How fast things can change in a week. One day we were going about our lives as usual, the next we were looking at an oncoming pandemic, and the next we were in lock down. It’s been nothing short of unbelievable, but it’s been super interesting to watch the country deal with and react to it. Working in a customer based role all of this week I’ve seen all the sides that people can be, but it’s been an experience. Nothing has happened quite like this before where every single person has been affected in some way, and hopefully when we come out the other side of this we’ll be able to put it down as a lesson learned.
My first week in lock down wasn’t really a real experience of what is yet to come. I was still hard at work for the week, so I had the usual task of getting to my desk for 8:30am, working at my computer, and then switching off in the evening – albeit not having the hour long drive either side of it, the walk from my bedroom to my dining room table saving me masses in my commute. That was Monday to Friday covered, but two days either side made up the weekend, and the first weekend in quarantine was a hard hit home.
Watching
I’ve reverted back to my guilty pleasure – Real Housewives of New York, or RHONY for those of us who are familiar with the show. It’s absolutely pointless, but I absolutely love it, even though they do spend a lot of time eating out and going to parties, which is a bit of a kick in the gut right now. My main aim of being stuck indoors is also to work my way through some movies that I’ve always been meaning to watch. This week’s films were Erin Brockovich, and Clueless, which I’d never seen either of before.
See my list of Feel Good Films to watch on Netflix in this post.
Eating/Drinking
I made possibly the worst attempt at making chocolate brownies this week. We stocked up on chocolate and started working our way through the leftover ingredients in the baking cupboard. They tasted delicious, but it was more ‘would you like a spoonful of brownie’, rather than ‘would you like a brownie’. Then we followed last week’s suit of pancakes for brunch on Sunday – it had to be brunch, I’ve taken to trying to lie in as much as possible so I have less time to fill during the day. Drinks wise, I have switched to decaf coffee, so I don’t feel so bad about the amount I’ve been drinking over the last week.
Doing
I turned into a child again and dug out my old Nintendo DS. After seeing so much on social media about keeping yourself fit and healthy during the isolation weeks, I also starting introducing a bit of exercise back into my routine. I ran two half-marathons in March, so admittedly I’ve taken a couple of weeks off, but this week was about slowly getting back into running (using my daily outside-trip allowance of course), and doing my weights to try and get my arms back.
Reading
I’ve not been a big reader lately – I used to constantly have a book on the go, but suddenly I just couldn’t get into reading anymore. The girls and I at work had just started up a book club, but didn’t actually get round to meeting about it afterwards, but it threw me back into having a book again. I’ve reopened Grace Coddington’s Memoirs this week, and also flicking through Alex Chung’s ‘It’, which has some amazing photo collections in. And for when I’m not feeling a book, I’ve been turning to this month’s Women’s Health magazine, which is helping with the fitness inspiration too.
Socialising
The socialising was my biggest worry in all this, I’m a person who’s very reliant on being able to see other people and my friends. Apart from the obvious Whatsapp, and making sure to message and check in on my friends regualarly, everyone has had to start getting a little creative. Alex and I only had 3 episodes of Love is Blind left to watch when this all kicked off, so we video called each other and finished them off that way. We also spent a night on the PS4 playing seperate games but with our headphones and microphones going, so we could talk while doing our own things. And, totally late to the party here, but the House Party app saved our Saturday night. Glass of Malibu and Coke in one hand, answering quiz questions with seven other people with the other.
I hope you’re all keeping sane and safe in these strange times! Here’s to another week staying in…
xx
