Activities To Do During Dry January In A Pandemic
By Jess Commons
Right, you’ve committed to Dry January. During a pandemic. While you’re stuck inside thanks to Lockdown Number Three.
The first weekend after NYE was probably a breeze, you were still recovering from Christmas indulgence. The following weekend? Tougher.
You’re trying. But you’ve seen all the films on Prime, you’ve binged Bridgerton and you can’t face another Zoom call. So what do you do?
Look, no one said giving up alcohol was going to be easy. But here are a few activities to try and keep you occupied and out of the wine aisle for the rest of the month. Don’t give up yet, you’ve come this far…
Life drawing
Life drawing is the perfect Dry Jan activity. Classes generally take place in the evening and they don’t serve booze because that would only encourage sniggering. Just because we’re in a pandemic and IRL stuff has been cancelled, don’t think that life drawing classes aren’t still going on virtually.
Find life drawing tutorials, workshops, pointers and virtual sessions at…
Love Life Drawing
This 2019 tutorial from the Royal Academy
London Drawing
The Jolly Sketcher
Soho Life Drawing
Take a class at the School Of Life
At my friendship group’s Secret Santa last Christmas I was given a voucher for any class at the School of Life. After lamenting the absence of a scented candle, I realised it was a pretty cool present. They have courses on everything from ‘How To Be Confident’ to ‘How To Realise Your Potential’ to ‘Learn To Trust Again’. Wait, maybe they were trying to tell me something…
Sadly, the School of Life is closed thanks to COVID but they’re still running classes online (yay for out-of-Londoners!) and How To Be Sociable is looking mighty tempting after nine months of actively avoiding company.
Get an impressive signature dish
Use your booze purgatory to polish your culinary skills. And why not work on making an impressive signature dish? Whether it’s as simple as roast lamb or as complex as a chocolate soufflé, lock yourself in the kitchen and perfect it. Then when you start boozing again and go to dinner parties (because sober dinner parties are the pits), you will blush with pride when everyone starts saying things like, “Oh, Julie, you MUST bring your famous cheesecake! Please?”
There are SO many cookbooks out in January to get inspiration from. Give all the ‘lose weight’ and ‘nourish’ ones a miss and instead take your new signature dish from one of these:
Asian Green: Everyday plant-based recipes inspired by the East by Ching-He Huang
Great British Vegan by Aimee Ryan
Use it All: The Cornersmith guide to a more sustainable kitchen by Alex Elliott-Howery and Jaimee Edwards
Music video dance classes
I’m not going to tell you to go running in the park (although if you can’t manage that in Dry Jan then do stop chasing that dream and focus your attentions elsewhere) but music video dance classes are actually really fun. And it’s hardly exercise (although they try to sell it that way) so you won’t get too puffed out. I once did a class to learn all the moves from Beyoncé’s “Crazy in Love” and at just about every party since my friends have begged me not to do it. A resounding success.
Try it out at Seen On Screen.
Learn an instrument
Whether it’s getting a friend to teach you a bit of guitar or dusting off your flute, re-attune yourself with your inner musician. Once I went round to a friend’s house and he taught me drums and I made him spaghetti bolognese. It was great. One friend is spending this Dry Jan learning how to play “Sorry” by Justin Bieber on piano, which she hasn’t touched for over a decade (the piano, not Justin Bieber). Anyway, you will have a new party trick for when you’re ready to party again.
Check out YouTube for tutorials for every instrument you can think of, including piano, guitar and drums. Although where you find the drum kit is down to you.
Unsexy life admin
All that stuff you’re going to do ‘one day’? Do it on your Friday night. Throw out those tights with holes in. Check what your pension situation is. Vacuum under the bed. Unsubscribe from every email you don’t need. Unfriend everyone you haven’t spoken to IRL in the past five years. Try on every single thing in your wardrobe, turn out clothes accordingly. Unsubscribe from paper bank statements. Wash your throw cushion covers. Descale the kettle. Bleed your radiators. Wash your windows.
Reward yourself for each one. Not with wine.
Get a volunteering gig
If we’ve learned one thing from this past year, it’s that having anxiety about big wide world events isn’t going to help anyone, least of all you.
Finding a way to make a difference within your local community, no matter how small, is the best way forward, which is why so many of us turned to (socially distanced) volunteering this year. From helping at a food bank (google your local one and see if they offer slots to sign up for) to pet fostering (check your local shelter), telephone befriending to volunteering as an NHS responder, there are plenty of COVID-friendly opportunities to lend a hand.
Lie in bed and don’t get out until February
I mean, no one will judge you. In fact, most people are probably doing that anyway.
Originally published at https://www.refinery29.com.
