Game of fools

Rather than be bored apart, families are board gaming together. But that can come with risks …

- AMANDA BLAIR

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single-family in possession of a good lockdown must be in want of a board game. Respects to Jane Austen for the structural plagiarism, but if JA was around in 2020, she’d have written it. Because when everything external is off-limits and all work, rest and play happens under the same roof, there are few options left.

My initial happiness with cleaning out cupboards was quickly replaced by jigsaws, as mentioned in a previous column. But one afternoon after clicking my last puzzle piece in and performing the ritual of vigorous hand rubbing over completed puzzle (if you don’t understand this, you’ve never done a jigsaw/never known true happiness), I reached out for somebody to share my joy. Alas, I was alone. My family, puzzled by my puzzling, had drifted into their bedrooms, where they were merrily occupying themselves with singular pursuits.