COVID-19 Journal Entry #2: Darcy Nidd

Darcy Nidd currently sits on the Propel Youth Arts WA Board of Management as a youth representative and policy specialist. She is a postgraduate public policy student by day, a musician by night, and she brings youthful enthusiasm, not-for-profit experience, and some solid (albeit hardly thrilling) policy wisdom to the Propel team. Darcy reflects and writes about making sourdough hot cross buns, reading six books in the last month, friends and family support and the anxieties that come with being stuck at home during a global pandemic.

COVID-19 Journal Entry #2: Darcy Nidd

Well. What a wild ride this is turning out to be. It seems everyone’s experience of this pandemic is distinctly different to each other’s – life has turned upside down for some, and remained eerily similar for others. I hope that, whatever your experience, this is a time that the arts in its many forms can bring us peace, bring us calm, bring us joy, and bring us together.

Darcy Nidd’s pursuit of making sourdough hot cross buns. Photo credit: Darcy Nidd.

CREATE

With Monday night art class and musical pursuits cancelled for the foreseeable future, I’ve had to turn to other creative outlets. This past few weeks, I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time making sourdough hot cross buns. I didn’t even start by baking something easy, like anzacs. Zero to sixty, sourdough hot cross buns, just like that. They were the most chaotic and time consuming thing I’ve ever created – unaided by the fact I decided to write my own recipe and mix everything by hand. I’d managed to run low on flour, dried fruit, milk, and cinnamon before I’d even started, so they were slapped together with Bavarian Rye bread mix, loose pantry currants, a sizeable quantity of whisky, and an emergency cinnamon delivery from my sister. 24 hours later, in a comeback that would make Steven Bradbury proud, they actually turned out fluffy and delicious. Having survived the ordeal, however, I’ve put a hold on kitchen creation while I regain my sanity.

Photo credit: Darcy Nidd.

CONSUME

I would usually spend my ‘wind-down’ time by consuming some sort of B-grade comedic television offering, like re-runs of Taskmaster or 8 out of 10 Cats does Countdown. Extremely cool, I know. But with screens taking up an increasingly large amount of the day - replacing university lectures, meetings, social gatherings, family dinners and games, I have found myself wanting nothing less than to trawl Netflix at the end of the day. Instead, I’ve shocked myself – a usually lethargic reader - by reading six books in the last month. Here’s to maintaining the habit, and to the late Sir Terry Pratchett for keeping me going.

TO-DO

Oh God. The dreaded to-do list. There’s so much on it I’ve had to split it into six categories, and then pull things off the ‘big list’ into a smaller list for the day or week. I’d like to say I’m using this forced downtime to get started on those things that have sat on the list for months, like editing my travel photos, finishing that painting, and re-writing the Propel Board of Management policy. Instead, I am staring down the barrel of the last semester in my Master’s degree, and my to-do list is filled with enthralling activities such as ‘read An Introduction to New Public Management’, ‘watch 14 pre-recorded lectures by next Tuesday’ and ‘stare into the abyss’.

Photo credit: Darcy Nidd.

BE STILL

At the moment, it feels like there is a bit too much physical stillness and not enough mental stillness in my life. I am sure I’m not alone in feeling this. It can feel like there is really big pressure to use this time to be really productive – to learn a new skill, to finish off that project, to get fit, the list goes on. I have to keep reminding myself that I am not voluntarily at home to work, but instead I am legally stuck at home during a global pandemic, just trying to get some work done – and they are very different things. When I do get a chance to be ‘still’, I can feel my mind racing with all the things I feel I ‘should’ be doing – especially when I’m trying to sleep. I’m currently trying to counter that with a decent evening routine – a cup of tea, a book, and the sound of rain on a tin roof. Spotify really have thought of everything.

Photo credit: Darcy Nidd.

FRIENDS & FAMILY

As someone who is rejuvenated through social contact, the inability to physically spend time with friends and family has been the hardest part of the pandemic to swallow. Thankfully, I live with people I love, I’m allowed to visit and annoy my sister from time to time, and I still get to go to work a few days a week at the café – catching up with colleagues, keeping the local community sane and caffeinated, and seeing the occasional friend or family member as they drop by for a takeaway coffee and a loud chat out the front window. I also occasionally go sit in my Grandmother’s front garden so we can shout at each other through the rose bushes, trying to do her weekly crossword. I’m sure her neighbours love it.

And everyone else? Tragically relegated to FaceTime. It’s not the same, but it’s a million times better than not seeing them at all.