Hello Readers
I have been away for a while. A lot has changed over the last six months. The pandemic hit us bad and in the initial few months, I was lost. Like many others, I didn’t know what was happening around us, how severe would things get, what impact would it have on the economy and how long would it take before I could step out again like the good old days.
So how has my last 6 months been? Well to start with, I was to fly to Vietnam and Cambodia a day before the lockdown started. When I did my bookings in January, the news of this new virus was just coming out. I expected it to subside in a month or so and never imagined it would spread out of China. As things started getting worse in Feb and March, I had my fingers crossed and was ok to take the risk and go ahead with my travel plan. However, when the govt announced the lockdown and all flights were grounded, I had no choice but to cancel my reservations, flights and other pre-booked events. Of course, every country was going through a different phase of lockdown, which means that a lot of places were still open in Vietnam and Cambodia, and flights were up in the air. I lost a lot of money as both these countries were still operational and tourist attractions were open whereas India was completely shut.
Change of plans. Instead of flying out of country, I took the last available flight before the lockdown kicked in and flew home. Like everyone, I thought a 15 days lockdown would eradicate Corona and things would be back to normal. So, all I packed was a small backpack with bare minimum essentials. This was March. As the pandemic situation evolved, I realised I can’t fly back and I will have to be at home for indefinite period without a lot of my gadgets including my hard drive where I have all my pics for the blog.
Of course, the lockdown slowed down life. But this was probably the time I was craving for so long. The initial few weeks were bliss, the most desired work from home had turned to reality. What followed next was weeks of frustration. We couldn’t step out, we couldn’t socialize, people were scared to even go buy the essential products, shops had limited variety but thankfully never out of stock, empty roads; it was something I had never seen in my life, in fact like my 70 year old neighbour said, it was something even he never experienced in his life.
The very definition of life changed. Earlier when I went home, neighbours would stop by and talk. Now they were worried as I came from a city which was badly hit and while no one said anything, their apprehension was clear. Friends just waved at each other from a distance instead of having pani puri at the roadside stall.
By the month of August, everyone accepted this to be the new normal. Unlock phase started and slowly everything started opening up, but we had a new way of life now. Everywhere masks and sanitizers were on sale, these were the same shops which earlier sold phone covers or stationery.
As I continued to miss my travel, and kept thinking of all my cancelled plans – that’s 3 countries this year, I was to go to Mauritius too; and kept feeling bad about not traveling, I decided to relive my travels and browsed through my travel pics and souvenirs that I collected from various countries.
I love collecting fridge magnets. The only country where I couldn’t pick one up was Germany. While I had asked a friend of mine to get me one, it’s never the same as buying it yourself. So I decided to use the lockdown time to see how I can get a German magnet and that’s when I came across Zoomin. After the lockdown, a couple of my travel crazy friends had ordered a lot of amazing polaroid pics of their travels and I loved the pictures that they got from Zoomin.
Have you heard of Zoomin? Check out https://bit.ly/3hAelPG
This not-so-old company provides amazing photo service. You could order polaroid pictures, printed mugs, photobooks, canvas prints, photo frames, calendars, masks, bag tags and MAGENTS among others. The best part, this is completely customizable.
I had finally figured a solution to my missing magnet problem. The ordering was so easy. All you have to go is login, decide the magnet design from a huge list of themes available and then upload the picture that you want to be printed on the magnet. And Voila!! It’s done.
While I was browsing, I loved their bag tag designs too and ended up ordering a customised bag tag with my most memorable travel pic. When I travel next, I will not be pulling off the wrong bag from the luggage belt anymore 😂
The products were delivered to me before the stipulated time and the packaging was beautiful.
When I saw the magnet, it was just a photo and I was wondering if they missed sending me the magnet until I realised it a paper-thin photo magnet. The quality is so good and now it sits right along with all my other fridge magnets.
The bag tag looks amazing, the print quality is superb, and the material is very sturdy.
If you are planning to gift someone special or gift yourself like I did, do check Zoomin out. You won’t be disappointed 😊