“She refused to be bored chiefly because she wasn’t boring.” ― Zelda Fitzgerald
How is your social isolation going? Are you being good, staying at home like you are supposed to, or are you being stupid and going out and about and spreading virus around? Despite the number of detected cases of infection surpassing the million mark worldwide today and the number of deaths due to COVID19 reaching 54,000, there are those idiots amongst us who still believe they are not likely to be infected and behave as though things were normal. The result is that often, they are harbouring the virus, which is spread to their every contact. Thankfully, the case of the active, deliberate spreader of infection who knows they are positive and go out to infect others, is rare (remember that type in the days of rampant AIDS?).
I was speaking to an acquaintance on the phone today and she told me that she was going out of her mind locked up indoors, with nothing to do, except getting terminally bored. I was not surprised as she is a boring person. Staying at home has been a boon for me as I am now doing many things that I had no time to do before. I don’t mean having ample time to reorganise the pantry, tidy the kitchen cupboards and drawers, polish the silver and wash the crystal; clean the bathrooms, dust the house, mop the floor and vacuum all the rugs (twice). Well, yes one does all of those things and they are out of the way the first few days… Afterwards, there is plenty of time left to do all of the fun, interesting things!
COVID does has a silver lining and staying indoors, I am now enjoying reading many more books than I was normally (currently reading the excellent “Mother Tongue” by Bill Bryson). I am spending more time painting, sketching, and sorting through my art journals. I play more music and have more opportunity to compose. I write, spend time on my computer sorting my thousands of photographs. I have time to talk more with family members and friends (on the phone!). Watch a movie (we saw the wonderful old film “The Education of Little Tree” ) the other night. At home, I can play cards or some board games with family, look at old photo albums with them, reminisce, have a laugh. Luckily we have a garden and it is a pleasure to go there and spend time tending the flowers, or take a cold drink and sit out and enjoy the sunshine. The list is endless and the enjoyment one derives from one’s hobbies and interests is immense.
Fortunately, we are still able to go out of the house and do some exercise. I still savour my morning walks and I see people walking their dogs, or luxuriating in the sun with their children in tow. Everyone is quite conscious of social distancing and they keep a respectful distance from other walkers, although some people are quite ridiculously cautious. I always keep well away from other people when I pass them, but smile at them and greet them with a hearty “good morning”. Most smile back and greet me, but there are a few who scowl at me and either mumble something unintelligible through a face mask or purse their lips and walk on by in silence. Excuse me, people, we can practice social distancing but we don’t have to grow distant from one another!
Here are some things to do at home:
READ!
Explore the Gutenberg free ebooks site, it’s quite amazing!
How is your social isolation going? Are you being good, staying at home like you are supposed to, or are you being stupid and going out and about and spreading virus around? Despite the number of detected cases of infection surpassing the million mark worldwide today and the number of deaths due to COVID19 reaching 54,000, there are those idiots amongst us who still believe they are not likely to be infected and behave as though things were normal. The result is that often, they are harbouring the virus, which is spread to their every contact. Thankfully, the case of the active, deliberate spreader of infection who knows they are positive and go out to infect others, is rare (remember that type in the days of rampant AIDS?).
I was speaking to an acquaintance on the phone today and she told me that she was going out of her mind locked up indoors, with nothing to do, except getting terminally bored. I was not surprised as she is a boring person. Staying at home has been a boon for me as I am now doing many things that I had no time to do before. I don’t mean having ample time to reorganise the pantry, tidy the kitchen cupboards and drawers, polish the silver and wash the crystal; clean the bathrooms, dust the house, mop the floor and vacuum all the rugs (twice). Well, yes one does all of those things and they are out of the way the first few days… Afterwards, there is plenty of time left to do all of the fun, interesting things!
COVID does has a silver lining and staying indoors, I am now enjoying reading many more books than I was normally (currently reading the excellent “Mother Tongue” by Bill Bryson). I am spending more time painting, sketching, and sorting through my art journals. I play more music and have more opportunity to compose. I write, spend time on my computer sorting my thousands of photographs. I have time to talk more with family members and friends (on the phone!). Watch a movie (we saw the wonderful old film “The Education of Little Tree” ) the other night. At home, I can play cards or some board games with family, look at old photo albums with them, reminisce, have a laugh. Luckily we have a garden and it is a pleasure to go there and spend time tending the flowers, or take a cold drink and sit out and enjoy the sunshine. The list is endless and the enjoyment one derives from one’s hobbies and interests is immense.
Fortunately, we are still able to go out of the house and do some exercise. I still savour my morning walks and I see people walking their dogs, or luxuriating in the sun with their children in tow. Everyone is quite conscious of social distancing and they keep a respectful distance from other walkers, although some people are quite ridiculously cautious. I always keep well away from other people when I pass them, but smile at them and greet them with a hearty “good morning”. Most smile back and greet me, but there are a few who scowl at me and either mumble something unintelligible through a face mask or purse their lips and walk on by in silence. Excuse me, people, we can practice social distancing but we don’t have to grow distant from one another!
Here are some things to do at home:
READ!
Explore the Gutenberg free ebooks site, it’s quite amazing!
LISTEN TO MUSIC!
Of course there is YouTube, but searching the net you can find some interesting other sites where you can listen to some genres of music that you have never heard of before!
LEARN TO PLAY A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT!
Take out that guitar that has been gathering dust in your cupboard, or plug that electronic keyboard back into the power point.
Online resources to help you learn are plentiful. For example, Udemy.
SEE A FILM OR AN INTERESTING DOCUMENTARY!
Explore Vimeo, and Popcornflix.
LEARN A LANGUAGE!
Take out your old French, Spanish, German, Indonesian or Chinese language books from school and brush up your linguistic skills. There are numerous sites on the net that can help you.
DRAW, PAINT, DO CRAFT!
Yes, it’s time to take out the colour pencils, paints or crafting tools and get into some fun, relaxing, creative activities. There are plenty of offerings to inspire you online.
COOK SOMETHING NEW AND UNUSUAL!
Lots of cookbooks lying around or masses of stuff online to get your mouth watering!
REDISCOVER AN OLD HOBBY!
Take out that old stamp collection and look through it, you may find a rare stamp worth thousands of dollars! OK, that’s unlikely, but you may be pleasantly surprised as you remember your green years.
LEARN TO PLAY A NEW (OR OLD!) BOARD GAME!
Anyone for chess, backgammon, Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit, Yahtzee, draughts, Dungeons and Dragons, cards? Raid the cupboard in the living room and get those games out.
TALK TO PEOPLE!
Face-to-face with your family, housemates; on the phone with people far from you; online with others.
GET TO KNOW YOUR KIDS
Yes, they live there and you’ll see more of them now. Spend time with them, share activities and discover common interests. Talk with them, listen to them, enjoy their company.
W O R K !
Of course many people are working at home and they may find it difficult to do so with all the other people around being noisy and enjoying all of the above. Please be mindful of the breadwinner trying desperately to do some work and give them the space and the quiet they need!
Stay indoors and see the confinement as an opportunity to unwind, to refill your batteries and to enjoy some of the things that you didn’t have the time to enjoy before COVID came to visit us…
Of course there is YouTube, but searching the net you can find some interesting other sites where you can listen to some genres of music that you have never heard of before!
LEARN TO PLAY A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT!
Take out that guitar that has been gathering dust in your cupboard, or plug that electronic keyboard back into the power point.
Online resources to help you learn are plentiful. For example, Udemy.
SEE A FILM OR AN INTERESTING DOCUMENTARY!
Explore Vimeo, and Popcornflix.
LEARN A LANGUAGE!
Take out your old French, Spanish, German, Indonesian or Chinese language books from school and brush up your linguistic skills. There are numerous sites on the net that can help you.
DRAW, PAINT, DO CRAFT!
Yes, it’s time to take out the colour pencils, paints or crafting tools and get into some fun, relaxing, creative activities. There are plenty of offerings to inspire you online.
COOK SOMETHING NEW AND UNUSUAL!
Lots of cookbooks lying around or masses of stuff online to get your mouth watering!
REDISCOVER AN OLD HOBBY!
Take out that old stamp collection and look through it, you may find a rare stamp worth thousands of dollars! OK, that’s unlikely, but you may be pleasantly surprised as you remember your green years.
LEARN TO PLAY A NEW (OR OLD!) BOARD GAME!
Anyone for chess, backgammon, Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit, Yahtzee, draughts, Dungeons and Dragons, cards? Raid the cupboard in the living room and get those games out.
TALK TO PEOPLE!
Face-to-face with your family, housemates; on the phone with people far from you; online with others.
GET TO KNOW YOUR KIDS
Yes, they live there and you’ll see more of them now. Spend time with them, share activities and discover common interests. Talk with them, listen to them, enjoy their company.
W O R K !
Of course many people are working at home and they may find it difficult to do so with all the other people around being noisy and enjoying all of the above. Please be mindful of the breadwinner trying desperately to do some work and give them the space and the quiet they need!
Stay indoors and see the confinement as an opportunity to unwind, to refill your batteries and to enjoy some of the things that you didn’t have the time to enjoy before COVID came to visit us…
Well said!
ReplyDeleteThank you for this. While the world outside has become a very unsafe place, you have provided some excellent ideas for staying sane indoors. I just hope this horrible disease goes away soon. Seeing the number of cases and deaths around the world is really scary and sad. Any help to get our minds off this pandemic is welcome.
ReplyDeleteHa ha! I love the quote. No way to get bored, especially with the list you've compiled.
ReplyDeleteThanks and take care, don't want you coming down with virus!