Lockdown Creativity #2

Creativity is still hard to come by in this house.  I'm spending lots of time 'working' at the kitchen table in an effort to ensure my sons are keeping to their timetables, which in effect - since my laptop screen faces away from theirs - means that in reality I'm spending way too much time falling down internet rabbit holes.

There are some benefits to that though; here is another dose of people being way more creative with the lockdown restrictions than I am.

Enjoy.


Let's start with Meryl Streep, Christine Baranski (The Good Fight, Mamma Mia) and Audra McDonald slaying Stephen Sondheim's Ladies Who Lunch - all the while observing social distancing rules. 




I'm dating myself here, but Crowded House's 'Don't Dream It's Over' takes me back 33 years in an instant.  They still sound amazing; here's a link to the band performing a live lockdown version for the 'Music From the Front Line' benefit concert in Australia.




Then, this is - well, enlightening.  Watch if you have a spare 12 minutes and if, like me, you grew up thinking slapping on foundation, eyeshadow, mascara, blusher and lipstick was a bit of an effort.  And especially watch if you don't have daughters to educate you otherwise.  Plus, Hamdeyy gets her male friends to give the commentary, and that in itself is worth a watch.




And finally, something to look forward to: filming has just begun of a lockdown version of Alan Bennett's Talking Heads.  I can't wait.  Full details here.

Being played by a 6 year-old...

I bet you have one thing - just one thing - to do with your appearance that you rarely leave the house without doing. Well, actually I bet that pre-children you had a whole list of things you never left the house without doing, but that once they arrived that list was slowly but surely whittled down to just one essential thing that it takes a fairly serious set of circumstances for you to ignore. It might be putting on lippy, running a comb through your hair, checking your shoulders for snot or puke brooches (the latest thing darling, didn't you know?), or inspecting your teeth for bits of spinach or similar.

For me, the one thing that has survived the onslaught that is becoming a mother is putting on eyeliner and mascara. Hence this morning's conversation...

Boy #1: "What are you doing?"

Me: "Putting on eyeliner. What do you think? Does it look OK?"

Boy #1: "Hmmm.... Can I see it?" (The eyeliner)

I hand it to him. He holds it to the light, admires the sparkly sheen - I was always a sucker for a bit of subtle glimmer - assesses it thoroughly, and hands it back.

Me: "So, I've only got it on one eye right now. Can you tell which one?"

Boy #1: "Well, this eye (pointing to my left, unmade up eye), looks pretty."

Me: "OK."

Boy #2: "But this eye (pointing to my made-up eye), looks really pretty..."

Oh, he'll go far, this boy...