Addicted to Call of Duty and Shared Desserts
Day Nine: April 4, 2020
Global cases: 1,203,932; Deaths: 64,787
Egypt cases: 1,080; Deaths: 71
Day Nine: Of Video Games and Shared Desserts
Farida El Deeb
Multimedia Journalism Junior
@FaridaAElDeeb
I wake up at 4pm tired yet happy. I spent the night playing Call of Duty: Warzone. Who would’ve thought that with all the work and deadlines, I would still squeeze some video games in? Probably not my parents who are getting flashbacks of 13 years old addicted me. My friends kept on convincing me to stay up playing as “the world is ending” and “would you rather spend your last days enjoying your time or working?” I mean, they do have a point, but when the addiction reaches the point where I’m thinking about when I will join our Playstation party just to crack some jokes and kill some enemies, then there is a severe problem.
Thankfully, until now, I have my work and leisure time balanced; however, if I continued this way, who knows what will happen.
The smell of burgers ignites me to freshen up quickly as I hear my dad telling us all that lunch is ready. Dad’s specialty dishes include but are not limited to burgers, hot dogs, and salads. If only I took a picture of the burger and the cheesy fries! At times like this, pictures speak a million words. We all have lunch, and then my parents decide to take a nap, my brother plays Fortnite on PlayStation, and my sister chooses to ruin our stomachs by baking us one of her new inventions. Sorry, sissy!
Ever since we’ve been on lockdown, my sister decided to unleash the chef in her. Ranging from cookies, churros to smore’s cakes, she has impressed us with her baking skills. At some point, she added three tablespoons of salt instead of sugar in her smores cake, and you can all imagine how salty that tasted. My brother thought he was eating salted caramel.
My parents wake up, and we all head to the gardens to taste my sister’s churros.
I challenged my dad to a game of Backgammon – tawla. Some days, I beat my dad with only a minimal difference in the scores. Other days though, just like today, he crushes me to the extent where I don’t even move my checkers from my home.
That has been our night ever since I don’t remember when. But it has been too long!
My parents share the memories of only having two channels available on TV with no internet nor cable. That was way long before OSN, Netflix, Hulu – you name it.
That made me think, amidst this lockdown, those who are privileged should at least be grateful that some form of entertainment is available, whether that ranges from messed up desserts to long-awaited serials. Those who are privileged, too, have the responsibility to ease the lives of those who may not be as privileged. I believe if each person looked at one positive aspect in their day, even if it was just staying alive, maybe just maybe someday we will look back to these days without shivering or having goosebumps.
Till then, I will continue to play Call of Duty with my friends and the El Deeb family will continue to eat Alyaa’s, my sister’s, creative desserts.
For The Caravan’s previous diary entries in Arabic and English go to our COVID-19 Special Coverage page.
