MY LIFE UNDER LOCKDOWN

Unlike here in Spain where lockdown is gradually being lifted, more than a quarter of Brits don’t want any restrictions eased in the UK according to a recent poll.
Why? Just as hard to understand is what is regarded elsewhere as “essential services”. In France, it’s chocolate and cheese shops. In the USA, it’s gun shops (sales surging to record levels) and marijuana dispensaries. As for the UK, before lockdown, pasta, hand gel and toilet rolls were the must-have items. Now it’s hair dye, gym/tech/DIY equipment and booze. Have you found a new hobby or skill during lockdown? Exercise, DIY or hair dyeing?

You may not be able to swing a cat, but you can still shape up at home promise TV fitness trainers. All you need to emerge from self-isolation fighting fit, full of fitness tips and exercises to do in a confined space. And we’re constantly prodded everywhere to complete that DIY project, learn Italian, improve our cookery skills via on-line Cordon Bleu courses! With all the cooking tips and recipes, it sometimes feels a bit like we’re all competing in a national episode of ‘Ready Steady Cook’.

As for me, apart from helping an elderly neighbour, I’m currently busy working (remotely) with my good friend, the actor Rayner Bourton, on converting the balance of my novels into audiobooks. Rayner created the role of ‘Rocky’ in the original London production of “The Rocky Horror Show” and has many TV and movie credits to his name. He originally contacted me to say he liked my crime thrillers so much could he narrate them! But more about Rayner in a later column- meanwhile listen yourself to the free audio samples on Audible! But what is it with this pandemic? First, it was people buying 12 months’ supply of toilet paper and fighting over it in supermarkets. Then the stockpiling of basic foodstuffs. Now people trying to dye their hair from black to platinum blonde at home. That’s got “major failure” written all over it. Stay safe!

Nora Johnson’s psychological crime thrillers ‘No Safe Place’, ‘Betrayal’, ‘The Girl in the Woods’, ‘The Girl in the Red Dress’, ‘No Way Back’, ‘Landscape of Lies’, ‘Retribution’, ‘Soul Stealer’, ‘The DeClerambault Code’ (www.nora-johnson.net) available online as an ebook (€0.99;£0.99), i-book, paperback & audiobook. All profits to Costa del Sol Cudeca cancer charity

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Nora Johnson

Novelist Nora Johnson offers insights on everything from current affairs to life in Spain, with humour and a keen eye for detail.

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