Those pandemic years we spent away from everyone else, trying to entertain ourselves meant in some homes many of the ‘old’ board games came out of the cupboards where they’d languished, forgotten since the children grew up
Jigsaws reappeared, rekindled interest meant they were so highly sought after, that during those early times when we were able to shop large stores sold all their stock.
I know some friends and their families pooled theirs and had borrowing rights to them all. A bit like shopping the unworn for a few years clothes in your wardrobe those puzzles that hadn’t worked on for a few years became like new, never seen before ones
Find the Word / WordSearch and Crossword puzzle books also sold out quickly, Anything that occupied your mind went off the shelves quickly….so did TP which we laugh about now but wasn’t a laughing matter at the time
I hadn’t had any of those puzzle books for quite a while plus I’d given all our jigsaws away – so Spotlight made money from me on the amount of yarn I bought. Early days when they’d give warnings of lockdowns I’d go scurrying off down the road (along with what seemed like every other crafter) coming home with far more than I intended and was very glad of it when l/downs became longer.
The library had various systems going for borrowing pick ups/returns and for other mental stimulation the big WWW came to the rescue.
Notice no cooking or exercise/yoga classes for me – someone (another blogger) suggested something much more pleasurable…..online jigsaws plus online crosswords….
I think I downloaded every available app for them plus any other type of puzzle or game going and for weeks on end these were a godsend my standbys for entertainment or keeping the grey cells working.
I still enjoy my daily workout – jigsaws now on this one app only
and crosswords on these sites
HERE- https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/puzzles
HERE – https://lovattspuzzles.com/online-puzzles-competitions/
HERE – https://www.seniorsonline.vic.gov.au/services-information/crossword
HERE – https://www.mindfood.com/thinkandwin/puzzles/crossword/
Yes, they all have similar layouts but not the same daily puzzle
And yes, they’re all fairly easy – I want fun not hard work😊
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Are there any Covid ‘get by’ routines you’ve carried on with
or has everything for you returned to the way it was before ?
Monday Musings – a time to ponder and think
Still Waters 
I still change clothes as soon as I get home, wash my hands and my glasses before I do anything else.
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There’s not many would go as far as that now – I’ve always changed clothes even before COVID but that’s because I tend to wear older ones round the house and can then potter without getting ‘good ones’ dirty.
Why wash your glasses- is it because you touch them a lot.
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I always changed clothes when I came home from school, both as student and teacher because my mother had taught me that I was bringing home all the school dirt and germs. As for my glasses, that’s also where a day’s worth of dirt would accumulate.
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Jigsaws? You can keep them. I never warmed to them, though the rest of the family did.
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Gosh EC I’ve never heard of anyone not liking jigsaws. Do you do any sort of puzzles or are you the deep broody one always with your nose in a book?
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Mostly the deep, broody type, though I go through stages where I am obsessed with logic puzzles and do lots of them.
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It really did not make that much difference to our lives..we are used to shutting ourselves away from every passing bug….but not being disturbed meant a lot more reading was done!
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I believe with some exceptions it was the younger ones who felt more restricted than anyone else.
And yes the reading rate went up in our house as well. Our libraries/librarians were fantastic always going the extra mile working at times with skeleton staff as well as having to shelve all those many many returns after being closed for long stretches.
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While I’ve never been a game on a phone player type person since I replaced a phone that had Tetris on it and I never bothered to install it on the next phone, probably because the internet was then taking up more time. About six months ago I did download a jigsaw app and after spending several precious seconds with it, I decided I didn’t like it. I’ve noted down Jigsaw World and I will try that one.
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Andrew I use my iPad for these things – I find the phone too small. Strangely I only use my phone as a phone/ communication means, a camera or for the odd bits of information. I could use it for games etc but prefer not to.
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I have never done a puzzle in my life, they make me crazy. I did do the child sized ones when my kids were little, the wooden ones with 5 to 8 pieces of wood. I am one of those with my nose in a book. because of the computer and book reading, my life was pretty much the same before, during and after the 2020 thing. the changes I made were the staying away from people, rushing through the store in masks staying as far away from others as I could, and the washing and cleaning. the one thing I do now that this left over from 2020 is I still tend to hoard things, I never did that before. something we use all the time, even if I have one or two at home, I will buy one for just in case. I created space for TP and other things in the hall closet and I still replace things I take out. Can’t seem to break that habit. I wish I loved board games and cards and puzzles because it would give us something to do. it doesn’t help that bob is just like me, so power outages kill us because there is nothing to do
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Like you I had given away all my puzzles. I tried the on-line ones but missed the feel of the pieces as they fit together. I went on line and bought a few more. I am still working on them now and then.
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We do miss the familiar don’t we Elizabeth. Like you it’s the feel of placing those pieces connecting with the others that ‘makes’ puzzles yet I haven’t been inclined to buy any new ones. I’m get my ‘fix’ at the library- they’ve finally organised one for anyone to have a go at. I’m using to use the hand sanitizer when I get back in the car though.
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i spent a lot of time baking bread and cakes and putting weight. I also crocheted enough granny/Peggy squares to make 2 blankets/throws. It was a smoothing pastime. Till I had to sew in ends and put them together. I also found online crosswords. Still love those. Oh and free cell which I still get hung up on. I find that mindless and soothing too
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The Covid routine that seems to stick with us is we eat out much less often. It’s not that I love to cook but eating out is expensive and sometimes the food isn’t very good anyway. The other thing I still do is wipe down the handles of my reusable grocery bags but at least I’m not wiping down the groceries! I enjoy jig saw puzzles but man when I have one out that is all I want to do.
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Hospitality prices have risen enormously here as well. Not just in cafes and restaurants but even for simple ‘takeaways’ like fish and chips or pizza. We’ve become tight these days – buying a small pizza or just one piece of fish and halving instead of one piece each
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For me it was online yoga, blog reading, and swimming in the sea (once the Greeks worked out that swimming in the sea was unlikely to spread it around). Jigsaw puzzles – My Mum used to do them all the time (she dies just before COVID), and was part of a group that did swaps so bought about 1 in 6 of the puzzles she did and then put it into ‘circulation’. It did mean doing puzzles that you might not have bought for yourself – and she had a preference for wasgij’s (that is jigsaw backwards – what you get is a picture of people looking at something and you have to work out what it might be from the edges of their surroundings.
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I made a lot of art related objects
which are now part of my goal about what to do with them – making types of memory books, just for me!
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