We have a work culture that has been flipped on its head, pre coronavirus, many of us would wake in the morning, put our working clothes on and, grabbing a coffee for the journey, head out to start our day. Traditionally many office workers slogged away from 9-5 before packing up and heading home, repeating the same routine from Monday to Friday.
Read MoreCovid 19: or how I stopped worrying and learned to love Zoom. As Zoom has been the flavour of the month for almost every month since time began (do you, reader, also yearn for the golden era before quizzes), we are spending an inordinately large amount of time staring vacantly into the little fishbowls of each other’s homes.
Read More‘I think my phone is trying to take me down’, I thought to myself, paranoid, as I laid sprawled out on the floor staring at its screen from across my room. We were just together a few minutes ago, why is it already luring me in for round two? It seductively waves me over, winking and stroking my ego with all the ways it can fill my boredom.
Read MoreIn the past three months, volunteering has been seen as something that each one of us can do, rather than an activity reserved only to ‘charitable’ souls. The pandemic has forced people to think about what community - big or small - they are a part of, and what they could do to help keep others safe.
Read MoreSince the UK went into lockdown, and the world went crazy, it’s been difficult adjusting to the ‘new normal’. Some days I am the most productive, running 5k’s and baking banana bread, whilst other days it's a miracle I even leave my bed at all. On the days I am at my least productive, it is hard not to feel like I’m wasting time;
Read MoreI started mine about 10 minutes before a group of my school friends & I were due to perform our very energetic dance at a rival school’s competition. I was not prepared and was ushered to the office in silence by a teacher I didn’t know and handed what can only be described as THE BIGGEST SANITARY PAD IN THE WORLD.
Read MorePrior to the lockdown I felt like I had been running on ice for months. Since finishing University, I had felt like I had been moving frantically in a desperate attempt to stay balanced, but I couldn’t find a way to step forwards in the direction I wanted to go in.
Read MoreOur society has been built on the idea that time is linear, that we are constantly evolving and developing our ways of living and creating - however, Hauntology presents an alternative, that perhaps time is something less one-dimensional and in fact, the past, present and future are able to coexist through the acts of recycling and repetition.
Read MoreWhen nurtured, these sensitive characters (often highly reactive when young, seen to present physical excitement at stimuli that warranted a mere smile in the future extroverts) are referred to as orkidebarn, or ‘Orchid Children’. People that if brought up in nurturing and guided environments will bloom into flowers of unusual beauty, especially if given greenhouse care.
Read MoreAfter a short spell of illness which caused me to temporarily lose my appetite, I lost weight which as a result, and seemingly overnight, put an end to the negative abuse I received. Instead, I was greeted with comments like “Wow, don’t you look great?’”. I remember feeling seen and acceptable for the first time. I particularly remember a comment from a friend of my brothers who remarked that I was turning from an ‘ugly duckling into a swan’.
Read MoreTaking a relaxed approach is no longer acceptable in my opinion. If we want a beautiful planet to explore, we’ve got to save it. Which may mean taking fewer flights and planning holidays closer to home. If you aren’t prepared to give up your long-haul lusting then why not try and ensure your journeys are as environmentally friendly as possible; making sure there are no stopovers is one option when travelling huge distances. Websites such as ‘Skyscanner’ do the work for you and highlight the green journeys.
Read MoreTime-skip to teen years and everyone else’s crushes were starting to get a bit more practical. I had had a very generic sex-ed class at school, and I had an idea of how “all of that worked”, and while I still felt entitled to say “ugh gross” when my friends mentioned porn, I started realising not experiencing sexual attraction, especially during a literal storm of hormones, wasn’t that common. I already believed there was something wrong with me because I liked men, but this only seemed to make things more complicated.
Read MoreAlcohol plays an enormous part of many student lives. Freshers’ week is essentially a battleground where, after a couple of niceties enquiring where you’re from, what A-Levels you did and what you were studying, you’re sizing each other up over who can neck the most shots in 30 seconds, or who can down the dreaded dirty pint without puking before getting to the club.
Read MoreAlthough interracial relationships are great and, let’s face it, natural, interracial dating experiences are usually tied inextricably with racism. Interactions with some of my partner’s friends have been interesting to say the least…
Read MoreI remember feeling sick to my stomach, going home straight after the lecture and crawling into bed while I bled through my underwear. It would be another four years before I got my endometriosis diagnosis.
Read MoreWhen I was in school I used to self harm. The last time I did it was at university. It’s something I still think about a lot; not that I tell people that but I do still struggle. I still battle with something that feels like a craving; like wanting a cigarette or a glass of wine at the end of a hard day.
Read MoreHere I want to give you a bit of a flavour for the models these experts use to make their decisions. Perhaps, that’ll show you that we are not entirely flying blind. There is strong scientific backing for the steps we are taking for coronavirus, and hopefully, it will be translated into a good plan (although that’s really the job for the politicians).
Read MoreI asked a doctor friend for her thoughts. She said that smear tests, and all other tests for that matter, are so much part of their daily routine that they are focussing on the task, not looking at our bits. ‘One fanny is much like another fanny,’ she cheerfully reassured me, ‘we are so busy we don’t even think about it.’
Read MoreIt would simply cease to exist if I hadn’t given up dieting and discovered Intuitive Eating, which is a philosophy that pivots on honouring your hunger and eating what you want to. I used to think my hunger was the enemy: a devious scheming bastard whose calling card was an empty Penguin wrapper and a stomach full of guilt.
Read MoreOne hour of allotted time outdoors each day? Ay there’s the rub. When we have shuffled off this mortal coil - that is, out of quarantine - no doubt we’ll think back to how much shuffling we actually got done. The question on everyone’s lips: to be or not to be a pandemic-jogger.
Read More
