Before quarantine

This is Linda. Linda is a creative person. She has lots of hobbies and very little time. Linda teaches English to foreign students and immigrants. She loves her job and works full time at a local college. She enjoys being active; she cycles to work and visits the gym 3 times a week. Linda enjoys cooking. She also enjoys painting and decorating pages in her scrapbook. Linda lives in a city centre apartment with her husband and their daughter. Linda is very busy and does not feel there are enough hours in the day. She feels isolation would be the perfect time to start creative projects.

2nd week quarantine.

Linda has lots of time. She has been learning to teach online with webinars and short online courses. Linda has lots of information and has started to build a stock of interesting online lessons. Linda has maintained a healthy fitness routine with YouTube videos, enjoying kick boxing, wrestling, and cage fighting, though her husband, a little concerned at the vocal expression, has offered a yoga training course with the gift of a mat. Linda has subsequently offered her husband several creative uses for the yoga mat none of which involved actual yoga and it has not been mentioned again. Linda has enjoyed exploring ingredients for soup and has created her own hearty recipes using wonky vegetables and the surprise component of wonky biscuits.

4th week quarantine

After the 17th webinar, Linda feels she knows far more than she needs to know about online teaching. She now has a healthy resource library which could last the next 2 decades and feels on reflection she could not possibly listen to another word. Linda is still creative in the kitchen and can often be seen making gin cocktails with boot polish and Brasso. Linda feels it is important to maintain 5 a day whilst also finding a use for Brasso. Linda also feels that the effect of these cocktails on her kick boxing prowess is hitherto undervalued by current marketing campaigns and has offered to create her own healthy drinking video. Applying her artistic abilities is important for Linda and she has produced copious painted canvases and almost completed her ZEN colouring book although the family feel the current black vibe could be replaced with a variety of colours used within the lines to better effect. The family feel Linda’s mental health is mental and suggest she returns to writing. Linda feels mindful that her mental health is completely mental and does not require any more discussion on the matter. Linda has made a Mexican out of a wonky beef tomato and a coffin out 12 cereal packets.

End of quarantine

Linda feels isolation has been beneficial. She has made lots of new friends in South Korea who follow her healthy drinking videos and has written a book on the health benefits of gin. She can swear profusely in 14 languages and has created a whole village out of empty boxes. She has also created a family of wonky turnips to live there. Linda has realised personal grooming is a choice and has been fascinated by the amount of body hair she can still grow at 58. She has shared this information with her Korean fanbase who have also followed her lead and the Instagram account posts daily updates. Linda will never do online teaching again and would like to focus on her new career as a full-time kick-boxing celebrity:’ The hairy fighter’.