Range of options to keep you busy during lockdown
Image: 123RF
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s strict measures announced in his address to the nation on Monday night have turned life as we know it upside down.
With public amenities and beaches closed since last week and a 21-day lockdown coming into effect from midnight on Thursday there are no more weekend events or walks on the beach. Children’s play dates and braais with friends are, for now, just great pastimes.
Whether you’re still going to be in work mode from Monday to Friday or trying to find activities to keep you from going mad, we’ll all need something to get us through the next three weeks.
So here are five things to keep you sane over lockdown:
EXERCISE
Follow a YouTube video, download a home workout app from Google play store, support local instructors offering online classes, play with your dog or just put some music on and dance around with your family. Whatever it is, get some form of exercise into your daily routine.
Dynamic Body studio owner and East London-based Pilates instructor Vicky Luff has tested her online classes over the last week and hopes to keep her clients moving throughout this strange time.
“Interaction with people is such an important part of our daily lives and I think trying to keep that up in some way and maintain a normal routine is really going to help us through this time.”
“I want to try to keep my clients positive during this journey and hopefully the classes can spread to more people, especially the Zumba because its all about dancing about and having a lot of fun,” she said.
Virgin Active has also made a number of online workouts available on its Virgin Active app.
“We understand that this is a difficult time, but exercise is a great antidote for stress and supports a healthy immune system, so we encourage you to stay healthy and as active as you can,” the health club said in a recent statement.
There are thousands of online courses to take, from Ivy League schools to platforms like Skillshare, Shaw Academy, Udemy, and more.
There are now more than 450 free Ivy League online courses offered from top universities such as Yale, Harvard, Brown, Colombia University, Dartmouth and more.
Courses in computer science, programming, humanities, science and more are on offer and can be accessed by visiting www.classcentral.com
Alison also offers more than 1,500 free online courses in business, humanities, health, technology and other subjects. The platform also offers the option to receive a certificate (at a cost), once you complete your courses.
If you’re looking for something a little less academic, Skillshare has more than 10,000 free online courses, from doodling advice and learning how to paint with watercolours to brushing up your digital marketing skills and even learning to brew the perfect cup of coffee.
GETTING CREATIVE
Draw, paint, colour in, take photos, get crafty and make some art. From adult colouring-in books and making noodle necklaces with your children to online drawing tutorials, there’s a myriad of options. One is the 21-day lockdown photo challenge recently started by local camera store, Photoquip.
Sharing a list of prompts or themes, some more abstract then others, Photoquip has come up with a different photographic challenge for each day of the stay at home saga.
Image: 123RF
Simply take a photo using the prompts as guidelines and share it on Instagram with the after hashtags: #photoquip21daychallenge, #photoquiponline, #photoquipRSA.
The prompts list can be found on Photoquip’s Facebook and Instagram pages.
“As a business we’re faced with a really unfortunate scenario of having to close for three weeks. This photo challenge was a spur of the moment thing we came up with and it’s really just to keep all our customers and the greater community creatively stimulated and entertained,” Photoquip sales manager Damien Bradshaw said.
“We’re definitely looking forward to seeing all the results. I’ve also kept the challenge fairly simple so people can get their children to join in and everyone can judge each other and pick who had the best photo of the day.”
VISITING A MUSEUM (VIRTUALLY)
Google Arts and Culture has partnered with more than 1,200 museums from around the world to offer virtual tours of some of the most famous works of art, artefacts and more.
It can be a bit overwhelming to navigate because there is just so much to “see”; specific art works such as Monet’s lilies and Van Gogh’s Starry Night and even the Taj Mahal can be viewed via the online platform
Here’s a list of 10 international museums offering online visits via Google Arts and Culture:
1 The Guggenheim Museum, New York
2 The Natural History Museum, London
3 The Uffizi Gallery, Florence
4 Musée d’Orsay, Paris
5 The J Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
6 The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), New York
7 Museo Frida Khalo, Mexico
8 The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul
9 Pergamon Museum, Berlin
10 Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
The Vatican Museum in Rome also offers a virtual tour which can be accessed via its website.
Some SA art galleries such as the Norval Foundation and Stevenson Gallery have digital content and artworks available for viewing on their Instagram pages.
While there is no virtual tour available, the Johannesburg Art Gallery has a series of online exhibits available via Google Arts And Culture.
Zeitz Mocaa marketing and communications head, Annicia Manyaapelo said the museum would soon be partnering with Google Arts and Culture to offer a virtual tour.
“We have also started a social medial campaign #MOCAAfromYourCouch and our content is live on YouTube,” said Manyaapelo.
The Zeitz also has virtual tours of some exhibitions available, including ‘Five Bhobh — Painting At the End of an Era,’ and Still Here Tomorrow to High Five You Yesterday ...’
The Nelson Mandela Museum in Mthatha also offers a virtual tour, which is available on its website
“The main reason for our virtual tour is to showcase the exhibitions the museum has on offer and to keep the interest alive so people can come visit us when this is all over,” Nelson Mandela Museum spokesperson Fumanekile Wisani said.
Scrabble, 30 Seconds, Monopoly, Cluedo or Uno. Take your pick, get your family together and have a blast. There are also tonnes of online games you can play alone or with others, no matter how close or far apart you are.
Google playstore is a gold mine of online quiz games, puzzles, card games and more, many of which can be downloaded for free.
Herman van Zyl, manager at BT Games in Vincent Park, recommended some popular PSP, Xbox and PC multiplayer games that can be played online.
These include Fortnite, Apex, Call of Duty and Fifa, as well as Minecraft and the Lego title games.
“Fortnite is by far still our most popular multiplayer game. It’s designed for pretty much everyone, there isn’t a major age restriction,” he said.
“If you’re looking for something for older players then Apex is one of the more popular online shooting games. There are about 100 players on a map and you’re all vying to be the last one standing.
“Battle Field and Call of Duty are also fairly popular online games. We’ve noticed that racing games don’t do too well online, but Fifa does.”
He said Minecraft was great for children between the ages of six and 13. The focus of the game is to build pretty much anything and explore the land for resources. It can be played online with others, as well as a one-player game.
“Minecraft is a continuous game, so the only limit is your imagination. It can also be played on pretty much any console or downloaded to your phone,” Van Zyl said.
“The Lego title games are also great for children because they’re mostly about puzzle solving and it’s done in a very comical style.”