Thriving in my lockdown bubble

I thought that I would share with you some little things that have helped me to survive life in a lockdown bubble here in New Zealand.

Being in a bubble of 3

I am not isolated from absolutely everyone. I am fortunate enough to be in a bubble shared with my elderly parents. We live in a house with two living rooms and are situated on a 10 and a 1/4 acre lifestyle block. So I feel very privileged compared to those having to go through lockdown by themselves.

Being an introvert

I am also lucky in that I am an introvert and find pleasure in the smallest of things.

Computers, Apps and phones

I still miss being able to visit the rest of my family and friends. To solve the problem of being totally isolated from others, I downloaded Zoom onto our computers. This has been great. Mum, dad and I have been able to hold 40-minute chats, for free, with the rest of the family. It is lovely to be able to see people at the same time as talking to them.

Mum also has FaceTime on her iPad for talking, with video, one-on-one with family, again for free.

Before lockdown I had never used those Apps. I was even apprehensive (pun intended) of using them at first. But they have been wonderful to have. I also talk to my sister on the phone daily. She is not so computer savvy, so we find it easier to chat this way. Together with texts and emails.

Daily routines

Early on in lockdown I realised the importance of setting myself a daily routine, to keep some structure in my life, as I was starting to spend too much time napping. I made lists of things I like to do by myself and with my parents. I also made lists of things that I needed to do.

Online shopping

After the craziness of trying to do my grocery shopping in-store when we first went into lockdown, I decided to try online shopping.

The grocery store that I usually shop at only had online click-and-collect shopping, with no option for home delivery. So I had to choose a more expensive supermarket.

It was difficult to get a delivery slot at the beginning of lockdown. But later on I found that I could get delivery bookings 7 days later. I got into a routine of planning our menus for the week 2 weeks in advance. Then ordering our groceries to be delivered and then quarantining them for 3 days before using them.

We have been able to buy most of the things that we needed with the exception of wholemeal flour and desiccated coconut. Some weeks I have been unable to get chicken for some weird reason I don't know of. And thank goodness there has been no difficulty in buying food and cat litter for my cats.

Online shopping has also come in very handy for birthday and Mother's day presents. These can be delivered directly to whoever you want them to be given to. Albeit that the postal services are slower due to the lockdown, so planning way ahead is necessary.

Some of the things that I have enjoyed that pass the time are:

Colouring in books

I have been busy with my Johanna Basford Lost Ocean colouring book, colouring in a few fish, copying colours used from internet searches. (I wasn't quite confident in choosing my own colours).

eBooks and eMagazines

Mum and I love reading, however our libraries are all closed due to lockdown and we only had one book each left to read.

The problem was solved for mum after she mentioned this dilemma to my brother. My brother kindly couriered mum an old iPad that he had. He pre-set it with an App compatible with downloading eBooks, for free, from our local library.

While I was downloading books for mum I noticed that there was also a smartphone-compatible App on the library's website. So I set it up on my smartphone and hey presto I am now able to read eBooks on my phone....Yay!

I then looked further on the library website and discovered that it was possible to read eMagazines on my computer, full-screen size. Another big yay!

OneNotes and moodboards

I invented a new hobby for myself using the eMagazines, the snipping tool in Microsoft Windows and my Microsoft OneNotes program. Making moodboards and daydreaming about my future home! Lots of fun and a pleasant way to pass the time.

Television on demand

Watching television is not something that I usually spend much time doing, but I have enjoyed watching Escape to the Chateau and Gardener's World on demand TV.

There are so many programmes to choose from for free here in New Zealand. On TVNZ On Demand, Choice On Demand and HGTV On Demand. Plus I get free access to Lightbox through my Internet Service Provider.

Our Auckland library also has free films that can be watched online, but my internet speed isn't fast enough for the library films for some reason.

Phew this is a long blog post!

I hope that you are managing to cope with lockdown isolation/quarantine. I would love to read your comments about your coping strategies in this strange new world.

See you again soon.

Hugs

Rose xxx