Diary Entries

My husband Gerald and I moved in to Montefiore in early February. We were aware that a virus was discovered overseas but never dreamed just how serious it would become. Until then we were able to have visitors, go out in our car to shop or outings. The home kept us up to date with daily newsletters on the progress of the Corona virus and how it was increasing. On the lockdown in the middle of March, the home was put in to total lockdown. This meant we were no longer allowed to leave the grounds except for medical reasons. If visits were necessary, masks and gloves were to be worn until we returned. Then for the next seven days we were checked for blood pressure, temperature and oxygen were recorded. We were no longer allowed visitors. We give our greatest thanks to staff and nurses for their absolute care and keeping us safe. Their rules have ensured all resident's safety and wellbeing. The visits by Rabbi and his wife were ceased as they were both in isolation. We miss their presence and Shiur. Thank you to fellow resident Justin for continuing to hold services. The cafe was temporarily closed but now reopened, as did the hairdresser. Thank you to the staff who created activities to keep us occupied and entertained. The physio Phil remained open and exercise class held every day. The gym was available for us to use under his guidance. Thank you to the chefs who make sure our appetites are nourished - the waiters who are patient with many demands and the housekeepers who make our lives comfortable.

This Pandemic is the worst!!!! I've been going to school every day during the pandemic and I made some new friends - Sara, Zach and Hasti. However, I really missed all of the other friends I used to see every day at school. The government announced we can go back to school as normal next week, but I think there is going to be a huge out break!!! The idea of going back to school definitely makes me feel nervous because someone might have corona virus, but I do not want corona virus. That would be very bad because even though it is exciting to see friends again I think that one of the school kids might have corona and then the whole school might get it and then some families might get it then it spreads throughout the whole world again!!! They are also now allowing a 10 people get together which is also probably going to spread corona virus. It’s just hard to stop worrying about it. Some young adults have been spreading this corona virus more than anyone else. I think parents should be smarter and make some of these young adults stay home. They are still children and their parents still have control over them. Even though it is tough to control young adults’ parents should try harder by having a chat with them about what will happen. This Pandemic has taught me a lot of things such as to be grateful for hanging out with friends. and how you should spend as much time together as a family cause now, we have much more family time!!! It has also taught me how people can go crazy with toilet paper when there is a sickness going around. This Pandemic.....

Fire... We finally have a fire pit — donated by my brother-in-law. With winter arriving, it is timely and comforting to have one to use. We already spent two nights sitting around the fire and enjoying the warmth it emanates. The joy of warming our hands and faces as we look up to the clear or sometimes cloudy skies is so simple and often unnoticed. On the other hand, wild fire has also destroyed and killed life. We were recently witnesses to devastation caused by the bushfires. And obviously, it didn’t go unnoticed. I can’t help but be amazed and be bewildered by the consistent ironies in nature. The same elements that provide us sustenance and allow us to survive are also the same elements that can and will destroy us. So as our family continue to light up the fire in our fire pit this winter, we shall remain grateful for its power in our lives.

I am a Covid19 baby, that is I was born during the pandemic. I left the hospital with my mum and dad after 48 hours. I met my Nanna and Grandad straight away and for about 10 weeks I thought there were only four people in the entire world. I knew these four people were there just for me. They made me feel very safe. They feed me, bathed me, cuddled me, read to me and sang to me. Now that some restrictions have been lifted I am getting out and about a little more and meeting new people. But I am very unsure just yet. I know a lot of people struggled and suffered during the lockdown. I am one of the luckiest ones. I was just totally surrounded by love.

Lockdown, isolation, loneliness, and Sorrow. For many, before the event of Covid19 was already an expected tomorrow. Preservation of life, ending of strife, all highlighted in red. Yet the muted of out brethren are still left for dead. As the statistics are read on the mean screen. Numbness and desensitisation, seeing people across the globe fleeing.

My thoughts on how a teacher's life in Covid-19 is very stressful then kids. They have to uploading work for students every early morning before the students wake up and do there work that the teacher gave them. For example they have create zoom meetings and help kids out and look though all emails that the students send must be the most stressful thing. Also having to mark all the work the students do for exams and school work. But sometimes its not always that stressful and tiring they don't have to discipline the silly kids who muck around all day and sometimes its depressing not seeing your happy class all together. I strongly believe that its stressful and hard for the teachers during covid-19 but relaxing. My days during covid-19 has been a rough time not being able to see my friends, classmates, teachers and principal. School work can also sometimes be hard without a your helpful teacher and not having much fresh air like you do in school at recess and lunch. Also not keeping track of doing school and getting distracted with things that are not relatible to school. Other then that I am kinda of enjoying online learning more peace and quiet and not getting distracted by your noisy class even though there your friends. I am getting alot more focus with work and get to eat more nutritious food and enjoy seeing my funny classmates on zoom meetings. I strongly believe that covid-19 is the most annoying experience but also extremely helpful in this time.

Although I adored words as a kid it was only upon starting a journal in my teen years that writing took a hold of me. I spend my days doing vocational & technical writing but life writing remains my secret pleasure. You would think that teaching life story writing would mean that I do a fair bit of it myself. But I don’t. The global slowdown has been a godsend to introverts like me. One beautiful thing I’ve found unfold is having more space to return to writing. Around the age of 14, I met Catrina. It’s said that people don’t often recall what you say but they always remember how you made them feel. Catrina made me feel seen and valued. We shared a love of literature and seeing life through a quirky lens, laughing easily and often. Checking the mail one day I discovered a handwritten letter she had written to me. Words had always been my muse but the act of writing wasn’t something I had done until I responded to that first letter. We never exchanged these letters during our walks, we just planted them in one another’s mailboxes. Hers were written in colourful handwriting with girly insignias and sprayed with puffs of perfume. Mine included rambling doodles and eccentric elements reminiscent of E.E Cummings. I would never again have an opposite-sex relationship that wasn’t mediated by digital technology. Letters would go the way of typewriters as the art form of letter exchanges dissipated from the culture. While verbal conversation flowed steadily enough, our most intelligent, probing and interesting banter found its way through written words. In time our lives took different tangents but I’ll always be grateful for Catrina showing me the truth of John Donne’s assertion that “More than kisses, letters mingle souls.”

COVID Diaries - Captains Log Post for the 50th day of lock down. Today I looked at the vertical and diagonal marks I had been scratching on the "Dr Who Calendar" that hangs in the study of my isolation pod and came to the scary realization that the four vertical marks with one diagonal mark through them came to a total of 10 items marked that way - or that 50 days of isolation had been record. Only 50 days that felt like 50 years as I remembered back to the days when people looked forward to being in a crowd or riding on train. Now everything has become a litany of preparation to protect and defend against a virus, a something it is not really possible to defend against. A simple trip on the train requires the packing of gloves, a sanitizer and possibly a mask if you are going a long way - just the preparation to do stuff is exhausting. As a person who has always loved the spontaneous, the idea that "anything can happen Thursday" should be a thing, the COVID has been a real "Buzz Killer". Still there is always a positive and as we look forward to the arrival of our fifth grand child, there is the reminder that life renews and that time not only moves on but can also get better. I like my Dr Who as he/she are a Time Traveler and my scratches on his/her calendar as they remind of this fact.

Quarantine was fun, but when I am back at school it's more fun than sitting at home doing school work!!.During Quarantine I woke up at 7:00 am.I would Brush my teeth and eat weet-wix. Afterwards, I go and see friends for 10- 15 minutes, through whats app video call. online school work, until it's 3:30. I loved to be back at school, In quarantine we have to school and not meeting our friends, and No going outside for playing sport.. I hated it!!. I went to play cricket, sometimes. I go to a club to play cricket. I watched movies.It's for fun coming out in the school and meeting friends and teachers. Me and my friend were planning to do a video call over the lock down. but the connect at our home was out. I know so sad!. It was great meeting friends and teachers in the school. It was my dad's birthday on 12th may, It was great but we didn't even do anything. we usually go outside to celebrate but that day, we didn't go!!. I do not like to do online school work. I like to got to school. School work is better because I could see my teachers and friends. I love to be back at school. Me and my friends were talking In whatsapp. because we were bored doing school work.

Abluvion What if I sit here and listen to the songbirds, And wait for the tides of silence time may toss. Not write out my thoughts with tears on my letters, And never breathe a word about pain and loss. What if I let utter madness consume me, Until I become sinister, dark and heartless. Drowning me in absolute condemnation, Surrounding me in a wave of pure darkness. What if I found acceptance in the blank spaces. Admire how the moon can shine as bright as day, Treasure how storm clouds rise and branches sway, What if I wasn’t what has been washed away.