So, we are stuck at home with nothing to do. No! I have so much to do now I don’t know how I am going to fit it all in. We are allowed out once a day to go shopping and exercise.
Before this we would normally shop on a Saturday for the week, now we go shopping daily only buying enough for that day. Since there is no panic buying and the shelves are full in Bahrain, this is do-able.
Then I go out on my bike for an hour’s ride. I never did it before but sort of feel obliged now. After all that excitement there is the house and the boat, always something needing fixing, and since the DIY stores are still open, another bit of essential shopping, there is again no excuse.
We are very sociable people and we like to mix with our friends on a regular basis. So the evenings started to be a bit of a drag as we could not go out to meet them.
Then just over a week ago when we were not really doing anything, an unfamiliar noise echoed in our house. I tracked it down to my laptop and discovered that it was Skype, a programme I had only installed for conference calls back in the days of employment.
I tentatively hit the answer button and there in front of me were two of my best friends who live in Cyprus. We had a pleasant video call for about an hour and they told me that we could organise to play Trivial Pursuits over Skype.
Well that was just under two weeks ago and since then we have played about five games with friends in Cyprus, Australia, the UK, the USA, the UAE and Thailand.
We have taken part in a virtual AGM for one of our Facebook groups and that involved people from all over the world, some having dinner and some having breakfast. We have Skyped most of our family, and I have taken part in an online discussion about a book that I have read as part of a virtual book club.
Some of these conversations have used Zoom as it seems to be flavour of the month, but I prefer Skype. Zoom only allows you a maximum of 40 minutes at a time for free, whereas our longest call to date on Skype had been over six hours. I have even attended two concerts live-streamed on Facebook.
Now we are moving on to something more ambitious. We are going to try and do karaoke online with as many participants as possible. Up to 50 on Skype.
Then we are also organising dinner parties. We agree who the host is and they send out the menu. Everyone participating cooks the menu, and so we all sit down at our own dining tables with the laptop and eat each course at the same time.
Conversation will be just the same as if we were all in the same rooms with the advantage that no one needs to get a taxi home at the end of the evening. However we probably have to do our own dishes.
When the quarantine and isolation ends, we are no doubt all going to get together to have a huge party with lots of hugging and kissing, but after that……. maybe the online party will not disappear, maybe we will keep on with them, especially with the mates and family who live in other countries. Maybe this is a sign of things to come…
Jackie@JBeedie.com