I will admit it; I'm more prone to moments of stress at this current time than I can remember being at any other time.
That said, I thought an antidote thread - about things that give us a smile, a moment of relief, some happiness or pleasure, to counter the ongoing stress of this pandemic and all of the rolling effects it has, might be a good idea.
I'll add one thing that helps me, and I hope we can make it a nice long constantly updated list. It might be easiest to manage if we add 1 thing at a time.
Reading: I am a mad keen reader, and if I have a spare moment, I often fill it with reading. I used to take books with me in my handbag when going to the bank or supermarket, etc.; they are the reason why God made queues. I read non-fiction and fiction of most genres.
I've put my favourite genres into this spoiler to avoid clutter and to let people who aren't interested in other people's (mine in particular) reading preferences just skip on by. I'm a book sticky-beak; I enjoy finding out what sort of things other people like reading.
FICTION: Science fiction, fantasy, historical, classics, literary fiction (esp. anything that approaches Eco's style), mysteries, thrillers, Regency-style as long as the historical details are accurate, the occasional romance as long as it's not all grunt-sex-grunt-sex-grunt, whimsical, adventure... with a strong preference for British writers. NON-FICTION: ancient history, languages, archaeology, medical, physics, biochemistry, mathematics, old maps/ancient geography, scientific research, legal (esp. history of law), how-to, philosophy, cooking, religion, dress-making, art, humour, biographies (mostly historical), music, language itself, examination of mythologies (history and clinical discussion of them)... oh, and books about coffee and cheese and such things.
