We planned a week’s worth of lockdown activities for you and your housemates

From a night out at home to online exercise classes, we’ve got you covered

3 years ago

covid-19 flatmate housemate isolation lockdown

Lockdown 2.0 may be upon us, but don’t let that stop you from having fun! We’ve planned a week’s worth of activities for you and your housemates to do in lockdown.

Monday – Pyjama day

So it’s Monday morning. Everyone hates it. Despite this, it seems that uni is hell-bent on ensuring that we’re always busy, all of the time. Let’s be real – no one really wants to bother to get up and dressed anyway, so our solution is simple: don’t! Treat yourself and your housemates to a day of fluffy pyjama bliss.

If one of your housemates is feeling particularly brave, send them to the shops to stock up on popcorn and other snacks, so you can comfortably sit munching whilst watching pre-recorded lectures like you’re at the cinema. Will your lectures be quite as thrilling as a real blockbuster? Probably not, but you can try.

When you start getting a bit bored, we’d recommend a game we call “Speed Lecturing” – basically like speed dating, but with lectures. Each housemate sets up their laptop in their room with the door open, every 10, or 15 minutes, rotate to another housemates lecture. You can even hold sub-competitions like who has the fittest lecturer, or who has the best PowerPoint presentation – the possibilities are endless.

Tuesday – Arguments day

Tuesday is all about debates here at The Tab Newcastle; follow our Instagram and get involved in all the controversial polls on our story. Don’t just click and dash – ask all your housemates and start a debate at home. Enjoy getting into deep discussions, most of which will end with the passive-aggressive “but that’s just my opinion, you do you, I’m not gonna judge”. In other words: “You’re an immoral piece of dirt…but we have to share a kitchen so I’m not going to say that to your face”.

If Tuesday Debates doesn’t set you off, here’s something that will: Monopoly. The real test of any relationship is surviving a game of Monopoly without wanting to murder that power-hungry Tory, who has the sheer audacity to charge you £400 rent on a pink square. The simple fact of the matter is: if you didn’t have a ranking of favourite housemates before, you definitely will by the end of the game.

By now, everyone’s probably at each other’s necks, so before you all go to bed furious, we need a game to cut the tension. There’s only one antidote to a game as hostile as Monopoly: Twister. Nothing bonds a house closer together than having your face pressed against someone’s left butt-cheek while they’re forced to sniff your right armpit. By the end of the night, you’ll all be piled on top of each other on the floor and will have forgotten the trauma of the M-word… hopefully!

Wednesday – Extra-curricular activities day

Wednesday afternoons are usually devoted to sport and societies, so lockdown should be no different. You may be unsure about how to replicate an obscure society in the confines of a living room, but when there’s a will, there’s a way. You could replace hockey sticks with mops and brushes, netball could become a bucket and a toilet roll and you could do fencing with bits of spaghetti. Let your imagination do its job.

For those wanting to take the whole exercise thing a little more seriously, there’s always virtual exercise classes, from Joe Wicks to Mr Motivator. If you’re particularly stuck for ideas, we humbly suggest this gem of a video we found: a High School Musical HIIT class. And yes, there are additional videos for High School Musical 2 and 3. If cheesy millennial throwbacks don’t get you moving, nothing will.

For those of you who are less physically-inclined, there’s a far more calorific alternative. Why not, instead, attempt to recreate one of the bakes on last night’s Bake Off. Not only is baking fun and tasty, but offering free homemade cake to housemates is also likely to squash any lingering tension left over from yesterday’s Monopoly game.

Thursday – Pub night

This is the warm-up for tomorrow night, which – spoiler alert – will be a banger. Often this means something a little classier. We’re thinking some cards games, which if you’re anything like me, will soon evolve into a house of cards competition. Chances are one member of your flat will know at least one or two card tricks, so treat yourself to some magic too.

Don’t stop there, if you’d rather go to a comedy club, hop over to Netflix and find yourself a good bit of stand-up to watch. And if you’re still feeling wild, why not do a bit of SU karaoke. Ultimately, Thursday’s are a more low-key form of fun before Friday happens…

Friday – Club night

You’ve made it! You’ve got through another week of online lectures. We know many of you are missing your nights out in the Toon, so today is dedicated to you. You may not be out, but it will still be a night to remember. It’s simple: assign each housemate their favourite club and get them to create a playlist around that theme. Get dressed up, and when ready, make your way to the kitchen.

Granted, your drinks are limited to what you’ve been able to buy from Tesco but we dare say the alcohol limit may be a good thing for certain individuals in the house who will, of course, remain nameless (you know who they are). You can make up for it with a cheap dodgy disco light or even some fairy lights on strobe setting, and of course some cheesy tunes. We strongly recommend ending your night with a trip to Flares; get ABBA blasting and go wild when “Dancing Queen” comes on. You never know, you may discover you prefer “house clubbing” to actual clubbing.

Saturday – Sofa day

Now, this is similar to Monday, only there may be a few more headaches today. Once you finally manage to drag yourself out of bed at 11.45am, take a moment to ponder the choices you made last night. Hopefully, you didn’t get up to half as much trouble as you normally would. That’s a good thing, but don’t let that stop you being overdramatic about it. Today is devoted to one thing and one thing only – Netflix. Saturday’s aren’t meant to be artistic or edgy, so watch something easy that you’ve seen before: Friends, The Office, Suits, whatever you can agree on that takes minimal brainpower.

It’s the weekend so it’s also more likely that you’ll get a call from family members checking you’re okay. You’ll tell them you are, when the sad truth is you may not be. So be prepared to give out lots of love to your housemates as they miss home and miss normality. Look out for each other, and if you’re needing a mental health check, let us recommend a recipe for wellness during isolation.

Sunday – Classy day

Today is not about emotion, quite the opposite. Sunday is Classy Day, so get ready because it’s going to be the most stereotypical Sunday you’ve ever had. Once you’re dressed in your Sunday best, you’ll start by spending all morning cooking a big fat Roast Dinner for lunch. Give each flatmate one component of the meal, and get them to make the perfect version of that component. Once you each combine your efforts, you’ll have the perfect lunch. Next – stuff your faces (obviously). Treat it like a rehearsal to Christmas dinner, enjoy some posh dinner party convo about the weather or gardening, and eventually float from the table towards the TV.

By now it’ll be around 2pm, where there’s really a lull in any telly even vaguely worth watching. For those wanting to be particularly extreme in their classy efforts, we’d recommend watching Songs of Praise. At some point in the show, they’ll bring out a primary school banger you can belt out in harmonious chorus. Still, 15 minutes in you’ll get bored, ascend from the ashes of your post-meal slumber and suggest “an afternoon stroll around the park?”

Off you go, clad in your coat and wellies for a walk. This is also the one chance you have to get a break from your housemates: lockdown restrictions allow you to meet one person from another household outdoors. So if you really are sick of your house, call a friend and have a bit of respite, we won’t tell if you don’t.

Finally, another week has flown by, and once again, you’ve completely forgotten uni is even a thing. So you’ll probably spend Sunday night slaving away frantically doing all the work you forgot about. No wonder we’re all so tired on Monday morning.

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