We‘re all living in the strangest of times. An unforeseen pandemic has engulfed the world and suddenly we’re all having to stay at home and keep 2-metres from anyone we see outside.

We can go out but not, to use modern vernacular, ‘out out’. Evenings spent in the cinema, theatre, pub or a restaurant are a distant memory and FOMO (fear of missing out) is so 2019!

I don’t dispute the requirement for our current lockdown situation, but like everyone else I am starting to be a little bit over it! I miss meeting up with friends for a night out or drinks in a bar, and good though it is, Zoom just doesn’t cut the mustard. I suspect I am not alone in this, so I’ve compiled a short list of things to embrace during lockdown to help pass the time.

Of course you could use the lockdown period to brush up on your French, finally learn how to play Chess or master all the difficult recipes in the Ottolenghi cook book, but let’s be realistic, it’s not going to happen! We need easy kills here - things that give maximum pleasure with minimum effort!

The obvious leisure pursuits are cooking, reading and watching TV. On the latter, how did we ever survive before Netflix or Amazon Prime? Lockdown has been saved by our ability to hunker down in front of a box set. A word of warning though - you might want to ration yourself because the final episode of a six-season binge is tainted by an impending sense of doom. Your next box set brings with it new challenges; commitment, investment in unknown characters and the possibility that you may have made a bad choice. First-world problems but the struggle is real!

Apparently because of lockdown we have become a nation of bakers, and rustling up a quick banana bread is de rigueur. Who knew that #banana bread would become an Instagram cliché! Since the dawn of time, humans have found comfort in food so in these challenging times, bring on the homemade cakes, muffins and scones. It’s like bikini season is over for 2020, but just in case it might be an idea to show a little restraint!

Technology has also saved us all in this lockdown; from Playstation and XBox to quizzes on Zoom, we’re gaming like never before. However, amongst all this new sexy tech there is also a place for old fashioned board games like Scrabble, Monopoly and Cluedo. Yes it will get competitive, yes there will be arguments and most probably a little cheating, but deep down everyone will enjoy themselves even if they won’t admit it.

Alternatively you could crack open that puzzle you’ve been putting off. Puzzles can be a solitary pursuit or a family affair. My advice would be to always do the edges first and choose a puzzle with an image you like, it’ll help when things start to get difficult. The sense of achievement of a completed puzzle is off the scale - can you tell I’m a fan!

It would be wonderful if at the end of lockdown we could knock a few things off our home to-do list. So to this end here are a few suggestions.

De bobbling jumpers with the best gadget ever - a fabric shaver from The Steamery Stockholm. This is a nifty little piece of kit that gently shaves the bobbles off jumpers and gives them a new lease of life. I appreciate that this isn’t the most rock ‘n’ roll way to spend a Saturday night but trust me, it’s so satisfying and this gadget is a total game changer!

Another suggestion would be the design of a kitchen pinboard. Many of us, me included, can’t draw to save their life, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be creative in your own home. Putting together a pin board is the perfect way to create cheap art for the kitchen. It costs next to nothing and is so much more interesting and imaginative than a homogenous print from IKEA (harsh but nevertheless true!).

When creating a kitchen pin board, take-away menus, receipts and a few Post-It notes are not going to cut it! I’m thinking, an assortment of postcards, photos, fabric swatches, clothing swing tags, badges - the list is endless. The result will be a layered colourful collage of texture and paper which will not only look fabulous but more importantly be a constant reminder of happy times. Something that right now I think we could all do with in our lives.

However you decide to spend your leisure time in lockdown, the most important thing is to just enjoy yourself. We’re all muddling through as best we can and trying to make the most of this very unusual situation. There is no right or wrong answer, so if you don’t fancy doing a puzzle or making a pin board then bring on the Netflix binges, but go easy on that banana bread because maybe we might still make it to a beach this summer. Fingers crossed!

Words and photos by Tanya Taylor © 2020