#coronavirus self isolation ideas
Text
a sense of coming home
ona batlle x reader
summary: part two of this! ona and you are (frustratingly) still just friends
words: 6.5k (i have NO idea why i waffle so much but lets pls allow it)
warnings: there's like five secs of smut at the end
notes: this has been the most self-indulgent fic i've written because this is how i met my gf and so i am glad to show you a nice happy ending
again, the quote is from 'this side of paradise' (said gf's fav book - i don't recommend however because the protagonist is a twat)
also i didn't proofread bc i am exhausted and i am hungover and i am very ready to go to sleep (#globetrotting is not for the weak) x
There is something difficult about forcing oneself back to their toxic roots. Ona discovers as such as she presses her body into a temple of meaningless sex, but she does so because she is a driven person. Ona is determined to get over you, once and for all, except she’d quite like to stay friends (hence why she agreed when asked). She also thinks it would expose her to fall out because her feelings shouldn’t have existed anyway, so she technically shouldn’t be heartbroken?
Anyway, Ona rampages through Manchester! They appreciate her accent – some even ask her to speak to them in Spanish when she is three fingers deep inside of them, to which she obliges with little fanfare – and it isn’t like the city lacks queer women. It is a super solid way to keep her busy, to tear her attention from hungrily checking your Instagram whenever possible.
It’s also what lands her with coronavirus. She’s embarrassed to admit just how many people she has come into contact with when the club doctors ask her questions over the phone.
You send her a lovely message after hearing she is yet another fallen soldier.
Ona is at home, isolating, and you are apparently trapped in Spain, unable to get into Italy. You haven’t quite made it to your parents’ house since your flight was supposed to depart from Madrid. “How come you’re not on the phone to one of your ‘connections’?” Ona asks suspiciously, wondering why this call has lasted longer than ten minutes. “Surely someone knows someone else and they can get you back home.”
“I’m hardly out of my depth in my own country,” you remind her with a twinging sigh, pained that she has suppressed all memories of your childhood. “It’s not like I don’t speak Spanish.”
“Didn’t you get rid of it in your head to make space for Italian and English? Oh, and French too, right? That’s where the fashion weeks are.”
You laugh at her pride for knowing something about your job, but it is not to ridicule her. “I am speaking to you, aren’t I?”
“In Catalan,” she points out. “Forget Spanish, but don’t forget Catalan.”
“I can’t. It’s the language everyone uses to tell me about how fucked you’ve been lately.” You take in a deep breath, uncomfortable with Ona’s silence but knowing your piece needs to be said. “Are you aware of what happened a few months ago? Why I missed the wedding?” One of your friends met her dream man and he whisked her off to Menorca for a small ceremony. Only the people she loved the most were invited, which included your childhood friend group. “We were in New York, a whole bunch of us. It was late but the show had been a big deal so we went out to celebrate, and… these ‘friends’, these people, they aren’t the same as you and me. Most of them are English, you know, and they come from very fancy schools where addiction is normal. Two of them ended up in the hospital that night – the bag hadn’t even made it round to me by the time they’d dropped. I know it seems far-fetched, but all I’m trying to say is that addiction has consequences. Bad consequences.”
“So you’re not on my side?” Ona isn’t taking this too seriously. A few people have joked about her questionable new hobby, but no one has made it seem so dire that they have needed to get you involved. You who, of course, Ona will listen to.
“I am always on your side.”
That is her main take-away from the conversation, Ona chooses, when it ends an hour later. She swoons, meaning the last twenty women have been a waste of time, but she also tortures herself into ignoring the potential problem. Being a sex addict would be embarrassing, so she won’t be.
Though your subtle shaming for her abundance of quick-fix flings is hypocritical, Ona would also hate for you to see her that way. You can avoid commitment all you like, but she is determined to be different to prove to you that she is a viable candidate, should you wish to stop stringing her along. It’s probably toxic; it probably means that you are both clinging onto a friendship that should either end or be labelled something else. It probably is the push and pull that has kept you interested, Ona thinks, because she knows that you like the chase.
However, as much as she’d like to be freed of whatever game she is caught up in, she can’t seem to let you go like that.
…
The next time Ona and you have a proper conversation about something other than how your love lives have been stunted or how people back home are not as successful as the two of you is when most of the restrictions have been lifted.
You waited out the pandemic in Vilassar de Mar, much to your annoyance, but now that you can travel again, the first person on your mind to visit is your childhood best friend. You’re not as close as you used to be, having drifted further during even more years apart, but it does not dull your love for her, nor hers for you.
Ona has changed her mind about Manchester and is forcing herself to like it. It works enough for a visit from you to be the last thing on her mind, and so she slows her response time down until the next arranged date to see each other in person is all set for the summer before the Euros in England.
You’re not quite home but you are in the country, and, with the pre-Euros camp in two days, Ona is spending the final few hours of calm left before the storm in the comforting presence of her mum and dad.
And… you, apparently.
“You weren’t supposed to be here yet,” is Ona’s greeting when she opens the front door.
Your smile is wide and genuine, and you are holding a gift bag in one hand. There is a nice bottle of wine in the other. “Not even an ‘hola’?” When no reply comes, you swallow the emotions that have arisen; the ones that are maybe, just a little bit to do with how soft Ona looks with her hair down. And the slope of her jaw. And the ghosts of defined biceps that bulge even when she isn’t flexing her arms. “I’m dropping by to see your parents. I thought you were in Barcelona with your footballer friends.”
“You visit my parents?” asks Ona curiously.
“Of course.”
With that, you side-step her and call out to her mother, announcing both your arrival and your desire to hand them their gifts. Dinner is just about to be served, and Ona is soon tasked with setting another place at the table for you as though the last ten years had never happened and your friendship hadn’t lost its innocence.
Maybe it would be better for Ona to not know what it feels like to kiss you, to touch you, to – dare she think it – love you. It would certainly make things less painful, and would have saved her from catching at least one illness and spending a good amount of money on Ubers to escape from random apartments. It would make it easier to listen to you talk about your life in Milan, where you seem to exist in a bubble of incredibly attractive people who are desperate to hold hands and form a raft.
“Modelling can be brutal,” you agree, nodding at Ona’s father as you follow on from his concerns about your career. He voices them regularly; whenever you see him. Ona realises you have spent a lot of time with her parents without her. “It gets quite competitive between the girls so I’ve been somewhat avoiding them. They’ve brought in someone new, scouted from Germany, I think, and I’m a little worried that I’ll have to switch agencies if they start prioritising her.” You glance at Ona, wanting to know if she is listening, hoping she is. You wish that she were as good at suppressing her feelings as you are. You wish she didn’t look at you like you hung the moon, because you know that you have to tell her you have hung it for someone else. “I’d move tomorrow, to be honest, but I’ve started seeing this guy and he’s convincing me to stay in Milan.”
“The minute he is your boyfriend, you bring him here,” commands Ona’s mother in a tone she hasn’t yet used on her actual daughter (said daughter has never mentioned anyone before). “Show us a picture of him! Is he a model like you?”
He is, and if Ona holds her fork tighter after she sees the photo you pull up, that is her business. You secretly take in her clenched jaw and furrowed eyebrows, and this might be the worst thing you have ever had to do. To see her so defeated, so hopeless, is upsetting, especially since you are harbouring the same feelings. However, you are able to admit when it is time to throw the towel in, and you can no longer live like this.
Ona is too perfect for you. She is driven, hard-working, and funny. She likes to nutmeg little children on the street, and she likes to buy them an ice-cream if they slip a goal past her, slotting the flat footballs into imaginary nets and celebrating as though they have just won the Champions League. She knows a lot, more than she thinks she does. She cares about people, but sometimes it manifests in anger, in frustration.
Any aspect of her is an aspect that you could love, and that is reason enough not to. Because how can you allow yourself to taint such perfection?
But, in this unspoken rejection, the compliment is obscured from the recipient’s view. All Ona sees when you gush about how he buys you flowers and takes you out to dinner, is a burning, bright question. It flashes red and yellow, both as a warning and cry for attention. How can she compete if you don’t even recognise her as a competitor?
…
“--And then they proceeded to finish a film they were halfway through as if it were the most normal thing ever,” Ona rants the minute she hits the concrete of Las Rozas, walking into the facility with Aitana and the other girls who travelled with her from Barcelona. Only the midfielder has been gracious enough to listen to the entire monologue, but the others joke that that is because Ona’s emotional state has led her to spiral in her native language. It is forbidden for them to openly speak Catalan in the Spanish camp, according to Jorge Vilda, who loves to hurl a ‘we can send you back to where you came from in an instant’ their way if he so much as hears a ‘bon dia’. Naturally, Aitana doesn’t give a fuck about the rule, although Ona chooses to believe that she is listening because she cares.
“Are you done?” Aitana asks thoughtfully, sucking on her bottom lip as she tries to absorb her friend’s crisis and formulate a valid, sensible response. The two have known each other for a while now, and Aitana remembers a time when Ona was relentlessly teased by their older teammates for being in love with her best friend. It is clear to her that those feelings never ceased, though she has heard through the grapevine (Leila Ouahabi) that you are now a model and you live somewhere in Italy. You’re part Italian, is what Leila also claims, having professed your ethnicity to a small huddle of fellow gossipers one day in the gym at the Barça training facility.
“No! Nothing is ever done with her. It’s viscous and it continues in a horrid cycle that has me flapping around in circles like some idiot. I am one of her boys.” Ona groans dramatically, the sound perhaps a little too loud. A few of the girls in front of them turn around to see why a cat seems to have been strangled, but they quickly lose interest when they see it is just Ona and her disastrous situation. “Do you know how fucking humiliating it is to be one of her guys? I am a professional footballer! I play for Manchester United, one of the most historic clubs in the world, and I am about to represent my country in a major tournament. I am successful, Aita, and yet I am still not enough for her.”
“Maybe she only likes men.”
“A man has never made her scream like I have,” she bites back. Aitana blushes, but Ona is too far gone in her rage to hear her crudeness nor preserve her friend’s sanity. “She’s been like this since she decided she was gay! Isn’t that hilarious? ‘Ona, I think I’m gay’, she said. I know lesbian breakups can be hard, but there is no way my cousin fucked her up to this extent.”
“I can’t help you with this, Oni,” Aitana laments, sorry to have to confess this to her friend. “I think you need to talk to her about it. A proper conversation to fix long-term issues, not like the ones you obviously had when agreeing to stop having sex and things like that. Only she knows what she’s thinking.” It is definitely not the advice Ona wants to hear, but she cannot deny the midfielder’s wisdom. “But for now, we focus on winning.”
…
You are more than a little confused.
To start from the beginning, Ona’s cousin fucked you up. She broke your heart, and that first impression of dating girls was incredibly traumatising. With girls, you don’t just kiss and sleep with them, you get close – really close – and then when you break up, it is like you have lost both a girlfriend and a best friend.
Men are a lot simpler. Men like you and they aren’t shy about it. They can sometimes be just as cruel, but you have never felt invested enough to care too much.
Some nights, you don’t fall asleep, tossing and turning between your sexual identity, aware that you don’t need to label it but desperate to… discover yourself. If you don’t understand that part of you, how will someone else? How can you be loved? How do you even know who you want to love you?
For as much as Milan is great, it definitely doesn’t help you with your crisis. Girls in Milan like to do what they want. It is not uncommon for the models to kiss each other in clubs, in front of appreciative male gazes or not, and then reveal their engagement to their future husband the very next day. It’s easy to be drawn into such a bubble, but the minute you step out of it, you are hit with the real world.
It’s what makes the pandemic so distressing for you personally, because you are forced to live like normal people for some time. Your eyes are held open and the question is shoved down your throat, and it really doesn’t help that Ona’s cousin never moved out of Vilassar de Mar.
She sees you one day, saying hello from a suitable distance as you pick up milk as per your mother’s request. “I heard you’re modelling?” she asks with no agenda, no seductive glint in her eye. You notice the ring on her finger, and she feels the heaviness of your staring. “Oh, I got married a year ago. Did Ona not tell you?”
You realise that you and Ona try to avoid talking about anything other than the love interests you have. “No, she didn’t. Congratulations, though. She’s a lucky woman.”
“You don’t have to pretend you’re happy for me,” laughs the woman opposite you, amused and somewhat apologetic. “Look, I’m really sorry for how I acted when we were younger. I was definitely not the most mature person out there, and I know I hurt you.”
“I cried for months.”
“I’m sorry,” she repeats. You suck in a deep breath, trying to hold the memories of your pain at bay. “The first breakup is usually the worst but at least it gets better, as you probably know.”
She looks at you expectantly, awaiting your confirmation. It never comes.
“I haven’t dated another girl since,” you tell her, sounding rather detached from yourself.
Her eyebrows furrow and she is clearly frowning behind her facemask. “What about Ona? I thought you were together when you lived in Madrid. It takes more than a friendship to do what you did.”
You were originally going to go to university in England. It was your dream, and Ona wasn’t entirely aware of the situation because you hadn’t wanted to tell her you were leaving. Then she was sent out on a professional contract to Madrid, and it wasn’t like you were the only one leaving.
Ona’s cousin, years ago, had suggested that you go to Madrid if you wanted to get away from Vilassar de Mar. “You’ll be close enough to come home when you’d like, but not so close that you’ll feel as though nothing has changed,” she had said.
No one had known about your offers in England aside from your parents. And Ona’s cousin, who’d only found out because you had called her, drunk on celebratory champagne, because you had to tell someone.
“You gave up a dream for her because you didn’t want her to be alone.”
“I moved to Milan. In the end, she was alone.”
“You sound like you regret it,” she replies, nodding once at you to bid you farewell and then heading over to a woman who is standing with a puppy in her arms. You watch as she pulls down her mask and kisses her wife, her eyes shining with love and happiness, and your blood runs green with jealousy.
You hate Ona’s cousin for devastating you once more.
Do you regret it?
It’s unclear.
You try to make sense of it when you don’t hesitate to fly back to Italy the minute you can, going home to lick your wounds at Ona’s non-committal response to meeting you when you are in London the next month. It hurts that she is no longer at your beck-and-call, but you are somewhat happy for her. You know that lines have been crossed and that she has suffered for it. You know that you are probably the one at fault here.
This time in Milan, you don’t fight it as much. You kiss other girls and let them go home to their boyfriends; you submit to the thing you had convinced yourself you would never become.
As you drive yourself deeper and deeper into your stereotype, the thought of Ona gets pushed away and newer, more culturally-acceptable fantasies come to mind.
It takes a photoshoot for him to ask you out on a date.
It takes returning home and gaining the approval of Ona’s parents (who are far more open than your own) for you to agree to be official.
You don’t ask Ona what she thinks. She’s busy, you reason, because she is representing Spain at the Euros. She won’t care who you are dating and she certainly doesn’t need it rubbed in her face.
There are many reasons why you go out with him.
One is that you do like him; he’s nice, he’s funny, he treats you well. (He’s not Ona.) Another is that rent is going up and him sharing the load is helpful. (He’s not Ona.) There is also that he is very popular within the agency, and your chemistry on camera is enough to keep your jobs rolling in and casting directors satisfied.
He’s not Ona. You know that.
That's the whole point.
If he were Ona, you’d be deeply in love with him. If he were Ona, you would never leave the house, never leave his embrace, never leave the little bubble created when it is just the two of you and no one else. If he were Ona, you would be excited about the conversations he gently guides you into; marriage, children, where you are going to live one day. You’d miss him more when he isn’t here. You’d care.
But you just… don’t.
Another year passes, more Ona-less than the last, and then she is suddenly coming back home to Barcelona, a medal around her neck and word of a relationship floating above her head.
You could ask her about it if you wanted to because she is still one of your closest friends, but the truth is, you really, desperately don’t want to hear it. While Ona has been falling in love with someone else, you have been proving your stupid feelings to yourself.
The act (your current relationship) lowers enough for you to go home for Christmas. You leave Milan as though fleeing from a hurricane, and you refuse to control the damage until you have entered the new year. Your parents aren’t entirely sure they want you moping about the house, confused how someone so successful can revert to a moody teenager the minute they are back in safe territory, and they heavily encourage you to accept an invite that was extended out to you a few months ago.
Your friends are going skiing in Andorra, and they’d like for you to come with them.
“Ona won’t be there,” one of them regretfully informs you. “She said she doesn’t want to make things weird. She has a girlfriend – or, I don’t know, a talking stage. She wants you to have fun.”
“But Ona and I are friends,” you try to explain, feeling exposed by the look of pity she gives you; the same look someone receives when they find out their ex has gotten married or something similar. As a defensive mechanism, you hastily pull out your phone and dial her number. Everyone watches you, now uninterested in their food as you dine and plan your holiday.
Ona picks up on the third ring, escaping her dinner with Lucy and rushing into the cool, nighttime air of Barcelona.
“Hi?” she says – asks – with raised eyebrows, wondering if you’re in danger.
“You’re coming skiing with us, aren’t you?”
Your friends hide their laughs behind their hands, surprised by how firm your tone is. You do not need it for Ona, because she does anything you say regardless, but they enjoy seeing this side of you. This is someone who has had to fend for herself in a foreign country.
Removing the phone from her ear for a moment, Ona sighs, disappointed in herself.
“Yeah, of course. I’ve missed you, you know.”
…
Skiing is not something Ona is really allowed to do. As a footballer, her legs are what pay her wage. Career-destroying planks of metal are not the best way to spend the dying embers of the year. She knows that. She does, she swears, but she is so eager to go that Jonatan cannot crush her dreams. He tells her, “if you get injured your contract will be reviewed, Ona Batlle,” and she promises him that it won’t happen. Nothing bad is going to happen.
It will be the first time she has spent more than a day with her childhood friends, and she is unbelievably excited.
Lucy finds it adorable and makes it known, helping her pack for her trip, versed in what to bring because her sister skis or something like that (Ona can’t really focus on her almost-girlfriend's monologue). Lucy likes Ona a lot, and it makes her stomach flutter when she thinks about Ona and her friends talking about them. She’s sure her feelings are reciprocated, and she cannot wait for Ona to return to her in the new year, all smiles and lingering hangovers, and ask her to be her girlfriend. Officially.
Your friends convene in the centre of Vilassar de Mar with two cars between you. There are ten people coming.
Someone, most-likely trying to keep the peace, instructs Ona into one vehicle and you into the other. The drive isn’t too long, but you suppose that the tension is uncomfortable for those who aren’t accustomed to maintaining a friendship despite the weight of it.
It’s five days, and you are determined to have fun.
Ona is naturally good at this, although she claims it is her first time. You, living in Milan, are just as advanced.
By the third day, the both of you agree that going off together to do some of the harder runs will be harmless. Spending the day together won’t feel like a date or a romantic holiday. Watching Ona glide over the compacted snow won’t be attractive, watching her cocky smirk as she scales the bumps along the side of the piste won’t do anything.
It won’t. (It does.)
And it just has to be the third day that someone pulls out two bottles of tequila and a drinking game that is going to ensure every single one of you is off your face by midnight.
In rooms opposite one another, you and Ona call your respective partners and tell them about how great a time you are having, actively avoiding telling them about who you spent the day with as though it counts as cheating. It doesn’t, technically. Nothing has happened. But, still, it feels intimate and secret; forbidden.
Then, there is a shout that rings through the house. Everyone comes to the table; the party has begun.
Ona finds out that she is absolutely terrible at drinking games, and loses in every way possible.
You find out that she is still just as touchy when she is drunk.
Your friends try not to comment on it, all having agreed upon yet another passive role in such an irritating situation. Their non-interference almost ceases by the time Ona climbs onto your lap, head turning as she whispers something into your drunk ears, making you laugh privately. In fact, someone has to hold someone else back before they shout at the two of you to make out or break up.
But it’s not really necessary, their prompting, because it hits a certain hour and… nothing else matters anymore.
Ona has been touching you the whole night and you have finally reached your limit.
Boyfriend be damned, you lead her to your bedroom.
She asks you many times if you still want this, and you cannot think of anything to say other than ‘yes’.
You’re not as drunk as she is, and you both know that, but everything feels so perfect and right.
When you wake up the next morning, your anger is more at yourself than the sleeping woman beside you, but she is an outward target for such a boiling emotion and it just makes things easier.
“Ona.” You shake her awake, not caring for her hangover. “Ona, I can’t believe we’ve done this.” She rubs her eyes, dazed and confused for a moment but coming to her senses soon enough. “I have a boyfriend, Ona, and… I don’t like you like that.”
It’s not true.
It’s really, really, really not true, but the fact that you have said it is enough for Ona to leave your room with the intention of never seeing you again.
She gets the train back to Barcelona, turning up at Lucy’s flat in floods of tears, and barrels straight into those strong arms with the intention of never mentioning what she has done.
…
You break up with your boyfriend a month later. Or rather, he breaks up with you, tired of being messed around, tired of your hesitation to fully commit.
The break-up is not the most upsetting thing you’ve been through, but your ego is a little bruised.
You try to make it look like you are having a great time in Milan, even though the agency has once again discarded your file and overlooked you for shoots you used to book in an instant. You try to seem like things aren’t falling apart, but it’s of no use when your father calls you and tells you that your mother is ill.
It isn’t cancer but it’s similar, and you know that you need to come home.
You pack your bags and leave without a second thought, because maybe Madrid was far enough. Maybe there is a reason Ona signed for her home club again and most of your friends still live relatively close to their parents.
Maybe you are not meant to be separated from those you love, because running away is futile if you are always going to end up together again.
In Barcelona, a modelling agency eagerly draws up a contract with you. Although you are from there, your career being based in Milan previously creates an international allure about you (or so they say), and you are assured that work is going to rush towards you as though someone has just knocked down a dam.
Your job is secured, your mother begins treatment, but there is something you cannot shake off.
It hurts to think of Ona, to think of how you left things, but it helps, too. Seeing her face in your mind is comforting. You hear her voice as you drift off to sleep, and you let it soothe you in your dreams.
“Ona has a girlfriend,” her mother tells you when you next visit them. Her frown is unexpected because all she has ever wanted is for her children to be happy and loved. “It’s not right, it doesn’t feel right.” You begin to shrug your shoulders and crawl into your shell, but she interrupts your thought process; “I think you should go see her.”
“Why?”
The woman rolls her eyes. “Just do what I say.”
You nod because she is so scarily sure about it, and you… It’s hard to believe, but you call Ona.
She picks up.
“I was sorry to hear about your mum.”
“Don’t worry. She’s fine.”
“Are you back at home?”
“Yeah, I am.” You pause. “Well, not quite. I’m living in Barcelona.”
Something fizzes in the air; pops, crackles.
“Need me to show you around the city?”
And it’s Ona, so how could you say no?
…
Your visit goes very well.
She takes you out to dinner and shows you around her neighbourhood. She introduces you when she runs into people she knows, and she is insistent about dragging you to her football match on the weekend.
Everything is seemingly forgiven and Ona is intent on integrating you back into her life.
She wants you to feel at home, though she knows you should already, and she wants to lessen the stress of hospital appointments and death and, if not death, then a difficult recovery.
You are sitting in her apartment – now devoid of all signs of Lucy – on her comfortable sofa, watching something together after a day of walking around and sealing up the cracks that formed in Andorra.
Sitting leads into cuddling and then into wandering hands that eagerly roam underneath layers of fabric.
Ona’s breath hitches as you brush the hard lines of her abs, your hands particularly drawn to them and just how strong she has become. “You must have only felt them on men,” she offers as an explanation. “How many have you slept with in comparison to–?”
And your hands stop.
“Sorry,” Ona mumbles, seemingly upset at her outburst. “I’m just curious. I can’t work you out.” She can’t quite look you in the eye, mainly due to the logistics of your position, but she isn’t sure she wants to see the truth attached to her statement.
You question if that’s a good thing, the fact she needs to ask; the fact that she has no choice but to communicate. It was going to happen sooner or later. “A few,” is what you settle on. Ona leaves it at that, carefully pulling the hair tie from your plait, unravelling it with one hand as the other rests against your stomach in an embrace. You smile. “You’re not going to ask who?”
Her fingers stop for a moment. “No.” She speaks so quietly, her voice almost a whisper in your ear. “I don’t care about them.” You relax into her more, feeling her against your back, feeling the softness of the blanket against your feet as it hangs at the edge of the sofa.
“Who do you care about, then?”
“You.”
Carefully, both her hands hold your hips and she sits you up, smiling as she does. You tell her she’s showing off, she replies that you are always showing off. To that, you brush those hands from your sides and lean down to kiss her, more decidedly for once; more in control. It’s a surprising feeling for both of you, the forcefulness. Urgency. Not unfamiliar, but unexpected for this time on this day.
The last time you kissed Ona, you had a boyfriend.
Your mouth goes to her neck as soon as she decides that she wants her hands back on your hips, pushing you down into her lap. It’s now a competition, you think. She’s quickly coming completely undone by your kissing and biting, but you are not ignoring the feeling as she makes you grind down, makes you need that friction. “Fuck,” you moan in her ear. She grips you tighter.
You start to pull off her shirt having had enough of the grey between you, asking if it’s okay, if she’s sure she isn’t too tired. Her reply is, “take it off, god,” and then the removal of your clothes that get thrown just shy of the wine glasses set out on her coffee table. Leggings aren’t the most practical for impromptu sex, but she’s quick and smooth and someone who has definitely done that before.
With your bare chest on display and almost nothing between Ona and you, she lifts you up for a moment with the intention of flipping the two of you, getting you on your back. You pause for a moment, trying to decide if she’s doing it because she wants to or because she thinks that’s the only way to do it, but her hands are moving now, up your sides, round the front of your chest and you relax. She laughs quietly, amused, because the tension dissipates, dissolving like sweet, sweet sugar in hot coffee as soon as your legs wrap around her back.
Ona asks before she does it, picking you up and laying you back down without needing to part her lips from your own. You watch her as she sits up, body in between your thighs. “You’re going to just stay there?” She shakes her head. “I can top,” you tease, a stark contrast from how it was the last time you did this. Ona doesn’t like being told she can’t do something. However indirectly.
“Yeah?” You nod, biting the smirk out of your lips. “I don’t care.”
You are in the process of rolling your eyes when her cocky mouth is put to good use. Your underwear was taken off at some point earlier — you hadn’t realised. Ona’s head moves between your legs, up and down, your hand that isn’t holding onto the sofa in her hair, the soft waves lacing between your fingers.
She’s good at it; thorough, practised. Her tongue circles your clit for a moment before dipping into your entrance. Something about the cockiness of her movements, her tongue, her hand rubbing between her own legs, makes everything more surreal, more blissful. She moans softly, lips kissing their way up your body, hands no longer focused on herself. Instead, they take the place of her mouth, two fingers inside you as quickly as it takes for her to ask if you are okay to carry on. Your reply (“yes”) is cut off quickly by her mouth on yours, tongue swiping at your bottom lip in another question of permission. You can taste yourself on her.
At her command, you sit up, letting her pull you back onto her lap as she sucks at your neck. “Don’t leave any marks,” you warn as her teeth pull a whimper from your supposed stoicness. “I don’t want the makeup artists asking questions.” It comes out too late, because you feel her teeth graze your collarbone quickly, not painful, no, but something that feels so, so good. “Ona.” She sighs in disappointment and adjusts where you are in her lap, so your legs are either side of her thigh.
You find yourself rocking slowly, letting her savour your breasts between her hands and her mouth. She whispers that she wants to see you come, that you don’t need to hold back – not with her, not ever – so you start grinding down, harder, faster. Her hands drop back to your hips, guiding your movements, forcing you to slow down when she feels everything building up. Each time, you let out a “fuck” and attempt to go against her grip to get that friction. “Not just yet,” she mutters, no longer touching you anywhere other than where her hands meet your hips and her thigh presses between your legs.
“Fuck off, Ona,” you breathe, frustrated. “When, then?”
She slows the pace even more. “Can you last a little longer?” You look at her face, brushing away the strands of hair that have fallen over her eyes, ghosting your fingers along her cheek, running your thumb along her lips. She smiles again, eyes creasing slightly.
As her hands drop to cup your face, you say, “you’re beautiful.”
Ona blushes.
You look down at her exposed cleavage, nipples pebbled against the sports bra that is unusually low-cut. It might border on intense staring as you begin to grind against her with the intention of actually getting off now. She laughs, saying her eyes are higher up than that, but going back to her trail of kisses along your jaw nevertheless.
For what seems like longer than a few seconds, the build up finally stops, the tower toppling over in a rush of pleasure. Ona’s hands move your hips as your head drops to rest on her shoulder. She talks you through it, telling you that you look so pretty, telling you that she’s so turned on.
And that’s when she whispers it.
It has taken years to get to this moment, many of them filled with unnecessary suffering.
It has taken years but it does not matter.
Ona tells you that she loves you and that is when you have finally come home.
#woso x reader#woso#randombush3#barca femeni#woso imagines#ona batlle x reader#ona batlle#ona batlle smut
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How teenagers can protect their mental health during COVID 19
Lockdowns are trying times for children and teenagers. They may feel overwhelmed, and experiencing coronavirus stress about falling sick. They may also feel worried about older members of their families. In a lockdown, many of the common activities have come to a halt; And teenagers who are used to spending time outside homes can find it very difficult to be caged inside their house. The lockdown has impacted the lives of young adults. There is a surge in online activity and digital engagement- from social media to online gaming and entertainment. Young adults seem to be inseparable from their gadgets. Here are a few ways that teenagers can adopt to protect their mental and emotional health during COVID
Try to stick to a schedule
Making and maintaining a schedule for home is particularly challenging. It needs some self-discipline, that a lot of us tend to keep losing. Indulgence is a human tendency, especially during the teen years. But chalk out a routine for yourself and try to follow it to avoid falling into quarantine depression.
Incorporate reading in your schedule
With a lot of screen time, reading, may give you an alternative form of entertainment and will keep you engaged. What was the last comic book you read? Or maybe it’s time to discover Harry Potter with words.
Not just binging, but also creating
If you’re spending a lot of time online and watching other people’s creations, allow yourself to be inspired. Think of some content you could create and share too!
Spreading awareness, Helping, Reducing Stigma
You can help the cause by educating people about COVID 19, by explaining preventive measures to those who may not know. Some people have been found to hide their travel history or symptoms. This could be due to the stigma and fear around the illness and quarantine. Many people are scared about what could happen once you test positive. You could spread some awareness to bring down stigma and fear. Here are some important tips that you can share with others to help them build resilience within themselves. You can also use Wysa’s free tools to manage any quarantine anxiety or stress that you may be experiencing.
Taking breaks from the news
While keeping ourselves up to date on information, we must take some time off the news and following the statistics of the world or our cities. Unwinding is an important part of de-stressing. trust news only from trustworthy channels.
Staying connected with friends and family
Keep in touch with friends who are far. If you’re home with your family, you may also spend some time with them, by eating meals together, cooking together or exercising together. Here are some ways you can be more connected
Have a baking online party with your friends. Share new recipes with each other, and eat together. All online!
If somebody has a skill they are good at, you can create a small group for learning new skills. For example, embroidery, dancing, playing the guitar and many other activities.
Reconnect with old friends who you may not be in touch with presently. Ask them how they’re doing.
Write and Share: You can take some time to write reflections, short stories, ideas and share them among friends!
Exercise, Sleep, and a Healthy Diet
This is important to boost your immune system. Also important for your mental health.
Seek Support
Reach out to parents, mentors if need be you can also reach out to professionals who are providing mental health care in these challenging and testing times.
We at Wysa have released free tool packs for all to help you cope with the stress of isolation and to manage current health anxiety. You can download the app here. If you find it difficult to talk in person, you can always talk to Wysa, an AI penguin written by therapists that you can talk to anonymously about your mood and struggles.
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What are the dangers of the reliance of social media for public health campaigns?
At this age, social media has become one of the source that populace has depend on for information about everything. An example was given by Al-Rahwi (2017) that states that celebrities who are famous in time such as in social media are the most high-end influencers of the era, or the popularizing of the role playing game Genshin Impact through users sharing via social media (Greting, Mao & Eladhari 2022). However, social media have taken over in medical news, providing discussions and updates through the net without stepping outside, which has become more essential amongst the era of pandemic (Vera, Colbert & Lerma 2020). However, is there a possibility of treating social media like a tool for widespread health news may do more harm than good? Are there any dangers from depending on social media for medical updates? This blog will cover reasons why public health campaigns using social media may not be such a good idea.
Medical Propaganda and Misinformation
Firstly, as a human invention, both research information and social media are imperfect creations, and therefore have a chance for misinformation, whether purposeful or accidental. This happened with the COVID-19 pandemic when it was reported that the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes the disease COVID-19, has a possibility of inflaming cardiac muscles which may lead to myocardial dysfunction (Basso et.al. 2020). The article written by Vera, Colbert and Lerma in the "Reviews in Cardiovascular Medicine" states that the above misinformation caused widespread panic since netizens thought COVID-19 can damage the myocardium despite the same article stating that further pathological changes on the studied patients' hearts had yet to be described in full.
(Image taken from HullLive)
However, not all misinformation is innocent or a product of accidents. Many far-right groups, such as in Europe, has used social media as a propaganda, misleading the netizens about COVID-19 so they could do the groups' bidding (McNeill-Wilson 2020). For example, anti-immigration, neo-fascist organization based in Britain called the Hundred Handers scapegoated migrating outsiders entering the country as a cause of the pandemic spreading to the British Isles. Across the pond, Canadian public health officer, Theresa Tam, a woman from Hong Kong, was accused by right-wingers of being a Chinese spy, using the coronavirus excuse as a means to insert Chinese influence into the country (Zhou 2020). To conclude, depending on social media for information leads to susceptibility to propaganda and misinformation, whether intentional or accidental by the authors.
Lack of Reach
As of 2023, 38% of the global population still possess no access to the internet, according to a statistic done by Flynn (2023). As such, if medical news would to be spread in social media, those who do not have online connection would be ostracized from those information. In many parts of Africa, for example, medical help and progress hits a hindrance due to the lack of people who have experience in the ICT field to collect and analyze medical data (Kirigia & Berry 2008).
(An example of MySejahtera homepage, image taken from Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia)
Even within reach of internet access, not all of the public are able to understand how to use social media to access those information. This case is prevalent among the elderly, who struggle with using the internet to learn about their condition or know more about their medical status. There is a pressure on the elderly to adapt using phones, tablets, and other gadgets to gain access to health information, and they require help from those who understand, which can compromise other factors, such as the case with elderly vaccine registration through Malaysia's MySejahtera app, where asking for help may cause problems with self-isolation (Pazim 2021).
Division
Some studies suggest that providing healthcare information through social media is unfair to those who are not able to afford a device to access such websites or are not capable to due to lack of internet connection in the area. This is supported through the World Health Organization (1998) which states that 90% of information and ideas are sourced from developed countries. Other than that, there is also a division between those who are digitally capable or those who have an intelligence capacity and those who are slightly challenged in any of the two fields (World Bank 1999).
(Drone taking off, picture taken from TIME)
However, not all hope is lost. According to the journal by Sharma and Kshetri (2020), many governments are interfering less with healthcare sectors, thereby allowing them to grow and improve for the wellbeing of the local population. For example, in Rwanda, medical supplies delivered through drones have been accepted by the nation's government, as well as partnering with American company Zipline, allowing blood supplies to be delivered in less developed, rural areas (Baker 2017).
Conclusion
It has become clear that there are many disadvantages to using social media as a tool to spread information about health and wellness into the public. There could be misinformation, whether accidental or purposeful, that deceives or panics the digital community, or the lack of reach to those who are in less developed areas or are less tech-savvy, or the question of inequality that this method might have inadvertently caused. Still, this does not mean that there are no advantages to social media in this regard. Like all things, there must be balance and moderation between digital and physical outreach, especially for such things as health. Also, research must still be done in regards for social media advantages and disadvantages, as well as counterstrategy against the obstacles, such that social media can be a better health information tool (Gamache-O'Leary & Grant 2017).
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Coronavirus: Leicester Church Uses Minecraft to Teach Bible to Teens
Coronavirus: Leicester church uses Minecraft to teach Bible to teens
17 May 2020
During the lockdown during the lockdown, a church resorted to Minecraft to teach their children about Christianity.
Leicester's St John the Baptist Church has been recreated on a server, so the youth club have somewhere to take Bible lessons.
Josh Young, the organiser said it was a method of meeting younger people "where they are" and engaging with them in a context they are used to.
They can also use virtual reality to create their own lessons.
For example Mr Young made an underwater whale to ensure that the children could study the Jonah story. Jonah and challenged the teens to build boats to discover how Jesus stopped a storm.
The 27-year-old youth worker said: "Having a community for these youth is extremely important and I wanted to keep that in mind in the lockdown.
"They cannot be friends with their friends, and some are really struggling at the moment. They can chat, play, and interact with others on Minecraft without ever physically being there. It is a tool for engagement and building community.
"Young people are online" and the Bible shows us how to connect with people wherever they are in their locality.
"Jesus challenged the boundaries of what people believed was normal worship, He would be pleased with the thought that the church is moving forwards."
Every Wednesday, about 20 children between 11 and 17 spend two-and-a half hours on the server.
During that time, they are free to explore the world or pursue their own ideas However, for 30 minutes they're teleported to a communal area to complete a Bible-themed mission.
Mr. Young stated that they had made sure the adults could prevent bad language, control those who joined and had parental permission for their children to join.
Rosie 15, who is 15 years old is one of the teenagers who joins regularly. She told us, "I love it because it allows me to chat with my friends while playing. It's as enjoyable as getting together at our regular youth group."
"I thought it was great that Josh teleported everyone to one place. We also held a competition to build a boat based on Matthew Chapter 8, when Jesus stopped an incoming storm. My team was the winner because we built lightning storm clouds."
A SIMPLE GUIDE: How do I protect myself?
AVOIDING CONTACT: The guidelines on self-isolation and exercise
LOOK-UP TOOL : Find cases in your area
MAPS and CHARTS: A visual guide to the outbreak
Follow BBC East Midlands via Facebook Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].
End of the year the church may not be back on the right track.
10 May 2020
Lockdown nightclub is recreated in Minecraft
26 April 2020
Muslims prepare for Ramadan under lockdown
23 April 2020
Coronavirus (COVID-19). Coronavirus (COVID-19). Government
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Coronavirus (COVID-19) NHS
Swiss rocketman
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Coronavirus: Leicester Church Uses Minecraft to Teach Bible to Teens
Coronavirus: Leicester church uses Minecraft to teach Bible to teenagers
17 May 2020
During the lockdown during the lockdown, a church resorted to Minecraft to teach their children about Christianity.
Leicester's St John the Baptist Church has been recreated on a server, so the youth club have somewhere to hold Bible classes.
Josh Young, the organiser, said it was a way of meeting young people "where they are" and engaging them in a world that they are used to.
They can also use virtual reality to design their own lessons.
Mr. Minecraftservers.host Young, for example has created an underwater whale to teach the kids about Jonah's story. He also challenged the teens to build boats to find out more about Jesus who calmed a storm.
The 27-year-old youth worker said: "Having a community for these youth is extremely important and I wanted to keep that in mind during the lockdown.
"They cannot be friends with their friends, and some of them are struggling at the moment. On Minecraft they can chat, meet and play games without physically being present. It's a platform to connect and create a communities.
"Young people are living in an online world and the Bible encourages us to meet people wherever they are within their communities.
"Jesus pushed the boundaries of what people thought was typical worship, he would be happy with the idea that the church is progressing."
Every Wednesday, 20 children between 11-17 spend two and a half hours on the server.
They are free to explore the world and pursue their own projects during this time however, for 30 seconds they are taken to a communal area to complete an task based on the Bible.
Mr Young said they had ensured that the adults were able to prevent bad language, control who joined and had permission from the parents for their children to join.
Rosie 15, who is 15 years old is one of the teens who regularly play at the club. "I love it because I get to talk to my friends whilst playing, I really enjoy it the same way as meeting for our regular youth group," she said.
"I thought it was good when Josh teleported everyone to the same spot and we had a competition to build the most beautiful boat from Matthew Chapter 8 where Jesus stopped the storm. My team was the winner because we created lightning storm clouds."
A SIMPLE GUIDE: How do I protect myself?
AVOIDING CONTACT: The guidelines on self-isolation and exercise
Look-up tool: Check cases in your area
MAPS and CHARTS: A visual guide to the outbreak
Follow BBC East Midlands via Facebook Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].
The year is coming to an end churches might not be back on course.
10 May 2020
Lockdown nightclub recreated in Minecraft
26 April 2020
Muslims prepare for Ramadan under security
23 April 2020
Coronavirus (COVID-19) The Government
Coronavirus (COVID-19). -- NHS
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You may recognise this fantastic piece! We love this artwork from our September ScrawlrBox featured artist, Tea Jurisic @tea_jurisic _ Behind the illustration: "The illustration is created as a reaction to the events that occurred as a result of the global Coronavirus pandemic. As always, I like to observe the situation from the funny and un- usual side, in this case, celibacy in the home prison. "QuaranTinder" is a self-made phrase, connected from the words "Quarantine" and "Tinder", and the artwork is a part of the series "Quarantine Diaries", created in the first months of the pandemic. I got the idea while listening to my friends who talked about the lack of love life and how hard is to meet somebody these days." - Did you spend any time in Quarantine making art? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . #artsupplies #subscriptionbox #artsuppliessubscription #artchallenge #createdaily #keepscrawling #scrawlingisfun #creatingisfun #featuredartist #artoftheday #inspiration #handmade #artsy #scrawlrbox #sketchdaily #scribbleaway #artisfun #workofart #joinin #art #instaart #creative #supportsmallbusiness #artofdrawing #tinder #isolation — view on Instagram https://ift.tt/XCMalZe
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Staying Active While at Home in Isolation
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a new way of life, with social distancing and self-isolation restrictions enforced upon all Americans to help slow the spread. While restrictions are beginning to ease, it is still encouraged to stay home unless it is essential to leave. Staying physically active is very important to maintaining good health, both physically and mentally, so how can you do that at home? At Safe Sport Net, we are USA leading supplier of sports net solutions and can custom make and install soccer netting, tennis nets and other sports nets for any application. Don’t let isolation get the better of your fitness routine. Here’s a few ways you can stay active at home until life is back to normal.
Make an Obstacle Course
Obstacle racing is a sport in which you must overcome various physical challenges. Obstacles can include climbing over walls, carrying heavy objects, traversing bodies of water, crawling under fences, and jumping through hoops. While you may not be able to do all these obstacles in your own home, you can easily adapt this concept to suit your backyard. Using household items such as chairs, books, bags of potatoes as well as sports equipment such as basketballs, skipping ropes, soccer nets and hula hopes you can easily turn your yard into a course to rival tough mudder. Set up stations, pull out a stop watch and challenge the whole family to see who is the fastest. Physical fitness and fun for the whole family.
Turn Your Backyard into A Sporting Venue
Set up a game of backyard cricket, play basketball, frisbee, throw and catch balls, jump on the trampoline, kick a football or set up soccer netting to practise your goal kicking – there’s so many ways to turn your yard into a sporting field, even with limited space. Playing sports is a great way of staying fit and active and while you may not be able to play in big teams and set up a full-size court or field, whether you have a large grassy patch or a small paved area, there’s so many options to have a game of any sport you choose. A great way to fill in time while getting your heart rate up and connecting with your family or house mates.
Use your Stairs
Using the stairs is a highly effective way to maintain fitness. If you have a double story house or even just a few stairs off an outdoor deck, as little as three 20-second fast stair climbs a day can improve fitness in just a few weeks. If you live in an apartment, avoid uncomfortable lift encounters with other self-isolating neighbours by using the staircase for any necessary outdoor journeys. Just take care to avoid contact with handrails. Stairs offer great fitness, strength and conditioning opportunities and the best part is they are entirely free to use.
Stretching and Yoga
Practising yoga or doing regular stretching style movement will help avoid stiff joints and maintain good blood circulation as well as help to improve heart health and reduce risk factors for heart disease. Gentle on the body and easy to do no matter your age or fitness level, it also helps to reduce stress and anxiety, which let’s face it, most of us are feeling at the moment. Whether you choose to do a series of simple stretches or a guided yoga routine, activity like this can have significant impact on your short and long term mental and physical health.
It seems as though COVID-19 restrictions are easing all over USA, however it’s still a great idea to keep up some in-home physical activity to keep ourselves in the best shape possible, ensuring a fit and healthy mind and body to fight off coughs, colds or Coronavirus this coming winter. At Safe Sport Net, we can custom make netting solutions for commercial and residential properties, turning any space into a sports venue or fitness facility with cargo nets for climbing, soccer netting, basketball nets and more.
Safe Sport Net are the leading sports netting manufacturer in USA. With years of experience providing sports netting to junior clubs, schools, councils, professional teams and sporting organisations USA wide, there’s no better place for high performance premium netting than us. Contact our friendly team today for a free quote of sports safety netting systems.
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Kannada books for children
Taiwan opens office in Lithuania, in move set to anger China IIT Madras students take up sustainable development goals for entrepreneurship contestĮthiopia releases 6 U.N. We often laugh when we hear the creative team say, “Sara will not wear those clothes” or “Sara would ask this question.” We have emotionally invested in making Sara the girl we would love to hang out with. We defined her personality at length (how she talks, what bothers her, what she wears). What was the brief to the designer and artist?
She brought a perfect mix of humour and flair to the illustrations. Our Chief Visual Designer, Aayushi Yadav adapted these ideas to powerful images. Bookosmia co-founder, Archana, wrote Sara’s dialogue. It is all teamwork - her expressions, language and posture. She is famous for her quirky Indian designs and did a fabulous job. Sara was designed by Parvati Pillai, ex design head of Chumbak. You just have to look at her, see and listen to her and you will connect with her instantly. She is just like them, figuring out the world, not just talking, but listening, reading and asking questions. Sara is someone young people can relate to. In creating Sara, we wanted to make something different - no mythology, no Hindi cinema, no rockets or superpowers. We held writing contests across India and received at least 500 stories from every corner of the country from Surat to Kolkata and Chennai to Jammu. Sports is a powerful medium to give the message of the importance of struggle, persistence, teamwork and humility. She talks about current affairs including games and festivals. These stories are perfect for children in the age group of two to six years. We thought it is not every day that one reads a Kannada story to one’s child, which talks about culture and festivals. This self-imposed isolation is for our benefit, but staying isolated during a festival makes us feel bad, that is why we released stories for Ugadi. We have children, adults and senior citizens - all cooped up at home. We are all trying to adjust to the new situation against the backdrop of coronavirus. Nidhi spoke to MetroPlus about Sara’s latest adventures.Ĭould you tell us about the Kannada stories?īookosmia (smell of books) released two stories in Kannada for Ugadi. Bookosmia’s aim is to make children fall in love with reading and writing.” “For instance, Sara has provided match predictions, interviews and cricket anecdotes from the recently concluded Women’s T-20 World Cup. “In this section Sara curates fun sports stuff,” says Nidhi Mishra, Founder and CEO of Bookosmia, a company that provides content for children across physical and digital formats. The online platform recently launched Sara’s Corner, detailing the exploits of a 10-year-old sports-loving athlete. Bookosmia made two Kannada stories available for free from March 25. That was reason enough for Bookosmia to come up with programming for children to kill time creatively. Parents are under pressure now to keep children occupied and engaged at home.
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COVID-19. WAS THIS A TRICK OR TREAT? HOW AS COVID IMPACTED ON THE MENTAL HEALTH OF PEOPLE & MY OWN REFLECTIONS ON RETURNING TO NORMAL
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/holidays/halloween-ideas/a33826132/halloween-trick-or-treating-health-safety/
In 2020, the entire world was hit with something that no one in our lifetime could have ever imagined to experience. Covid-19 created chaos across the globe with the start of a pandemic which was followed by strict lockdowns and social restrictions.
During these last 2 years, there has been a big uprise in mental health as a topic within our global population. Fear, stress, and worry are normal responses to any perceived threats, especially during times of the unknown. It is understandable that many people are/were experiencing fear in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, added to the already heighted feelings of the fear of contracting the virus, there were also significant changes to our daily life (creating an occupational imbalance) & our movements were restricted due to safety protocols. During this time, many people were working from home, many lost their jobs & students mode of learning had changed, with everyone having a lack of physical contact with our loved ones, which made everyday life a bit different. https://www.who.int/teams/mental-health-and-substance-use/mental-health-and-covid-19
https://themindsjournal.com/what-mental-health-is-vs-what-mental-health-isnt/
These last 2 years specifically, has been a very vulnerable time for many people. There has been a significant rise in mental health disorders such as anxiety, depression & low self-esteem as well as experiencing occupational imbalance. “A KFF Health Tracking Poll from July 2020 also found that many adults are reporting specific negative impacts on their mental health and well-being, such as difficulty sleeping (36%) or eating (32%), increases in alcohol consumption or substance use (12%), and worsening chronic conditions (12%), due to worry and stress over the coronavirus. As the pandemic wears on, ongoing and necessary public health measures expose many people to experiencing situations linked to poor mental health outcomes, such as isolation and job loss.” https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/the-implications-of-covid-19-for-mental-health-and-substance-use/.
https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/the-implications-of-covid-19-for-mental-health-and-substance-use/
“Information overload, rumors and misinformation can make your life feel out of control and make it unclear what to do” https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/in-depth/mental-health-covid-19/art-20482731. I personally experienced a lot of anxiety and fear due to many social media posts and news reports that surfaced and sometimes it was inevitable to prevent from happening on a daily basis as you kind of feel as if you were constantly searching for answers to this unknown.
I definitely think that the whole world got to experience what many people with disabilities feel like their whole lives. Being socially isolated, restricted in their movements due to lack of access as well as stigmas associated to their diagnosis. https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Disability/COVID-19_and_The_Rights_of_Persons_with_Disabilities.pdf
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a challenging time for all, in some way. The entire world came to a complete standstill and had to adapt to the “new” way of life.
Looking back, I was the person who was counting down the days to returning to some sort of normalcy! Due to the nature of who I am as a person, social isolation & movement restrictions was not my best friend. Early in the pandemic, I had fallen into a dark hole as I could not create a satisfactory daily routine to keep me going. Sitting on social media seeing many posts about Covid being a hoax, as well as seeing many young adults posting about how they are keeping a healthy lifestyle during lockdown. This just completely demotivated me in doing anything. However, as my days became more productive due to the return of university online, I slowly but surely pulled myself out of this hole. The lack of social interaction with my friends & family, a change in the mode of education & a complete change in daily routine made daily life very lonely & occupationally imbalanced. As I was prioritizing my education as it was the only thing occurring and completely neglecting all my other occupations.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/04/06/the-history-of-loneliness
Returning to fieldwork & a few contact sessions, proved to be a challenge as I was so used to interacting with others online. My ‘people skills’/social interaction skills were rusty & needed a lot of practice, it almost felt as if I had developed some sort of social anxiety.
http://iam-indeed.com/socially-awkward-meme/
OTs definitely have a crucial role in assisting the population with returning to normal:
Assist by combating mood disruptions (fear, stress, anxiety & loneliness) that came about due to social isolation , by teaching coping mechanisms
Addressing occupational imbalance due to occupational deprivation by establishing useful habits, roles & daily routines that ensure the incorporation of meaningful daily occupations
COVID-19 is something that we are going to have to learn to live with & as a population it is really important to be able to adapt our lives & ensure that we make our mental and physical health our main priorities. I found a website that gives some really simple tricks to help reduce anxiety and depression that may be brought about from the COVID-19 pandemic: Have a look under the self-care strategies. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/in-depth/mental-health-covid-19/art-20482731
https://positivelypresent.com/2016/01/feeling-sad.html
A reminder:
https://pictaphoto.com/mental-health-quotes
If you ever need someone to talk to/don’t know where to get help, please use the following resource to get the necessary help:
https://blog.opencounseling.com/hotlines-za/
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Why do we Need Telemedicine in the First Place?
Take a look at how technology can help you get better health care. How often have you heard that the internet has revolutionized modern life? It has most likely impacted how you communicate with family and friends, shop for goods and services, and even look for health-related information.
There are several telehealth technologies available to assist you in managing your health care and receiving the services you require. Are you making the most of them?
What is telehealth, exactly?
Telehealth refers to the use of digital information and communication technologies, such as computers and mobile devices, to access and manage health care services remotely. These could be technologies that you use at home or that your doctor employs to improve or supplement healthcare services.
Indian Medical care has faced numerous obstacles in providing adequate medical treatment to all who require it. Even if the topic does not cause hurdles relating to health policy politics, doctors, hospitals, clinics, and all other healthcare entities have struggled with several fundamental challenges that need to be addressed.
Telehealth and Telemedicine online platform have the potential to deliver some much-needed potential answers for the suffering healthcare business in light of these issues. While many health-related needs still necessitate a visit to a doctor, a surprising number of health services, particularly testing and monitoring, can be conducted remotely. In some ways, the COVID-19 problem is shoving to the fore some ideas that have only been hazily explored up until now due to necessity. Consider how telehealth could assist you if you suffer from diabetes.
Some or all of the following options are available to you:
● Upload meal logs, prescriptions, dosage, and blood sugar readings to a nurse who answers electronically via a mobile phone or other devices.
● Watch a video about carb counting and then get an app for your phone.
● Use an app to calculate how much insulin you need based on your diet and exercise level.
● See your test results, make appointments, seek prescription refills, and email your doctor via an online patient portal.
● Online ordering is available for testing supplies and medications.
● Rather than making an appointment with a specialist, get a mobile retinal photo screening in your doctor's office.
● When you need a flu vaccine, a foot exam, or other preventive care, get an email, SMS, or phone reminder.
The following are some of the objectives of telehealth, often known as e-health or m-health (mobile health):
● People who live in rural or isolated regions should have access to health services.
● Make services more accessible to persons who have restricted mobility, time, or transit alternatives.
● Access to medical specialists should be made available.
● Improve communication and care coordination between members of a healthcare team and patients.
● Assist with health-care self-management.
Through MedleyMed Telemedicine application your personal health record is preserved and you can check that anytime, anywhere through digital means.
A personal health record can immediately provide essential information to emergency services, such as current diagnoses, prescriptions, drug allergies, and your doctor's contact information, in the event of an emergency.
When it comes to the issues that the healthcare industry is facing today, particularly in light of the coronavirus epidemic, telehealth is a clear road ahead. Health care providers like MedleyMed can continue to deliver outstanding treatment to patients while making it easy and efficient by leveraging existing technologies.
Finally, MedleyMed's motivating purpose is to provide prompt treatment to those who require it. If you'd like to learn more about MedleyMed's telehealth and telemedicine services, get in touch with us right now for a free demo consultation.
#WhitelabelledTelemedicinePlatform#WhitelabelledTelemedicineSoftware#TelemedicinePlatform#TelemedicineOnlinePlatform#TelemedicineSoftwareProvider#TelemedicineSoftware
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Self Quarantine Activities 🌿✨🕊
•clean your makeup brushes- during this time give some love to your skin and go makeup free! Sanitize all your brushes/sponges and organize your beauty setup
•marie kondo your whole house- go through every closet, every drawer, every room and throw out what you don’t need anymore! Very soothing and you’re minimizing your items. Consider even donating these things to a loval shelter!!
•pick up a new hobby- learn how to do that hobby that you’ve always been fascinated by whether it’s crocheting, sewing, drawing, playing an instrument, or starting a puzzle; now is the best time
•begin at home exercising- there is an abundance of tutorials on youtube for just about anything, including exercising! Practice some yoga or in home cardio. Do some pushups and squats, do some burpees and sit-ups, dance even! It’s important to remain physically active while you are being cooped up in home
•start a journal- find an old notebook and create a journal! For me, I really love bujo journals. Track your sleep schedule, your acts of kindness, movies you’ve watched, your mood, anything really! I’ve found so many cute DIY template pages on Pinterest of journaling ideas. I add lots of detail and it passes time while being very cathartic
•read- for many people, the #1 reason why they don’t read is because they have no time. Now, there’s plenty of time! Pick up a new book or an old book and dive in. I like to take notes of what I’m reading to find a deeper meaning of the story, and then research about those themes. You don’t have to do all that, but certainly crack open a book and lose yourself between the words
•have a spa day- take a nice bath, light some candles, grab a drink, play some music and relax. Maybe exfoliate or give yourself a pedicure. Wear a cute robe and slippers and simply unwind
•watch a movie w a friend- if you miss your friends or SO, and wish you could just be with them and watch your favorite movie together, Google Chrome has an extension where you and another person can watch the same Netflix show together at the same time. It also comes w a chatrokm where you can share your live reactions to the program. Here is a tutorial on how to access this:
youtube
•write letters- write a letter to a friend, a family member, an old friend, an enemy, your SO, your past self, your pet, anyone or anything really. Just write something that you’d like them to know. It’s up to you whether or not to send these but I find it to be rather enjoyable bc I’m clearing my mind and getting things off my chest.
•make a silly video- do a dance, do an impression, create a skit, or give your take on something and video tape it! Send it to friends or upload it to a platform like TikTok or YouTube. Just have fun!
•rearrange your room- move your furniture around and create a new blueprint for your room! It’s something new and it can be time consuming.
This is all the activities I have that I think will cure your boredom and are also beneficial to your health! Please be safe and wash your hands. If you HAVE to go into public, bring a hand sanitizer or wear latex gloves. Please practice social isolation and be smart and safe!
🌿✨🕊
#covid19#coronavirus#socialdistancing#social isolation#activities#self care#boredom#ideas#skin care#makeup#marie kondo#organizing#clean#hobby#crochet#sewing#drawing#instrument#music#guitar#drums#violin#piano music#piano#exercising#diy#squats#pushups#situps#burpees
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Self Care Ideas While In Quarantine/Social Distancing
Journaling
Meditating
Yoga
Exercise (try following an exercise video on YouTube for inspiration!)
Dance party!
Stretching
Take a long bath
Color in a coloring book (if you don’t have one on hand, you could find pages online and print one out, or you could draw some patterns in pen then color them in)
Read a book
Learn about something you’re interested in
Doodle
Practice learning a language
Painting
Read or write some poetry
Listen to your favorite music
Find a new hobby or re-visit something you used to like doing
Listen to a podcast
Write a song
Declutter your closet, bedroom, and/or any space that’s causing stress
Develop relaxing morning and evening routines
Write and read aloud some self love positive affirmations
Unfollow anyone on social media that stresses you out or doesn’t contribute to your happiness
Write a list of 10 things that you’re grateful for and why you’re grateful for them
Try out a new recipe
Put on an outfit that makes you feel confident
Open a window and look outside
You definitely don’t have to do any/all of these if they don’t resonate with you or feel right for your situation right now, and that’s totally ok! Do whatever feels right for you <3
What are some ways that you practice self care?
#self care#mental health#quarantine#social distancing#self isolation#covid19#coronavirus#studyblr#studyspo#studyspiration#studyinspo#student#study#studying#inspo#inspiration#motivation#organization#ideas#advice#how to#school#college#uni#university#selfcare#love#life#list
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A friendly PSA from the Boosie! Stay safe y'all <3
#caboose rvb#red vs blue#red vs blue fanart#micheal j caboose#quarantine#self isolation#covid19#coronavirus#covidー19#psa#digital art#shannon draws stuff apparently lmao#this idea came to me in a dream and i decided to draw it to keep myself busy lmao#lemme know if youd like me to tag this with anything else lol#freckles#freckles rvb#washington rvb
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Coronavirus: Leicester Church Uses Minecraft to Teach Bible to Teens
Coronavirus: Leicester church uses Minecraft to teach Bible to teenagers
17 May 2020
During the lockdown during the lockdown, a church resorted to Minecraft to teach their children about Christianity.
Leicester's St John the Baptist Church has been recreated on a server, so the youth club have somewhere to hold Bible classes.
Josh Young, the organiser, said it was a way of meeting young people "where they are" and engaging them in a world that they are used to.
They can also use virtual reality to design their own lessons.
Mr. Minecraftservers.host Young, for example has created an underwater whale to teach the kids about Jonah's story. He also challenged the teens to build boats to find out more about Jesus who calmed a storm.
The 27-year-old youth worker said: "Having a community for these youth is extremely important and I wanted to keep that in mind during the lockdown.
"They cannot be friends with their friends, and some of them are struggling at the moment. On Minecraft they can chat, meet and play games without physically being present. It's a platform to connect and create a communities.
"Young people are living in an online world and the Bible encourages us to meet people wherever they are within their communities.
"Jesus pushed the boundaries of what people thought was typical worship, he would be happy with the idea that the church is progressing."
Every Wednesday, 20 children between 11-17 spend two and a half hours on the server.
They are free to explore the world and pursue their own projects during this time however, for 30 seconds they are taken to a communal area to complete an task based on the Bible.
Mr Young said they had ensured that the adults were able to prevent bad language, control who joined and had permission from the parents for their children to join.
Rosie 15, who is 15 years old is one of the teens who regularly play at the club. "I love it because I get to talk to my friends whilst playing, I really enjoy it the same way as meeting for our regular youth group," she said.
"I thought it was good when Josh teleported everyone to the same spot and we had a competition to build the most beautiful boat from Matthew Chapter 8 where Jesus stopped the storm. My team was the winner because we created lightning storm clouds."
A SIMPLE GUIDE: How do I protect myself?
AVOIDING CONTACT: The guidelines on self-isolation and exercise
Look-up tool: Check cases in your area
MAPS and CHARTS: A visual guide to the outbreak
Follow BBC East Midlands via Facebook Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].
The year is coming to an end churches might not be back on course.
10 May 2020
Lockdown nightclub recreated in Minecraft
26 April 2020
Muslims prepare for Ramadan under security
23 April 2020
Coronavirus (COVID-19) The Government
Coronavirus (COVID-19). -- NHS
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So... things are looking a bit rough and bleak in the world right now, but I had some thoughts on self-isolation and thought I would share them here. I work at home under normal circumstances, so I thought I’d share some of my experiences from the last three years of doing that. Obviously these thoughts won’t be applicable to everyone’s situations, so remember to take them with a pinch of salt and to come up with your own strategies too.
First of all, you’re doing the right thing by staying home to slow the spread of this virus. It’s going to be tough, but we’ll get through. Keep that in mind, especially on rainy days when things look especially bleak.
Sleep and rest. You work hard in a frenetic world. You deserve some ‘you’ time to take a breath and recharge.
Take some time for yourself to decompress and process what’s happening. It’s a lot to take in, and it’s scary.
Reach out to people online and check in with family and friends that way while we’re advised not to travel or meet up in person.
Establish a routine as soon as possible, and make it realistic (i.e. if you’re not a morning person, don’t say ‘get up at 5am’ because you’re setting yourself up for failure, and you won’t feel good when you don’t make that 5am wakeup), and then stick to it. It takes about 30 days to establish a routine though, so go easy on yourself.
Schedule in some exercise, even if it’s only five minutes of stretching, and make sure it happens somewhere different from where you work, and from where you sleep. You can build up from those first few minutes as time goes by, but it’s important to move around if you can.
Keep hydrated. Staying regularly and properly hydrated can have an impact on the state of your mood [x].
Make lists. First make one of really big/major/long-term goals, then break that down into smaller tasks that you can manage on a more short term (daily/weekly) basis.
Do those chores you’ve been meaning to do. Start small - tidy that bookshelf; empty that waste paper bin; do that load of laundry. You can move on to larger projects once you get some traction.
Get changed in the morning - don’t spend all day in your PJs. You don’t have to wear fancy clothes, but it’ll help with a sense of routine if you’re not wearing the same thing all night and all day...
Speaking of... Keep up your personal hygiene - being confined at home is no reason to let yourself turn into a stinky goblin! For those of us with depression, if that seems overwhelming, even just using a cloth over your face can make a real difference to how you feel.
Take on a project with a larger scope: perhaps sort out and fold up old clothes or belongings and take them to a charity or clothes bank (or put them to one side until it’s safe to head outside). Clear out some space in your home, rearrange things to make them feel ‘new’. Declutter. A sense of order inside will help to combat the uncertainty outside.
Maybe catch up on that series that everyone was talking about but which you never got round to starting, or read a book that has been recommended to you.
Learn a new skill from YouTube or the likes - there are so many free skill-sharing platforms. Could be a language, or that bit of maths that always confused you at school, or some home DIY or craft projects that you might have the stuff for, tucked away somewhere in a cupboard or in the garage...
Pick a period in history, or a part of the world, that you know nothing about, and spend some time on Wikipedia learning about it.
Treat yourself to a home spa afternoon
Learn yoga or meditation. In a world where we’re constantly faced with a barrage of external information and stimuli, you could use this as an opportunity to be still and look inwards for a few minutes every day.
Plant some seeds. You can order kits and pots online and can grow things like basil and other herbs in all sorts of vessels like teapots or buckets... get creative!
This is by no means an exhaustive list of things to occupy yourself in your spare hours during self-isolation. It was meant as a few personal musings, suggestions, and ideas, and if you have more, feel free to add to them!
Take care, stay home, and stay healthy.
Love Ghosti x
#self-isolation#self-employed#coronavirus#coronavirus lockdown#ghosti speaks#just some thoughts and ideas#ghosti's doodles#long post
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When some stupid-ass virus wants to break you by forcing you to isolate but you were already an introvert with years of experience under your belt before any of this.
#isolation ideas#isolation#self deprecating humor#self isolation#coronavirus#social isolation#social distancing#metal gear memes#metal gear rising#senator armstrong#introversion#introvert#covidー19
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