One would have thought that Younger Friends and Older Friends, ‘YFs and OFs,’ would be veterans after
negotiating a path through a year of lockdowns….. This was certainly not the case for me. I had eased
myself into a socially distanced walking routine with my YF in between lockdowns until the end of December
2020. Although we had some really freezing cold days in December, we were looking forward to our
favourite takeaway hot chocolate and cake and we had plenty to chat about.
As the new school term tried to get under way in January 2021, everything was put on hold again. Like
other OF’s (I am sure), I had to get onto the phone with my YF to talk about possible online activities. This
did not prove easy to start with, as she and her siblings had to find a way for everyone in the family to use
the phone and online facilities and we all know that an unstable internet can make things challenging.
Thankfully, my YF was patient until I got my act together. We were soon reading and crafting once a week.
I usually walk on Friday or Saturday to my YFs house to drop off some craft materials and books from the
library. Whenever possible, I try to borrow two identical books so that we can take turns reading to each
other. My YF is nine years old and she loves the character and the stories of the ‘Truth Pixie’ by Matt Haig.
She wowed me with some very insightful observations about the unusual main character.
Here are some of the craft projects she worked on. She made a ‘magic star display’ (lots of colourful stars
suspended from ribbons that are tied to a box). On another occasion we each drew a picture then showed it
to each other. Recently she made a lovely Mother’s Day Card. Coming up for the next two meetings, we are
going to paint an Easter Bunny figure, that’s going to be one of my opportunities to let the inner child out,
because I will definitely join in by painting my own little figure.
Somehow, things have worked out really well despite the lockdown. We still managed to have fun and had
lots to chat about.
My Younger Friend has recently taken up creative writing. Here is one of her stories:-
Older Friend Maja’s Story
There was a mini theme park, trees and a playground. I went there one day. We got some food and tokens to go on the rides. Two minutes later I got the tokens. I went first on the train and it was fun. Then I went on the water ride and after that a balloon ride and the teacup ride. Now I went back on the roller coaster train and it flew off the track. I wished to have some candy floss so I said ‘magic train’ three times. So, the train took me back where I wanted to go: to the station. I told my friend about it all and she believed me. We left the park and took the bus back home. Four minutes after I arrived back home it turned night and it was 11.59. I woke up and I asked myself if the train would work again. So I opened my window and shouted ‘magic train’ and it came right up to my window. I asked it whether it could take me somewhere and it did.
I woke up the next morning and saw my friend: only me and her knew about the magic train. So we called the train and went back to the park and investigated the park. Then, on that day the mini wheel came off. That day we had to say ‘Magic Wheel’ and it spun around. 24 hours after that we kept going back to the park and the rides came off their stations and so did the mini golf course. The whole park was ruined….until…Me and my Older Friend saved everyone in the park and put everyone and everything back to normal until it all went back to a mess and everyone got completely stuck. My aunt tried to save the day but it didn’t work because evil people were taking the ride too far, like, way too far so we had to fight the bad people. Now we saved the day and got everyone back to normal. The End.
