Category Archives: October 2020 – Lockdown

Learning New Skills During Lockdown

Posted on by under 2020, October 2020 - Lockdown

It took quite a while to perfect walking across the ceiling but I got it in the end. Just takes practice. As the boot prints attest, this has become a favourite way of taking exercise. And life takes on a fresh perspective.

Jan next door likes to fly. I often hear her talking to seagulls and launching herself off the window ledge. She sometimes drops a fish or part of someone’s pie and chip dinner on my doorstep. Always grateful for a food delivery, and I’m not going to complain about seagull poo on the window.

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Unlock, lock

Posted on by under 2020, October 2020 - Lockdown

She’d keep some of his jackets and shirts; they were comforting. They smelt of him, his sweat and pipe tobacco. He was almost a presence.   

            A week after the funeral she unlocked the wardrobe because his absence was niggling, and ran her hand over his nice check jacket, an expensive one from Marks and Spencer. She felt something in its inside pocket. It was a letter which simply said: ‘What a great day yesterday. Love you lots, S.’

            Who was S? When was the letter written? Don hadn’t been a romantic man, not one for giving flowers or chocolates. He was steady in his feeling for her, rather than ardent or demonstrative. He wouldn’t have kept a love letter: for this was a love letter wasn’t it?

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Lockdown Entertainment

Posted on by under 2020, October 2020 - Lockdown

“What shall we do now Mummy?” Claire, my six-year-old daughter asked.

“ Yes, what shall we do now?” Her brother Andrew asked.

“I know” I said, let’s Skype Granny, and ask her what she use to do when she was a little girl.”

“Boring” stated Andrew, “ it will all be girls stuff anyway.”

“Okay, well let Claire ask Granny and you ask Grandpa.”

Pleased with myself for remembering things from my childhood that did not include the use of computers, I eagerly awaited my parents’ response.

The answer was not what I had expected or hoped for.

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I Fucking Hate Lockdown

Posted on by under 2020, October 2020 - Lockdown

I’m trapped in a tiny flat with my two mortal enemies.

We were okay at first, seeing each other in small doses but now lockdown’s struck, all we can do is either sulk in our cramped bedrooms or spend every second in each other’s company. As it turns out we really don’t like each other very much. Oh, sure before we’d sometimes go to the pub or go to the cinema but by and large we were casual acquaintances, which is how it should be.

John’s a carefree kind of guy, enduring in some circumstances and pretty damn funny. Samson’s the adventurer, the walls of his bedroom are covered in photographs of him standing by the Grand Canyon and the Great Pyramids and even riding elephants.

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Small Fox

Posted on by under 2020, October 2020 - Lockdown

The boys were all there: Huw Parry with his bow and arrows, dressed in his Indian outfit, headdress and all, Gwyn Griffiths with his spud-gun, Owen Davies with some firecrackers and matches he nicked from his brothers’ hidden hoard. And finally me, Billy Thomas, with my sling and small stones.

Venturing into the wood, we were determined to catch the small fox that had been causing all of us to be kept at home for the last few weeks. Gwyn told us all about it after overhearing his parents talking about it.

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The big picture in Acedia Row

Posted on by under 2020, October 2020 - Lockdown

“Oh, dear God,” Abe clasped his hands to his face as he looked at his emails.

“What’s up?” Shoshana asked poking her head around the door.

“We have been invited,” said Abe rolling his eyes, “to another bloody Zoom cocktail party.”

“Fuck,” Shoshana said, “who is it this time?”

“My boss,” Abe responded, he ran his hand through his thinning hair, “which means we can’t cry off, can’t leave early, and definitely can’t turn up in dressing gowns.”

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A Fairy Godmother’s Job is Never Done

Posted on by under 2020, October 2020 - Lockdown

The Fairy Godmother arrived in a puff of smoke and surveyed the chaos.

“What the hell is going on here?”

Cinderella opened one eye, still lying in bed dressed in last night’s clothes. Empty wine bottles and a month’s worth of washing-up littered the floor, the dirty clothes pile reaching the ceiling.

“What time is it?” she muttered.

“Mid-day. Why are you in halls at Swansea University instead of at the palace?”

“Oh, I left the boring prince ages ago. Decided to come to Uni, but now we’re in lockdown and it’s no fun anymore. Can you believe those vile ugly sisters happened to be on the same corridor as me?”

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