called The Dog's Breakfast Grand Final.

Anything that makes us laugh is worth sharing right now so what is keeping you amused during Lockdown number 3?

* Update: Within an hour of publishing this blog post we were offered Covid-19 vaccination appointments for this week. Gulp!

*Update 2: I've just spotted that this is my 600th blog post - surely an excuse for some kind of cake related celebration!