Looking For Small Joys During The Quarantine

Hi everyone, I hope you are all safe and well. If you are like me, you probably have felt uninspired and bored for the last couple of weeks.  When it comes to personality types, I am more of an introvert, and I used to enjoy myself at home most of the time, but this season is really taking a toll on me.

I am starting to miss going out for a walk or visiting a coffee place to spend the Sunday morning at. The sun has been out for days and the desire to go out is increasing, but we are still confined at home, and looking at our phones 8 hours a day is not the healthiest plan to survive this season.

I thought we could share with you some new recreational activities that are keeping us sane. In my case, I started by cooking new dishes, playing Rummikub for hours, and watching some great movies that I had already seen all over again.

This week, however, I have been trying some new activities like photo editing. I took my camera and started taking photos at home. Then, I downloaded Picsart and Lightroom (both are free apps) and started playing around with them. That had been my main pastime during the week. It also has given me the opportunity to be more active on my Instagram page. Editing turned off to be addictive than I expected. I was completely ignorant about it, but with the wide range of filters and shadows that you can play with, it’s easy to spend a few hours being entertained.

My second pastime has been trying new TV Shows. I quit most of them after the first 2 episodes, but there is a couple of them worth watching. The winner is “Search Party”. The main character of the story discovers that a girl from her high school has been missing and decides to track her down in every possible way.

I love this show so much, I would label it as Comedy-drama. The original ups and downs make the show unique and intriguing. I watched the whole first season in 3 days and I am now watching the Second Season.

The second one I started watching is “Defending Jacob”, but there are only 3 episodes out (one more every Friday).

I am also trying to cake care of my skin at home. I am trying to use a least one face mask every day, I have a pack of 5 masks with different colours, one per day of the week. I like using them whilst watching the respective TV show or whilst editing an image. 

If you live in a small flat with a balcony, try to make it nicer to spend more time in there. I have realized that, instead of a couple of chairs, I enjoy my balcony more by adding some duvets, pillows, and laying down there when to enjoy some minutes of sun and fresh air. 

Something I always do is putting some trash bags together and create a thin layer between the duvet and the balcony for hygiene. 

And finally, I found my old Nintendo 3DS. It has been a great surprise as I forgot I had one! I don’t even remember seeing it during the last move. I used to love playing Super Mario Bros and will probably get an advantage of these weird days to jump over some Goombas all over again. 

 As you may remember, I had a time when I was really into bubble teas. I have spent a few days learning how to prepare fresh tea with pearls at home. After visiting an oriental supermarket, the tapioca dry balls were ready for experimenting challenges.

My results were quite decent, so if you want to try it too, you need to boil 4 glasses of water for each half a glass of tapioca balls you want to prepare.

Heat the water and add the pearls. Keep them in the water for around 4-5 minutes (but check on them every 2 minutes to find your favourite taste and texture). Insert the pearls in cold water and keep them there for a couple of minutes. After that, I like mixing them with brown sugar.

Add them to a glass with the black tea with milk.

Ready!

 The pearls were slightly softer than the ones you get in tea places, but it good enough to make a decent snack.

How are you keeping yourself entertained during these days?