Picking up the pieces of a new year lockdown

I like to go away somewhere warm at this time in winter, but of course that was not possible or at the very least celebrate with friends and family. That wasn’t allowed either.

So it’s down to watching television, reading a good book or doing a jigsaw. I did a jigsaw between Christmas and new year and now I’m on my second 1000 piece jigsaw. It’s from the album cover of The Beatles, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. I thought it would be a piece of cake, but it’s really difficult. Once you have the drum and the Beatles in their brightly coloured suits, then the rest is nearly all red flowers or fuzzy people in the background merging into one. I started it before New Year’s Eve and am still plodding my way through it. Jigsaws are a great distraction from worrying about life as we know it at the moment. I have always loved a jigsaw I even play it on my ipad.

When I was going through my chemotherapy a few years ago and I was taking the cold cap, which, let’s face it, is not pleasant, I always had a jigsaw to keep my mind off my freezing cold head. There was no doubt about it that the distraction was really helpful and the satisfaction of getting a piece to fit and the click it makes when the piece goes into the right place is amazing. Small things amuse, I know it sounds silly, but it does work.

Good television too will help us through this time. Binge watch The Crown or Queen’s Gambit on Netflix. I have to say that my guilty pleasure is Married at First Sight, Australia, it’s awful but addictive.

Good books there is too many to mention, but I got 2 copies of The Murder Club for Christmas and had already read it.

At least we have the vaccine to look forward to, it can’t come soon enough as far as I am concerned.

Picking up the pieces of a new year lockdown - Karen Koren