Diary Entries

Dear Future Reader, My name is Emily G, I am a 11 year old Year Six student from Glenbrook Public School. I'll be writing this letter to tell you about the Corona-Virus pandemic in 2020, this virus was first identified in 2019 in animals, After it was identified someone ate a bat which had COVID-19 which led to it spreading around the world causing this pandemic. In Australia our lockdown started around the end of march, students had to work from home using Google Classroom and other learning sites to get their education. Continuing this lockdown only two people from the same household could go out at a time. During this time some people found it quite difficult to work at home. During this era of time I've learnt that anything life changing could happen in a matter of weeks, As of today 355,000 lives have been taken by coronavirus. At the moment your home/work space varies in where you live, In Australia some states have decided to bring kids back to school, if you're at school it's mostly normal but with a lot more rules and more time on the laptops. Since being out of quarantine I've felt less bored but a bit more overwhelmed/stressed due to coming back quite fast and not slowly adapting. I miss being able to go out and do things with my friends and family, I've missed going out to the beach and going on holidays as well. I hope after all this is done and we’ll be able to go back to how life was before COVID-19. I hope this report helped you understand how life was during this worldwide pandemic and everything is now back to normal. Regards, Emily G.

Cancelled, closed, no we can’t go to the performance of Shakespeare’s All’s Well that Ends Well in Robertson Park, Watson’s Bay. Nor can we go to the brand new production of Neighbourhood Watch at the New Theatre in Newtown. And Brian and Charley’s mathematics seminar at Bowen Library, Maroubra is not happening either. No gatherings, first it was of more than 500 people, then 100, then 50, 20, 10; now you can only walk out with your own family and even then one has to social distance; at least 1 metre, no 1.5 metres but if you’re running maybe it should be 2 metres. “Did you hear that a wedding has been a major cause of the CORONA virus spreading in NSW?” “Well I heard that the biggest problem is that a cruise ship line let thousands of people off their ship in the middle of Sydney – and that’s after cruise ships were banned!” “Who stuffed that up? The cruise ship doctor’s, border control, immigration, passport control…….. ?” “Don’t know, but it has led to thousands of infections, and a few have died”. “Where’s all this going? It feels so surreal. The dreadful scenes from China, Spain, Italy, the UK and Europe are distressing. And New York? Serious situation there but Trump denies that there is a problem. He says “we do Corona Virus so good. Better than anybody. The best there is!”. What a dope.

Dear Future Recipient, Hi, I’m Max. A Year 6 student from Glenbrook. The COVID 19 global pandemic has had its ups and downs overall. It's been a weird experience and it’s created lot’s to mention in this text. This year has been quite rough despite us all expecting it to be something of a movie scene. It started out with drought, running Australia dry. Then there were masses of fires all through burning down most of our amazing bush! And then we were hit with floods, and COVID 19 has been our most recent part of the year we all expected to be great! Stockpiling was one of the weirder stages of the global pandemic, now that may not sound too weird. But it was what we were stockpiling which was weird, we had people willing to fight over toilet paper, Why that happened. I honestly don’t know. We had to apply social distancing and go into home lockdown to help keep us safe from the corona. Now I’d also like to talk about our schooling. I’m not sure how it would’ve gone without google classroom, it pretty much carried us all through the home learning period. I enjoyed not getting up at 7.00 to get to school at 9.00 but there were a lot of downsides. To be honest, as COVID 19 restrictions are easing I’ve got quite an optimistic outlook! COVID 19 overall has been a really big pain for me, but part of me has enjoyed getting time off to relax, play games, and not have anyone tell me to “do something productive”.

Dear Future Reader, My name is Fletcher C and I am a Year Six student at Glenbrook PS NSW. I am coming to you from 2020 to tell you about the COVID-19 Pandemic and what it was like. Let's start by where this dreadful disease came from. COVID-19 or coronavirus originated from lizards and bats that live in parts of Asia. Now people did not get this virus by touching these lizards but by eating them. As people started to get the coronavirus, people started to move around the world by plane or boat not knowing how dangerous it was. As these people moved around to different countries they spread the disease and that is how the coronavirus spread. Now coronavirus brought about many problems and some weird and annoying precautions. Most schools were shut down but we still had to learn from home and believe it or not it was worse than real school. A weird thing was that people raided the stores of toilet paper. Coronavirus created many annoying safety rules including you can’t go eat out, you can’t go to the shops, you can’t see friends, lots of people lost their jobs because only essential workers like police, paramedics and builders kept their job, and worst of all you can’t go to the playground. But it was because people were dying from Coronavirus and getting very sick. Coronavirus made life very hard, difficult, and annoying. But on the 15th of May restrictions started being lifted like, returning to school. Now the world is recovering and things are returning to normal, but very slowly. It just goes to show how important it is to wash your hands and keep clean. But for now I’m just happy to be back at school.

Oh Dear.. Oh there’s nothing quite comparable To finding there’s no loo paper on the shelves Scooped up by the trolley loads Every man now for themselves! And baked beans, maker of methane gas Which some did surely dread Can be found by the bucket load now Underneath many a bed Oh the panic buying has made history It’s enough to quicken the heart Tighten up the butt cheeks Now one is not too game to fart! Ah but rewind back in time Back then we just made do Newspaper threaded on a string Once hung in every outdoor loo The corona virus caused much panic But not at all right here I’ll just grab some gum leaves It’s quite gentle on the rear!

Nothing makes a body, minus immunities, shudder more than hearing of a virus capable of killing thousands of people. A virus capable of sending the entire world into total lockdown. A virus rumoured to have started within a laboratory. A virus deemed by a plethora of Christians, to be God’s wrath unleashed. Irrespective of its initial birth, the C19 lockdown initiated a very public display of varied human mindsets. From the terrified to the greedy, the disrespectful to the compassionate, individual personalities came to the foreground. At times it wasn’t a sight to applaud. Defiance, disrespect and sheer stupidity, gave the media a never ending supply of newsworthy material. Yet, out of something bad, always comes something good, be it big or small. Statistics show that family interaction increased, parents actually enjoyed more one on one time with their children. Couples enhanced their communication skills and although there will always be those who feel caged when forced into total lockdown, overall the experience has been a positive. In my community minded little country town, the majority of the residents took the lockdown in their stride. Garbage days were fun as a host of fun loving people dressed hilariously for the occasion. Even our local policeman took part. Those who disrespected the rules for the lockdown, may suffer the consequences. No doubt they’ll be deemed people with no integrity and total disregard for the health of others.

An ISO experience so a very interesting thing happened to me in isolation. one morning i got up earlier around 6:00 so i could attend an online meeting. headed down my slanted wood staircase and made it into the kitchen passing by the explosion that was my brothers workspace. i found my mum in the kitchen having breakfast i acknowledged her by saying good morning this is where it gets weird. as i reached into the dark pantry to retributive some milos from its depths i noticed something furry blocking my path between the delicious gold that was the milos and my hand. horrified i opened the pantry to see that this thing was a hamster then proceeded to jump out of the pantry into my hands my mum then said NIBBLES! that's where you went. so if you weren't following there my mum's hamster was hiding in the pantry all night and i found him.

I have been told to write about my experience with the Covid situation. I was actually in New York with my uncle and brother with his work. When i first heard about it, i was scared and normally New York is full of people 24/7 but the streets were basically empty. We still got to go to tourist attractions and dinners and i had the most amazing time. But whenever someone coughed in a shop we had to run out. The scariest part was New York was one of the worst places, because so many people had it but when i was there it wasn't that serious. Near the end of my trip we heard about countries closing down the boarders and we luckily left one day before they stopped letting people travel but we also had to stay in quarantine for two weeks which felt okay but then we had school closed down and we were going to be at home for a long time... The staying at home was fine for me, I did all the things I didn't have time to do when I would go to school and I got to spend way more time with my puppy. For me it was over too soon, I wasn't scared of the virus I was scared with what it was doing and all the people who died because of it. I think we all as a world has learnt we really need to look out for each other and care enough to put others in front by staying at home. This all was a tragic virus...

It's June! Wow, I never thought 2020 would fly past me that quick. Before you know it, we will be celebrating a new year. I've felt so caged up at home in isolation, it's nearly my birthday soon and I'm so excited. When I went shopping the other day I imagined everyone being a mosquito and my hand sanitiser was my insect repellent. Man being a mosquito would suck! At school me and my best friend Daizy have been busy on our volcano artworks. Splash! I got a bit messy. Last night I dreamed of laying in a marshmallow bed with a big bucket of Chicken Nuggets. If you think I'm random well you're right, in fact that's my middle name. For my birthday I think I want a million burritos and a six pack of soft drinks, my favorite is Solo, lemon flavored. Well I hope you guys have a great time in isolation....

“It’s all a media beat up, it’s just the flu, we’ll all get it, have 2 days off, we’ll be fine.”. “No, I don’t think so. The primary school where I work in the canteen has lots of Asian families.Probably mostly from China. Seems to me that a lot of them haven’t returned after Christmas holidays. It’s Valentine’s Day, 14/2/20, there just doesn’t seem to be as many children”. “I told you, MEDIA BEAT UP! Who even knows if what we are seeing in China is actually happening? People dragged from their homes, forced into isolation. Surely that’s not happening? For flu?? !” “Flu kills thousands around the world yearly, more than this Corona Virus, overreaction!”. “Term 1 Week 7, there’s something to this story, finding it hard to get my Woolworths delivery slot. People are using home delivery rather than go to shops. REALLY inconvenient!” “Guess what? We were all told to go home from work today. Don’t come back! No, not sacked, asked to work from home”. “Term 1 Week 8. We have a 50% drop in lunch orders – what’s going on?” “What? Gladys Berejiklian’s saying don’t send children to school, but schools are open” “What’s that mean?? What’s Scomo saying? He’s sending his children to school? This is all a bit confusing” “Media reports: hundreds, no thousands dying in China! No ordinary flu – still think it’s a media beat up?” “Maybe not, why don’t we have any toilet paper? How inconvenient”. “No toilet paper at the supermarket, also, No: bleach, disinfectant, handsanitiser, wet-wipes, clothes/dish detergent, sanitarpads, paper-towels, boxes of tissues!” “There’s no beef mince either. And cruise-ship docking banned!” Term 1 Week 9, 24/3/2020, asked to freeze everything at the canteen. It’s surreal; secure everything, close off computer lunch ordering system: CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.