How To: Be a QuaranQueen
Updated: May 26, 2020
I have hit the two week mark of being at home today. I have been outside once this week to do my weekly shop and that is all I plan to do. Since my last blog post of telling the world how much I am loving being at home and safe I have received hundreds of DM’s and Emails from my readers asking how?? So I thought I would put it together as a ‘How To’ guide.
1. Working from Home
If you are one of the very lucky people like me who can work from home then the you will know by now that this is a godsend because you are working as normal. WFH can be hard in the sense that you can be distracted by your home environment so the best thing to do is set a routine as close to your ‘at work’ routine. I have a morning chat with my work pals, I have a fresh cup of something ready for 9am, I plan out my day based on what I have to do, and I try to take my breaks as planned. If you aren’t WFH and are just home then plan your day with some kind of structure and routine. There is always something to do! If there isn’t then you need to re-evaluate your situation and ask yourself are you just avoiding the obvious because deep down you just couldn’t be bothered?
2. GET DRESSED
This may seem like the obvious or irrelevant but I find that getting dressed makes me feel far more productive and a lot less like I am just lazing about. I am not wearing office attire of course but I ordered a lot of Lounge-wear last week so that I can separate my pyjamas from my day wear because for me putting on my jammies is a part of my end of the day routine that I really look forward to so by getting dressed every morning I can still have that. I have not worn makeup since I left work but earlier this week I had to put on a bit of liquid liner and mascara just to feel a bit more human. Next week I may decide that I need a full face every day or I may pull a 2007 Britney and shave my head - who knows? I think the important thing here is to not have every part of the day all rolled into one.
3. Cooking
The first week I was having a bit of a canary over trying to manage a balanced diet when working next to or in your kitchen. It’s different when at work coz I can’t eat in the office so I have my breakfast at 8am after the gym and then I don’t eat until lunch time. While at home it's harder coz I will wander to the kitchen every few hours. By the end of last week I was freaking out over being off plan and the very likely possibility of gaining 35 stone. This week I decided to get over myself because right now food can be a hobby (like it has always been for me) and I just can’t be stripped of anything else I like to do. This week I put on the menu lots of new dishes to try, things I would never eat mid week, and food that can be time consuming... coz why not?? I love to cook and would spend hours doing it if it was possible during the week - now it is possible! I call that the silver waist lining on this Covid-19 cloud.
4. WORKOUT
I’m not gonna lie it absolutely sucks when you have spent the last few months mastering a 6am gym routine and making it a part of your every day life just to have it set back to nothing but it is what it is. Puregym has been an absolute life saver to me by posting classes everyday online that I can do at home. I can’t do my spinning class but all the other classes are been done every day as normal. I think factoring in 30mins of exercise a day is very important, and this has been such a stress release for me. Choose a physical activity that you like and get it done! You will thank yourself after and wont feel as bad for eating a batch of scones for breakfast.
5. CREATIVITY
I feel it is very important to keep your creativity alive. For us Artsy types the theatre's are closed, shows are cancelled, and our Stagey selves are limited…So every night going forward I'll be putting on a one woman show playing all parts in every musical - No I am just kidding! That is not happening (yet). But whatever it is you do to keep your creative juices flowing keep doing it. I am tuning in to a lot of Musical Theatre Live streaming just to get my feed, I am reading through some of Shakespeare's best, I am planning on doing up my balcony once the weather picks up, and your girl is bringing you Mary Berry realness as of late.
6. CONNECT WITH PEOPLE
This is a crucial one. In London the social distancing is a very distant one because no one really drives here so pulling up outside a friends house in a car is just not an option. You will rarely live near a friend so you really are social distancing and not seeing anyone physically. This is obviously a great thing because without this level of discipline there will be far more slip ups. I have been having catch ups with friends via Zoom the last two weeks. We all met up for my lovely friend Amber’s bday (the woman’s cake delivery was cancelled so if she didn’t have gin and singalong she may have imploded) last week which was soooo much fun AND no Uber’s or racing the Deliveroo guy home in said Uber. It was all in the comfort of my own home in my Pyjamas. This week and going forward we started Wednesday Wine or Water Club which was such a lovely thing to do to break up the work week. I would advise everyone to have set meet up days and catch ups online because it is very needed and it gave me the boost I needed to power through the rest of the workweek.
7. PLAN YOUR OUTINGS
I can confirm that I am just not going outside unless it is my weekly shop or 30 second walk to my corner shop when I run out of milk by the weekend. I have a balcony to go out on to for fresh air but other then that I am just not doing it. It's a personal preference not a recommendation to follow what I am doing. I have underlying conditions and have zero faith or trust in other people to do the right thing so I am practising EXTREME social distancing. I would do ULTIMATE social distancing but I cant get a food delivery slot so I have to go out once a week to the Supermarket. When I do go out I do not come home until I have everything because if I don’t get it while out then I’m not coming back out - simple as. Luckily all of the panic buying has died down, not because people are being kinder but because the people who have been doing it are so self entitled they won’t queue up for shop entrance, or they have run out of space at home to continue stock piling. Shopping lately is such a pleasure because you can queue up with 2 metre distancing with security monitoring it, only a handful of people are allowed in at a time, and the shelves are full because all the bellends are home with their lifetime supply of pasta and bog roll.
8. SWITCH OF NEGATIVITY
This week I minimised my Facebook use because of its toxicity. I may have gone on to post something but I am not scrolling or looking at posts because it is just too much to cope with or process. I am still using my Instagram because I find Instagram is a place where people only post and put their best selves forward. Yes! It may be fake and unrealistic but for me I need a place where Bloggers are still posting as normal, Influencer's are still setting the bar of what used to be important, and everyone is sharing their daily activities FROM HOME. I also find that with Instagram you don’t know the majority of people that you follow so when you see someone be a tosser on Instagram you don’t really care but unlike Facebook where you will know the person its harder to process and it makes it far more real when the tosser is an old neighbour or school friend. I still play Tosser Spotting of course coz you do need to laugh every now and then but so far this week I have used Facebook for 9 mins but it’s been solely to read the comments from people I don’t know responding to eligible articles from BBC or Sky news, other then that I have switched off to it, and would advise everyone to at least minimise your FB time.
The truth is underneath it all you have to do what works for you. I can list off guidelines and what I have been doing but my lifestyle will be different to yours. You have to adapt everything to your way of life and accept that not every day will be a perfect routine. None of us will have the same expectations, responsibilities, or work ethic so don’t compare or feel bad when you just want to have a doss day. At this point in time the only thing that we all have in common at the moment is Disney Plus.
Stay Boujee, Stay Healthy, & Stay Safe xxx