You are not alone : Social distancing ideas to help us fight Covid-19 together
I feel very fortunate being in Hong Kong right now. There is no lockdown order and yet new Covid-19 cases are under control. No new case was reported for the first time on 20th April. Yaay!!!!
However, SCMP 21st April quoted a government spokesman saying “The most important component in the government’s anti-epidemic work right now is to stop the import of the virus, as well as its spread in the community”. This means social distancing will stay for a while.
I thought it might help to share experiences to help us feel we are not alone while we pracise social distancing in the coming weeks. Here are stories from me and 5 other Localhood volunteers.
Like many others who are bored at home and finding ourselves experimenting with recipes, my family and I decided to go traveling with our meals. The challenge we gave ourselves was that everything must be made from scratch and the chef of the day needs to be preparing both meals based on the cuisine of the same country. Over the last few weeks, we have been having a sumptuous time in Spain, France, Italy, Japan and China. We are getting adventurous lately. Might explore South America and Africa soon :-}
In Pic (left to rt- Top to down):
Spain - seafood paella/ France – crepe with ham and cheese/ Japan – ichigo daifuku (strawberry mochi)/ China – nangua bing (pumpkin cake)
Kanice, another Localhood volunteer works in retail industry works from home a few days in a week. Her working hours are longer these days due to regular evening calls with her counterparts in Europe. Taking advantage of the current social distancing period, Kanice has been able to revive her neglected house plants. In Kanice’s own words “ I get the luxury of gardening, taking the time to trim dead leaves, refresh the soil, repoting plants that have outgrown the pots. And it’s a pleasure to see the neglected ones doing well again.”
Kanice, appreciates having the time for her plants
In Pic: After : the revived plants after some love and care
Before: neglected mint plant
Before : dying calathea back in February
Anny is the 3rd volunteers sharing her social distancing story. She, like many of us, has not seen her own siblings let alone friends for the last 2 months 😒 . To keep herself occupied at home, she reorganises her files; throwing away old bank statements dated decades ago. She spends a considerable time gazing out of her 13th floor window; exercising, people watching and self reflecting. For Anny, this is the perfect time to prioritise her own wellbeing.
Morning stretching routine
In Pic: Push-ups with a view
In Pic: Blue sky and this great view help Anny self-reflect/ People watching for entertainment
Geoff, a volunteer from the LocalHood Events team, appreciates the opportunity to have more quality time with his children as well as the luxury of time to read for leisure. To de-stress, he goes out for a walk early in the morning so that he can keep a comfortable distance from people out there.
In Pic: Relaxing 8 am stroll at Sun Yat Sen Memorial Park with Sonny/ Geoff gets the time to read for leisure as well as bonus time to read with his son
Pooja, our Website Team volunteer, is enjoying the extra time she has with her growing children during this period. To get them away from the screen, she comes up with fun family activities such as board games, baking, arts and crafts and even make-up sessions. While spending quality time with family is rewarding, Pooja tries to fit in some me-time in her schedule to do her own thing. She makes it a point to work in her office which is away from home and hikes up to the Peak early in the morning 3 times a week.
In Pic: Kneading work in progress/ Make up session with Mommy
In Pic: Happy to bake; Churros and cookies/ Feeling proud of his art piece
The last Localhood volunteer interviewee who prefers to stay as Anonymous for this article finds the most enjoyable part of the current work from home situation is the opportunity to sleep the extra hour. A keeps in touch with friends and colleagues regularly while keeping a social distance. Prior to Zoom’s security concern, A enjoys browsing through old digital photos with friends using the platform’s screen sharing function. These days, A prefers to socialize using whatsapp video calls.
The idea of this article is to give you a little insight on what is keeping some of our volunteers going during these tricky social distancing times. Do you do some of the same things? Did you get any ideas?
Finally, I am doing an on-line cooking class on the 6th of May, for LocalHood volunteers and by invitation ONLY. For details: https://www.localhood.org/upcoming-events.
In case you would like to get an invitation to it or would like to to learn to cook some of the dishes I've made, you see above send me a message on info@localHood.org and i may just do a cooking session to teach it 😍😁.
Our younger friends are bored stiff too 😒😒!! Team #Localhoodofficial connecting HK neighbourhoods initiative, is organising a FREE ON-LINE Book Club & Craft group 🤩🤩. For Details: https://www.localhood.org/upcoming-events. In this session,LocalHood volunteer @WinnieTse will read a story to the kids and teach them how to make paper flowers.