Game, anyone?

A lockdown haircut, an accidental nap, muted the mic, unsubmitted homework.... spill the beans, I say!

Do you know that everyone’s playing pandemic bingo on social media? I’m not a big fan of bingo, mostly because my grandmother used to have these ladies’ lunches every month and would ask me to be the emcee when she hosted! First of all, your cheeks get pinched by 30 grandmas (don’t let those soft voices fool you; some of them have tight grips!). Then, since most of them don’t hear so well, you have to scream the numbers out at the top of your voice again and again.

“Us time”

But this pandemic bingo is strictly for us kids! Sorry to be ageist; get your own bingo game, grandmas!

You’ll need:

1. A4 papers
2. A ruler
3. Colour pencils and pens
4. Something you can use as counters. The pesky brother is going to use his collection of dried buggers. Gross.

Instructions:

Draw a 3x3 grid on your sheet of paper. You can play this by yourself, but it’s more fun when you play with someone else. If playing with my pesky brother, I suggest you wear surgical gloves in case you accidentally touch one of his counters. On another sheet of paper, copy out each of the phrases on the grid and make them into chits. Place the chits in a bowl and give them a good shake. Pull out a chit and read what’s on it. If a player has the phrase on their sheet, they can place a counter on it.

Things to add to your grid:

1. You’ve turned the mic and camera off during online school, so you can take a quick nap.
2. You’ve unsynced your Google classroom from your parents’ phones, so they don’t know just how much pending homework you have. (Don’t you miss real school where you could just ‘accidentally’ leave your diary in your cubby hole and they never found out?)
3. You refused a pandemic home haircut and now have more hair than your dog.
4. You did get a pandemic home haircut, and you look like an extra from a sci-fi film.
5. You are getting cabin fever from constantly being in the same room as your sibling and painted a line down the middle. Anyone who crosses over into your territory had better watch out.
6. You are secretly happy PUB-G has been banned, because you weren’t allowed to play it and were feeling left out.
7. Your English teacher set a ‘What I learned during the lockdown’ essay on the first day of online school.
8. You can’t remember when you last stepped beyond the front gate of the building.
9. You don’t know what date, day or month it is anymore because 2020 is just one big drag!

The cool thing about playing pandemic bingo is that you can add whatever you want to your grid! Tell me some of the cool things you included. And send me some extra surgical gloves when you do, please?