21 days of Quarantine in Hong Kong: If you don’t laugh you’ll cry

My name’s Matthew Baker and I’m an artist living in Hong Kong. This is my second piece about 21 days of Quarantine. It’ll cover days 2 to 7 of being stuck in a room for 21 days.

It’s going to be an honest account of what it’s like mentally and physically to be in the same space for that amount of time.

I’ve never been to prison, thankfully but I hope this is as close as I ever get to it.

Anyway, I’m going to go through what I’ve been up to and attempt not to be too miserable.

I’m very lucky to be doing quarantine with my wife, and luckily she’s very funny so I can never get that bored. She’s been watching the Handmaid’s Tale. Which is so depressing it makes you feel like maybe it’s not that bad to be stuck in a hotel room when you could be being used as a sex slave. So I suppose in that respect keeping the whole situation in context is very useful.

So we’re in the Ramada Grand View in North Point. I’m sure when you hear ‘Grand View’ you’re thinking this:

The majestic harbour, sat with a glass of something bubbly watching the sunset. I’m sure your imagining me there. Well I’m not.

Because we’ve gone for the budget option so what you actually get is this:

Instead we have a wonderful view of the lives of people who live on Chun Yeung Street. I’ll be writing about the lives of some of these people in my next article as I inevitably get more and more antsy as the next two weeks drift by.

So my new favourite sport is tram number spotting. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Unfortunately I haven’t brought my anorak to wear while I do this as I know my wife would really appreciate this.

The advantage of this hotel is that the street is so busy for sixteen hours of the day that it makes you quite glad your inside. We’re nine floors up and it’s still so incredibly loud that you need to keep the windows closed when you call someone or are watching something.

So what do you do when you can’t leave a room?

I don’t believe in getting bored, so there’s a number of things I’m doing to keep busy.

1. Jillian Michaels

This is Jillian Michaels and for half an hour a day I allow this woman to actively torture me. But she gets “results” as she keeps screaming at me though the iPad . This workout program involves putting your body through a lot of pain for the sake of abs. Jillian is obsessed with abs to the point that I do worry about her. She says in a slightly threatening tone,

“I want these abs, and I’ll do just about anything to get them.”

I wonder what these might be mid push up, laid on a towel. I wonder if she’s ever written a list of things she wouldn’t do for abs. I sing this line to meat loaf in my head, “I would do anything for abs, but I won’t do that.” Then he reads Jillian’s list.

Another highlight today while doing the shred was my wife, really not wanting to do it and pulling a different stupid face on every jumping jack.

2. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

You know what else is worse than being in a hotel room for three weeks? Living in nineteenth century Russia. The story is basically about a guy who is possibly the worst father and his three not brilliantly adjusted sons for 800 pages. I’m 87 in I’ll keep you updated.

3. Social Media.

A lot of doom scrolling with nowhere to run.

4. Civilisation 6

As a 31 year old man it’s pretty sad I still play computer games. Or that’s what my wife’s look of disdain says as I build a digital Eiffel Tower to improve my districts. I’ve currently dominated the world once, the game tells me I’ve played a depressing amount of hours this week. But I’m not sad, I know that given the chance I would be able to rule a empire over the whole course of human history.

5. 1001 albums you must listen to before you die

In fairness this is a project I started in 2016 and I’m 442 albums in but there’s no time better to start than quarantine. This book is brilliant and if you like pop and rock music you will find something you enjoy. At the moment I’m on the year 1979 (it starts from the late 50’s). This album by PIL is basically screaming. Again you can think to yourself I’m in a hotel room at least I will never have to see this band live. I try and listen to a couple of records a day.

I will include another 5 things I’ve been doing which will include a zoom murder mystery in the next article.

In all seriousness I really feel for anyone doing this alone, it isn’t easy. Good luck to anyone doing it.

You can follow me on Instagram @artistmattbakerphotography



For an archive of my work check out www.matthewbakerphotography.wordpress.com



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