Have been housebound and locked down in some form for nearly a month now. It’s become normal surprisingly quickly, and we’ve settled in to our new narrow world.
It’s not all bad.
For my lady friends
- With all that handwashing, this is your chance to try many handcreams. Why not have a different one in every room?
- Who needs make-up when you’re not leaving the house! Save time and let your skin relax. Note: If you are sitting in a particularly sunny room, then do keep up the broad spectrum SPF. You may not get sunburn (UVB is blocked by glass) but you will still get wrinkles (75% of UVA passes through …)
- No-one can stop you using a foot mask while you’re on a conference call. Get your feet summer sandal-friendly!
For my parental friends
- The kids are seeing us working. This is proper role modelling, although mine must think that I work in a call centre, as I am mostly on the phone and toggling (un)mute.
- We can plan and research all sorts of educational craft projects and inspiring virtual experiences. It doesn’t matter if we never actually start them … at least we get Parental Points for thinking about it.
- We legitimately need ALL of the television – Amazon Prime and Netflix were lonely until Disney Plus came along to keep us company.
For my clever friends
- Data, data, everywhere… Am obsessed and alarmed by charts and curves. Is it time to join the Infographics Appreciation Society?
- On social media, the scientists and analysts and medical professionals and journalists are actually more interesting than celebs and influencers. I’ve rediscovered the point of Twitter.
- There is enough fact-checking of slightly suspicious warnings and statistics to keep us constantly busy and vigilant. On my local street WhatsApp group, I don’t even have time to rise up to a foaming rage against fake news, before the community has de-hoaxed us.
For my Chinese/Asian friends
- Because we’re at home, we have reverted back to having one personally identifiable mug to drink water out of for the entire day. None of those inefficient and impractical water glasses that you use once and put in the dishwasher.
- My kids are learning to understand some Cantonese again. This is mostly me ordering them to do housework, but it’s better than nothing.
- Our respect of leftovers and fear of food waste are super powers. No one is laughing at my cupboards of food storage containers now.
Local lion demonstrating realxed social distancing and wearing a protective face mask.
A life less digital 