I joined a cult. In fact, I joined it a few years ago, and it has shaped my life ever since. The other members and I post scores and routes obsessively, following one another’s movements and sharing our own in a semi-competitive display of speed, stamina, and perseverance.

Strava allows you to track running, cycling, canoeing, and countless more forms of exercise with your phone; you can then post the statistics and see what your friends have been doing. Personally, I love it. Seeing my brother and my dad posting their times and keeping up with their goals motivates me and, despite lacking the creativity to create artwork with my workouts, I have managed to find interesting routes through Amsterdamse Bos that keep me from sliding into laziness during lockdown.

I had my two family members on-call for a Phone A Friend bonus, which resulted in mildly drunk students yelling “bap”, “off your bike”, and “cabinet pudding” down the phone

Now, being so proud of my brother and father, it seemed only fair to reward their efforts with some fun and games. As part of our ongoing quest to evade the deplorable clutches of boredom, my roommates took part in a quiz I made that tested their knowledge of general trivia, and how well they knew one another: a sort of gameshow amongst friends. In one of the rounds they had to decipher between genuine British Slang, and utter codswallop (something foolish, often false). I had my two family members on-call for a Phone A Friend bonus, which resulted in mildly drunk students yelling “bap”, “off your bike”, and “cabinet pudding” down the phone late on a Saturday night in a confusing chorus of chaos. My nonplussed family members (I learned today that I have used the second word in this sentence wrong my entire life) enjoyed the experience but won’t be asked back; my research for this quiz delved deep into the mumbling and nonsensical lexicon of British English, and the vocabulary I selected was too much for even the native speakers' apparent expertise.

That evening I split my sides laughing, and I now endeavour to create more spectacles of amusement for my friends and family. I do not know about you, but nowadays I do love a good laugh.

What have you been doing recently that made you laugh? Leave a reaction, so that maybe some ideas can be shared!