Diary Entries

Dear Diary, A lot has been happening these last 2 months. Hubby and I were "bird-nesting" when Covid-19 restrictions started. He had to move back into our main house because our other residents didn't have an internet connection. 1st week: Hubby was teaching LIVE everyday while I learned Google Classroom so I could teach my students as well as home-school my own children. Noise was a problem. 2nd week: Rearranged the house. 9 year old child moved into 11 year old child's bedroom. Other bedroom became an office for Husband. Section of lounge became a home-schooling room, complete with drawers from garage. 3rd week: School holidays. Much appreciated. Did a little literacy and numeracy with children to catch up on some lesson time lost. 4th week: School holidays. No work for my own children, but prepared new online resources for my students. 5th week: My work now using ZOOM first two hours of day. Children not allowed in house at this time - outdoor play. Children getting unmotivated with school work. Trying hard to keep it to paper worksheets as too much computer = crabby children. 6th week: Continuing with zooming, also learning a new platform to teach my students. Arguments with own children about school work TOO BORING! and I WANT TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL! 7th week: One day a week return for children at school. Children now on computer all day for school work. Easier, no more fights. Husband also working at workplace although it hasn't yet been opened for public. Back to "bird-nesting". School starts full-time in 2 weeks! Yahoo!! :)

7.30am. After the tea tray was organised, and first cups poured, after sourdough toast pulled from the freezer was slotted into the toaster —on defrost— & timed to work with the eggs boiling to a soft set on the stovetop, there was an almighty crash at the dining room window. A confusing glance of dark I couldn't make sense of. I think I screamed. The kids followed it up with screams of their own. My fault. The ball was made up of three birds, two grey butcherbirds attacking a blackbird. The blackbird hit the window at full tilt. The butcherbirds’ impact was cushioned by their prey —like an airbag in a car crash, Miss Eight later observed— they were still holding onto it when they hit the window. All three crashed to the ground, momentarily stunned — as were we. And then, the butcherbirds were up and back into the attack. Have you ever seen it? Horrified, we charged out as a group to save the helpless blackbird, scattering the two butcherbirds into the branches of the box elder above. It was already too late. If it wasn’t dead already, it soon would be. We ushered the kids back inside. 'We cannot save the blackbird', we told them, 'and the butcher bird is a female with her young. They’ve worked hard for their catch. This is what nature does', we said. But also, 'let’s not look', and drew the curtains. Our teen twitched them aside, fascinated. Lacking religion to put this moment into context our kids discussed how angry Mother Nature must’ve been when she created them. When the butcherbirds sang to each other over their kill, a soft melodic pattern of notes, it was oddly beautiful. Conflicted, toast and tea caught in our throats.

Dear readers, I live in Sydney and I am in high school. I am learning online and going to school only one day per week. The numbers of people who have COVID- 19 are starting to decrease, and the rules during this pandemic are starting to become more relaxed. With increasing stock in shop, I feel as if things are finally starting to go back to the way they were before. Luckily, nobody that I am close with has gotten the virus and I hope it stays that way. With online learning, I feel more overwhelmed, with piles of assignments, tests and homework. The amount of breaks I have taken while I study has definitely reduced and the amount of exercise I have as well. Even though school work has been endless, the positive side to this would be being able to eat and visit the bathroom whenever I want and waking up late because I am not taking public transport anywhere. On the day that I go to school, it definitely doesn't feel the same, with social distancing measures, and less people coming to school. We also have to use hand sanitiser almost every few hours and we only have one room that we have to stay in, with only 15 people in it, spread across the entire room. When I take public transport back home I have to wear a mask the whole way back as a safety precaution. However, I feel grateful that, unlike in other countries, we get to even go to school and I know that it could be worse. I hope you have a good day today stay safe. Bye!

Saturday night, still a little isolated. Everyone says if you are older (politely put) you should stay at home. Today, I would love to go to a restaurant and dine with white table cloths, sit close to others, listen to their chatter and feel light hearted. Have a too polite waiter bend over to take my order. Will the waiter be wearing masks, I wonder? In a heady state of euphoria, I would even order their best champagne, taste the bubbles, smile as if I were celebrating something special. We need to support each other, after all. But only ten customers are allowed! Not quite the same atmosphere as a full house, and for me, as I am well over the hill, none of this is recommended. Instead, in a moment of foolishness, I might light a candle to compliment a plate of pasta (again). Dinner for one. COVID style. But I can dream of better times, or good old times, can't I?

Day 1 morning view of ease of restrictions I sat in a cafe I was the only one On a day where the rain did run The air was sweet There was not much heat And I pined for An outside lunchtime treat 2 post offices were closed Food court tables were no'ed But here and there takeaway food still did flow

I have been home schooling for almost seven weeks now and I only had my first day back on Wednesday. It has been quite weird staying at home and doing all these video calls. The other thing that's strange is that I've been doing a lot of things on the computer, such as all my English, a lot of my maths, all my science and geography. Though the strange thing is, because I'm at home a lot and I normally have my friends to play with to pass the time, I've been going on bike rides and scooter rides. Normally I wouldn't get out my bike because I have to pump the tires and do all that sort of stuff but because I have all this time i'm able to do it. it's sort of nice having all this time which I don't usually have, but then it's almost like there"s too much time because normally if I had some time I might go to a friends house or go help shop, but because i'm not allowed  to do those things I'm a bit bored. I look forward to seeing my friends but I sort of like having all the time I am getting to read and do my own things but I am looking forward to when the pandemic is over so I can get back to my own things. The pandemic's also quite scary because people are dying and you don't know if people have it until they've been told they have it so you might know someone who has it.

Atypical? Retired, married, septuagenarian, no grandchildren, downloaded the COVIDsafe app. No job to lose, I feel for those who did, but no government handouts for us. Lots of money lost on planned and paid for overseas holidays, savings reduced, meaningless interest rates for who knows how long. Govts have done a good job in handling the pandemic, apart from Ruby Princess, Cedar Meats etc. but nobody is perfect. No Bridge, no tennis, no Probus, so until this week, I had been out 4 times in 7 weeks, once for a flu injection and felt no real pain in my isolation. Plenty of jobs and tasks to do at home, that I thought I'd never get round to. My wife does the shopping, frequently, otherwise she would have cabin fever! Amazed at the pre-occupation with resuming NRL, AFL etc., who really cares? What does it matter? No real economic offspin if you don't have highly unwanted fans (because of sensible social distancing) in these times and all the associated peripheral economic activity they would normally engender. Not sure how the economic recovery will turn out, pain for all except the privileged few who have government jobs or work in the right industries. NO sign of our politicians, senior civil servants or most bankers etc. sharing the pain by volunteering to reduce their salaries, like Jacinta et al. Nice phrase to throw around for the rest of us though. Work hard, save, live sensibly and then wait for others to take it from you to rescue those who waste Jobseeker and Jobsaver on online gambling or drugs. Nothng changes! Cheers A wellwisher

2020 started off with bush fires in Australia. It was more than bad it was terrible. Then coronavirus (covid-19) happen. Toilet paper was running out because they know that if they get coronavirus they will have diarrhea. Well it is only my fifth day back at school. We have to spread out. It is really annoying. We can't go close to our friends we also can't visit our family because only ten people are allowed to visit. Well the benefits of covid-19 is we can have more family time, but sadly my dad is at work all day.

This is my first week back at school and I hope it can stay that way. Covit 19 has pulled me apart from being at home to going to school and not being abell to go to brisbane. All the borders are closed and i have to wait for term 3 to move. People where fighting over thing like toilet paper and hand sanitiser ,one person can only go to the shops at a time from a family. My life is like a living hell from covit 19 and I don't know what to do if this gets wores but it is getting better. I could be in sydney for a lot longer but I hope not to long. Online school has been a night mare and not easy because it is not like one on one teaching and that is just right. all of this news make me sad about all the familys that don't have any income and will go hungry. then what will happen next snake come off of snake island ect... part one I will keep you updated

I dropped my daughter at preschool today. The school playground is filling up again, as children present for their designated one day a week at school. At the end of last term it was almost empty, just a few children each day, but now more and more are returning. I kept my school-aged children at home when requested, but the youngest has continued to go to preschool. With my husband and I both working from home there was no way we could keep a 4 year old home with us, supervise homeschooling overchildren and do our jobs. I felt pressure to dress in "work clothes" for drop off and pick up, so that people didn't assume that I was working at home and should keep her home with me. There had been some very judgemental messages flying around on the preschool parents' WhatsApp group. There is a tunnel being dug under the house for a new motorway. It's a constant vibrating hum. We wouldn't notice it so much usually, but because everyone is home all the time it's more obvious. The plane noise that usually crisscrosses our suburb is almost gone - we notice now when a plane comes over. The big children have enjoyed having more time at home. There is less stress, fewer activities. They spend more time building Lego, reading books, playing with the pets. I can cook proper dinners because I'm not dashing home from work. I'm grateful that there is enough space for us all here, and we have a garden. I'm grateful that we have been able to keep working during this time, and have been allowed to exercise outdoors, unlike some other countries. Seeing the empty shelves at the supermarket was confronting for a while.