AS the UK lockdown was implemented, my family decided to jump on the bandwagon and join the millions of others who were getting together virtually for a weekly quiz.
Even before coronavirus, I didn’t see my dad’s side of the family as often as I may have liked, as they live all over; from New Zealand to Nottingham and to the Scottish coast, it was almost impossible to see them on a regular basis.
And so, the weekly quiz was born. The first week consisted mostly of chatter, voicing our thoughts and concerns about the current situation and how it was so good to see each other, even if it was through a computer screen.
Not only that, but it also became a sort of mothers’ meeting as my big sister, my cousin and my eldest cousin’s wife were all pregnant at the time, although baby talk certainly wasn’t for me.
As we tallied off the weeks, I quickly discovered that this wasn’t an ordinary quiz, but a challenge for rivals to go head to head in a battle to prove themselves as the brainy member of the family.
We each took it in turns to be nominated as host, something I believe certain people took extremely seriously (maybe too seriously) but hey, what else did we have to do?
Individuals who didn’t even know what Zoom was before lockdown soon became technological geniuses, creating PowerPoint presentations with sounds and moving images as the quality just kept growing.
The time came when the responsibility was passed onto myself and my sister.
Everything was running smoothly. Dad jokes sparked little chuckles and my hopes were high, until I accidently blocked my cousin out of the meeting.
The atmosphere began to turn sour and a genuine mistake turned into a ten-minute attempt to re-join my cousin into the meeting.
I was assisted by my frustrated auntie who was less then pleased with my leadership, and my uncle providing a countdown commentary for the time we had left as the minutes began to turn to seconds before Zoom chucked us all out.
I’m sure we’ve all been roped into our fair share of quizzes during lockdown. Some fun, creative and interactive and others – I’d rather poke-my-eyes-out boring.
But we’ve all had the same unanimous intention – to connect with one another, even if it was the perfect opportunity to mute some family members.
Amelia Oates
Keeping Up With The Quaranteens is edited by Evie Brenkley and Amelia Oates.
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