To all those united in isolation
I fondly remember my time at university, I was part of a quiz team called The Bandits, or Los Banditos for short. When I left Uni’ I kind of missed the quiz nights. Never did I expect to be thrown back in to the world of quizzing as suddenly as I have in the last few weeks! I think I have taken part in five quizzes with friends and family in three days. Family quizzes in particular are something of a surprise since I never knew any of my aunts or uncles were particularly into quizzing. However it all makes sense when you realise the idyllic nature of a Zoom quiz: quality time with the whole family but with most of them on mute.
As well as testing and being tested on news headlines or general knowledge I have been entertaining myself this week by pulling out my old Duplo box. Duplo is basically Lego for people who, depending on your perspective, can’t handle the fiddly bits or don’t need the fiddly bits because we have skill. So far I have built a rainbow [Duplo only has 4 colours] and a device known as the beer trebuchet which pours Becks’ if you pull down on a shoe-lace. My next challenge is a proper trebuchet, designed to throw a digestive across the garden to my sister, there was a reason for this goal being set but I am struggling to remember it right now, something to do with broken biscuits I think, but I can’t be sure.
In other entertainment news, I have launched my live television career, live streaming three hours of a blind man on a static bike, raising the question “does he know he isn’t moving?” I’ll admit, as live spectator sport goes it ranks somewhere between paint drying on an overcast morning and the Monaco grand prix. However, unlike either of those events, my streaming did have some highlights, visible every time my mother’s forehead dropped in to read the messages or adjust the camera angle. I also enjoyed reading the rest of the messages after the stream had finished, my favourites were a number of messages as a totally blind friend was trying to figure out what I was doing, fitting that a blind man should fundraise for a blind charity with an inaccessible activity.
I hope you are all finding interesting ways to entertain yourselves through this lockdown, whether through setting targets and goals or simply having fun sending anonymous parcels of cake to friends with cryptic messages.
Love and best wishes
Richard
Richard Wheatley BSc BPBH
Ps
Last night, after three days of tinkering and redesigning the throwing arm to stand the stresses of firing, I got my longest test shot so far with the trebuchet! The throwing arm survived completely intact right up to the moment it hit the floor as the support structure toppled and shattered. I don’t know about the broken biscuits, but my catapult has been reduced to crumbs.