Diary Entries

Humorous POEM I wrote called: THE FOOD PURCHASE Bill is on the lounge eating the last of his cheesy corn Chips He savours the taste as he licks his Lips He looked in the pantry to see what else was There Unfortunately for Bill the cupboard was Bare He jumped in the car and went to the Shop As he was about to enter the store, he was asked to Stop Excuse me sir, we need you to stand at the SOCIALLY DISTANT CROSS Bill, who was a little deaf seemingly did not give a Toss Bill walked straight in to grab his meal of Choice He was at the self service checkout, when he heard a booming Voice The voice said 'Move your hands away from the checkout Screen!' The voice continued 'Your hands are not COVID Clean! Bill looked down at his hands; still greasy from his corn Chips Bill thought, I'd really like a few salsa Dips The COVID cleaning team at the shop ushered Bill Away They moved him on without Delay Bill returned home without any Food He felt like the staff at the shop had been particularly Rude He flicks on the TV to help himself Unwind I just can't understand why the people at the shop were so Unkind He fancies himself as a poet and writes a few Words He finds it relaxing as he listens to the Birds The poem he writes becomes well Known With the money he made, he is able to pay out his Loan Back on his lounge chair he eats his Mars Bar And strums a happy tune on his acoustic Guitar

I didn’t go out today. In the Before I would get itchy, tired, antsy if I didn’t escape my small city apartment, move my body, breathe fresh air. Now though, these four walls define the limits of my world and I exist only within their grasp. The dining table has become my desk: laptop stand, keyboard, mouse. Yet I spend most of my working hours sitting on the couch, where the seat is more comfortable, less official, more taboo. If not now, when? In turn the sofa has become my dining area, the table being too crammed with office paraphernalia I refuse to remove ‘just in case’ the need for professional workspace strikes again. The bedroom is his daytime domain, the small vanity dominated by a curved 34-inch monitor which was his iso-birthday present to himself. He emerges typically only for meals, joining me as we balance plates on our knees and try not to spill food on the rented couch. So far, no stains. When the winter sun shines we sit on the small balcony, staring out at the Sydney skyline. The view was the selling point for our place, stretching all the way to Centrepoint Tower, now renamed and temporarily abandoned. One of the chairs out here is starting to fall apart and I am scared that it will collapse dramatically beneath me, but informing the landlord requires effort I don't have available. The overhead light in the lounge room too bust months ago but we have just learned to adapt to the darkness. Adaptation is the theme of our lives now spent in this too-expensive, bathroom-through-the-bedroom, 25m-squared apartment which we chose for its proximity to the offices we no longer attend. Maybe I will go for a walk.

It's all a bit surreal, isn't it? Only six months ago people were saying that 2020 was going to be the best year of their lives but little did they know it would be like a dystopian novel. In January, Australia was faced with a drought, raging fires across the nation with 27.2 million acres burnt and horrible floods! February was less intense but there were rumours of World War 3 happening which scared the world. In March Puerto Rico was hit with earthquakes, many countries faced a humanitarian crisis and the coronavirus was introduced. On the 23rd of March, Australia officially went into lockdown. It was really hard adjusting to online learning so quickly, but we had to learn. There weren't nearly as many cases of the virus in Australia as to other countries. As of today, there have been 7,283 cases of COVID-19 in Australia. In the US there has been 2.06 million cases and 115 thousand deaths. It's hard to imagine how stressful it would be to live in countries with such high deaths counts and be worried about a life-threatening disease 24/7. While I was at home during the quarantine I watched a lot of Netflix. I finished four series and found my new obsession for "The Vampire Diaries". I did struggle to stay on top of my homework but I always caught up. I also slept, baked and did some art! It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be since we were home for three months. I do feel a bit different after quarantine like I've started to see how horrible the world can get. Quarantine really changed all of us.

PART 2 CONTINUED... There has been a change in news topics. It has changed from talking about Coronavirus to the multiple protests that are happening. However, the media doesn’t show the good side of the protests. They also don’t mention the fact that most of the violence isn’t the protestors, it’s the police. The police initiate most of the violence. The protests are peaceful and yet the police are assaulting the innocent people standing up for what they believe in. It is tiring to have this pandemic and have all these protestors getting hurt for standing up for the black community! What do they want them to do? Sit back while they are afraid to do simple things that white people can easily do without fear. Don’t get me started on the people saying “white lives matter too”. Ugh, it’s so tiring but I know I shouldn’t feel this way because the black community and black people worldwide have felt like this their entire lives. Saying “black lives matter” doesn’t mean that we are degrading white. We are simply bringing light to the problem. To the fact that innocent black people are being killed in police custody and nothing has been done about it. Until the death of George Floyd. His death ignited the spark in everyone. His death ignited a fire so big that nothing will stop these people from protesting. Why do we refer to people by their skin colour? Why can’t we just refer to someone as human? Because, I don’t know, maybe, WE ARE ALL HUMAN!! After I exercised and got my mind off things, I did a bit of work and then watched Netflix

PART 1 Today was a bit of a sad day. It saddens me to see innocent black people getting killed or arrested for simply protesting peacefully. What does your skin colour have to do with anything? Social media is of course bringing attention to the protests. However, some videos on these social media platforms are graphic and very violent. I saw a video of a young, innocent black man lying on the ground, hands in the air to show he has no weapons. He was crying and screaming “I’m scared. I’m scared” whilst multiple guns were pointed at him. This wasn’t shown in the video but he was shot. For what? For being black. I really wish that I could do something. That I could protest alongside these brave people. I wish I could do something, anything, to make a difference. I couldn’t get my mind off of the video and the sadness that I was feeling so I decided to exercise. This helped a bit to clear my mind, but it wasn’t the same as swimming. Due to Covid-19, the pools were closed and I haven’t been able to go to training for 11 weeks! I’ve been more stressed without swimming; it helps me clear my head and it sucks that all of the pools are closed. Quarantine has gone really fast. I liked that I could sleep in for an hour or so. It was refreshing to be able to wake up later. I could finish all my school work in a couple of hours (definitely not six) and then I would have some free time to just read and watch Netflix. TO BE CONTINUED...

Dear Readers My name is Armaan Gill and I am 13 years old. I thought staying at home would be fun and school online would be fun. The first 2 weeks were fun but after that I got bored. I started to miss my friends who I would see daily. I started to miss my cousins who I would see every weekend. I was getting bored as no one was able to play with me. My whole family was busy in their own online world. Everyone would have a video call or a conference online sometime in the day. The lock down stopped me from doing the activities I love like cricket, running, dancing, debating and swimming. However, the thing I missed most during lock down were my grandparents who were stuck in India due to corona virus. Since they were too old, and restrictions were placed they were not able to come home. I really missed the company, the times that they played with me and the delicious cooking. However due to lock down I helped my parents in the garden and I got to socialise with my family, friends and cousins through social media, voice calls, video calls and online games. I also remember going for a haircut during corona virus and I remember how scared I was. Now that life is almost back to normal, I am happy to see my friends who I see every day at school. I am happy to see my cousins who I see now every weekend. We can go shopping, go to cafes and continue normal life. Now sports are also starting which is a big relief. However now I just wish that my grandparents were able to come back home.

Dear Future readers, My name is Harry.L and I am a 6th Year student at Glenbrook Public School COVID-19 was the craziest thing to happen during my whole primary school era. This experience has shown me that almost anything can and will happen, like a toilet paper shortage or a time period of self isolation. Australian jobs like florists or landscaping are suffering from the outbreak due to flower prices rising, or not being a priority, my Mum is a florist and my dad is a landscaper so it means less income. Working online was strange but fun as if you finished quickly you had lots of free time and I got to spend more time with my family. I feel sad for those who suffer from Coronavirus but I am optomistic because I know that people will make a vaccine for COVID-19 in time. This period is a Roller coaster and a half of craziness but it will end.

Dear Future Recipient, Hi, I’m Jade.S student in Year 6 at Glenbrook Public School. At the end of 2019 and the start of 2020 Australia was in drought and then the fires came along with no rain Australia had the biggest fires in history. Finally, the rain was so good but too much rain caused flooding. When the floods stopped we were all relieved to have no natural disasters on our hands but In February the massive Coronavirus pandemic came out. Australia's numbers went up high! Thanks to the Aussies that tried and succeeded to self-isolate and social distance. We flattened the curve. During this horrible pandemic items such as toilet paper, pasta, soap and hand sanitizer from all shopping centres were being stocked up in everyone's houses. Did you know that in one week seven weeks worth of toilet paper was being sold? Not everyone was enjoying staying locked in their houses, but Social media cheered everyone up. People all over the world were posting videos of themselves or their pets in the lockdown. My school shut down only letting the kids whose parents were working in emergency services. By late March everyone was working from home only in early June we could socialize with our friends. I loved telling my friends my stories from the Pandemic like my birthday and what we did. I am very thankful that there is an ease of restriction now. I can now be with my friends, class, family and relatives. It is all so good, although I did miss lockdown because I could do school work in my p-j’s, sleep in, eat whenever I wanted to. Yours Sincerely, Jade.S

Dear Future Self, My name is Marlia and i’m 11 and a year 6 in Glenbrook Public School This is a letter for kids or anyone to look back at the COVID19. At the start of COVID19 there are a lot different ways to look at it. well I kinder mean there different types of people the mums who got really scared of it and cleaned. All the time or the kids who would joke about it or the dads at a BBQ that don’t care at all. In the first couple of weeks life was still normal. A lot of kids were going to school, mums and dads still going to work and it wasn't going away like everyone thought it would a couple more weeks later less. Kids were going to school by the days I started to work at home two weeks before term 1 was done working at home had its good time and bad times like say you could watch more tv and do school at the same time and bad times all sports stop you could go to parks. So now we are like half way through COVID19 At this time he was going to school And the times were getting harder you could not see your friends and you did always have to be around your family. Almost everything was shut down. You couldn't sit down at your favorite take out place. We all had to do a little bit of online shopping. So now schools are going again and we get to see your friends and more shops and places are opening and the world getting back to track. by Malia S

Dear Future Students, My name is Emily R and I am a Year Six student at Glenbrook Public School. You’re probably wondering what it was like experiencing life throughout the Coronavirus. So that’s what I am going to tell you today. The beginning of the health pandamic was quite strange and unenjoyable, people were panic buying strange items like toilet paper and baby chickens and not just strange items most of the aisles in the shopping centers were empty, and I couldn’t see any of my friends or relatives for a few months. Schools stayed open but most people did online work at home so somedays there were only one or two people in a class. Then there was the second stage which seemed to last forever, most people went into quarantine and only went out for essential things, in the hope that they wouldn’t catch and be able to slow the virus.This meant that most people were staying at home most of the time I was included in this group and I have to say this was one of the most boring times of my life and certainly the most unenjoyable out the three stages. Then the Third Stage started, restrictions started to be lifted like five people allowed at a house discluding immediate family and national parks and some restaurants and cafes where to open. people gradually started to come back to school starting at one day a week then eventually full time. The Coronavirus has really changed how I look at life and it has enabled me to take life a little slower and be grateful for what I've got. I've also learnt that you don’t know what you have until it’s gone.