The Dystopian Present

If the Foodie and Culture tours from yesterday weren't your cup of tea, maybe our other tour options will appeal to you! These tours are for the nature lovers and book worms out there who like a slower pace. Sit back and relax with your cuppa for some relaxing suggestions on ways to open up to nature and the mind during this pandemic. THE NATURE TOUR : Are you normally the outdoorsy type? Is staying within a 2km radius of your home driving you a bit mad? Well you don't need to fly halfway across the world in order to feel connected to nature. A bit of ingenuity and you will feel like you're climbing everest (your stairs should suffice) or enjoying the bucolic views from inside the Grand Canyon. Those of us who cannot walk around due to being in a high rise building, will have to enjoy most of the nature's pleasures from indoor plants, a window, or the very cool virtual online  tours of United States National Parks , from Yellowstone to the Grand Tetons, you can see...

While many of us are grieving our Easter hols [hashtag first world problems], there are ways we can get imaginative and create the best quarantine-imposed, stay-cation ever! Here are a few "trips" you can take from the comfort (and safety) of your own home, with an exotic twist. THE FOODIE TOUR : Take a delicious culinary trip around the globe! Let your paltry cupboard ingredients take you to an inventive land of tasty delights! Pick a country that you think will fire up those taste buds and whisk you away to one of your favorite holiday spots. Central America : Enjoy the subtropical flavors of central America. Recreate gallo pinto (delicately spiced red beans and rice), savory tacos, and the satisfyingly unique flavor of cooked plantains. For the full meal, have it with scrambled eggs for breakfast or a char grill whole fish for dinner. Central American food is simple and satisfying with all of your complex proteins and carbs you need without much effort. Home made ...

Hello Home-dwellers! It's a lazy, overcast Sunday here in Ireland, especially after new "lockdown" rules were officially put in place as of 12:00 AM 27 March. What it entails for us is that no one may leave the house over the next 2 weeks (within a 2 km radius) except for the following reasons : Picture from : News sky - For essential workers - Food shopping - Medical appointments/pick up medical products - Brief personal exercise, obeying 2 meter distancing restrictions, and within a 2km radius of house - Farming : for food production or care of animals - Vital family reasons (no social visits) - Further non-essential shops will be closed and all community centres (educational and otherwise) - Non-essential surgeries, procedures, and visits will be postponed - All visits to hospitals, resident facilities, and prisons stop (except under special compassionate circumstances) - Travel to offshore islands restricted to the residents of those islands - Phar...

Greetings Homebounders! It's day 16 for us here in Ireland and I know that some are getting a little cabin fever. Fear not, as I am here to help! I have been preparing the last decade for this: whether it be as a remote online store employee, a lonely graduate student alone in the lab with only my research to console me, or as a stay-at-home-parent, I've got a few tips that may help make this Dystopian Present more bearable to those who are socially-distancing-challenged by nature. An eerily quiet Dublin town a few weeks before the quarantine 1. ORGANIZE : Having had to be self-motivated for a long time, I have always found that making a list helps me stay focused. What's nice about creating your own schedule isn't that it's an opportunity to be lazy, but rather that you're able to make that schedule flexible. There are things that need to be done, but always leave padding in there in case someone calls that you  need to chat to, you feel tired and...

At-home-parents around the world, though saddened by this pandemic, must deep down feel a sigh of relief that maybe NOW people may have a glimpse of their life and understand what it's like to work out of the house on a daily basis. To not be able to really leave your workspace. To not have your hours set of a 9am-5pm schedule, but rather on a "it's done when it's done" schedule. All the while, taking care of a child. I myself dread the seemingly benign, but leading question, "What do you do?". Considering we live in an overall culture that values money over anything else, the implication that someone does not make monetary units must equal that they have no value or worth. There are a few answers an at-home-parent can give to this question to satisfy : 1. Meekly say "at home parent", 2. Try to discuss ways you have been educated and your hobbies (you know, because a job does not define the person you are) and then drop the "at-home-pa...