How to survive an Easter break that lasts for eternitea

Whatever plans you had for Easter have almost certainly been knocked sideways by the Covid-19 virus. Unless, of course, those plans included locking yourself in the house and binge-watching a never-ending succession of apocalyptic movies like Cargo, 28 Days Later, Carriers, Outbreak, Contagion and Cabin Fever…only to discover it wasn’t a movie after all!

It’s going to be Easter, Jim…but not as we know it. You won’t be getting your extended family together for a big dinner. You are not going to enjoy days out with the kids. If the Easter Bunny turns up don’t, on any account, let them in. The most fun you are going to have is likely to be a hunt-the-toilet-roll expedition while dressed in a hazmat suit – with mask, of course.

Joking aside, the situation is obviously dire. But there are still a lot of things you can do. In this post we give you a handful of tips, ideas and inspiration to help you make the most of Easter lockdown.

 

 

Food glorious food

Under normal circumstances many of us are too busy to do much cooking and so rely on ready meals and convenience foods. But now you have probably got lots and lots and lots of time on your hands….and are quite possibly a little bit short of a few items. Instead of looking at this as a problem you could see it as an opportunity. A chance to improve your basic culinary skills, expand your repertoire and get the kids involved as well.

The world’s media and chefs have been very quick to come up with easy to cook recipes, made with readily available ingredients, perfect for those who need to feed themselves and the family when going grocery shopping is not the smartest thing to do.

The New York Times has just published a great selection of no-fuss dishes that can be made with what you already have in your pantry.

If you are not familiar with cheeky Brit-chef Jamie Oliver you are in for a treat. Over the last few days he’s rustled up some videos where he shares super-simple ways of using basic store cupboard staples to make all sorts of mouth-watering, nourishing and impressive meals with the minimum of effort. The series, Keep Cooking and Carry On, shows you how to create irresistible home-baked bread, yummy home-made pasta, deep pan pizza loaded with goodies and many more meals out of stuff you’re pretty sure to have to hand.

You can even make scrummy muffins, bread and roasts with Rooibos Rocks tea. It’s available online so no risky trips to the grocery store. (Spot the obvious product placement!) After all that lovely Easter food you’ll probably feel like some exercise. This is especially important right now as you need to keep your immune system in good shape. Drinking regular cups of Rooibos tea really helps, as you’ll see from this post, but we suggest you work out too.

There are countless online classes to help you do this but we’d like to give a quick shout out to Tania at Six Pack Mommas. Before lockdown we enjoyed her Latin Dance classes in the local gym – but now that’s not possible. Luckily she has created a series of workouts (filmed in her garage!), with new ones to be uploaded every week. If you are quick you can take up her offer of a free seven-day trial by clicking here.

 

Mind games

Warding off boredom, especially if you have kids or teenagers under house arrest with you, is going to be a bit of a challenge. The idea of sitting around as a family, in normal times, and doing a quiz would probably been greeted with hoots of laughter. Not any more!

Allthetests.com offers thousands of tests that span over twenty different categories from music to movies and health to general knowledge. If you’re a couple you could both take a “How well do you know your partner?” test, amongst countless others. The “How green are you (for kids)” is just one of many the whole family will enjoy. Fun tests, personality tests, fan tests, IQ tests, the site lives up to its name.

Buzzfeed has gazillions of wacky ones. Take the “These Are The Hardest Test Questions In Each Grade — Can You Pass Through Grade 12?” challenge and see if you can beat the kids. Or the “Are you a real nerd or a fake nerd?” test. And the “How Much Random "Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King" Movie Knowledge Do You Have?”

What to watch when you’ve run out of stuff to watch

In truth you’ll never run out of stuff to watch (provided you don’t cancel your subscriptions to Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, HBO and Apple). However, most movies and TV shows are super dramatic, designed to give you constant rushes of adrenalin and emotion – not the best viewing when tensions are already running high and you are in lockdown.

The perfect antidote is settling down with a caffeine-free cup of Rooibos Rocks tea for a session of slow TV. This genre of programme originated in Norway (where not a lot happens and people like to take things steady). How about watching a 1 hour video of a Norwegian lady knitting a grey scarf? Or a 7 hour journey on a canal boat in England?

Another slant on this is the live webcam feed – a great way to see what’s happening in the rest of the world while you are stuck at home. This BBC article has some great links that allow you to watch, in real time, everything from Elephants in Africa to the (now deserted) streets of Venice, New York and Tokyo, as well as a snowbound village in northern Lapland, a beach in Thailand and the current view from the International Space Station. Much more relaxing than Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad!

Working from home?

The Easter break, every year, is too short. Except this year. This year it’ll probably seem never ending (because it is never ending!). Who would have thought you could miss the office sooooo much?! The gossip around the water cooler. The excitement of dress-down-Friday.

And the meetings… oh for a proper face to face meeting! Now you’ll have to make do with regular video conferences. But despite the fact that these occasions are now the new normal you’ll discover there’s nothing normal about them at all. This video offers an amusing take on the challenges.

Only one person can talk at a time in online meetings so you have to get good at keeping your mouth shut while appearing to pay attention. This video, “Nodding Strategies for Your Next Meeting” is essential viewing if you want to look smart and engaged in video conferences.

That’s all folks

Hopefully this post has provided a few useful, and slightly different, ideas on how to keep you and the family amused, relaxed and well over the coming days and weeks. Just another way we’re helping you create moments of calm in a world of crazy!