This was published 3 years ago
Opinion
The little things can make lockdown life more bearable
Jacquie Byron
AuthorWhen my city endured its first long lockdown, my gorgeous mother moved in. Eighty-seven at the time (graduated to 88 now) she and my husband became the focus of the Corona Club Diaries, a little social media journal I added to daily, charting our pandemic adventures and distracting me from the general glumness of life.
Within weeks, I began noticing comments from people about the fact we set the table every night, used tablecloths and napkins, occasionally candles and even condiments. Condiments? What’s so unusual about putting a jar of mustard or a bottle of sauce on the table?
Setting the table, linen, candles and napkins can help with lockdown life.Credit:
I’ve always loved a domestic flourish, a bit of ritual to help snazz up the day. I don’t know when it started, but I know by my early 20s I was throwing vodka-themed winter gravlax parties and making martinis for “in-home” dining nights for my then boyfriend – now husband. I’ve never looked back.
The pandemic has opened up a strange virtual world where we actually see more inside some people’s lives and let more of them into ours. (Cue the work Zoom I was halfway through when Mum tootled in dressed in kitten-covered flannelette pyjamas to see if I wanted a cuppa.) Suddenly, I’ve realised that what I consider day-to-day behaviours, others see as, at best, special occasion touches and, at worst, my manufactured affectations.
I believe such affectations have always made my life more pleasant and, during lockdowns, have even helped my household. Touches such as a gin at six o’clock, a cooked breakfast on the weekend, the $120 folding table and chair set outside the front door (labelled the French Café), can all help punctuate days that too easily slide from morning chores or Microsoft Teams meetings to evening squabbles or late-night spreadsheet preparations.
I’m very lucky, I have a house which means I have a front patio, backyard and deck. I acknowledge these as blessings that cannot be overstated. But if you have a balcony, a kitchen bench, an armchair in the bedroom or a front stoop to call your own, then, with imagination, your own wonderland is within reach. It won’t replace nights on the town, afternoons at the cinema or picnics with family and friends, but it may keep a little joy and variety bubbling away.
At the height of lockdown my husband’s man cave became SHED the nightclub. I also “opened” DECK, my afternoon cocktail or tea bar, and PATIO which has since morphed into French Café. The grass out the back is named Mangan Reserve (Mum’s maiden name) and the minute there’s a cool Sunday with not much wind I’m out there with my $60 Bunnings firepit and a newspaper or magazine. Feels like camping, but with better toilet facilities (and access to a bar if that’s your thing).
Nothing I do is expensive, I should point out, but it does require imagination. And some things that may look ornamental are actually time or chore savers. The table cloth, for instance, is used whether we eat at the dining table or on the coffee table in front of the telly. The same one gets used all week. It catches all crumbs and spills and needs just a shake. I have a collection, most from op shops, and they work a treat.
I’m not of the Tolstoy mindset that all happy families are alike, in fact I know all households are very different. But whether you’re single and bubbling, overrun by kids and unravelling, or somewhere in between, my case for affectations remains the same. We live in a transitory world. Things come and go before I’ve even noticed the hashtag. So, try an experiment. Send a card instead of a text. Set the table for fish and chips. Enjoy a glass of mineral water and a bowl of olives on Saturday before dinner. Put a tent up in the backyard or a kid-sized box under the dining table. Use the nice glasses on a Monday night and the good linen because it’s Sunday. If it doesn’t make life nicer, I’m wrong. If it does, you’re very welcome.
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