Living in Quarantine

Crop Top - Puma, Joggers - Ted Baker, Shoes - Vans 

It feels so weird thinking back to the last time I logged on to my blog and began to write a post. Back then I was still going to work, I was eating out at restaurants, I was visiting shopping centre's at the weekend and when I ventured out, I wasn't wearing a face mask and staying 2 metres away from any member of the general public. 

But now that I've been in quarantine for about a month, I'm beginning to forget what all of that used to feel like. Excluding  the obvious downside of not being able to see my family and friends, I am truly living my best life as I now have so much time for myself, that I struggled to find before. 

I wanted to share a few of the things I have been up to, as I know how difficult this time can be. Sometimes I'm so oblivious to what's going on outside of my own home, I'm here enjoying what feels like a very long weekend and then I turn on the news and remember, we are actually going through a very serious global pandemic. 

I think of all the people who are isolating on their own, and how difficult it must be for them. Luckily, for a younger generation we have Facetime and so many apps to stay in touch. But for the older generation, who don't own smart phones. Man, it must be so hard. 

I thought I could share a couple of things I've been up to since being furloughed from work. Not to overwhelm anyone, but if you're feeling like you're in a rut it could maybe inspire you. I dunno! 

Something I randomly came across, I think it was on TikTok, was this app called Slowly. It's so cool!! So basically, it's like digital penpalling. You fill in what interests you have and then it matches you with people all over the world who you have something in common with. The letters take several hours to arrive (the further away, the longer they take) which only makes it more fun I think as you get excited when you see a letter coming from the other side of the world. I'm currently exchanging letters with people from Singapore, Portugal, India and even England. 

It's very cool, and if you're looking to make some new friends during this time. Download it! It's super interesting seeing what is going on in other parts of the world right now and what others are going through. 

One of my goals was to improve my cooking skills. So I have spent a lot of time in the kitchen learning how to make authentic Indian cuisine, courtesy of my Momma,  and baking some delicious cakes. Cus why not. I am blessed to live with a woman who is one amazing cook, but there are soo many recipes on the internet if this was something you wanted to do. 

I have started working out again. I haven't exercised properly for over a year because work physically and mentally exhausted me and my health was beginning to reflect that. Even though I haven't been happy with my body for a long time,  I still could not bring myself to do anything about it. It's only times like this, when you actually realise how much working can affect you. 

Surprisingly, I have actually been enjoying it. The aching feeling after a tough workout lets me know I am no longer neglecting my body. It feels right. I just hope I can keep it up once we get back to normality. 

Also, I have to do it because with the amount of food I have been eating, if I wasn't exercising I would be the size of a house. 

I have been making the most out of my Audible subscription, I finally finished The Beautiful and Damned by Scott Fitzpatrick which I have been trying to read for about a year and I've just finished The Strange Case of Jekyll and Hyde. It was only short, so I managed to finish that fairly quickly. It's definitely creepy, but I did enjoy it. I wish I didn't know the story before reading it, as nothing was a surprise to me as I already knew the premise. If you have never heard of it, then do read. There's a good twist. 

So using my monthly credit I purchased The Monster Collection which this book was included in, it also features Frankenstein and Dracula which I'm looking forward to starting now. I love to read classics over anything else, so if you have any recommendations let me know?



I have also finished a few TV series too. I started watching Jim Carrey's show Kidding, it took a whilst to get into, but when I finished season 2 I had really enjoyed it. It's unique and raw, exactly what you'd expect from him. 

I also watched two Indian TV shows called Four More Shots Please and Made in Heaven. They're set in modern day Delhi, so it is super interesting to watch and see what life is like there. They tackle really tough issues as well, which is refreshing from the norm.

If you're Indian, I would say they are a must watch, and even if you're not I'd still recommend as you can put the subtitles on. I finished both series within 2 days and they're both on Prime. 

                                                                 
            

I picked up my guitar again, after approx 10 years, and have been using Youtube to learn the basics again. 

I *think* I was about 13/14 when I started learning and I attended lessons for about a year. So picking up the guitar now I hardly remembered anything. The great thing is you can open up YouTube and literally learn anything from scratch, so that's what I'm doing. I thought best to start at the beginning, instead of trying to pick up where I left off. I'm on lesson 3 so I really am just starting out, but it's going good. I played Three Little Birds last week! 

I made the decision to redecorate my bedroom. This was by no means an expensive task, I hardly bought anything at all.

 My room has been pretty bland for many years now but I wanted to start shooting blog content in there, so it was important to make it more presentable. 

All I did was flip my bed around to give my room a fresh feel and to benefit from the natural lighting through the window. 

I bought new bed sheets, a throw and cushions to give my room more of uniform theme. 

I removed anything from there that didn't need to be there, so this included books, films, an old TV, CD's, notebooks etc. I then utilised this space to display more shoes. Obvs, bc why else. 

I also tidied up my dressing table by organising my make up, nail polishes, hair accessories and jewellery by throwing away anything I didn't use anymore. I have a leather look jewellery box on the way from Amazon, which should hopefully come by the weekend. 

This required some online shopping on Amazon and eBay as we can't get out to shops for non-essential items.

Finally, I have been living on TikTok, and one thing I got extremely tempted to do was tie dye my clothes. I don't want to ruin what I already have, so I have a black tracksuit also on its way. So hopefully that will be featured on the gram soon. If you don't see it, then you know it didn't go well.

So, it's safe to say I have been keeping busy. Some days, I literally don't want to do a single thing and I'm trying to accept that's okay too. It's not a competition of who can be the most productive and learn the most. It is about staying safe and keeping sane. So don't get disheartened if you feel low or have no motivation. Binge Netflix, eat junk food, just do what makes you happy.