Tag Archives: social media

Positive pandemic perspectives

Posted on April 9, 2020 | Leave a comment

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.
Lion toy in chair wearing face mask.

Local lion demonstrating realxed social distancing and wearing a protective face mask.

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Posted in About me, London

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We are all alone, together

Posted on February 8, 2011 | 2 comments

Looking down the hill, the lights of the party twinkled and crinkled through the trees. The wafts of voices floated up past me in the dark. I could see my friends arranging and rearranging themselves in to little clumps of conversation and mid-priced wine.

From this small distance, my friends were still familiar, but separate from me. Facebook makes me feel a bit like this – on the outside, looking in. Just quickly sweeping my hand over the bumpy surface of my friends’ profiles.

Are you a happy strand of the World Wide Web? Do Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, email and forums make you feel connected? There’s still something ‘lite’ to me about online communities. Perhaps I need to find the niche forum out there for Sydney mums called Lorraine who used to work in the Internet world.

The pen is mightier than the keyboard

I’ve always written letters to my friends. Pen and paper and my terrible handwriting. There’s a stillness and focus to writing a letter. It takes time, but I feel as if my voice is absolutely captured and transmitted. I write this for You, and You Only. There are no digital copies.

Some thoughts and feelings seem to suit paper:

I’m sorry that you’re sad but I will bake a cake from your recipe, and think of you when I eat it.

I hope he didn’t notice when I laughed and a little bit of mushroom soup came out of my nose.

I miss you so much that my ribcage is creaking.

A life less digital – happy first birthday

My blog baby is a year old.

As a responsible parent. I tell my kids that they need to enjoy healthy food as well as ‘treat’ food. Every day I try to balance offline experiences with digital treats. Slow food and fast food.

“Walnuts and pears you plant for your heirs”, says an old English proverb. These trees took a long time to mature and bear fruit, and were planted for future generations. My garden is too small for fruit trees, but I am still planting real-life ideas and experiences and values in my home.

Depending on where you are living, perhaps you could:

Child writing at table

Concentrating very hard

Brought to you by the Interweb – a handwritten email

When email was still new and mysterious, I heard of an exec who needed his secretary to re-type and print out emails he’d received, to read them ‘properly’. Now you can send emails in your handwriting. Let me know if it’s any good …

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Posted in About me, Food

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