How to have the most Sydney day ever (without leaving your house)

7.30am

Wake up. Set the mood by changing out of your pajamas into your most archetypal Sydney day wear. Are you an Inner West hipster tragic? Chuck on the linen overalls and ironic bucket hat you’d be sporting on your farmers market call or meander down King Street. Are you a Surry Hills pilates pro who likes to lift heavy things? Slip into your most on-trend activewear. Are you a North Shore mum? Float a Camilla kaftan of your choosing over your shoulders.

8.00am

Time for breakfast. Is there anything more Sydney than an overpriced bacon and egg roll and a green juice? Probably lining up around the block to score a table for brunch. But while we won't be settling down to a plate of fluffy scrambled eggs at a communal table at Bills any time soon, there are some home-delivered and takeaway alternatives that'll do nicely for now. For example, Sydney's cult cultured butter kings Pepe Saya have teamed up with Crumpets by Merna to deliver breakfast boxes ($22-$35) featuring pillowy, handmade sourdough crumpets and an assortment of condiments.

9.00am

If you’re anything like us, mornings just don’t feel right without the ritual of calling into your favourite coffee shop. While you might not be seeing your favourite barista any time soon, you can keep up that quality caffeine hit. Some of the best roasters in town are delivering the goods to your door, and with the widespread range of brewing gadgets out there you can brew up cafe quality coffee in your kitchen. 

10.00am

Sydney is a city notorious for the pursuit of the body beautiful. Gym bunnies have wept for their lost #gainz since the closures of gyms and the restrictions placed on outdoor bootcamps. However, all is not lost. There are plenty of online workouts by local experts to get your endorphins pumping and public outdoor fitness zones are still open, unlike our first lockdown. You can even learn some moves with Sydney Dance Company’s virtual dance studio if you'd like a side of culture with your exercise. While finding ways to keep our skin suits active is good for us, it's also important to note that our bodies are likely to fluctuate right now, and a little iso-pudge is no big deal. We don’t need to hold ourselves to the utterly ripped physical standards that might be popping up in targeted advertisements. 

11.00am

While all our favourite cultural institutions have had to shutter their physical doors for the meantime, you can still explore some of Sydney’s best museums and art galleries from home, digitally. The Art Gallery of New South Wales has adapted some of its biggest exhibitions into virtual experiences you can explore for free, including the famous faces of the Archibald Prize, and the lush abstracts of Hilma af Klint: The Secret Paintings. Fancy some deep-sea diving? You can explore famous shipwrecks with this fun new online game from the Maritime Museum. We've rounded up more arts and cultural events you can stream online over here.

Noon

Time for luncheon. And who the hell feels like cooking? If we were in the office right now we'd probably be thinking of prowling over to our nearest Thai restaurant for a lunch special on pad see ew, staring down a sushi train, or grabbing a bánh mì with no regard for the shattering of bread crumbs we're about to leave a trail of (so worth it) a lá Hansel and Gretel. Plenty of local restaurants and cafés are powering up their takeaway and delivery menus, and we have broken them down by area over here.

1pm

Once you’ve broken bread, why not digest with the company of some of Sydney’s most charismatic animal residents? Sydney’s oldest zoo has brought back Taronga TV, where you can tune in to animal antics from cheeky Asian elephant calf Jai Dee, a playful Sumatran tiger family, as well as other residents from across the animal kingdom including a dedicated 24/7 livestream of its adorable penguins.

2pm

Go for a walk around your neighbourhood and keep that cabin fever at bay. At the time of writing, this is allowed in most LGAs as long as you are wearing a mask, you feel well and are not currently self-isolating due to recent travel or illness. Spending some time in nature has even been shown to be beneficial for your mental health. Make sure to maintain 1.5-metres distance from others at all times. Can’t go outside but still craving some natural tranquility? You can take a virtual walk around Wendy Whiteley’s Secret Garden or even build a jigsaw puzzle of one of Sydney’s best beaches.

3pm

Feeling refreshed? Good, now go wash your hands (you should be doing this every time you leave home or return from outside, or when you’re about to touch doodads in the kitchen). Keeping hand sanitiser around is a good way to stay on top of hygiene. But if that generic pump bottle from the chemist just doesn't feel Sydney enough to fit your city slicker ways, we have a solution – some of Sydney’s top distilleries have stepped up to the mantle and are producing their own spicy, botanical twists on hand sanitiser.

3.30pm

Play a round of Sydney Monopoly with your housemates/spouse/family (or Zoom hangout gang). We all know that it takes forever to finish a game of Monopoly, and lucky for you, time is something we all have an abundance of at the moment. Sydney is a little obsessed with property, water views, and gobbling up prime locations for new sets of apartment blocks and casinos, so it only makes sense that the city lends itself well to the game of bankrupting your competitors. You can buy it online from retailers like Gameology (on special for $39.95). After a more casual game that is less about capitalist empires and more about personal introspection? Sydney DJ, MTV host and noted slashie Flex Mami is the mastermind behind ReFlex the Game, a card game that is designed to provoke insightful conversations and promote critical thinking, which could be useful for spicing things up with your iso-mates.

6pm

Celebrate another day without human contact by pouring yourself a stiff drink. The booze boffins at Time Out Sydney’s 2020 Bar of the Year, PS40, create more than just delicious drinks – they create stories told through taste. And they're delivering them to your door in pre-batched bottles. The swingin’ cats at Maybe Sammy, the award-winning 1950s Vegas-inspired cocktail lounge are no strangers to the concept of pre-mixed drinks. Many of their signature cocktails are available bottled and ready to pour. Have a peruse of our round-up of the best Sydney-made bottled cocktails you can get delivered for more tipple inspo.

7pm

Okay, you went takeaway for lunch so you probably shouldn't double up, but you can still take a shortcut to a glorious feast with these great at-home meal kits you can get delivered. Meal delivery kits aren’t necessarily the new kids on the culinary block, but during this era of lockdown life, there's been a major influx of new local options come onto the market. Some of Sydney's fancier restaurants have even joined in, with premium service Providoor launching in Sydney and bringing the likes of Icebergs, Golden Century and others along with it for the finish-at-home meal ride.

8pm

It’s an opportune time to tick some movies and shows off your must-watch list, and discover some hidden gems of the screen. You can stream some of the biggest flicks – like Tenet, Joker and Midsommar – for the smallest of financial hits, with the Randwick Ritz offering films for only $3 on their digital platform. Or if you need a bit more chill, here's our gudide to some of the best TV shows to binge on Netflix. And for something totally different, you can bliss out to the sweet sounds of the Australian Chamber Orchestra by streaming their concert movies.

9pm

Hang out with your mates – virtually, of course. Digital conferencing platforms like Zoom and Google Hangouts are giving us a way to gather sans physical contact. While these options aren’t Sydney specific, they do give you a way to talk to the people who make the city feel like home to you. Whack on some headphones if you’re worried about bothering the neighbours and party until whenever the hell you like – no one is going to know if you’re feeling dusty tomorrow morning. You can even do a virtual sip and paint class with these local studios, or join forces to escape bordem with one of these virtual escape rooms.