Hey guys. How is everyone this week? Are we all staying sane? What are you doing in the lockdown? What has become your new normal? I’m surviving. I know I am lucky in my situation. And I appreciate everything I have. I’m thankful to my Aunt and Uncle for having me. And life is generally good. However it doesn’t stop me from going slightly mad. The daily routine is getting to me. I want a little adventure. A little fun. Hopefully next week I will be able to get out and do something. So hopefully next week I will have something to report to you! Anyway thanks again for tuning in and reading my Covid 19 Lockdown Diary!

Day 36 – Pasta with Veggies and Butter Beans in a tomato sauce

Wake up at 6:30. Get out of bed at 7:30. Exercise. Shower. Cook porridge. Call mum and Dad. Exercise. Brush teeth. Wash walnuts. That’s right! More have been harvested. The motor doesn’t start for the washer. Nelson and I think it’s because it’s too cold. I wait for an hour or so. In the meantime I work on week 5 of this blog. Upload the pictures. Sort the text. Check everything. Also create a homepage or the website. Make it a little easier to navigate. Back out to test the motor. It starts. I wash the walnuts and finish the trailer before lunch. Salad wrap for lunch. It’s hot today but too windy to sit outside. Watch Rick and Morty with lunch. Sit outside and read. Move inside and paint a little painting of a falling girl. Employ some techniques I’ve learned on Youtube. Guitar lesson while the paint dries. Finish the painting with my pen. Drawing the girl falling. Do a lesson on blog writing for Squarespace on Skillshare. Learn a few things. I don’t like the woman presenting though. She kind of just trails off and doesn’t finish a thought. Implement some of the suggestions on my website. Watch an episode of You with Paige. It’s getting good. Dinner time. Tomatoey pasta I think. So that’s what I make and it was good. I made so much. I’ll be eating it for 3 nights in a row I think. Finish an episode of Killing Eve with dinner. The finale of season 1. It’s pretty good. Time for a film. Decide to watch Jojo Rabbit. Taika Waititi is one of my favourite directors. And this is one of my favourite films from last year. Both funny and sad. Touching and worrying. I’m thinking too much about my website and how I want it to look. I need a break from it. Time for bed

Film – Jojo Rabbit. Such a great film. Honestly you should watch it.
Music – Kings of Leon – Taper Jean Girl
Podcast – Do Go On Ep 126 Virginia Hall: The Limping Lady and 24 Monty Python

Day 37 – Leftover Pasta

Wake at 5. Manage to sleep until 6:30. Get up at 7. Exercise. Why do I do this to myself? Run. 10km. Shower. Call Mum and Dad. Have breakfast. Head out to work. Wash some walnuts. Listen to Do Go On. Tidy up. Finished by 11:15. I feel tired. I sit down and struggle to get back up. The solution? Tea! Always tea. Play around with my website again. I think I’ve almost got it how I want it. Lunch time. Breakfast Burrito today. Just to spice things up. I’ve also run out of salad stuff. But that’s beside the point! I sit in the sun and read my book for a while. It’s pretty good so far. I’m not as hooked as with the last one. Exercise. Guitar lesson. Today’s lesson is kind of fun. All about base note strums and finger picking. I’m going to continue with my theme of falling people for my painting today. I’m not sure why. Does it say something about my psyche. I cut some masking tape in to thin strips. Create a cool pattern and then get to work painting a gradient wash. What should I do while I wait for it to dry? I carry on playing around with my website. I’m still not sure about page/blog headers. Keep working on that one I think. Time for a Skillshare lesson. Thijs challenges me to a game of Kub. I win. 5-3 to me. Quickly do my remaining two sets of exercise for the day. Finish my painting from earlier and chill before dinner. Watch an episode of Killing Eve then have dinner. Watch more Killing Eve. Then try a new animated show called Kipo and the age of Wonderbeasts. It’s fun. I’m so tired. Time for bed

Film – No film. Loads of Killing Eve
Music – Bear’s Den – Agape
Podcast – Do Go On Ep 20 Disneyland

Day 38 – Nachos

Wake at 7:15. Can’t get out bed. Almost get up but Lauren calls me. Chat with her for a little bit. Get up. Exercise. Shower. Call mum and dad and make breakfast. The internet is slow today so we don’t talk long. Off to work. Finish by 11. Not sure what to do. Make tea. I need to get groceries but I can’t be bothered. Start a new painting for today. Do a background and let it dry with watercolour. Wilma invite me to dinner. Apparently we are having tacos and mince. I’m not sure I want mince. But it will be nice to have dinner with them. I have lunch. Another breakfast burrito and I watch Kipo. It’s fun. Need groceries. Cycle to the shop to pick up pretty much everything. Everything seems to run out at once. Make tea. I bought new tea. It smells nice. Time to finish my drawing and listen to music. Do some work on my website. I really want to create some fun heading for each page and each blog type. Just to grab peoples attention. Time for a set of exercises before a Skillshare lesson. SEO Basics. Watch an episode of You with Paige. The season finale. It’s pretty good and I got a few predictions right! Enough time for an episode of Killing Eve before going over to have dinner with my family. We play Rumikub after dinner and I win both games. It was fun to hang out. Time for a little reading in bed before sleep

Film – No film today
Music – Foo Fighters – The Sky Is a Neighbourhood
Podcast – Do Go On Ep 22 The Mystery of DB Cooper and Ep 21 Sir Edmund Hillary

Day 39 – Leftover Veggie Pasta

Wake up. Exercise. Make Tea. Call mum and dad. Run. 16km. Shower. Put laundry on. Make tea and breakfast. Watch an episode of Kipo. Hang my laundry. Exercise. Play guitar. Play for an hour today. Try and learn Here comes the sun by the Beatles. Lunch time. Do a blue water colour wash on a page for later. Take some self portraits for an idea I have for my website. Play Kub with Thijs. I win again. 6-3 to me. Back to finish off my painting now that it’s dry. Another falling person. Edit the photos I took earlier. They look good. Hopefully they work with my website. I edit my website and work on the SEO techniques I learnt yesterday through Skillshare. I need a break. More exercise. Make tea. Head outside to read. Come back in and tweak the website a little more. Will anyone even notice these things? Finish my exercises for the day and message a few friends I haven’t spoken to in a while. Write out some blog ideas. Watch Killing Eve. Cook dinner. Leftovers. Watch more Killing Eve. Make tea. Watch Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. Instead of writing reviews about the Star Wars film I’m going to tell you a little story that relates to each. The film finished and I head to bed

Film – Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. I remember vividly seeing this film at the cinema. I went with my dad and I remember before going in to the film we bought drinks and popcorn. The drinks came in a special collectors cup and I was really excited. My dad paid and I went to pick my drink up to carry it in to the cinema. My dad on the other hand thought I was too small to carry the drink and proceeded to carry his drink, my drink and the popcorn. Just as we were walking in to the screen he dropped my drink! Can you imagine. Anyway the drink went everywhere and the cup broke. We went to take our seats and my dad gave me money to go and get a new cup and drink. When I got outside the staff gave me another drink free of charge as they had seen all that had happened and felt bad for me. My second memory is after the film. It was dark and my dad was driving us home from the cinema on the Purley Way. We were in one of his Citroen 2CV’s and suddenly he started throwing it around the corners and making zooming noises. He exclaimed that he was in a pod racer and we proceeded to race home. Because of these memories I still like this film. Even if Jar Jar Binks is super annoying.
Music – Frank Turner – I am disappeared (Live in Newcastle)
Podcast – Jurassic Park Audio Book

Day 40 – Satay Veg with Rice

May the fourth be with you. Wake up. Too early. Exercise. Make tea. Back to bed. Watch Kipo in bed. More exercise. Shower. Call mum and dad. Brush my teeth. Head off to do a little work with the walnuts. Paint a background for a drawing later. Look at plugins for Squarespace. Decide against them as they add costs to my website. Focus on content first. Look through Skillshare for lessons. Make tea and start doing some lessons on Skillshare. Some of my new art supplies get delivered. Lunch time. Watch Kipo. Time for a guitar lesson before going back to work. I’m almost getting Here Comes the Sun by the Beatles. A couple more days I think. Tea time. Back to work. I work on a website for a friend before doing some more of a Skillshare course. I’m starting to doubt some of the ‘teachers’ on this site. Some don’t seem very knowledgeable or professional. Anyway I’ll keep using it while I have the free trial. Draw a picture with my new pens. Another Scott Pilgrim. I sit and read for a while. Paige calls and we chat whilst I cook my dinner. Put on Killing Eve whilst I eat dinner. Wash up and put on Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. Bed

Film – Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. I don’t seem to remember seeing this at the cinema as vividly as I did with The Phantom Menace but I’m sure I did. The main thing I remember is all the Jedi arriving at the end and their lightsabers all lighting up around the arena. I also remember having posters from this film on the wall in my bedroom. I also had a massive crush on Natalia Portman in this film.
Music – The Beatles – Let it be
Podcast – Jurassic Park audio book

Day 41 – Leftover Satay Veg and Rice

Wake up. Lay in bed. Can’t get up. Get up. Exercise. Run. 8.5km. Shower. Call Mum and Dad. Breakfast. Exercise. Go outside to wash walnuts. It’s cold. Finish by 10:30. Finish listening to the weekly planet with tea to warm up. Lacking energy and motivation. Must do something productive. My speaker is annoying me again. I restart my laptop. That seems to be the only thing that fixes it. I email Stuart back about his website and get to work writing a new blog about Milford Sound. Wow this is going to be my most researched blog so far. I stop for lunch and an episode of Kipo. After lunch I do my guitar lesson. Then I move to the sofa for a change of scenery for writing. It comes together nicely. Now to find pictures. Pictures found, named and resized. Now to start creating the blog on my site. Hopefully I can use all the skills I’ve learnt this week. I’m getting tired of staring at my computer. I do a couple of drawings whilst I talk to Paige on the phone. A Harry Potter themed one and another falling person. This time both using my new pens. I go back to the blog before dinner. Put on Kipo with dinner. Eat and wash up. Continue uploading photos to the blog. Time for a film. I’ve done a lot on the blog today. I hope people like it. Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. It’s got to be done. I make tea and get chocolate. There are sooooo many flips in these prequel films. I’d forgotten how mobile the Jedi used to be. I’m still snacky. I make more tea and eat an afghan cereal bar. It’s been sitting on my shelf since I got here. I finally gave in and ate it. I finally finish uploading my pictures to my blog and send it to friends and family for feedback. There is a lot. My eyes hurt. I implement some of it and head to bed.

Film – Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. Again I don’t really remember going to see this at the cinema but I must have. I went to see them all at the cinema I’m sure. The main thing I remember about this film is actually how many video games I played in relation to it. I’m sure I had games on all the consoles which were set during or around this film. Also the massive “Noooo” Darth Vader screams at the end of the film. I remember laughing at that. I laughed a lot.
Music – Bloc Party – So here we are
Podcast – The Weekly Planet Ep 333 Best & Worst Apocalypse Movies

Day 42 – Satay Veggies with noodles

Wake up. Get up. Exercise. Make tea. Head back to bed and watch the last episode of Kipo. I really like this show. It’s fun. More exercise. Shower. Make breakfast and call Mum and Dad. Do a little work on my blog. It’s almost perfect. Listen to Will Varley. I draw a couple of little cartoons for friends. One is a cartoon of a kiwi punching Trump for my friend Lauren’s birthday. She loves it. Work on some new blog ideas. Go and chat to Thijs briefly. Check the walnut from yesterday to see if they are dry. They aren’t. Lunchtime. I’m going to make Guacamole today for in my wrap. I watch Youtube videos with lunch. After lunch I play Kub against Thijs. I win. 7-3 to me. I bike to the shop to buy a few snacks and some lunch bits. When I get back I do my guitar lesson. I’m not really feeling it today but I do my best. I choose a couple of lessons on Skillshare to do. One on astro photography which is ok. I know most of the stuff already but I pick up a couple of skills. The other is on the basics of Lightroom which I seem to know all of anyway. So I get distracted and watch Youtube instead. Quickly test that walnut bin again. Still not dry enough. I make tea and have a Cookietime and watch Killing Eve. Leonie calls and we chat for a little bit. I make dinner and finish Killing Eve. I much prefer this season to the first one. Time for a Star Wars film. I choose to watch A New Hope instead of any of the spin off films. Man I love the classics. After the film I finish the blog I’ve been working on and do some research on photography spots in Christchurch. I need to something fun. Off to bed.

Film – Star Wars: A New Hope. Now I definitely didn’t see this one at the cinema. But I do have very fond memories of watching it with my dad and countless other times when I was younger. I had so much Star Wars themed lego, action figures, posters, video games and everything else. Star Wars has always been a part of my life and this is the film that started it all. So I guess I should say thanks to my Dad for introducing me to the films, taking me to see them when I was younger and coming with me to see them now that I’m older. Thanks Dad.
Music – Will Varley – Talking Cat Blues
Podcast – None

Thanks for reading my lockdown blog. What have you been doing in your lockdown? Comment below.

Cheers

Paul