The life of being a furloughed girl...
If you’d had told me several months ago that I’d be off work for 3 months without actually losing my job then I would hug you so tight that you’d be prying me off of you.
I would’ve been researching places to travel, what a dream situation wow 3 months off work to do whatever the hell I want. South East Asia, Africa, South America, Europe road trip, the options of things to do in that time are endless. My actual dream was to have a job that lets me have a sabbatical for 3-6 months to do what I want and then return home like nothings changed and you can easily slot back in and resume as you were - and this could’ve been it.. except I am not on a sabbatical, I did not choose to have 3-6 months off work. We are in fact in the midst of a global pandemic.
So instead of telling you about all the fun and exciting new places to visit, I’ve compiled a list of the 10 stages you may (or may not, I don’t know we’re not all the same are we) go through whilst you are being furloughed in 2020.
Stage 1:
Denial.
Some may say this is the most important stage, but honestly my least fave, it really held me back for a week I did not enjoy. This is usually in the first week of your furlough, and you’re just a bit confused. Why me? Was I not doing the work adequately enough? Could I have done more? What did I do wrong? No-one told me I was doing anything wrong and you’ve just laid me off work. That’s what it all feels like but in reality, you’re in a grand position that many would’ve loved. It just means you can destress and relax a little, it was a crazy time at the start. We were in peak lockdown, covid deaths were very high, it was still very new and it was a little worrying.. so to take a load off in the form of working 9-5 was actually a blessing.
Stage 2:
Baking.
Once you’re over the denial, you really start to love not working and are starting think you could quite possibly be a lady of leisure forever, unfortunately I’m not married (or remotely close to) a multimillionaire husband so I don’t think that is going to be my permanent life for a very long time (i’m not ruling it out though). But a girl can pretend can’t she, and what’s a popular home activity for those pesky ladies of leisure you say? Baking. To be fair the only things I’ve actually baked so far are banana bread cake, lemon drizzle and some raspberry & white choc cookies. But I alternated the banana and lemon for about 4 weeks in a row. When I went out to do my essential food shop, I would buy bananas knowing full well that I wouldn’t eat them and up making another banana bread, I don’t want to see another one for a very long time. Now when my bananas start to go black I’ve started to cut them up and put them in the freezer, great trick for smoothies!
Stage 3:
Home Fitness.
You’re off work for that long? You’ve nothing to do? You should really start shredding some pounds. You cheeky so and so. But honestly it’s the next stage, if you haven’t been here yet then you mustn’t have instagram because there was a point in lockdown where every single influencer was doing an insta live workout - after all that banana bread I thought why not join in. It’ll be fun they said. legs, bums & tums, some weird tabata thing (someone please tell me the reason for this name as it’s literally just lbt…), I even following an African dance group that was a fun one. In normal life I am quite an active person, I play netball 3 times a week but that’s it - I don’t do anything muscle exercises so when you’re working a muscle that hasn’t been worked that hard in quite some time, the aching afterwards is a bit of a b***ch. They said it’ll be fun… no I’m joking it is (sometimes) and when I find a good one I’ll stick to it but so far I haven’t found my online workout just yet. I scour YouTube most nights looking for a good ‘easy legs bums & tums workout’ hahaha.
Stage 4:
Venturing Outside.
I bought to take to university with me one year and it was a godsend for my time there, I loved it but when I returned home it sadly retired to the garage and it never came out to play again… until of course we’re all stuck in lock down and when you’re only allowed one daily outing a day you make it worthwhile - so I go the bike tyres pumped up and I was ready to go. I was just having a look at my strava app and I’ve done 133 miles in 3 months which considering I don’t go very far isn’t too shabby. It was really fun when the sun started to shine and it was a beautiful summers day (this weather lasted for about a 4 weeks, that was honestly probably our summer). As well as cycling, there was a thing back in April every was doing on instagram ‘run 5, donate 5, tag 5’ and I was gagging to be tagged just to see if I could do it, I wasn’t going to voluntarily run 5km but if a friend tagged me on instagram then yes I would. Anyway I eventually had to ask someone to tag me but whatever and boy was it hard, I ran for about 2 minutes tops and then had to walk for 10 minutes, painful ain’t the word. So after that disastrous attempt at running I decided that I could actually start to like it but I gotta take it slow and build up to the big one, so I started couch to 5k - I’m about to start week 4 and I think its a straight run for 5 minutes then a few breaks and repeat, it shouldn’t be too bad as it does get easier with every run I do but we’ll see.
Stage 5:
Boredom.
Now this is a BIG one. You will get bored but it will pass. Try out some new hobbies, obviously they might seem like boring ones - my main hobby before lockdown was netball so clearly I had to find something else to preoccupy the darker days. I’ve always loved making scrapbooks, so my first task I did was sort of loads of old family photos and sticking them into photo books this was a fun one as I love to look back at the old times.
Next activity I decided to take on was pursue my dream of becoming a tiktoker. I was on the tiktok bandwagon way before lockdown but as it got bigger so did my love for it, I learnt all the dances, tried to lipsyncs, but turns out the one video that made me go ‘viral’ was just me sitting guessing the theme songs of UK tv shows… to which everyone laughed at me because I’d never watched Friday night dinner before (side note; I’ve now watched all 6 series and LOVE it) so I think I’ve retired from making and am just going to stick to watching from now on.
The next thing I’ve done is drawing. This is a weird one, it started on with doing little puns and calligraphy writing, then I moved on to doodle patterns but now I’m doing full on pencil drawings like of characters and animals and stuff. I hated art when I was in school but it’s quite therapeutic in the evenings, and honestly my drawings aren’t half bad either. Another thing I do out of boredom is clean, it makes you feel good and like you’ve got your life together when you do this one, and the outcome is always nice and shiny.
And the last boredom activity I’ve done whilst being on furlough and in lockdown is do my makeup. I have to be REAL bored to do this too. I don’t wear much make up in daily life anyway, maybe a bit of mascara and eyeliner in the day and I’ll stick some face stuff on at night - so obviously because I haven’t been seeing anyone during this time there’s no point in makeup… except on the odd couple of occasions when everything in the house has been done theres no more tiktoks to watch (never, theres always tiktoks!) I decided to put a full face on, literally to take a few selfies then wipe it off again. Ridiculous.
Stage 6:
Coming to terms and settling.
And this is where I’m at now I believe. I’ve come to terms that everything I’m now just repeating the above stages over and over, I’ve learnt that it’s okay to not do anything with your time at home, sometimes you need those days where you do nothing. Maybe get cosy to watching a new series (i recommend normal people, afterlife and Jane the virgin) or maybe start a new book (i recommend queenie, sally rooneys books, Eleanor oliphant is not ok, flatshare), or even just put on some of your best tunes and have a dance around your bedroom (honestly one of my favourite pastimes and you could even count it as on of your home workouts).
A quick shout out to the MVP of lockdown - Zoom. Everyone loves a zoom quiz now right? Hahaha never going to a pub quiz after this is done - but they’ve been a laugh and a means of rounding the troop up even when we can’t go out and enjoy the beautiful weather by having a beer and a (paddling) pool party.
But for now let's pray and hope there isn't a second wave of corona virus because I DO NOT, I reapeat DO NOT want to go back into lockdown again for me to go all the way back to stage 1. Please god no.
Stay alert. Control the virus. Stay safe.
Lots of love
Hol
xx
So instead of telling you about all the fun and exciting new places to visit, I’ve compiled a list of the 10 stages you may (or may not, I don’t know we’re not all the same are we) go through whilst you are being furloughed in 2020.
Stage 1:
Denial.
Some may say this is the most important stage, but honestly my least fave, it really held me back for a week I did not enjoy. This is usually in the first week of your furlough, and you’re just a bit confused. Why me? Was I not doing the work adequately enough? Could I have done more? What did I do wrong? No-one told me I was doing anything wrong and you’ve just laid me off work. That’s what it all feels like but in reality, you’re in a grand position that many would’ve loved. It just means you can destress and relax a little, it was a crazy time at the start. We were in peak lockdown, covid deaths were very high, it was still very new and it was a little worrying.. so to take a load off in the form of working 9-5 was actually a blessing.
Stage 2:
Baking.
Once you’re over the denial, you really start to love not working and are starting think you could quite possibly be a lady of leisure forever, unfortunately I’m not married (or remotely close to) a multimillionaire husband so I don’t think that is going to be my permanent life for a very long time (i’m not ruling it out though). But a girl can pretend can’t she, and what’s a popular home activity for those pesky ladies of leisure you say? Baking. To be fair the only things I’ve actually baked so far are banana bread cake, lemon drizzle and some raspberry & white choc cookies. But I alternated the banana and lemon for about 4 weeks in a row. When I went out to do my essential food shop, I would buy bananas knowing full well that I wouldn’t eat them and up making another banana bread, I don’t want to see another one for a very long time. Now when my bananas start to go black I’ve started to cut them up and put them in the freezer, great trick for smoothies!
Stage 3:
Home Fitness.
You’re off work for that long? You’ve nothing to do? You should really start shredding some pounds. You cheeky so and so. But honestly it’s the next stage, if you haven’t been here yet then you mustn’t have instagram because there was a point in lockdown where every single influencer was doing an insta live workout - after all that banana bread I thought why not join in. It’ll be fun they said. legs, bums & tums, some weird tabata thing (someone please tell me the reason for this name as it’s literally just lbt…), I even following an African dance group that was a fun one. In normal life I am quite an active person, I play netball 3 times a week but that’s it - I don’t do anything muscle exercises so when you’re working a muscle that hasn’t been worked that hard in quite some time, the aching afterwards is a bit of a b***ch. They said it’ll be fun… no I’m joking it is (sometimes) and when I find a good one I’ll stick to it but so far I haven’t found my online workout just yet. I scour YouTube most nights looking for a good ‘easy legs bums & tums workout’ hahaha.
Stage 4:
Venturing Outside.
I bought to take to university with me one year and it was a godsend for my time there, I loved it but when I returned home it sadly retired to the garage and it never came out to play again… until of course we’re all stuck in lock down and when you’re only allowed one daily outing a day you make it worthwhile - so I go the bike tyres pumped up and I was ready to go. I was just having a look at my strava app and I’ve done 133 miles in 3 months which considering I don’t go very far isn’t too shabby. It was really fun when the sun started to shine and it was a beautiful summers day (this weather lasted for about a 4 weeks, that was honestly probably our summer). As well as cycling, there was a thing back in April every was doing on instagram ‘run 5, donate 5, tag 5’ and I was gagging to be tagged just to see if I could do it, I wasn’t going to voluntarily run 5km but if a friend tagged me on instagram then yes I would. Anyway I eventually had to ask someone to tag me but whatever and boy was it hard, I ran for about 2 minutes tops and then had to walk for 10 minutes, painful ain’t the word. So after that disastrous attempt at running I decided that I could actually start to like it but I gotta take it slow and build up to the big one, so I started couch to 5k - I’m about to start week 4 and I think its a straight run for 5 minutes then a few breaks and repeat, it shouldn’t be too bad as it does get easier with every run I do but we’ll see.
Stage 5:
Boredom.
Now this is a BIG one. You will get bored but it will pass. Try out some new hobbies, obviously they might seem like boring ones - my main hobby before lockdown was netball so clearly I had to find something else to preoccupy the darker days. I’ve always loved making scrapbooks, so my first task I did was sort of loads of old family photos and sticking them into photo books this was a fun one as I love to look back at the old times.
Next activity I decided to take on was pursue my dream of becoming a tiktoker. I was on the tiktok bandwagon way before lockdown but as it got bigger so did my love for it, I learnt all the dances, tried to lipsyncs, but turns out the one video that made me go ‘viral’ was just me sitting guessing the theme songs of UK tv shows… to which everyone laughed at me because I’d never watched Friday night dinner before (side note; I’ve now watched all 6 series and LOVE it) so I think I’ve retired from making and am just going to stick to watching from now on.
The next thing I’ve done is drawing. This is a weird one, it started on with doing little puns and calligraphy writing, then I moved on to doodle patterns but now I’m doing full on pencil drawings like of characters and animals and stuff. I hated art when I was in school but it’s quite therapeutic in the evenings, and honestly my drawings aren’t half bad either. Another thing I do out of boredom is clean, it makes you feel good and like you’ve got your life together when you do this one, and the outcome is always nice and shiny.
And the last boredom activity I’ve done whilst being on furlough and in lockdown is do my makeup. I have to be REAL bored to do this too. I don’t wear much make up in daily life anyway, maybe a bit of mascara and eyeliner in the day and I’ll stick some face stuff on at night - so obviously because I haven’t been seeing anyone during this time there’s no point in makeup… except on the odd couple of occasions when everything in the house has been done theres no more tiktoks to watch (never, theres always tiktoks!) I decided to put a full face on, literally to take a few selfies then wipe it off again. Ridiculous.
Stage 6:
Coming to terms and settling.
And this is where I’m at now I believe. I’ve come to terms that everything I’m now just repeating the above stages over and over, I’ve learnt that it’s okay to not do anything with your time at home, sometimes you need those days where you do nothing. Maybe get cosy to watching a new series (i recommend normal people, afterlife and Jane the virgin) or maybe start a new book (i recommend queenie, sally rooneys books, Eleanor oliphant is not ok, flatshare), or even just put on some of your best tunes and have a dance around your bedroom (honestly one of my favourite pastimes and you could even count it as on of your home workouts).
A quick shout out to the MVP of lockdown - Zoom. Everyone loves a zoom quiz now right? Hahaha never going to a pub quiz after this is done - but they’ve been a laugh and a means of rounding the troop up even when we can’t go out and enjoy the beautiful weather by having a beer and a (paddling) pool party.
But for now let's pray and hope there isn't a second wave of corona virus because I DO NOT, I reapeat DO NOT want to go back into lockdown again for me to go all the way back to stage 1. Please god no.
Stay alert. Control the virus. Stay safe.
Lots of love
Hol
xx
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