Lockdown 2.0
- courtneykdavies
- Nov 16, 2020
- 2 min read
After being put into lockdown just over a week ago, it isn’t how we expected November to go. We had birthday plans, restaurants we wanted to go too, Christmas plans, which are all now down the drain.
This time last year, we were visiting Christmas markets, light switch ons and going on nights out. This year, we’re having to relive this through our Snapchat memories. With all Christmas events cancelled for the foreseeable future, it’s hard to get into the festive spirit. Manchester Christmas markets are one of our favourite things, it’s impossible to not feel Christmassy when you’re there. They sell the best Dutch pancakes, hot chocolate, and they have authentic German bratwurst. The best time to go is at night, because it’s packed full of people with Christmas music playing. But instead this will have to wait until next year.
Manchester Christmas markets 2019
Instead, we’re decorating the house during lockdown for different occasions. First of all, we threw our housemate a surprise birthday afternoon tea. We bought some decorations, balloons and snacks to celebrate, trying to make the day as good as possible from inside. We managed to keep it all a surprise, and even created a video from her family and friends who couldn’t join her on the day. When planning, we didn’t realise you could get non-helium ‘Happy Birthday’ balloons and we nearly hyperventilated while blowing them up.
Now our focus is on decorating the house for Christmas. Already, we’ve bought a few decorations: some tinsel for the staircase, a blow-up Santa and reindeer and we have a small Christmas tree. We’re planning on having an entire Christmas themed day to get us in the spirit, with baking, decorating, Christmas films and Christmas music.
Other than decorating, we’ve been focusing on our uni work and because both our workplaces are still open, this has allowed us to get out the house and socialise with other people. We’re really trying to throw ourselves into second year and sometimes the stress of the workload and the independence of online learning, it can all pile on top of you sometimes. This is why we’re taking time out of our days to go for walks round the city and runs in the park. From one of our recent walks, we discovered a new area of Manchester which we haven’t seen before – and it looks the perfect place for an Autumn walk.
It’s also important during lockdown to support smaller businesses, especially as it’s the festive season. One of our favourite places is Gooey, they sell cookies and donuts and they’re the perfect treat for when you’re feeling a bit down.
But for now, we’re trying to make the most of a bad situation, even if it does mean spending our nights on the sofa, with a homemade hot chocolate, watching I’m a Celebrity.
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