Filling up my Days - lockdown leisure activities

Considering I am not currently working, my days seem to just disappear. No sooner have I had my breakfast than it seems it's time for bed. The hours just race by but I'm not quite sure what I have actually been doing...Obviously, alot of eating has taken place. Infact, probably way too much - breakfast, lunch and tea with numerous snacks in-between. Checking my emails, contacting friends, the odd bit of hoovering (steady!), out  in the garden. The days just fly by. Of course, I am sharing the house with the teenager who has her daily routine all organised. Breakfast with her mother, followed by various Netflix programmes and her morning workout. She emerges for lunch then returns to her room. 

So it came as a surprise when she said to me that she wanted to have a go at painting by numbers. Of course, my memories of painting by numbers are pictures of horses or cute animals block painted with blotchy garish paint onto board. But no, she was looking more upmarket, with an ornate, more complex picture on canvas. So onto the internet we went to find out what there is available only to realise there would be a two month wait for it to be delivered. Hey ho but whilst ordering the painting, we discussed what other activities we could do and the conversation came round to puzzles. We are not big puzzle people, but several years ago my parents-in-law bought us one for Christmas. We really got into this and spent many dark evenings tackling the 1000 pieces and this has now become a family tradition every Christmas.

The purchased puzzle arrived swiftly and both N and I spent a week working on it. Great mother and daughter time, so  once completed we decided to have a go at another one and re-use one of our own puzzles - N decided on our puzzle based on the London Underground map. One evening we started to go through the puzzle box and piece together the tube map. It soon became evident that this was a bit more difficult than the last one as there were alot of white pieces on the map. Definately more complicated. Cue a loss of interest by the teenager and a return to Netflix. Meanwhile, Mum (aka me) wasn't going to let a thousand pieces of tiny cardboard get the better of me, so the challenge was set. I would go it alone.

 It's been five days now and I have been consumed with this task. Before breakfast, waiting for zoom calls, during the coronavirus broadcast on the television...it doesn't matter when but if I have a spare few minutes I sit down to work out where the various pieces fit. Of course, five minutes easily run into fifteen and the time slips away as I work out whether its the Circle line, Victoria line or Docklands light railway.  I do have most of the map completed but now starts the tough job of fitting the white pieces. I can see this becoming obsessional.

Interestingly, I have noticed that many people are undertaking creative tasks to pass the time during lockdown. Many of my friends are painting or knitting to while the hours away. Photographs of ornate gardens, clothing for small grandchildren, baking immense cakes illustrate just how we can fill our time. I have started to make the inevitable list of other activities I would like to start, maybe learn Spanish, have a go at salsa dancing, get my veg patch up and running, sort out all my photographs. But at this moment in time, my priority is to complete the tube map and finish the puzzle. Other creative activities can wait!