The global pandemic that has swept across the world over the last year or so has led to many restrictions on our lives about what we can do, where we can go and the complete closing of the hospitality sector. This included cinemas, theatres and bars to name a few. All the shops were closed for an indefinite amount of time as we entered lockdown after lockdown. We were instructed to stay at home and only make journeys that were absolutely necessary. In addition, we were only allowed to have contact with our immediate family members.
Of course all of this was absolutely necessary to bring under control the transmission of covid-19 and to reduce the amount of people becoming ill with the virus and worse still, possibly losing their lives.
Throughout the long periods of lockdown we have all had to find new ways of entertaining ourselves to while away the many hours when we were stuck at home. Here are a couple of things that we did as a family to alleviate the boredom of being stuck at home.
1. Board Games
Even before the pandemic we loved to play board games as a family. They became so important during the lockdown to help with the many hours we had stuck at home. Getting out the monopoly to have a friendly family game was a must! Actually at times I’m sure it was not that friendly as everybody tried to win and buy all the properties. Haha!
2. Games online
Nowadays with the internet there are so many game sites and unfortunately many of them are very advertisement based. It can be very annoying waiting to play a game and then every so often an ad pops up and you have to wait to continue your game. So when I came across Play.Org I was instantly attracted to it for a number of reasons. Firstly because it’s ad free, but as I went on to explore the website I became even more impressed. The site is all about old school computer games such as Tetris and space invaders games that I loved as a teenager so I was instantly hooked. All the games are free to play and everyday they are constantly adding new ones.
My favourite category was the classic section simply because it had space invaders on it and I remember playing it as a child on a machine at our local cafe for hours on end. It truly is a classic game. It’s simple to play yet so easy to get addicted to as you consistently try to better your score. Also in the same section was another favourite of years ago – Jumper Frog. It’s the one where you need to get the frog across the busy highway without being splattered. Jumper Frog is of course inspired by the original ‘Frogger’ game.
During lockdown, especially during the evening, I would spend hours playing classic computer games of my youth. I felt at times I was back on my GameBoy playing all those early computer games.
This was a couple of things that kept me entertained and helped to alleviate the boredom of lockdown and the restrictions placed upon us.
How did you entertain yourself during lockdown? I would love to hear in the comments below.
