It’s day ten in my quarantine dorm room, and now that I’ve got things tidied up in anticipation of tomorrow’s parole, I thought I’d give you a tour.
Tour of the Quarantine Room
The other day I wrote a post about the quarantine facilities, but thought it’d be easier to envisage if you could see it for yourself.
Day One in quarantine was hard. You don’t know what to expect, you haven’t go into the rhythm of each day passing, and you’re not sure when meal times are. It was also cloudy and rainy outside and that’ll make anyone depressed.
But when Day Two dawned, the sun was shining, and it’s been shining ever since. There’s nothing like blue skies and sunshine to raise your spirits. I spent the day personalising my room, and as I have 4 desks I set up one as a kitchen, one as an art studio, and one as an office. They needed signs of course, so I could remember which room I was in. It sounds like an odd thing to do, but I busied myself with making signs (took up a morning), and psychologically I was moving from room to room, not holed up in one room with no company for ten days.
I should have spent most of my time in the office, but I actually spent more time in the art studio, and moved to the kitchen when meals were delivered or it was time to make coffee.
Working out in Quarantine
I’m travelling alone and I have lots of space to myself, more than enough to do some jogging. It’s fifteen strides from the wall to the door, and that means there’s ample opportunity for getting your daily steps in.
If I could be bothered, I’d add the theme tune for Chariots of Fire, but I can’t, so you’ll just have to imagine it playing in a loop in your head.
Painting in Quarantine
Although the room could have done with a little redecorating, it wasn’t that kind of painting.
When I knew I was going to have to quarantine in Turkey for ten days I decided to approach it like an Art Retreat. I wanted to have a purpose and a reason to get up every morning. This state of mind worked for me. I set myself a task of doing at least two art travel journal pages per day, and on most of the days I exceeded that. I’d signed up for some online watercolour classes, and I also prowled around YouTube to hone my skills. I’m at the point in my artistic journey when I’m trying to find my style, and these ten days have helped.
I’ve just published the updated version of my Bodrum Peninsula Travel Guide, and ever since I published the first version back in 2013, I’ve had the goal of illustrating scenes from Bodrum, using my photographs. 8 years later and 10 days in quarantine—and I’m off the starting blocks.
I edited my ebook to add this first image to inspire me to keep drawing and painting. Not sure when I’ll have time to continue on this journey, but at least I’ve made a start.
In another post, I’ll do a walk through of my quarantine travel journal so you can see the other pages I created.
