Lockdown. That word which has honestly just been the bane of my life – of most of our lives – for the last few months. In my family, that essentially means sit at home, attempt (at least in my case, I’m not too sure about my brother) to do some school work, and get really annoyed with each other. Gone are the days when I’d arrive home from school, only to just go upstairs and complete work. Now we actually have
to talk to each other. A big problem.

As much as I want to talk to them, sometimes I just want to listen to the sound of pen and paper and that annoying dial sound on Microsoft Teams. But, alas, gone are the days when the majority of us had never heard of ‘Zoom’ or even so many new and complicated words relating to global health. That certainly is another problem. My dad, out of boredom, has decided to believe that he is the new Chris Whitty (a person I knew profoundly little about before this all happened). Although he has the
right amount of hair – or lack thereof – he seemingly has a much more interesting voice than our old friend on the TV, which certainly makes dinner conversations a slight bit more interesting. I do wish that someone could invent a time machine though, and we could just teleport ourselves a few weeks, months or even years into the future.

Whilst in lockdown, as a family some of us have decided to do some exercise (whereas my brother has just used it as an excuse to indulge in eating junk food all day long), and spend the days wishing that we could just sit in a restaurant. Or, in my case, that we could just go back into school and hug someone again! Even if we can’t have food in a restaurant or can’t play in an orchestra, at least we would be able to talk about something different, and to someone different. I won’t lie that it has
been really nice to relax for a while and enjoy making lots of different meals from scratch, everything from Pad Thai on a rainy Tuesday night to waffles on a bright Sunday morning. But, there is only so much ‘relaxing’ that one can take.

Apart from that, my family (or at least my brother, mum and I), have become rather creative, and have managed to embark on a task of coming up with the most inventive family quizzes, just so that we can claim we’re the best side of the family. A highlight of my evenings in April was the attempt to play a drinking game with the phrase “stay at home, save lives, protect the NHS”, and each family member being assigned a different podium and MP during the daily press conference – or as my
dad calls it – ‘Boris hour’. And, although none of the family drinks alcohol, we still found the whole ordeal especially amusing, which perhaps says something about the extent of our boredom.

And we’ve all learnt a few new interesting facts about each other, having never seen so much of everyone for such a long time. My brother – although annoying – is very kind, and willing to bring you food if you’re stuck in a particularly painstakingly boring Zoom call, or get you a drink. However, I’m not entirely sure how much of this is just an excuse to butterball our parents and get out of his online school. My mum is lovely, but I have uncovered the truth about her below everything, being a master procrastinator – which shocked me – although, she finds it useful as she is able to think about everything whilst doing some very impressive yoga moves. Since March, she’s been practicing her headstands, and I think that they get more amazing every day. My dad, whilst being slightly frustrating at times, has very much (and to my
complete surprise) enjoyed online shopping. He’s bought everything from mega packs of about 50 tubes of toothpaste on Amazon (“They were on special”), to a cherry pie from Primrose bakery (which was absolutely delicious), so there are some perks to his splurges.

Although this time has been pretty frustrating, and myself loving school and having nothing to do I’ve become particularly bored with the lack of things to do at some points, no, a lot of points, I have enjoyed this time with my family (however annoying they are), and getting to relax. (I hope) we’re not going to have this opportunity magain, so we might as well try and make some fun memories out of it.