It’s amazing how quickly things become a new kind of normal. What were strange and unprecedented times just a couple of weeks ago are starting to feel frustratingly familiar. With the end not clearly in sight just yet, the cabin fever is well and truly starting to creep in.
To hopefully give you a little boost through the rest of the lockdown, we’ve called upon the Seen Team and asked what they’ve been up to, how they’re coping, and what they’d recommend you try to survive the lockdown-induced cabin fever.
These are the Seen Team's lockdown survival tips:
Quarantine and Chill
If the Instagram Stories and Facebook posts that have been popping up in your Social Media feeds are anywhere near as irritatingly boastful as the ones in ours, you’re probably under the impression that you’re the only one not spending the lockdown productively. Well, you can relax. You’re not alone.
“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” Michaela says. “We aren’t all working out twice a day and baking banana bread. Do your own thing!”
Michaela's top tip for surviving lockdown is abiding the laws of a philosophy she likes to call 'Quarantine & Chill.'
“There’s no time like the present to take time for you,” she reckons. “Get some face masks, baths, light a candle. Buying wine in a box? There’s no judgement here.”
Gin and Joe Exotic. That's how you do Quarantine and Chill
Gin and Joe Exotic. That's how you do Quarantine and ChillPut your reading glasses through their paces
Could there be a better time to put your reading glasses through their paces and finally worm your way through that pile of books you’ve been meaning to revisit? Probably not. Seen’s Lisa has certainly been taking advantage.
“I have re-read 9 books so far in quarantine,” she says. “This includes all the books from The All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness and all books from The Vampire Academy Series by Richelle Mead.”
“Yes I'm into vampires and witches. What's life without magic?”
Make a mess with the kids in the garden
If you've got a young family with you, the lockdown is particularly tricky. As well as dealing with your own stresses, you’ve also been newly appointed as 24 hour, all-in-one teachers, classmates, and playmates for your kids.
“I’ve no doubt that those with a family, in my case of younger kids, will nod in agreement that these lockdown days are challenging,” our Head Honcho Tareq says. “Thank the (insert higher being that you may praise) that the weather has been good as it’s meant a hell of a lot of garden time.”
His tips for garden play? Get messy. “Try social distancing water fights with the neighbours over the fence and cornflour and water mixed to create non-Newtonian fluid - look it up, your young scientists will love it!”
Tareq’s wife and Seen Team member, Sarah suggests alternating parental responsibilities when you can. “I call it tag-team parenting,” she says. “Being together all the time is stressful; taking turns to manage the demands of small people makes it so much more manageable.”
Warning: Exessive experimentation with cornflour may result in early-onset hair whitening and a severely messy garden
Get Active
You might not want to hear this if you’re reading it from the comfort of your favourite chair or deep under your duvet, but it's true what they say: exercising really is good for you. It’s not just good for your body, it’s good for the ol’ mental health, and that’s more important than it ever has been.
Like everyone, Seen’s Erika found adjusting to the lockdown a bit hard at first, but a rigorous exercise routine complete with an online personal trainer is helping her take her mind off things.
“I’m used to routine so the first week of isolation wasn’t easy at all,” she says. “But by week two, I accepted that this is how it’s going to be and now I have to set up a new routine for myself.”
“Keeping fit is very important to me as it keeps me sane. So I cleared out the conservatory and set up a home studio. Now I have morning online personal trainer sessions twice a week that I absolutely LOVE.”
Inbetween exercise, Erika is getting to spend extra time with her pooch
Get Netflix
If for some reason you’ve missed out on this whole Netflix thing, now would be a good time to jump on the bandwagon as you’re missing out on what is probably the best lockdown survival tool known to man. Not only has it got loads of the kind of classic flicks that are perfect for binging on while you lose entire weeks in the same pyjamas, there’s a bunch of new stuff that ranges from mind-blowingly good to chin-scratchingly bizarre. The picks from the Seen Team are almost as varied as our selection of independent eyewear.
Michaela thinks you’ll love Tiger King, an eight-episode whirlwind through the mayhem, murder plots and eccentric characters at the heart of America’s big cat breeding underworld. If that sounds a little bit weird to you, you’re not even close. “Thank me later,” she says. And you most definitely will.
Depending on available energy levels after a hard day’s water fighting, Tareq has two suggestions: "The Stranger if you want to think. The Good Place if you don’t."
Sarah's famous Zeki cookies, named after her and Tareq's son who's been treated to rather a lot recently
Sarah's famous Zeki cookies, named after her and Tareq's son who's been treated to rather a lot recentlyEat lots and eat well
There are few things that a bit of comfort eating can’t appease even just a little bit. Like most of the country, the Seen Team have been flexing their culinary muscles as well as their literal, bodily muscles and heading to their pantries to concoct a flour-based morale booster.
“Food is a big part of my fitness regime, so I’ve also been spending quite some time in the kitchen too,” Erika says. “I even made scones the other day, successfully.”
Sarah’s been using baking as a way to take a break from her new-found teaching responsibilities. She says, “lockdown for me has been a blur of decorating, baking, and attempting to become a homeschool teacher. Safe to say I won’t be getting a job as an art teacher any time soon - I think I’ll stick to baking.”
Her famous Zeki cookies, named after their son, mix three kinds of sugar and chunks of assorted chocolate to spectacularly delicious effect. Keep your eyes on our Instagram for the recipe...
Celebrate sunglasses season
After weeks of glorious sunshine, it’s starting to look like we’ve officially landed in sunglasses season now. It’s not ideal timing, we have to admit, but just because we’re (pretty much) confined to our houses and gardens at the mo, doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate sunglasses season in style, does it?
Seen may be closed for the time being, but we're still here virtually. You can keep up to date with us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and you can peruse your favourite brands right here on the Seen website. In this new curated collection, for example, we’ve painstakingly picked out some of this year’s best sunglasses so you can shop them from the comfort of the beach towel on your front lawn. Summer is most certainly not cancelled.
