Dear LPG, 

After being at home for so long we are finally getting out again, but many of the clubs that we older people were so used to being part of are still not yet up and running.  I have to say that all through the past couple of years I have learnt to accept that my laptop can be my friend.

During all that lockdown time I quickly learnt that there is only so much real friend-phoning, house-cleaning and television-watching that you can do without driving yourself and your friends to distraction, and now, even though we are being told that the whole thing is all but over, most of us know that what the governments of the world are doing is trying to teach us to learn to live with the dangers beyond our front doors. 

These thoughts still leave me reluctant to go too far away from home and with the same problems about how to keep sane while still having a lot of time to spend with myself at home, and we all know that one of the greatest casualties of spending too much time alone has been the effect that it has on your psyche, and one of my fears was always for the effect on our older and already frail memories.  

But I do think that I have found one solution that might be helpful to some.

Before lockdown was ever heard of, and when going out was not so much of a pastime of the past, I often found myself on a bus or in the shops while being aware of so many of the younger people doing things with their mobile phones.  If they were not talking or texting their friends, they would be involved in all those little online games and puzzles which intrigued me so much that I took a look online and found some which, I have to admit, I quite enjoy.  As long as you don’t overdo it, they do keep your mind alert to some extent and they are also really good for passing the time if you have too much of it on your hands. 

They are not for everyone but I would like to pass on a link to some that I thought I would never get the hang of at first.  Please don’t get addicted but they can be fun… 

CL, Lewisham.

CL shares a website with some games that readers might like to try… 

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LPG found some non-online ideas to try… 

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