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Looking for things to do
Looking for things to do
So here we all are during the Coronavirus outbreak, trying to find things to do to occupy our time. Facebook is full of photos of culinary creations but how much longer will they be able to buy the ingredients? I don’t want this to be a blog about Coronavirus because there is enough discussion about that already.
So what have I been doing to occupy my time? Well, of course, unlike others I am used to working from home: I still have books to edit and prepare for publication, I still write, I still post on social media to publicise my work. But there are many things I, like other people, cannot do. I can’t go to exercise classes. I can’t go for a drive in the car or a look around the shops. It’s early days yet and the weather has been good to us. We are lucky enough to live in an apartment in the grounds of a health farm. We can walk around the now-deserted golf course, down to the lakes at the bottom. And there’s the equally deserted cricket ground if we get bored of that. We have our own private walled garden we can sit in. But what about when it’s raining and miserable? There’s TV of course but you can’t watch it all day (at least I can’t!!) The same with reading, which, however much one loves it, can become tedious after a while. I like to be active. Luckily, through the wonders of modern technology, I can still do my Pilates and dance classes online. And I ordered an embroidery kit from Amazon. I used to do embroidery years ago but I gave it up. Now is the ideal opportunity to take it up again. I feel sorry for people who rely on more social pursuits for their hobbies: the bridge players, bowls enthusiasts, golfers. If they don’t have an indoor hobby time must hang heavily on their hands. But none of us had any warning of this. No one said to us “Make sure you have something to do for when you will be quarantined in your home for three months.”
Of course I miss seeing other people. How lucky that we live in an age where we can video call our family members.
I count myself fortunate that I am not one of those people on furlough, worried about their jobs, their rents or mortgage, their family’s future.
Pointless to say, we would never have believed we would be in this situation. We are in it. We have to make the best of it.
Bethany Askew is the author of eight novels: The Time Before, The World Within, Out of Step, Counting the Days, Poppy's Seed, Three Extraordinary Years The Two Saras and I Know You, Don't I? She has also written a short story, The Night of the Storm, and she writes poetry. Two more women’s fiction books have been accepted for publication in 2020 and 2021 respectively and she is currently working on a new novel. In her spare time she enjoys reading, music, theatre, walking, Pilates, dancing and voluntary work. Bethany is married and lives in Somerset.