Marking three weeks since lockdown in the UK began, HORRID Covid! 1: Cabin Fever explores experiences of social distancing and self-isolation. Adrift in a wavering reality that was unimaginable just a few months ago, our contributors bake bread, sow seeds, get domestic. But house-bound, with few aspects of the usual routine intact, the imagination is liable to take over…
Cabin Fever is coloured by the moods and circumstances in which our collaborators find themselves. We recognise that although there are many shared experiences uniting us, the pandemic as a disease and social event will have drastically different effects on our lives. We stand with all of those in isolation and invite collaborations of every kind.
Thanks so much to all of our contributors on Cabin Fever and everyone who submitted to the call out. We plan to publish a new edition of HORRID Covid! every two weeks while social distancing measures are in place and hope you’ll contribute to a future issue. Perhaps HORRID Covid! 2: Communications?
With love,
Jessie, Mel and Rachel
Tree of Dreams//Puno Ng Mga Pangarap
Alfred Marasigan
Click the hand to read Madeleine Dunnigan's recent dreams
Quarantina, Sade Mica
Click the orange play button to listen
Breakfast
Jhenelle White
My Feet, Nathalie Hollis
Louie was born on the 21st of March, on the first official day that our local hospital implemented the policy of not allowing a companion with the mother during labour and no visitors after the birth. As expected this scenario wasn't in our plans, from A to Z. In the middle of so many other uncertainties, natural and legitimate during such special and delicate moment, we had no time to process the news...
Click the photo to read more of Soraia, Patrick and Louie's story
*Louie is Born!*
Birth in Isolation
Soraia Torres Lage
Lisbon, Portugal
A Wave is the Same as a Handshake Really
Aled Haywood
Issue 1: Cabin Fever
Gardening Without a Garden
Fay Davies
(Gardening Correspondent)
As we have all been asked to stay at home and our access to wild spaces is monitored or even forbidden, we desperately need to find new ways to keep in touch with the natural world in whichever small way we can.
For those of us who have limited outdoor space or maybe none at all or who rent properties and can not put down roots. Bringing plants into our homes or better yet growing indoor plants from seed can reconnect us with the natural world, teaching us to nurture, take time, and cultivate a curiosity and appreciation for lands and worlds we might not get the chance to experience for a little time.
Here is an easy way to create a natural moveable world inside your home...
Click this photo --------------------> for Fay's guide to growing with lychee seeds
Other gardeners we recommend following:
A few days after London was locked down, a couple of months after we’d first heard of COVID-19, we asked our landlord to suspend our rent because we knew he could get a three-month mortgage holiday and my two housemates and I had lost our incomes. We panicked, paused, felt that adrenaline-driven drive towards survival, and began calling lawyers. It took them some time to respond and in the meantime we pulled WhatsApp up and spoke to our local renters union.
Later that day, I’m cycling back from the supermarket, gliding steep down a hill towards the river, and I feel tears choking my throat as the adrenaline, draining from my body, leaves me with alone with the terror of being turfed out, of there being no family to return to, no home except a landlord’s asset, and that too, now, hardly a home. He has another, where he currently lives, but he’d like to live in our’s for convenience’s sake. It’s a few miles closer to his workplace.
Click the helping hand to go to the London Renters Union website
Disconnecting From Reality Helps Me Cope
@mischievousfrog
Quaran-tin Workout Day 26
Gaby Pimentel
I am a Physiotherapist and have two grandparents in their late 80s, who rely on exercise to keep themselves physically and mental well. I work in Sports Medicine and studied the elderly and exercise for my Masters Degree, so when all elderly and vulnerable people were advised by the government to stay inside for 12 weeks I thought it was time to put my combined skills to good use. I began doing 20-25 minute WhatsApp workouts with my Grandparents every day, then realised that there must be so many others who would benefit from this. That’s when the Quaran-Tin workout was born! We've been going for 3 weeks and are celebrating 17K views on YouTube, a BBC London news feature, and an eBook! It has been an incredibly heart-warming project, and it continues to grow. Grab some tins, message your grandparents, and let’s give our most vulnerable the chance to stay fit, active and healthy during isolation!
Please, take a seat / Gjörðu svo vel og fáðu þér sæti
Árni Jónsson
I reach the end of the hill. Pause by the river. In a few days, some calm and a little quiet will return to the house because we’ll learn from two lawyers and the LRU that, whatever our landlord wants, he won’t be able to do it, for a few months at least but probably more. For now, I cross the river, climb onto the saddle of my bicycle, and cycle home. I end up here:
Fourteen-day self-isolation transformed Into textiles designs
Daisy Delaney-Baxter
Inside, Outside of Time
Jesse Rivers
I have been thinking a lot about this notion of being ‘outside of time’, and the timelessness that we experience whilst within quarantine/self-isolation. Our regular markers for the passing of time become less and less significant the further we dive in to ‘quaranTIME’ (tm). A weekend passes in a flash, with barely a whisper of dance music or drink induced nausea. The extremes we use to punctuate the abyssal plain of experience becoming less prevalent. Monday hits us again and we aren’t quite sure whether to get out of bed for it; will we put our suit on or not? Perhaps just our birthday suit will do. It doesn’t really matter, does it? And all the while we are inside, ‘safe’ and sheltered from the terrifying prospect of everyone else outside our front doors.
A lot has been written about this (above ^) feeling, this slipping we are experiencing. Nights that won’t happen, the future cancelled for the living as well as those that sadly won’t make it passed Covid-19 or quarantine. Birthday’s that barely seem to register. If a birthday happens in quarantine, does it happen at all? Ageing is a thing of the past.
All the while, press refresh on your news-source of choice and you’ll notice warp-speed has been induced, a proliferation of events having taken place in the past 24hrs. All you’ve done is read your book and cook some food, and seemingly the face of the earth has been moulded beyond recognition. We’re in, but out. Part of it all, but not.
Play this song along with Jesse's writing
For more 'Dear Rona' click the logo
Face Masks
Freyja Sewell
During my isolation I am obsessing over face masks. The face mask is emerging as the most important visual motif of this year and our global collective experience. When I first saw people wearing them I remember feeling... nervous, uncomfortable, slightly scared... I thought of danger, disease, deception. It was a revelation to learn that they were actually worn to prevent SPREADING, not just to prevent CATCHING. For me this switch of knowledge and association is becoming stronger. The face mask is becoming a symbol of heroism, respect and bravery. A badge of honour. Worn by those on the front line, the doctors and nurses, and also of the previously unsung hero: shop clerks, delivery people and Uber drivers. Suddenly the key workers are clearly marked, and they turn out not to be the fashion influencers, marketing gurus or sports stars. My respect and thanks to all those out there keeping things running and healing the sick. We are grateful.
Trigger warning: this video contains simulated violence
Will I Ever Hug Again?
Simone Noronha
Lickdown
The Yonis
Send The Yonis your #lickdown on your lockdown!
#sisterswhospittogetherstaytogether - DM The Yonis, YOUR lickdown today
The Postman
Project Natty
Sampling the Boredom
@Erogenousbosch
So if you’re bringing out this banger, and looking to beat the high, pro or even SICK score on a level, here’s what you need to know:
Find the gaps - in every level there’s secret jumps that get you more points. Gaps in quarter pipes, between rails and between kickers, they’ll all increase the value of your tricks
Bust out the special moves. There’s special grab, flip and grind tricks. Learn the button combos and when that special bar turns gold, take it away and reap the rewards!
Most important of all - crack out those combos. String together a whole host of different tricks, to multiply that score and reach those goals. Grind, to flip, to another grind, then land in a manual. Spin around a few times in between all that, and see those numbers soar
So there you have it - follow my advice and you’ll be a pro skater in no time. Good luck and go get the secret tapes.
Tim’s Tony Hawk Hints ’n’ Tips
Tim Wulder
These times are perfect for getting out an old video game you haven’t played since you were a teenager. You don’t need the latest console or super fast internet connection so you can play online. You can rediscover a pre-loved classic like Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, or even Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3 for Playstation 2!
I used to spend time obsessively trying to beat the high scores on this game, getting annoyed when the skater inevitably lands on their head or falls off the grind rail.
WFH (Work From Home) Computer Cake
Rachel and Jo Davey with help from the entire Davey family and Tim Wulder
WFH Computer Cake
We used blue fondant icing, two packets of m&m’s and our IMAGINATION to decorate our cake (because that’s what we had between these four walls). Double this recipe to make your own computer cake or follow the recipe below to make a classic lemon drizzle. We’re going to be leaving one of our cakes on our grandmas front door step, you can share yours too!
Optional Instructions: Listen to Elton John for the entirety of your baking experience.
1. Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4.
2. Beat together 225g softened unsalted butter and 225g caster sugar until pale and creamy, then add 4 eggs, one at a time, slowly mixing through.
3. Sift in 225g self-raising flour, then add the finely grated zest of 1 lemon and mix until well combined.
4. Line a loaf tin (8 x 21cm) with greaseproof paper, then spoon in the mixture and level the top with a spoon.
5. Bake for 45-50 mins until a thin skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
6. While the cake is cooling in its tin, mix together the juice of 1 ½ lemons and 85g caster sugar to make the drizzle.
7. Prick the warm cake all over with a skewer or fork, then pour over the drizzle – the juice will sink in and the sugar will form a lovely, crisp topping.
8. Leave in the tin until completely cool, then remove and serve.
11/04/20
We found an Agony Aunt-------------->
Click on the eyes the read her first note
You are in the bath with your father,
‘how prudish the English are,’ you say.
Click the tiny orange buttons to listen to May Robson's recordings
Click the orange play button to listen
Super Busy
Jesse Rivers
Click the photo to see some screengrabs of the livestream
Tree of Dreams//Puno Ng Mga Pangarap was a participatory livestream ritual based on a superstition from the Philippines, performed by artist @alfredmarasigan on the morning of the HORRID Covid! launch.