What April 2021 means to me

It was Easter and Passover during the first week of April this year. The weather was very nice most of the month. Roughly in the middle of the month we came out of lockdown, the non essential shops reopened and the hospitality sector went back business. I saw queues on the street for people to go into clothes shops and hair dressers, some of the queues were akin to the queues outside Northern Rock high-street bank the previous decade when they went bankrupt. They were queues fit for a roller coaster ride. Super queues that zig zaged down the street. 

Around the time the lockdown ended, prince Philip died. Then it was my son's second birthday and I tried untethered high quality virtual reality for the first time. It was the same day as Prince Philip's funeral. My son's second birthday was semi isolated because there was still restrictions for how many people can come into your home at one time.  A few days later I witnessed the first powered flight on Mars, the Inginuity drone/probe flew a few meters from the ground. Mars' atmosphere is very thin so the rotor blades had to spin very fast. 

Lockdown countdown

The second lockdown to slow down the covid19 virus has started in the UK. No liesure, no recreation, only shopping for food, essential work and waiting. It is cold and dark and the frost reaches the ground where I live at night, the coastal areas don't have to worry yet because they are close to sea level so the frost can't reach them before it melts, although some costal areas are hilly so the hilltops would get smeared with frost. 

It was at the start of the UK lockdown that the American general election votes were being counted. The outcome is a knife edge result, very close, an almost 50 : 50 split. The American political map resembles the British Christmas snap election one in some way, you have one big clump supporting Republicans(Trump) in the centre of the country and the east and west coast supporting Democrats(Biden) except Florida and nearby states. 

Politics wasn't the only rivalry occuring, games companies were releasing their next generation games consoles. PlayStation is taking online payments for the PlayStation 5, XBox has the XBox X and S, PlayStation and Xbox were releasing 4k masterpieces. Then you have the Atari VCS, a 4k video gaming PC that is souped up as a retro flashback combo system. If I was loaded with cash I would get all three of them, the XBox, PlayStation and VCS. 

My head was buried in my own little world, dreaming of having a bigger home with a room just for liesure called the "happy zone", a "man cave" filled with arcade machines and gaming tables with a drinks & coffee bar. I watch videos of all the "arcade1up" compact arcade machines. One of my creations has to be outstanding in some way to lift me and my small family out of the grey(gray) zone. I keep trying and never give up. 

knife Edge

I have recently learned that the results for American general election are very close. Where I come from they would call it a hung result or knife edge outcome, but not quite, the counting hasn't finished just yet. I don't really have a political polarity. When I vote, I just vote for the party I dislike the least or I just flip a coin. I'm British so this isn't my call anyway. 

It was during the American 2020 knife edge election that the frost reached the ground in my town, it was getting close the days before, I could see the condensation that comes before the frost in the mornings on windows and blades of grass. The frost reached the ground a day before the second English lockdown to slow the Pandemic Covid19 virus so our hospitals could continue to operate effectively for all. Roof slates and car bodies were covered in ice for the first time since winter. Tomorrow lockdown will start again, no non essential shopping, only food and no liesure, no eating out or cafés, no parties, no social visits. Perhaps we will know who will be the American president for the next 4 years by tomorrow, the only thing I know is everything here will stop. May the best man for the job win, I will say no more. 

Watching crafts

It is spring 2020 and I will call it the lockdown Spring because many countries around the planet have imposed a lockdown to stop covid19 spreading. People can't leave their homes freely. Here in Britain we are only allowed outside to work, get food and go to hospital, essential things like that. 

For me the best way to get through a lockdown is to go on youtube and watch people make things. I love to watch people make lamps and tables using Epoxy resin and to make clever little things out of plastic bottles, stuff like that. I also love to write blog entries and make my own drawings, I rarely share them but do like to draw pictures, by my own standards my artwork is in need of improvement but that is the wonder of having such a hobby, seeing how much better you can be. 

I will write out some lockdown keywords for youtube to help you my friend get through this pandemic. They are ...

Crafts 

Epoxy resin 

Epoxy resin project

Epoxy resin lamp 

Epoxy resin table 

Home made fountain

Cleaver home craft toys 

Home made game 

DIY project 

The beauty of this list is that you don't need sound. You can play it with the sound off if you have a baby sleeping nearby. 

Keep your chin up and try not to think about the chaos that is happening all around you. 

May God keep us safe.