Food Parcels, Memes and Video Clips

Without a shadow of a doubt, this week’s highlight was receiving a food parcel from one of my best mates. I’ve known this particular friend since 1982. Considering I still insist in pretending I am 38 that is quite an achievement. ‘It’s only a few tins,’ she assured me down the phone. With that in mind, I went to pick up the box, left on my doorstep by the delivery man and an evidently keen proponent of social distancing, only to almost end up giving myself a hernia.

It turned out that the box in question contained by far and away more than ‘a few tins’. This thoughtful gift proved two things. Firstly, I am blessed with great friends. Secondly, with the possible exception of a packet of couscous, my friend has an excellent appreciation of the kind of food I like. Needless to say, the packet of 4 chocolate flakes was the first to go. In case you’re wondering, the couscous is still in the cupboard.

Healthwise, my wound has overhealed. I had been in pain for a couple of days, and that is apparently the reason why. No, I didn’t know that was a thing either. In practical terms, it means I have grown some kind of skin flap over my wound. The nurse kindly took a photo of said item, but as some of you may well be eating while reading this, you’ll be pleased to know I have no intention of posting the evidence. Take it from me: it looked horrible.

Given what’s going on in the world this is hardly a big deal, but it was, nevertheless, disappointing, as up till last week I’d been constantly told how well granulated the wound was looking. (No, I have no idea what that means either, but it sounded positive so I went with it). To top it all, I now have another stye coming through. This will be my fourth stye in about 6 weeks. What is it with styes? The annoying thing about styes is that you can feel their inexorable approach, but you can’t do anything to prevent the bloody thing from making an appearance.

In more general news, The Artrix, a theatre space in Bromsgove announced it had to go into administration thanks to the shortfall in its income due to lockdown. It’s a real shame. I’ve performed at The Artrix for years, including organising several Stand Up For Women comedy shows there for International Women’s Day. It was always a joy to gig there. Not only was it a brilliant performance space, the staff were lovely and welcoming, and the audience such good fun. Its demise will leave a humongous gap in the local cultural art scene. Sadly, one also suspects it won’t be the only performance space which may be forced to make such a tough decision.

My personal bête noir at the moment is the influx of photos and videos I seem to be getting in my Facebook inbox. I appreciate people mean well and/or are bored, but can’t they just stick them up on their home page and people will look at them if they are so inclined? One morning, I had over half a dozen of the damn things filtering into my inbox.

Personally, I very rarely look at anything of that ilk. Primarily, because every time I receive one, I’m far too busy muttering under my breath ‘FFS, not another one’. When I do get round to checking one out, I usually can’t for the love of me understand why someone thought my life would be in any way poorer if I missed out on some relatively unfunny cartoon. My particular ire is directed to those memes which state you should forward them on and do so by bedding the message in some emotional claptrap. It’s the 21^st century version of a chain letter and just as irritating. The one exception to all this has been the video below. Sadly, I got sent it in a WhatsApp message so I don’t know who to credit but it is utterly brilliant.

Saying that, I too have started doing my own little videos. Feel free to check them out via https://www.youtube.com/maureenyounger and if you’re feeling  particularly supportive, you can join a very select group of people and subscribe to my channel!

Having grown up long before the dawn of social media, I’m definitely not at ease with it as some of my younger colleagues. A case in point was my Instagram Live chat with Jen Brister where it soon became evident that I’ve yet to grasp the concept of getting my whole face into shot. In fact, most of our Instagram Live chat ended up with Jen berating me for the camera angle I’d chosen. Admittedly, she said nothing about it for the first five minutes of our chat, but that’s only because it took me 5 minutes to remember how to join her on Instagram Live. (You can imagine how well that went down!)

Thanks to one viewer, proof it wasn’t just my forehead you could see

So, all in all, I am trying to keep busy but the stress of not knowing what’s happening; when or even if I can start working again as a comic and earn some money as well as constantly being on my own is still bubbling to the surface every now and then. It also permeates how you look at things. After clinic, I went to do a weekly shop and then berated myself afterwards for spending too much money. Normally, I wouldn’t have thought about it, but when you have no money coming in and you are not likely to have any coming in for the foreseeable future, suddenly you start questioning yourself about whether you really needed to buy that particular item or not.

I appreciate that to some extent this is all a bit of a first world problem. After all, I have the luxury of being able to self-isolate. I not only have a room of my own. I have a flat of my own with a garden (technically, half a one but it’s still somewhere to sit outside). I also might be going through more hand wash than I have ever done in my life, but I also have the luxury of running water on tap. More importantly, I have the luxury of incredibly good friends. And if, nothing else, that is what will help me see this all through.

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