Diary Entries

Stile Life in lock down has been very stressful. Here are all the things I did or needed in lock down. For home learning there is a tool on all devices called stile which teachers use to chat to students and put lesson links, reminders and homework on the page. Zoom We used something called zoom which is just like FaceTime although with any amount of people. There are so many features including mute, turning off video, profile pictures, leaving computer audio, record, chat, participants ,clap/ thumbs up and MORE!!!!. School Each year went back to school 1 day a week and year 5 my year went on Monday and the week after that we would go full time. Year K,1,2,3 would go Tuesday and Thursday then they would go full time. Washing hands COVID-19 is very scary though it doesn't infect children as much as it does to adults. Whenever you get home or before and after eat you need to wash your hands for 20 sec now. What is COVID-19 COVID-19 is a virus with FLU-like symptoms such as sore throat, fever , difficulty to breathe, and a dry cough. If you feel any of that you need to stay home. There are no flights, no hugging or kissing and staying 1.5 metres apart. What you can do It is so sad and can't wait for this to end and the world goes back to normal. In lockdown the top three things to do were reading books, doing puzzles and exercising. You were only allowed to leave the house for three reasons. Shopping Exercising Medical reasons Staying home To me everyday felt like the same day to me nothing is different. That is a day in COVID-19 where you are basically stuck in a prison.

Dear diary In quarantine I have been at home a lot and it has been lonely. I wonder what people are doing at home . I can not believe that I haven't seen my grandparents in so long. I'm imagining that they can not sit still and are bored out of their minds. Sometimes i feel bored but that's mostly only when my parents are working. In spare time I bake, cook, make dinners and lunches. Sometimes schools shut down but we are doing E-Learning. We were only allowed to go out to get groceries and go for walks but now the restrictions have lifted and we are allowed out to see our family and friends. I have been spending more time with my family. At the beginning of covid there was a huge toilet paper fight and then everyone went to the shops and bought as many toilet paper packets as they could fit in their shopping trolley. In class I sit in my room all day and chat to my friends. I love decorating my computer with colorful pieces of paper. On the weekend I usually make sushi for my family. It is really easy and delicious. Sometimes I just do it because sushi is my favorite food and because I can not go out and get the fresh, perfectly shaped thinly cut sushi. It is not as good as the ones you buy at the shop but it still tastes the same. On the weekends I sometimes sleep downstairs in my sister's queen size bed with her. Sometimes it's spooky and really dark but we usually talk to each other until we finally fall asleep. Next week we are going back to school full time. I hope we don't have to be at home any more.

Dear diary, The day that this virus started I didn’t think that it would become so horrible that we had to stop school. When I found out that we had to do online learning, I felt like my heart had cracked into two big pieces. At first, it was very stressful and hard because of the internet connection. I started to rush my work and feel pressured by time. I have been a lot better with my school and have tried to slow down a bit more. It has been extremely tough for me because I really like finishing fast. These two months have been difficult. The online learning program is really helpful but in the time of covid-19, it has been really hard not seeing my beloved friends or my south african family. I think it has been even harder for my grandparents and sick children because they can get affected by corona much more than us and I feel really empathetic for them. School is going back to normal in a week but I am thinking it might close down soon after because there have been cases of covid at Moriah and Waverley College. When we go back to school, it will be different because we have to get our temperature checked by teachers every day and we will have to constantly keep washing our hands. Life has been hard and different with coronavirus and I think it will never be the same again. We should take this as a life lesson. Slow down and always keep your loved one’s even in the worst of times. Stay safe, remain calm and care for your family. If you have any pets, you should care for them a lot as well. Yours sincerely, Leah

Today I reflect on the words by WH Davies “what is this life if full of care we have no time to stand and stare, no time to stand beneath the boughs and stare as long as sheep and cows”.. at this surreal moment in history we have been given time.. but you can’t let the grass grow beneath your feet either! So my husband, Jack and I are dedicating this time to keeping our selves healthy and fit and to carry on an abridged fitness regime whilst our gym is closed. Jack has continued with his golf albeit with self-distancing – which makes it a much quicker game with not much socialising - and they say men don’t talk! I have been walking with my gym buddy around 12 kilometres per day on at least 4 days a week with many steps, pilates and yoga stretching in between so that we can actually make the walk each day without too many injuries and sore joints. However, during this time and on reflection, we have been able to take in the sights and sounds of a world where the people are not in their normal busy place. This time and space interestingly has given us an opportunity to smile and speak with many strangers, whether it be people just walking their dogs in the park, a lone fisherman by the bay, the cafe shop owners all of whom we have met on our travels. I feel these people would have in an ordinary world just walked by, but now they seem happy to have the time to stare and space to take notice and engage with others. A benefit perhaps of Covid19 we would never have imagined. Let’s hope it continues – the engagement that is not the COVID!

OUR ELKHORNS Suddenly they were there, tiny plants clinging to a rocky bank at the edge of the bush. Cute pale green shield-shaped plates with a few green leaves hopefully held aloft. I watered them occasionally, wished them well. Then drought bit. We had more to worry about than self-seeded ferns. They clung to life, most of them as the sandy soil baked in the sun. Now, two years later, seven still survive, plump and flourishing in the recent rain. They seem to live on air… Four have moulded themselves around the rock their spore fell on and germinated, small or large, cube-shaped or round. One has piggybacked on a brother fern, Clinging to its lower edge. Another has wound itself between a rock and the root of a nearby tree, filling the space between, a perfect adaptation, like the elegant limbs of a soaring dancer caught by a photo. And the last elkhorn has spread its shield around a root that loops complete in air. There it clings, at ease as a highwire artist seated on a lofty trapeze, gauzy skirt flowing as she defies gravity. Yet this small plant is of the earth, near the earth, clinging tight, sucking nutrition from the air and transforming sunlight into living, breathing indomitable leaves.

During this lockdown it's been really hard for me because i haven't been able to play soccer games and there wasn't much space to play. I have been able to go to the park but there are no basketball hoops and soccer goals anymore. The waverly council had a whole big section on astroturf as a soccer pitch but they closed the whole space. Now there is not much space for everybody who goes to the park anymore. It's been especially hard for my brother because he has been going on electronics a lot more. Because of that he has been sleeping less . He used to go to the park a lot but now he has only been with his friend and never by himself or with a family member. It's also been hard for my sister because she is in year 12 now and she is having H.S.E . She has been studying hard almost every day of the week. Except it's harder to concentrate in a house than in a library because it's louder in a house and she hasn't been able to go to the library because the government closed most libraries in NSW. It's been a bit better because I get to sleep in and wear mufti everyday. Every day since Corona I have had either had rice krispies or corn flakes. At the start of lockdown i was doing a lot of exercise but now just not as much. Near the start of lockdown i was going for runs with my dad 3 times a week but now i'm not doing that anymore and i'm going to the park way less. Most days now I'm just relaxing at home. Slowly everybody is going back to normal without knowing it.

Last week my uncle died. He wasn’t a casualty of COVID-19, but the virus certainly made its presence felt, both before his death when visits were limited and at his funeral, the church scattered with the twenty of us allowed to attend. COVID ensured that his church congregation could not be there, nor the members of the local Men’s Shed he had established nor those of the local historical society where he had been an office-bearer. Instead we were a small family group with a couple of close friends. I greeted none of them with a kiss, not even my aunt, who had loved my uncle for more than sixty years. Instead, I helped myself to sanitiser and sat at a distance on a marked place in the pews. Together, the twenty of us listened to hymns we were not allowed to sing. COVID could do many things but it could not dampen the love and the creative force of my uncle’s family. In the last days of his life, his children kept vigil over him, lighting candles and reading to him. A phone was put to his ear so my mother and I could speak to him, even if he could not speak back. His granddaughter designed the cover for his order of service, filling it with sketched leaves and trees and garden tools for the man of the soil he had been. Her sister, stopped by COVID from travelling back to Australia, read a eulogy, pre-recorded, as her cousins placed a basket of vegetables from my uncle’s garden on his coffin: the coffin later carried out by his sons, his grandson and his nephew. My uncle, Warwick Leal, was a good man who lived a good life and I’m glad I had a small part in it.

Dear diary, Living in COVID 19 is very strange. Instead of getting dressed, hearing the birds chirping and driving to school, I could get up, hear the birds and make breakfast, get my book from the bannister, and sit and read by the heater. I would then get dressed and check the timetable on my laptop before I read again until class starts. I only see my grandpa once a day at lunch, but he’s not always here on facetime, one time he brought a passionfruit and coconut cake that was devoured in less than two days. It gets pretty boring with my sister singing and my dog barking at the birds, the only fun time is when my family sits and plays card games or watches movies. But sometimes my dad is working and my mum is doing Pujah with Amma, who is believed to have the spirit of the Indian goddess. The part of my day that brings me close to my sister is when school is out and we jump on the trampoline, watch TV in bed with her or playing Bloxburg in Roblox with her and my cousin. If I am getting bored of that I use my fidget spinner or build with LEGO. Living in COVID 19 I have become more resilient and I have learnt new skills and I have read and played video games to my heart’s content. The government says its safer but I don’t feel that way because of the Anglicare home for elderly people are our neighbours.

Yesterday we had school from home again. Not that I am complaining normally we have so many activities outside of school. Soccer, Squads, Chamber choir, dutchschool, early morning fitness, early morning training and occasionally some extras. Now you can see why I like waking up at 7:50 and the first zoom of the day is at 8:40. So that is one really good thing about being in quarantine during coronavirus. I live with my older brother, my parents and my beloved cats belle and beau. During coronavirus it is really easy to annoy people without even knowing it, like when I talk so much that my brother's head gets so big and red that if I get a pin and jab it in his head it will explode like a big red balloon. But there are many bad things for a lot of people that are homeless or poor but to be honest unless you have lost your job or you or somebody else is sick or has died because of coronavirus some people are overreacting quite a bit. I think you can also look at the bright side and in some places they literally looked at the bright side because china has had their first blue sky in 15 years! I think it would just be wonderful to have never seen the top most branches of the tree next to your house or to have heard a bird for so long but for the first time to actually see it, or to fill your lunges with clean air for possibly the first time in your life! The hole in the ozone layer was healing when the whole of Europe and China were in lockdown so I am hoping that that will help our planet.

Dear diary, Life right now being a student has been a little weird. We have not been able to see our friends or play any sport. We have had to work online and only see our friends and family over zoom and facetime. I’ve learnt how to work online, like learning how to use Google Docs, Google Drive and Zoom and all the special features they have. Although I am still getting the hang of it, it is actually kind of fun, apart from all the technical difficulties, like all the times our program called Stile shut down for a whole day and when Zoom needed a waiting room code. I’m really passionate about playing soccer so it is devastating for me that I don’t get to play soccer or any other team sports. I can’t play or be active by my self because most of the parks and sports areas are either closed or only for walking and running (which I don’t love). Its a crazy time but its a new experience and its also just life so I have learnt to embrace it. It is a bit disturbing that we can’t see our friends, family and classmates but it means I’m way less busy which leads to more free time to be creative, play games and have family nights. It even led to a puppy which I’ve been wanting for so long. My puppy name is Zeke he is really cute he has really helped me through this very rough time. My Granny also got a new puppy and its a girl, her name is Tassu. Tassu and Zeke play really well together and when I see them playing together it just clears my head from everything around me and transports me into a world of love.