Mash Snack: At Home with the Mashies

Episode #011 | November 27, 2020
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Mash Snack: At Home with the Mashies

November 27, 2020

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Description

This year all the Mashies suffered through the Covid lockdowns, here’s what we did to stay sane

Audio Transcript
Bec: Hey, guys, Bec Caldwell here, and welcome to today’s short episode. This is a series we like to call “Mash Snacks,” a short and tasty morsel that won’t make you late for work. So, this Mash Snack is actually also the first in a small series we’re doing, called “At Home with the Mashies”.

So, we’re gonna be talking to team members about, not strictly work or marketing, or website-related things. So, this episode is basically, “What did you do during lockdown?” So, we’re in Australia, U.S., Philippines, and, you know, everything was a little bit different for each of us.

I’m in Victoria, so I was in pretty much hard lockdown for quite a few months. We’re just emerging from it now, so everything’s getting back to sort of normal. I hate the term COVID-normal, so that’s the only time you’ll ever hear me say it. But, yes, what happened at home with me?

Well, I think, like a lot of people, my online shopping went through the roof. I bought so much stuff that I had no use for, because I was, you know, in my home pretty much full time. But, I also bought things like art supplies to, you know, create in a new way, I suppose because I wasn’t out there. Some of you who know me, I also perform and do work in film and theater. So, not being able to create like that was quite stifling. And, you know, little bits of hardware to do things around the house. One of the projects I’m quite proud of is I resealed my shower all by myself.

Our creative director, Sharney, also, sort of did the art thing. She became a surrogate art teacher for the preschoolers in her circle. So she is in New South Wales, where the lockdown wasn’t quite so harsh in parts. So, she was able to do that, even though some preschools were closed. And, one of our developers, Zac, he tried online streaming and games.

Zac: Yeah, so, something I did during the lockdown was I upgraded my PC a lot, and then I actually invested a lot in more games. So, yeah, I kinda spent a lot, and then just started gaming a lot more.

Bec: Well, I don’t think you’re alone there. I think a lot of people probably did the gaming thing.

Zac: That’s true. There were a lot of people that upgraded their PC during lockdown. And then aside from that, I also started, like, streaming a bit more [crosstalk 00:02:39] were, like, “Hey, you should stream this. This is funny.” Like, “Okay, fine”.

Bec: Yeah, cool. So what kind of games did you play?

Zac: Mostly team games like League of Legends, Valorant. I gave up on Counter-Strike. I kinda gave up on PUBG because I don’t feel like I have the time anymore. And then I also went to, like, the games I’ve actually spent money on but didn’t get a chance to play, like Witcher 3

Bec: Yeah, so you went back to the ones that you already had?

Zac: Yeah, I actually about to finish it, I think within this month.

Bec: Brilliant. Good close to the year

Zac: Yeah.

Bec: So, not all of that recreation was digital. Offline, our social media manager, Nicole, started baking and cake decorating. Our web developer, Emmanuel, started cycling after work, just to keep his fitness up. That’s a really great idea. If I wasn’t so scared of riding a bicycle, I would have tried that. But, I did a lot of walks, around the park, and things like that.

Jimmi from our SEO team, grew heaps of plants. Yeah, he’s, like, a huge plant dad, which is really cool, like, we really love the photos. And, our designer, Aiden, built furniture, which is super cool. I’ve always wanted to learn how to do that as well, so it’s giving me a lot of ideas. Camille [SP], also from the SEO team, focused on her fitness and cooking skills. So, that’s…I think a lot of people who did the cooking skills thing, I mean, I also did the sourdough thing, and I’m continuing to do it, too. I will not buy bread anymore.

Rowena from our social media team learned how to use an electric sewing machine, so it’s kind of cool. And Ronnie also from the SEO team, let’s hear from her.

Ronnie: Probably just a few projects around the house, like, we decided with all the panic buying in the supermarkets, maybe we should produce own food. So, we grew some tomatoes, and capsicums, and some mint.

Bec: Oh, how did it go? Did you get a pretty good crop?

Ronnie: We’ve had a great crop of tomatoes, and they’re still going. We’re pretty much just getting to the tail end of it now.

Bec: Cool.

Ronnie: The capsicums weren’t quite as successful, but the mint was great, still going great. And, we’ve also now added lettuce and snow peas.

Bec: Yeah. Well, it’s great that you’ve found things to do that were actually a positive, because we hear so many negative things about feeling trapped, and things like that, during lockdown, so it’s good that you actually got something really positive out of it.

Ronnie: Yes. Well, I was really glad to be able to do that. Fortunately, being in Perth our lockdown didn’t last as long as some other places, so… But, I guess a bit of good that’s come out of that is now we’ve kind of continued with the gardening, providing some food for ourselves, as well as just having the plants we like to look at, and as well as doing things like puzzles and that. Yeah, so I’ve sort of kept up a lot of that, doing a bit more of that sort of thing.

Bec: Well, yeah. There you have it. A pretty diverse sort of set of at-home activities there. Look, a lot of it was really difficult for some of us, but it does just show you ingenuity, and what you can actually make out of a situation. So, I think next time, “At Home with the Mashies…” Yeah, we talked about baking and cooking skills, I think we’re gonna talk about some recipes. Who wants to hear some Mash Media recipes? I do. Talk to you next time.

[00:06:25]

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