Quarantainment
We’re not going to dwell here on the current reality everyone is facing, these are serious times. Instead we’re going to list some of the social and digital activities that made us smile, helped us connect with friends, and gave us some fun things to do to burn up some more quarantime.
For the parents among you, entertaining the kids has proven itself a challenge when they’re limited to within the house, here are a couple of activities you can add to the list:
1) Draw With Don:
Alright, your kids won’t have a clue who he is – but who cares. He’s Ireland’s Bob Ross and a legend in our eyes still, and has just opened up a new YouTube channel where the kids can learn to draw the best cartoon barn owls you’ve ever seen (let’s face it, this will be as much fun for you as it will them!). His first video is live where you (and the kids) are shown how to draw a clown. Lovely.
2) P.E. with Joe:
The Body Coach, Joe Wicks, is running a daily P.E. class every day which you can watch live or at a later stage. It’s 30mins of running, jumping, skipping and stretching that will get the heart rates up and help the little ones burn off some of that excess energy. Join in too if you’re feeling fit enough… *chomps on pizza slice for breakfast
3) Will Sliney’s #WeWillDraw
@WillSliney an artist for Marvel’s Star Wars and Spiderman was voted Cork Person Of The Month after he posed his #WeWillDraw challenge on Twitter, resulting in national and international coverage. Every day he posts a picture and challenge for parents to print for their kids to colour in, or asks them to draw their very own versions and characters. He also creates great video tutorials. The best efforts are shared widely across social media complete with beaming kids proud of their work. Excellent.
4) Lego Online
Find me a person in the world who doesn’t love Lego?! Whether you’re 50 or 5 Lego is the toy that transcends time and generations of excited creative kids. Well, being the forward-thinking and dynamic brand that it is, Lego has a full online kid-friendly portal packed full of games, videos and content. If you’ve boxes of it in your attic, they have online instruction manuals you can download for free so you can start building that castle set from the 80s. There’s even a challenge to capture 6 ghosts that are haunting the website. Yes, it has a ‘grown ups‘ section and yes this paragraph has taken me 40mins to write because I got distra… oooooh look a new police station set!
For the bigger “kids” among us who need something to unwind with after a long day of frustratingly glitchy video calls and the torrent of negative news in social media, connecting and chatting with friends is as important as ever. If you’ve completed both Netflix (or Tinder), all the books and jigsaws have run out, and the dog hides every time you stand up for fear of another walk – then one of these might be the perfect accompaniment to that bottle of merlot giving you the glad-eye from the drinks cabinet.
1) Online Poker:
There are a multitude of websites and apps that let you host your own private poker table to play and bet against your friends. We’ve tried and tested a few and found the PokerStars Home Tables is the most user-friendly one, allowing you to set gambling limits (important), timings and how the games room looks. “I fold”
2) Group Quiz
You’ve seen people sharing pictures of group video chats talking about the Quiz Night they’re hosting and you’ve floated the idea past your friends, they’re all in, so how do you do it? Here’s a handy little checklist for you to screenshot and send around. You as the host, must come up with the questions – make them local and relevant to only the people on the call as there’s always one who’ll take it too seriously and try Google the answer. These quizzes have taken up the majority of our evenings but the novelty hasn’t worn off yet. If the below seems like too much hassle, you can always download Kahoot and share the link with friends.
3) Yoga Class
I’ll admit, I’ve the flexibility of a rigor-mortised goalpost so the thoughts of a yoga class were as equally terrifying as they were laughable. And “home workouts” aren’t really my thing either. However, I’ll try anything twice, so I pushed myself out of my comfort zone and had a crack (pun intended) at Yoga Mara’s class on the Flahavan’s Facebook page (big fan of the porridge tbh). Am I as loose-limbed as one of those inflatable man things now? No. Did it help my positivity and mindset for the day? Absolutely – only added to by the amount of laughing at myself.
For your own positivity: Social media can be overwhelming at the best of times, and at the moment it can certainly add to anxiety levels, so we suggest you try limit your time on it as much as you can. But there are a few things that made us tear up with pride or laugh-cry-laugh ourselves silly.
1) The Social Co. #WeRemember
We’ll start this section of the blog with this viral video from The Social Co. Just give it a watch, you’ll see why.
2) Feed The Heroes:
What started as a small idea to drop a takeaway to frontline health workers grew into a charitable monster and at the time of writing stands at over €550k raised. Incredible generosity on the part of donors and food businesses who would not accept payment for the goods delivered (including our clients in Bombay Pantry and Pizza Hut).
G’wan Ireland! You can donate at www.feedtheheroes.com
3) Goodable:
Goodable is a social media account you can rely on for good, wholesome and uplifting content and stories. We don’t care if the stories or images are 100% accurate, it’s a daily dose of goodness our news feed is craving at the minute. Hit the follow button. You won’t be sorry.
4) Old Ireland In Colour
A number of accounts have sprung up that take old black and white photos and give them a new lease of life by adding colour. @IrelandInColour is a personal favourite. The picture of islanders waiting for mass on Inis Meáin is a real gem, teeming with character.
5) Abandoman:
If music is your thing there are countless amounts of Live Streams from your favourite artists for various different charitable causes. The likes of Hozier, Dermot Kennedy, Snow Patrol and U2 have all showcased their talents on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. But if you’re looking for something a little more interactive and comedic, look no further than @Abandoman’s nightly Instagram Live at 9pm. Abandoman’s talent is that he can do flawless and hilarious comedy improv, a feat in itself, but he does it in lyrical rhymes to hip-hop beats. The audience answers various random questions in the stream and he manages to freestyle rap it into the song without missing a beat. It has to be seen to be believed and until we can catch him at a venue again, the interactive element of Instagram will do. Highly recommend for some laughs.