WriTING my Way Through Lockdown.
‘Cause the Writing’s on the Wall.
pop quiz: the lyric above is from what song and artist? clue: my brother by other parents, spies a ghost.
WriTING Task Eleven: Describe the most unexpected and enjoyable moment you have had since COVID lockdown. Make it colourful.
As those of you who have read more than one of my blog articles will suspect: I quite like writing. So, with lockdown rules putting paid any plans for a ski trip this side of ‘sometime never’, I signed up to an online writing course.
It may surprise you to know that I haven’t written anything before where I’ve made it up. All my writing comes from facts and research and my opinions of it; to write something completely made-up, that’s a first for me.
The course was online and twice a week, for eight weeks, we were set a writing task. Sometimes long, sometimes short, sometimes odd. None were compulsory, but being someone who tends towards ‘completer/finisher’, I generally went for quantity over quality and tackled them all.
Here’s one…
Unexpected and enjoyable are not things that automatically come to mind about being in lockdown. I dug deep for this one, but still think it would have been more enjoyable outside of lockdown.
My WriTING Effort:
Reveal Results.
Every month I reckon my Mum is the first person to access the NS&I app to see whether she’s won. I’ll wake up to a text message; “Nothing for us this month.” “£25 for Dad this month.”
So it was, at 07:22 on Monday 4th May 2020. ‘Today’ had been on the radio for about 20 minutes and my phone beeps. Text message from Mum; “£25 for me, 2 x £25 for your Dad”. As usual, I wasn’t aware that today was draw day, and was in no particular hurry to take a look, I was having a mug of tea.
Knowing that Mum is excited by winning and that she won’t rest until she knows whether or not I’ve won, I open the app. “Reveal Results” is the message on the screen with a warning to check that no one is looking over your shoulder before you do so! Next screen; a red balloon floats up the screen accompanied by streamers and cheering; “Congratulations. You have won one prize this month.”
Heart races a little faster, but £25 isn’t going to change my life; can’t spend it on anything at the moment anyway.
Next screen; “£5,000”.
Woo-Hoo!
Still not going to change my life, but definitely better than a poke in the eye. Phone Mum: “When will you get it?” She’s excited, she’s happy for me, she wants to know what I’m going to spend it on.
I hadn’t a clue. I was still drinking my Monday morning cup of tea. We’d not been out for nearly two months. My world was beginning to feel quite small, so spending a £5k windfall on a trip seems distant, if not beyond the horizon.
pop trivia: ‘Sam Smith’ co-wrote and performed ‘Cause the Writings on the Wall‘ as the Bond theme for 2015’s outing, ‘Spectre’. The single made it to number 1. Who knows when we are going to see Bond’s next outing.
The writing course was called Zoom with a Brew, if you’d like to read more of my efforts, they can be found here. East Midlands Arts funded the course and created a website containing the submitted work of all the writers.
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