So these last few days I’ve noticed how I’m cringing. Literally cringing when I turn on the news or catch the latest update on the radio. I mean, it’s just awful. I can’t find any other words to describe this ongoing horror that is the world around me.
And that makes me scared.
It makes me not want to leave the house.
Which is precisely what they want.
And this is fine, I know I need to keep safe, keep away from others, wash my hands yada yada.
But this project fear?
I mean, WTF?
So today I decided to actively avoid the news. I woke up early (like 4am early) and usually I like watching the BBC news and catching up on the business programmes, but I know nothing good will greet me. Right now, I know the most I can hope for is the poor lorry drivers stuck in Kent manage to start moving soon.
As the adage goes ‘if it bleeds, it leads,’ and the news are really squeezing the juice on this right now.
So today I decided to take a different tack. Rather than looking at my phone/ TV/ social media for any updates about the latest onslaught, I decided to make a Christmas Quiz for me and my friends to play. I did it in PowerPoint because I intend to share my screen.
Dear Reader, it took me hours.
And I loved every moment of it!
As it’s Christmas I’ve gone for the traditional Christmas themes and so we have seven rounds of festive fun. There’s Christmas trivia questions (did you know in Japan eating KFC for dinner is the thing?!), there’s a Santa spot-the-difference round, an anagrams round, a music round, movie round, a Christmas sweets round and a riddle round. It is, if I may say, bloody fantastic.
And I felt so happy having created this Christmas quiz I decided to contact more friends because I thought maybe they would also like to use my quiz on their friends and family, because let’s face it – there aren’t many of us who’ll be able to meet up this Christmas. And there’s only so much we can talk about this bloody virus and this bloody crappy stuff and everything else.
Christmas Cheer is what I decided I wanted to spread. Not the virus. Not the news. Not anything at all that isn’t fun.
Life, I have decided, really needs to get more fun.
And so, working this theme more, I’ve also decided to teach myself a Christmas song on the plastic beast (aka my keyboard). I am, obviously, a complete beginner and thus while Silent Night may be easy to you, for me, with no experience, it is, a challenge.
I was almost there, until I had a brainwave.
You see, I decided I should have another Christmas challenge.
Why do Silent Night with a piano sound when my plastic beast offers up so many more opportunities?
Dear Reader, I am currently composing Silent Night with an Eastern flair. I’ve found a Bhangra beat and I’ve got the tone set to a Sitar because I wanted to keep it authentic.
I have yet to quite master the rhythm of Silent Night to said Bhangra beat, but if anything, it’s enough of a challenge to keep me away from the news.
Wishing you all lots of Christmas cheer.