This week, Tanya at Salted Caramel has challenged everyone to list 5 ways to beat pandemic blues.

Though there was never an official lock-down in my area, everyone was encouraged to stay home during the first 3 months of the pandemic and thanks to work, I never felt much of the pandemic blues. However, I did feel trapped sometimes and here were the 5 ways I did to entertain myself.

Read

Thanks to a book haul done in 2019, I had plenty of books on my bookshelf to keep me busy. I have classics, thrillers, romance, teen fiction, and even non-fiction to keep me company and I think I managed to get through most of the good ones.

Make Sourdough bread

My sourdough starter (sadly R.I.P) was born on Valentine’s Day, 2020, a month before everyone was encouraged to stay home. Mom didn’t like my new pandemic hobby, she thought I was wasting flour and flour became a valuable commodity in March. No, I wasn’t wasting flour. Sure, there was a lot of discard that came with the sourdough starter but I made pancakes with it.

It took me a while to master the art of making sourdough bread but it was good while it lasted. Mom didn’t like the bread, “too sour”, she said and made a face of disgust. “Never make it again.” She then ordered.

Of course, I didn’t stop. If I stopped doing something every time mom says “Never do it again,” I might as well live as a robot with no form of free thinking.

Go on Walks and Hikes

Though encouraged to stay home, no one actually signed a stay-home order. Whenever I had time, I walked around the park and went on hikes in the mountains, preferably without mom, but most of times, she insisted on tagging along, to keep an eye on me, perhaps.

Watch YouTube Videos

There were rainy and snowy days here and there where I’m stuck at home. That’s when I plug my ears and watch YouTube videos. I swear, one can waste a day away on YouTube videos.

Binge on TV shows

I think it’s been a few years since I binged on a TV show. Because my mom lives with me, my definition of binge is different. When I say binge, I mean watch a maximum of 4 episodes per day. Are you kidding? Mom would never let me watch TV for that long and in order for me to watch something on the big TV, it must be mom-appropriate – cannot contain snakes (live or fake), cannot contain foul language or adult content (despite being an adult), no cooking shows, and more.

It’s so hard these days especially when I’m watching shows on online streaming platforms like Prime video.