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5 Things To Do During Coronavirus Isolation

Lockdown Isolation

Coronavirus Self Isolation, Lockdown, Quarantine – Whatever level of official measures your country is at in regards to the COVID-19 outbreak, the message is fairly clear: Stay at home.

But staying at home can be a problem for many. Not physically, that’s easy – just stay at home! No, it’s the mental side of things that can get a bit hard. We humans are social creatures, and we’re not used to staying cooped up in the one place for too long these days.

Here in the UK, we’re on lockdown, only allowed to leave our house for a short time each day for exercise, and to get groceries approximately once a week. Apart from that (in our household, anyway), we’re at home, as I am on maternity leave currently and my fiancé is working from home.

The urge to stay in pyjamas all day and watch one mindless Netflix show after the next, day in and day out, grows stronger and stronger for us all in isolation. However that can just feed into a negative mental health cycle that’s then hard to break free from. So let’s discuss some of the ways you can try to avoid a complete swan dive into depression during COVID-19 isolation.

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Top 10 Postpartum Essentials

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The postpartum stage is a beautiful, difficult, overwhelming mess of a time. It’s a shock to the system, whether it’s your first child or fourth.

I know I had a tough time adapting to motherhood and all that comes with it after the birth of my baby girl, Ada: The sleeplessness, the full-body exhaustion, the mental load of postpartum.

To help any other soon-to-be mothers out there, I’ve compiled a list of my postpartum essentials – just like I did with my pregnancy essentials list – to help you through this hectic time.

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A wicked weekend at Alton Towers theme park

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The sun wasn’t out, but our guns were!

As a foreigner living in the United Kingdom, it’s almost a rite of passage for me to visit Alton Towers, one of the major theme parks in England.

Practically everyone who has grown up in the UK, or lived there for some time, has visited the park before.

But, after almost a year living in Bristol, I (an adrenaline junkie and rollercoaster lover) had somehow not gotten around to it yet!

So, to combat this problem, recently Dan, our friends Will and Elyse, and I headed to to the Towers for a weekend of fun.

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Celebrating Ethical Living and Pride in Bristol

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Last weekend Bristol was inundated with rainbow flags, banners, decorations and fashion as the annual Pride March was held in the city.

Following a week of LGBTQ+ events across Bristol, the March and harbourside festival, held on the Saturday, was the headline event of 2018 Pride, as it is each year.

As if that wasn’t enough for me, another amazing event was happening in the city on the same day: The first-ever Viva!City Ethical Life Festival.

From the same creators of the Viva!Vegan Festivals (Such as the one I went to in Cardiff earlier this year), the Ethical Life Festival celebrated sustainability and green living alongside veganism.

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Low Impact shopping at Bristol’s first Zero Waste store

Like many other South-West UK zero-wasters, I was delighted to hear about the opening of Zero Green in Bristol recently.

The gorgeous and green shop was opened by two passionate women, Lidia and Stacey, who said:

“Zero Green came about for two reasons; firstly, we were both becoming frustrated about how much packaging there is on everyday items and our understanding of how much damage plastic, and specifically single use plastic, was doing to our planet. Secondly, we realised that if we wanted to see something done about it we would have to do it ourselves! 

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Giving Zero Waste Hair Dye a Shot with LUSH Henna

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I’ve been dying my hair chocolate brown with a packet dye for around seven years now, but with my transition towards a more zero waste/low impact lifestyle, I decided this habit had to come to an end.

The chemicals in the conventional hair dye, the plastic packaging, and the resources wasted to create what is, essentially, a product for my vanity, was not worth it anymore, in my humble opinion.

So I stopped dying my hair approximately five or six months ago, when I figured my roots were a colour I could deal with and would let grow out.

However, now that the colour in my hair has faded, I’ve been left with a brassy, almost red, browny colour that does not cause me to look in the mirror and think happy thoughts.

I’m sorry, earth, but I just couldn’t deal with it.

So I looked for a solution.

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Cardiff Viva! Vegan Festival: A treat to my tastebuds!

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One of the things I most love about living in the UK is the amount of vegan options and food festivals that exist.

There seems to be a plethora of choice, so many celebrations available, and an abundance of accessibility for vegos here, compared to that of my previous home in regional Australia.

So, of course, I’m lapping it up and embracing all the veg-friendly events and food choices I can whilst I’m living here in England.

Back in February the Cardiff Viva! Vegan Festival was held, and since 1. Cardiff is just a short train journey away from Bristol, where I live, and 2. I’ve never actually been to a vegan festival before, OF COURSE I had to attend.

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The coffee pod conundrum

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Source: Wikimedia Commons

Ah, coffee pods. Another “marvellous modern invention”, of which the world has begun to realise may be more of a detriment than an advantage.

The single-use coffee pod was invented in the early 1990s, and at present it is believed that Australians are using approximately three million coffee pods a day.

Millions of households in Australia own a pod machine, with the pod market set to overtake the whole coffee bean market in a short period of time.

Coffee pods were something I hadn’t given much thought to until recently, as I’d never used them much before, apart from the odd occasion at a hotel buffet breakfast when it was the only option.

But recently they’ve begun to grind my gears.

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How and why you should get involved in Earth Hour 2018

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Our earth is beautiful, yes, and if you want to keep enjoying it the way we are today, you’re going to have to make some better choices right now.

This week, you have the opportunity – placed right in front of you, on a silver platter, without even moving from your comfortable spot on the lounge – to make a difference for our earth.

Earth Hour is set to take place between 8.30-9.30pm (local time) this Saturday, March 24.

If you haven’t heard of Earth Hour before, it is an initiative set up by the WWF. The first ever Earth Hour occurred in Sydney in 2007, and spread around the world in the following years.

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