From face masks to Zoom: How our lifestyles changed in the year of the pandemic
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From face masks to Zoom: How our lifestyles changed in the year of the pandemic
From the about unlikely style accompaniment to being glued to any kind of screen, here's a quick look at how this year'southward pandemic has completely inverse how we lived our lives.
(Art: Jasper Loh)
23 Dec 2022 06:30AM (Updated: 10 Jul 2022 07:51PM)
What a twelvemonth this has been – 2022 volition always be remembered for a pandemic that changed our lives – and lifestyles – forever.
When it started early on this year – and we saw all those scenes of people panic buying toilet newspaper (seems funny now, right?), heard the word "lockdown" and "social distancing" a lot, and were firmly told no more travelling for now – it actually did seem like the terminate of the world as nosotros knew information technology.
And in hindsight, the merely manner we could have gotten through it was, equally Bruce Lee suggested in the biopic Exist H2o – to get with the catamenia.
And in a fashion, we did – and picked upwards some life lessons along the manner.
We Made FASK MASKS FASHIONABLE
Until this year, the only people we knew who wore confront masks were dentists, doctors in the OR and erm, the Dark Knight villain Blight.
Then COVID-19 came along and we all had to wear masks and we all sounded like Bane. But unlike Batman'southward nemesis, who just used one design, we engaged our creativity and became mask fashionistas.
Yeah, health debates aside, face up masks were officially the fashion statement of the twelvemonth. Plainly white ones? Pffft! Accessorise your OOTD with a particularly designed one – and we had a lot to choose from that nosotros actually wanted to article of clothing. Sort of.
WE WORKED (AND LEARNED) FROM Habitation
Another lesson we learned was how to deal with your home turning into your role workstation, your child'south classroom and your playground when the "excursion breaker" came into outcome (was it really that long ago?).
Nosotros made jokes about WFH at first ("Lament most having to wake up early on to go to work? Now you don't take to. Ever.") but then we resigned ourselves to the fact that our home wasn't our "private space" anymore and merely got on with it. And parents, in particular, levelled up.
WE ZOOMED AND TIKTOKED
Our laptops and handphones became our most-used tools, and apps such as Zoom became our new must-have: We communicated with colleagues on it, nosotros chatted with family members from all over the world with it, watched a lot of animals; our children learned their daily lessons (and some even did CCA) on information technology. (How teachers bargain with 30 kids in the aforementioned physical infinite is a wonder.)
Also, thanks to TikTok and livestreaming, we managed to become our make full of entertainment, whether it be the latest dance moves or watching our favourite musicians perform in socially distanced concerts. One time we got the hang of that, we realised that hey, we didn't need to actually exit the business firm anymore to get annihilation. Except toilet paper mayhap…
WE WENT CRAZY SHOPPING AND Rampage-WATCHING
Lazada, Shopee, Amazon, Netflix – all became even bigger buzzwords than before.
Want to buy that new outfit? Society online. Desire to spotter that Best Flick Oscar-winning pic by that Korean guy? Watch online. Desire to follow that do class? Join online. Want to consume from that restaurant that your friends were raving most? Gild online.
Desire to read the coolest article about living with COVID in 2020? You're doing it right now.
SOME OF US BECAME 'CHEFS'
And speaking of food, those who put "learn to cook" as a New Year Resolution at the end of 2019, well, this was your twelvemonth, wasn't it?
Everybody decided to unleash their inner Masterchef. There was but one slight hitch. Apparently, everyone decided to become bakers baking only 1 thing: Sourdough bread. What well-nigh a nice focaccia? Or a clever multigrain? It seemed similar it was the only Instagrammable bread out in that location, the pain du jour (although for some, it was just a hurting).
Speaking of making meals, cooking videos also became a thing, as well; and thanks to a certain Malaysian orange polo-shirt wearing uncle called Roger, fried rice started popping up on all our video recommendations. Everywhere we turned, it was fried rice: Jamie Oliver doing fried rice, Gordon Ramsay doing fried rice, some random Australian guy doing fried rice … it was everybody and their mum doing fried rice.
Unless they were making Dalgona coffee.
WHILE OTHERS BECAME ARTISTS AND GARDENERS
Apart from cooking, several of us also rediscovered or reignited our creative and gardening skills.
There were those who took it to the next level: Soprano vocalizer Christina The went from singing to writing a book of stories she told friends and family during the "circuit breaker" called Diary of a One-time Covidiot. Another author, Monica Lim, who wrote the popular children'southward book series Secrets Of Singapore, did the opposite and started to create art pieces that she sold online for charity.
And then you've got the more domestic examples – of people pottering about and indulging in their newly found greenthumb. Information technology was no surprise that gardening tools were among the about popular things people bought online.
WE REDISCOVERED SINGAPORE'Due south REAL-LIFE HEROES
Nosotros're talking well-nigh people whom we've oft taken for granted – and no, information technology's not your aunty you lot meet once a year.
It was the medical staff working their butts off every twenty-four hour period to proceed this pandemic under control, the hawkers who fed everyone, the commitment guys who bring your dinner or shopping correct to your doorstep, the cleaners who ensured that garbage and litter were cleared regularly, the domestic helper who made sure you have your bones creature comforts every day.
Nosotros REDISCOVERED SINGAPORE (Also: #ARMCHAIRTRAVEL)
Sure, the pandemic scuppered our travel plans but we landed on our feet. Quite literally. Walking and cycling became the activities of selection for many people (yay, exercise!).
Several of our celebs took to posting their walking trails on social media – we now know Zoe Tay likes MacRitchie Reservoir and fifty-fifty followed two CNA reporters on their 110km journey around the island on human foot.
With new routes, including the Lornie Nature Corridor, we pounded the pavement enthusiastically; sometimes, a trivial also enthusiastically – seriously, did we ever find out who made away with the dino teeth along Jurassic Mile at Changi?
Meanwhile, those of us who preferred a more sedentary lifestyle were urged to take a "Singapoliday" and rediscover our state with SingapoRediscovers vouchers. We enjoyed #staycays at our favourite hotels and spas; we went on "daycations" to museums, the wild fauna reserves and tours of Singapore.
Some of us didn't fifty-fifty bother leaving the house: Why go somewhere when you tin just play Animate being Crossing to visit Sentosa? Also, it was tiring enough watching those celebs on their walking trails, we really didn't demand to really become do it, right?
We LEARNED TO Accept It Ho-hum
But of course, one of the biggest lessons of the year was something more than abstract just no less important: Learning to take a break from our rat race, living boring and embracing the concept of what the Danes call "hygge" (pronounced hoo-gah).
According to the official travel guide to Denmark, hygge refers to the creation of "a warm atmosphere and enjoying the proficient things in life with good people".
In that location was an online article by a dr. in Singapore named Alvona Loh who talked about how she embraced hygge: "The outcome of this shift in mindset was transformative. In the past, I was easily fatigued and often living under high pressure. For the first time in my life, I lived life in an unhurried mode, with copious cancelled plans making way for more introspective thoughts that lulled me into restful peace."
And it was something many of us – subsequently a menstruation of adjustment – undoubtedly experienced.
Very soon, nosotros'll be welcoming a new year, and who knows what 2021 will bring? If we've taken all the lessons of 2022 to heart, we tin can handle whatever 2022 throws at us.
Merely, delight, no more sourdough Insta pics, okay? And where'due south that travel bubble?
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Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/entertainment/look-back-at-2020-covid-pandemic-face-mask-zoom-256171
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