Online performances

This week, a wide variety of shows from London's best theaters and the Metropolitan Opera are made available for free for a limited amount of time. You can check the full schedules here (for London theaters) and here (for the MetOpera). A wonderful New Year's gift for all of us theater lovers – or a chance to start a new tradition of greeting the year at the theater, be it online or offline.

What's more, there is a curious event organized by the London Symphony Orchestra that is both family-friendly and rather experimental: it claims to explore the spaces between sounds and notes, the way music itself travels from one instrument to the other in a live orchestral performance. It is available on a great number of dates all the way till February, including this weekend. You can find the full list of dates here.

New skills

Yes, we know, you've only just surfaced from a semester full of classes and those exams will start to look closer from the other side (aka from January 1), but trust us, it can be really fun and motivating to take a short course with visible results. Such as, for instance, this one, that takes you from the basics of HTML5 Canvas and all the way to your first animation. Whether you want to just create better memes or make your own game — this is a course that promises results from the very first day of class.

Another graphics- and code-related course is all about making websites. It takes only nine hours to complete, but in this time you are promised to have built four sites and become well-versed in HTML5, CSS3, and Bootstrap. These days, everyone is expected to have some form of an online representation of themselves — so why not take it into your own hands and build your own website?

Finally, there is a course on innovations in the fashion industry. If you've ever wanted to be Miranda Priestly from The Devil Wears Prada and always know where a piece of clothing comes from and how its creator arrived there, hurray — it will only take you two weeks (and four hours of classes) to get there. Discover your hidden fashionista!

Fitness challenges

If 2021 is no exception from that resolution to be fitter and healthier, then you are in luck, as these days YouTube is full of various challenges — from seven-day programs targeting a specific body region to 30 days of exercises that are supposed to help you develop that new habit. For instance, you can go here and here to find intensive muscle building programs and challenges.

My personal favorite, however, is yoga, so I can't help but invite you to join the seventh annual yoga challenge at Yoga with Adriene that will start on January 1. Whatever you choose, remember to always be kind to your body and take pleasure in the journey, not just the result.

And just another couple of tips from our team: here are our lists of board games and video games you can play with friends remotely, and a comprehensive guide to some freshly-released games you might have missed. Have a great first weekend of 2021!