The closest I've come to a lockdown routine is an afternoon ice lolly and I am not ashamed

2020 may well be a year for the history book; as I'm reminded almost every time I check my emails, these are strange times we're living in. Everyone is finding their own ways to cope and as you may have gathered from the title, I am coping with ice lollies.

As a masters student living at home with my parents, I'm lucky to be sheltered from the stress of losing my job and still having to make rent like many of my friends, or indeed keeping my job and having to jostle working from home and handling the kids. For that, I am very privileged, but this lockdown presents novel and unprecedented challenges for all of us and so far it hasn't been meditation, or baking, or Joe Wicks keeping me sane, nay, I have found solace in the Solero, managed with the Magnum, and faced the storm with a Fab.

The Fab is my go-to. It's the sweet treat I orient my day around. With few burning deadlines and at best sporadic zoom meetings with my classmates, it has been difficult to find structure in my day to day life, especially - and I know I'm not alone in this - I have a real procrastination problem, which is where the Fab comes into play.

Every day at around 3 pm, I stop what I'm doing, open the top drawer of the freezer and pull out the summertime classic. The bottom layer of sweet strawberry ice, the middle layer a crude imitation of vanilla ice cream, and the crowning glory of a thin chocolate layer topped with hundreds and thousands; the Fab is a childish delight, but more importantly, it's a routine I can stick to.

Knowing that I can have a Fab at 3 pm gives me something to look forward to and encourages me to step outside for a few minutes and reset for the afternoon. If I'm feeling stressed and overwhelmed by my number of tasks and lack of resources, the Fab gives me time to stop and think. If I'm feeling sluggish and unmotivated, the Fab takes me outside to the patio where I can absorb some rays and hear the birds sing. If I find myself panicking about the uncertain future humanity is now facing and raging against the cosmic injustice of having to start my career during the 2nd economic collapse of my lifetime, I think to myself "It can't be that bad, I have a Fab." The Fab is remarkably good at stopping a downward spiral of panic.

Yes, it is childish and yes, there are more grown-up ways of coping - I can safely say that I never thought that I would handle global catastrophe by ritualistically gorging on flavoured ice - but it's working well for me so far.