Risk - global domination

Thursday, 3^rd April 2020

It’s late (12:15am as I write these words) and the Punk Krow is drunk. It wasn’t meant to be this way. Since November last year, I have abandoned alcohol almost entirely but fallen off the wagon spectacularly tonight with a mixture of Aperol spritzers, Prosecco, white wine, and gin & tonics. Of course, this was done at home with just the four of us sitting at the table after dinner playing Risk at the request of Noah.

When it comes to board games, I lose my competitive spirit but Amanda manages to veer between having no clue what’s going on, being very aggressive, getting the hiccups and then, inexplicably, to the bemusement of us all, actually winning. Her basic tactic is to attack me, her husband, with the call to arms: ‘Come on then, Pinkie!’ 
As I am the pink army, this is an attack on our marriage. Her first gambit is trying to conquer some of the Mediterranean, with the words: ‘There will be blood in the Middle East!’ When she throws a succession of ones, she then declares that she is a ‘peacekeeper.’ It doesn't take long for her to earn herself the nickname, 'Jihadi Amanda', scourge of the Middle East. 

The drinks keep getting poured and retro choices of music are played, ranging from Pink Floyd to Fatboy Slim to The Velvet Underground. Dice are rolled, drinks are spilt and the music plays. Of course, global domination is what Covid-19 is achieving, infecting its way across the globe, winning every roll of the dice. 

I have found my musical choices have shot back decades recently and I think this is because I am retreating psychologically to a time when I was young and everything was possible. A safe space for my head.
At some point, who knows when, this will all end, but memories will still be formed from this time, some good, some bad. If we are lucky, and the governments of the world get together to put plans in place to ensure nothing like this ever happens again, then this will be a once in a lifetime event. In that case, it will be a story we will tell. Those stories will be personal. For some they will include the loss of a loved one. For some, it will involve working on the frontline, watching people die. For many of us it will be a bullet whistling past our ears, making us realise how precious life is.

Already, I feel closer to the friends and family that I am lucky to have. In the day to day, week to week, year to year, headlong rush of school and work, sometimes what we sacrifice is each other. Maybe, just maybe, when this is over, we will remember the strange queuing at the supermarket, the disruption to our social lives, the clean air and the quiet streets but what we ought to remember best of all are the small funny moments when we felt that connection to one another. If there’s one thing this virus should have taught us, it’s that we are all connected to each other, and the world is both smaller and more intimate than we may have realised.

The Punk Krow is drunk (and must go to bed). In vino veritas.

Latest data for the UK (as of 1am):

Infected: 33,718

Deaths: 2,921

Celebrity Deaths: 0 (it seems celebrities and children have a magical immune system)

People I know who are infected: 2 (my boss, my teaching assistant)

Song of the Day: ‘Breathe (In the Air)’ – Pink Floyd