We are now slightly more than two weeks into Singapore’s Circuit Breaker, and if you’ve been staying home almost throughout, you might have started feeling at least a slight twinge of cabin fever, especially with the Circuit Breaker extended until Jun. 1.
Being cooped up at home — even if it’s because we’re dealing with a global pandemic and we know that staying home is for the greater good — may not necessarily be easy.
To help us all collectively get through the rest of the Circuit Breaker period together, here’s a list of things you could do (if you haven’t already tried some) to pass the time in a meaningful, restful, and fun way, depending on what you’re looking for.
1) Learn some new recipes
Whether you pride yourself in your cooking, or can barely make Indomie without burning something, now is a great time to add some easy recipes to your repertoire.
You can turn to Instagram to learn from five celebrity chefs, including Queer Eye’s Antoni Porowski and Italian restauranteur Massimo Bottura, who have taken to Instagram to share their quarantine cooking tips and recipes.
Salad recipe by Antoni Porowski. Photo via Instagram / @antoni.
Hummus recipe by Massimo Botturo. Photo via Instagram / @massimobottura.
Or if you’re thinking of local food, and are lazy to step out to the hawker centre or coffee shop, Singaporean food bloggers Leslie Tay of ieatishootipost and Shirley Wong of Little Miss Bento have been sharing their recipes on Instagram.
Head over to their Instagram accounts and check out their IGTV and Instagram posts!
You can tune in to a replay of their 30-minute live video to learn how to make fried rice from Tay and sushi rolls from Wong using ingredients commonly found in the kitchen.
They will be sharing about their recipes, other food ideas to cook during the Circuit Breaker period, and even how they’re adjusting their routine during this period.
Here are some of the food they’ve made before:
Even lazier than that? This dude makes dishes out of his rice cooker with step-by-step instructions on Facebook — he even put up a helpful Facebook post compiling all his recipes so far, and they look great.
Photo via Facebook / Leslie Koh.
2) Video call your friends & relatives who aren’t living with you
Some of our colleagues having a Netflix watch party. Screen capture courtesy of Rachel Ng.
Although we are practising safe distancing right now, we should continue to find ways to socialise with one another, as maintaining relationships with our loved ones is especially important during these times.
Find time — be it a few minutes a day, or an hour, a couple times a week — to video call your friends and family. You can share with one another how you’ve been coping emotionally with the Covid-19 situation, virtually "accompany" one another as you do your daily tasks, and catch up on how you’ve been spending your time.
If you’re looking for a more social way to connect with your friends, try playing online board games together, such as UNO and Settlers of Catan. You can video chat while you play, to make it feel more like a regular hangout, but from the comfort of your own homes.
Photo via Steam store.
Have a virtual movie or TV show night with friends by using the Netflix Party extension on Google Chrome. Now you can binge-watch all the episodes of Crash Landing on You (if you haven’t already) in the company of the people you love, and they’ll even get to witness you ugly-cry.
3) Do house chores you’ve been putting off & home exercises
If you’ve seen your daily step-counter drop from the high thousands to a couple hundred (definitely not speaking from personal experience…) and the lack of movement from not being able to leave the house has been making you feel antsy, find some ways to stay active even in your own home.
Have you been meaning to clean your kitchen, but just never could find time to get around to it? Or has it been years since you dusted underneath your bed? (Once again, definitely not speaking from my personal experience… ahem.)
Photo of the author’s current kitchen state.
Put on some music or a podcast in the background and devote some time doing the cleaning tasks you’ve been putting off. You’ll be able to tick one task off your to-do list and get some physical activity in at the same time.
You can also try to find some creative ways to set fitness goals for yourself using the available space you have at home. You can find an empty space on the wall to do wall sits, or see how many times you can jog back and forth within your living room before you get tired of it.
If you don’t quite have the self-discipline to set and stick to a fitness routine for yourself, you can tune in to an Instagram Live workout led by Ah Boys to Men actor Joshua Tan, and his fiancée, medical student Zoen Tay.
The Instagram Live video will be happening at 5pm on Friday, Apr. 24, during which Tan and Tay will spend around 20 minutes leading an online workout and chatting with viewers.
There’s also a host of home workout videos you could follow on YouTube and Instagram, even if you don’t have weights or other equipment. We stress-tested a few as well right here.
4) Offer your help and support to others
Photo via Getty Images.
In difficult times like this, some of us might feel the desire to reach out and support those around us who are in greater need than ourselves.
You can see a list of possible places to give support to those particularly hard-hit by Covid-19 here:
The migrant worker population has been particularly affected by the Covid-19 outbreak, with the vast majority of Singapore’s thousands of new cases in the past couple of weeks being in the migrant worker dormitories.
If you’d like to lend support to initiatives that help the migrant worker community, you can check out the options here.
In addition to those in the list, initiatives such as the COVID Migrant Support Coalition (CMSC) and the #HOMEFORALL Migrants campaign on giving.sg are working to provide migrant workers during the Circuit Breaker period.
Organisations such as The Humanitarian Organisation for Migrant Economics (HOME) have also been continuing their significant work to support the migrant worker community.
You can also check out the SG United portal, which lists ways where you can volunteer and support those in need.
Some of these ways you can contribute include ChopeAndSave, where you can help local businesses by buying gift cards from them to be used at a later date, or support Malaysian workers in Singapore who have been affected by the border lockdown.
5) Get away from the screen and listen to some music, audio books or podcasts
To switch up your activities every once in a while so that your eyes don’t get too tired from looking at screens, you could explore audio-only options as well.
Singapore DJ Manfred Lim, better known as Myrne, will be hosting a set on Instagram Live set on Saturday, Apr. 25 at 8pm. You can tune in to listen to some music curated by a real DJ, rather than just listening to the Spotify default playlists on repeat.
If reading a book isn’t quite for you, you can opt for the audiobook experience instead. You can listen to a huge range of books for free on OverDrive or its daughter app Libby if you have a National Library Board library card, or a library card with most other libraries in the world.
You can also use this time to refine your music tastes, or branch out into new music that’s outside of your usual mix. If you want, you could even listen to this “Quarantine Party” playlist made by a local undergraduate student.
6) Try something new
Now we’re not allowed to go out to meet anyone, it’s hard to muster up the energy or desire to change out of pajamas on most days, much less put in the effort to look presentable.
But this could actually be a blessing in disguise, if you’ve been wanting to try out a new style or project.
Go ahead, try out that new hairstyle you’ve been wanting to have. Sure, cut bangs for yourself in your bathroom mirror, or chop it into a totally new style that you always doubted would suit your face. No one but the people you live with are going to see it if it’s terrible, and if it turns out great, you can always recreate it after Circuit Breaker ends.
And if you’ve gotten a little tired of the clothes you have hanging in your closet, try new ways to restyle or reuse them.
Check out local hosts and personalities Munah Bagharib and Fauzi Aziz’s Instagram Live on Apr. 26 at 9pm, during which they will be demonstrating how to make a new fashion statement from old clothes. (Trust us, you’ll tote-ally love this one.)
But most importantly: take good care of yourself and people around you.
In times like this, there’s no need to feel guilty if you’re not using the extra time “productively”. Take extra care of yourself (now you’ve got the time), and allow your body to rest however it may need.
The most important thing for all of us right now is to take care of ourselves and those around us, both physically and emotionally.
If you are in need of emotional support — be it stress over finances or marital and family tensions — call the National Care Hotline at 6202 6868. Trained officers will be able to link you up with social service agencies and specialised services if needed.
You can also reach out to any of the helplines listed below:
Staying inside isn’t easy, but it’s incredibly important during times like this for us to do so, as a way to protect others and ourselves. Only then can we come out of this Covid-19 situation stronger.
So let’s all stay united, engage in some of the above activities, and enjoy our time at home.
And remember to tag #stayhomeforSG on Instagram to inspire others on things that they can do at home, and to be featured as part of the campaign.
Learn more about SG United from its Telegram channel and the SG United portal.
This sponsored article by SG United made the author realise she should really go clean her kitchen.
Top images via Facebook / Leslie Koh and courtesy of Rachel Ng.