Right, it’s week 4 and we’re still here! Thankfully the weather is glorious here in Belgium at the moment, which definitely helps. If you are getting a bit fed up or you’re just looking for things to do: here is my weekly list of activities for you!
Monday: clearing out my inbox
This might not seem like the most exciting activity but bear with me! It happens to the best of us at work: a jam-packed inbox after a whole day of meetings, or drowning in emails after a long weekend or a holiday. But sometimes my personal inbox can feel just as overwhelming. So set a timeframe for yourself: be it 15 min, 30 min or even an hour. And then start! See those promotional emails and newsletters you never open? Click on the first one, scroll to the bottom and make sure you hit ‘unsubscribe’. Then do a search for all related emails and delete! Very satisfying!
Tuesday: #the100dayproject starts!
If you’ve been following me for a while you might know that I took part in #the100dayproject last year. I came across an article about the project pnline and was drawn to the idea straight away. Luckily I had some time to prepare, and I chose to handletter one word a day, in 100 different styles. This year I’m taking the challenge one step further! I’m handlettering an alphabet a day so I’ll end up with my own little library of different handlettered fonts. Tuesday was the first day and you can follow along with my daily posts on Instagram or Twitter, or afterwards here on the blog of course.
Wednesday: a new morning ‘commute’
After a few full-on weeks at work I struggled to concentrate this week. But both a colleague as well as heimarlou (who kindly mentioned my blog in her latest newsletter) gave me a great suggestion to help tackle this: try a new morning ‘commute’. Usually my commute to work is about 40 min: I walk to the tram for about 15 min, then a 20 min tram ride and then another 5 min walk to work. So instead of this commute I got up a bit earlier, had breakfast, made myself a cup of tea to go and went for a walk. The sun rose at about 7am, so I had the loveliest pink skies keeping me company.
Thursday: Flow magazine subscription
I’ve been reading Flow Magazine (the Dutch edition) for years now. I usually wander into a newsagent’s before trips away and buy the latest edition. However, once in a while I treat myself, look up which editions I’m missing from past years and order them in bulk! For my birthday last year I got a magazine subscription as a present and signed up for Flow without hesitation. And now, in these coronatimes I couldn’t be more grateful – the latest issue just arrived in my mailbox, no hassle or queueing up needed. So I decided to support them and properly subsribe, and have many more editions arriving by post to look forward to!
Friday: cook like you’re on holiday
How do we soften the pain of not being able to get away during a bank holiday weekend? Not being able to see loved ones? Food! On Friday we had a day of great food, accompanied by blue skies. I started off with another sourdough starter discard experiment and made pancakes. The early morning chill and the fried food reminded my other half of early mornings in Georgia before our hikes. At lunchtime I relived our little trip to Pisa last year and made a caprese salad, of course to be enjoyed with some cold white wine. And for dinner we came right back to a sunny summer in Belgium with a BBQ for two.
Saturday: watch Tiger King
Yes, we did it! We joined the hype and started watching Tiger King on Netflix! I don’t really watch TV or series very often, but it’s been hard to ignore Tiger King because it’s been EVERYWHERE social media. On Friday we videocalled with two friends in Norway, and to change the topic from COVID-19 they asked us if we’d watched it. We hadn’t and they really made us curious. So on Saturday evening we took the leap. We watched the first 3 episodes, after which I needed some sleep to keep some faith in humanity at least, but wow. And this is a documentary!
Sunday: study French
Since September I’ve been taking French classes – every Thursday evening for 3 hours in my local centre for adult education. It can be quite demanding, but once I get into it I remember again why I spent so many years studying languages. With the current quarantine measures our latest classes have been via Skype and we have a two week break now for Easter. However, during those two weeks we have to complete two tests on chapters we completed. So I have some vocabulary and grammar to run through, and exercises to make!
There we are, 4 weeks in lockdown. I think we’ll be here for a while longer, and while it is tempting to go out and meet friends and family it’s important to stay put, especially if we all want to be able to enjoy a proper summer. But I hope these little compilations of ideas help! What have you been up to in the past week?
Read my posts from the previous weeks:
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Annelies Explores 
I love the idea of making a calendar for the week! I’ve struggled to be productive during this time because I feel scatter-brained with everything happening in the world right now. And I love how you used each meal to “visit” a different country. Great ideas!
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I love this idea! It’s such a great way to ensure productivity and really helps to organise the day. I’ll be sure to take some tips from this, thanks for sharing!
Take care and stay safe,
Sophie | Love and Literature x
https://www.loveandliterature.co.uk/
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Great post, It’s good to keep busy!! The past week we have been cooking, gardening, binge watching series and just sending quality time together 🙂 x
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Some really great ideas here. The commute to work is such a good one – a great way to use the extra te we have gained from not actually commuting!
I’m glad you’re finding some great ways to keep occupied during lockdown (and are sharing them with us all). Stay safe!
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