Bored at home? Things to do during lockdown…

This whole staying at home business is really, really getting to me now! I know it’s necessary and important to keep away from others, but the whole part of enjoying a social life is leaving me feeling pretty low. I imagine you feel the same way too. Christmas came and went, and I’ve binge watched lots of Netflix series. I’m now starting to play my guitar again. It’s just so hard sometimes trying to think of new things to do.

Here’s a few ideas from yours truly..

Learn a language

Duolingo is a great app to use. I’ve been learning French for a few years now, and use this app nearly every day. It’s free which is a bonus and it helps you with using the proper pronunciation. I think learning a language is great fun. Even my 72 year old mother is having a go at learning Spanish, and it has a knock on effect because even though she said she finds is tricky she cooked a paella last week, so that benefits the whole family! https://www.duolingo.com/

Study a free online course. The Open University has some great free courses at the moment. They cover a wide range of subjects, so there should be ones to suit your interests, employ-ability or to ease your boredom. https://www.open.edu/openlearn/education/free-course

Photography. My phone is not one from the top end of the market, yet I’ve always wanted take really good shots, get them printed and display them. This wasn’t possible for me, so I bought a Canon camera at Christmas, with a zoom lens. A good one! I know I’m a novice and I’m still figuring it out, but I’ve really enjoyed going on walks lately with my new camera. You could always dust off your old one, or invest in a new one and take up photography as a hobby..

My son and I have done more cooking together than we’ve ever done, so that’s a really good thing. We are trying to learn new ways of cooking food. He chooses a country, we go on YouTube together and recreate a dish. It’s actually really good fun! We are having a go at Jerk chicken this week.

I know we can’t travel at the moment, but from the comfort of your armchair with a cup of tea and a few biscuits in hand, you can go on one of these virtual tours. I think this is brilliant. This website has places to visit in the UK, but if you look around there’s lots of these to choose from. Some tours include, The Tower of London, The British Museum, The National Gallery, Stonehenge and 13 others. Fascinating stuff https://www.pettyson.co.uk/about-us/our-blog/674-17-virtual-tours-of-the-uk-to-enjoy-during-lockdown

Do a workout. I work in Education and schools are using the Joe Wicks workouts for children’s exercise. It’s actually really good. Have a look at this link, as working out at home gives you something else to relieve the boredom. This is a great cardio one, for fat burning which I need!

Read a book or listen to one. I love the feel of a book in my hands, but then again it’s really great to go online and read a book for free. This is a great site where there are hundreds of free titles to choose from covering many genres. https://manybooks.net/.

You can also listen along to many titles on offer at https://www.audible.co.uk/

Recipe. Have a recipe experiment day. I’ve done a few of these and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, but you’ll have fun in the process. Get a recipe and change it by adding in an ingredient to see how it works. I made ‘Rocky Road’ a while back and melted in some bounty bars. They were gorgeous! The mini marshmallows on the top didn’t quite work but I remember picking them off so it didn’t really matter. https://pipstips.co.uk/rocky-road-with-bounty-bars/

Buy yourself a small watercolour paint set, (small brush included), a pad of watercolour paper and a set of cheap brushes. You should be able to buy all of these online for no more than £20. Go on YouTube and watch some great tutorials learning the correct techniques and colour mixing to paint your own masterpieces.

Here’s an example:

Start a project. Learn to knit, crochet or do that 1000 piece puzzle that’s been stuck on the shelf for the past few years. A friend of mine did this earlier on in the year, It looks great on her wall.

I hope I’ve given you some good ideas. xPip