NOTE: this is based on personal experience only and in no way seeks to presume that this was a common experience, nor diminish the (likely worse) experiences of many others. Neither I, nor any of my loved ones has been put into hospital or died due to the virus, so I write from the perspective of someone impacted most intensely by the lockdowns imposed by in response to … Continue reading How has the pandemic changed me?
I’m panting, head racing, heart beating out of control. Wondering if I will be sick, I click on the blue button on the screen and join my first Zoom class of the day. To the average person, this may sound like an overreaction. After all, what can be so scary about a row of boxes on a screen? But the multiple lockdowns over the past year have taken a toll on my mental health and social skills. According to the Mental Health Foundation, over half of UK adults think their future will be worse as a result of the pandemic, especially students and those with pre-existing mental health conditions. While the country is gearing up to be set free from COVID restrictions on the 21st of June, some are wondering whether they will be able to handle ordinary life ever again. After all, if I get anxious before a Zoom meeting, how will I cope in the middle of a crowd this summer? Continue reading Social Anxiety and COVID-19: How to Cope After Leaving Lockdown
It has been a year of actively avoiding physical touch. When we walk through the supermarket we duck and dodge the elderly ladies with inexplicable death wishes, we cringingly recoil from welcoming hugs offered by old (and apparently stupid) friends, and, like Lady Macbeth, we relentlessly scrub at the library desk before we sit down to prevent touching others by proxy. So, it only makes sense that touching sexual partners has somewhat lost its appeal. Continue reading Coping with Lockdown Libido Loss
Lockdown upon lockdown has either made time fly or crawl. One silver lining of this added time indoors is the necessary demand for creativity. Although, admittedly, much entertainment came from Netflix and alcohol… some stand out purchases really helped us through. Want company but housemates are at deadline central? No worries, just settle down with “Bones Jones” – our niche new housemate. This plastic skeleton … Continue reading Best Lockdown Buys: Themed Nights
With hairdressers closed and my boyfriend and me both desperate for a trim, I decided to take matters into my own hands and order the cheapest hair scissors I could find off Amazon in February. Although the scissors arrived within no time, it took us a few more days to bring up the courage to make use of them. While I was bombarding my boyfriend … Continue reading Best Lockdown Buys: Hair Scissors
The last time I saw live theatre was back in late 2019, when I was sat watching Paul O’Grady in drag performing in the pantomime version of Goldilocks. Despite my preconceptions of watching a pantomime as an adult, it was surprisingly rude and worthy of genuine laughs out loud. I left the theatre entertained and desperate to tell any unlucky acquaintance about the past two hours of sex and bum jokes I had just witnessed. Over a year later, it looks like theatres will finally be able to reopen to half capacity on 17 May 2021, and full capacity on that fated day in June 2021. But with the cinema industry hit hard enough to bankrupt Cineworld, things don’t bode well for the theatre industry. Continue reading Curtain Call in COVID-19
It’s an overwhelming understatement to say that it’s been a difficult year, for very obvious reasons. Everything, in our personal, professional, and literally physical existences, has become increasingly strained and under pressure. Approaching the year anniversary of our first lockdown, this pressure is building more than ever. This also means that it’s been almost a year since societies have been able to run any regular events. In-person events are crucial to the running of many societies and with guidelines changing all the time and the country moving in and out of lockdowns and tiers, the impact has been far felt. However, COVID-19 has had a particularly dramatic impact on the art community in Exeter, with restrictions preventing perhaps the most personal of in-person events, the life drawing class. Continue reading Interview: Art Society Discusses Lockdown Life Drawing
So, we have entered a third national lockdown. After the announcements in March and November, you would think that Boris Johnson and his Government would have a checklist of important information to include in a lockdown briefing. Unfortunately, this list seems to have been lost, mistakenly taken on a trip to Waitrose, leaving Boris to babble behind his podium, staring at a post-it with fruit, veg and toothpaste scribbled on it. Once again, university students were left puzzled on 4 January and were presented with a choice: to return or to stay home. Continue reading RAZZ Recommends: How to Cope with Your New Housemates aka, Your Parents
Something about this lockdown feels harder. Perhaps it’s the darkness that starts to creep in before dinnertime. Maybe it’s the weather: mostly grey, always cold, sometimes pouring. Or potentially it’s the sheer relentlessness of it all. Whatever it is, the majority of my days are characterised by a strange sense of time moving at the speed of treacle off a spoon. Continue reading Something About this Lockdown Feels Harder
During the first few months of the pandemic, many of us made banana bread and sourdough starters, and probably achieved little more creative output than choosing which pyjamas we could seamlessly transition into being daytime wear. Meanwhile, Taylor Swift wrote, produced and recorded not only one, but two albums, the second of which was released last week. Continue reading Review: evermore by Taylor Swift
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