Diary Entries

Dearest Diary, usually people would be writing for the core reason that something extreme is going on in their life. That however is not the case for me. Thinking about it now, if the unspoken rule did not apply to me, I have no doubt there would be many others doing the same. I am not special...but I am certain this moment is. All things in life at the moment have appeared to stop. Halting in place. It was as if I had woken up early morning to watch the water still in front of me. It was full of youth, lacking wrinkles another would envy. No boats, no birds, no fish. Everyone appeared to have rested their eyes...just for now. This calm, mundane life called to me through the chill in the Winter air. Feeling the contrast of the cool that floated around me compared to the extreme heat on the sides of my mug, a burning I gladly welcomed with the dropping temperatures so early in the morning. I know they question. Those with a life so out there. Taking risks and dancing away whilst laughing in sunlight. They enjoy the chatter, the pointless banter back and forth with each other, dancing in the shallow water causing ripples to swim out. I see their curious eyes as their gaze falls upon my still form, a small, tight-lipped smile resting uncomfortably on my face. Yet another moment distracted by the waves they made...perhaps I will wait for another moment like this. Yours Truly, J.N.T

What COVID 19 has taught me: - Online learning has amplified the fact that the teachers decide the fate of the students. They can either make the lesson interactive and enjoyable or the most boring thing you've ever done in your life - Board games relieve all boredom - Exercise can be fun (Thanks for nothing PE teachers) - Even the small things like going for a walk are extremely important in our lives - If I thought I was socially awkward before, I definitely am now - If I ignore the fridge and only eat 3 meals a day, I can demonstrate the self control to not cheat all my online tests - "I'm bored" has a whole new meaning - The most important items for most of the Australian population in a lockdown is: toilet paper, pasta sauce, rice, tissues and hand sanitizer (what more could you want?)

I'm David and I'm an Australian citizen of Ukrainian descent. We came here in 1993. To tell the truth, my life haven't changed much since the event of Covid-19. My wife is disabled and even before the pandemic we were pretty much confined to our house. The major difference the current lockdown rules have made is the inability to see our kids and grandchildren. We have resorted to talking to them on the phone and occasional Skype conferences. Aside from some inconvenience whilst shopping and getting around there has been no mayor impact on our family lives due to the virus. Having said that - my cousin from New York City has passed away... Covid-19 had cut her life short...

Diary of an independent publisher The air is cooler now. T-shirt, shorts and loafers have been replaced by leather jacket, gloves, jeans and boots. Travelling slow enough to take in the surrounds. It’s evening. The sun is setting and the shadows long. It will be cold tonight. A young kangaroo runs in front of Vespa. He slips and falls. He picks himself up but slips again. He’s panicking. He rights himself for a second time and runs off. Five minutes later, the lapping of the water reminding me that I am back at the ocean. I had passed Long Beach tonight and continued to Maloney’s, only an 8-minute ride from home. I parked. I didn’t do much at the beach tonight. I stood and pondered. I thought of the book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and the authors exploration of Tao. I thought of enacting problem solving skills. I felt a little guilty. With my first Vespa, in my twenties, I used to service the bike myself. I took great pride in that. To be a successful grease monkey when I was not a grease monkey left me feeling independent. These days I get Vespa serviced but find my independence in other ways. I arrived home in time for the bar to open. I replaced the leather jacket with a cardigan. I warmed my hands over the gas stove. Tonight it’s chicken curry. The coriander and peppers, beans and Japanese mushrooms are on the kitchen bench. Cooking is enacting problem solving skills. The martini is shaken. The radio’s on the local station.

Right now schools in NSW are in a strange phase of 'returning to normal' following an almost-total shutdown to stop the spread of COVID-19. I am a teacher in a secondary school, and we have been trying to manage the learning of students online at home, and now we are trying to juggle this with a staggered return to the classroom. I went on site on Monday, with just our Year 8 and Year 9 students in attendance, then I have been working at home yesterday and today, and will go in face-to-face tomorrow and Friday. Some of the students are very keen to return to normal, others are reluctant to return, and some remain scared that they will catch the virus and become sick.

It's hard. It's hard living in this time, with a transplant. There isn't much data on survival rates, but the data that we do have isn't great. The UK and US suggest that the mortality rate is roughly between 26-28% as over 1 in 4 kidney transplant recipients who have caught the virus have died. Almost double the mortality rate of someone over the age of seventy. It's hard as a teacher, I miss my kids. I miss walking in to see their bright faces every single day. Scotty from Marketing says that schools are a magical place where the virus is unlikely to be transmitted but I can't help but wonder if he is wrong. Kids spread germs like they do hugs, in abundance. We only have a very small data set and I am not yet ready to believe these claims. It's hard not knowing whether I am safe returning to work. It is hard watching all my peers get to enjoy the fruits of our labor with the little kindy kids who I have grown to love. I want to remain safe in my little home but I also long to adventure into the campus. To a place where I am far more productive. I It's hard not knowing when I can return to my normal. I can't wait to get back to it. Back to the classroom. Back to routine. It's so hard.

I drag myself out of bed slowly and check the time. 8:30 am. Dammit. I really didn’t want to get out of bed. I just started high school a few weeks before lockdown, so the year I was meant to spend getting used to high school was instead spent messing around with zoom and trying not to get distracted. I'm an introvert, one of those people who prefers messaging to talking, so this pandemic affects me less than most others, but it still annoys me that i can’t even visit my friends yet. I'm bored at home. There's nothing to do apart from watch Netflix, Youtube, play board games and video games. I’ve learnt some useful skills though. My dad bought this huge table tennis table from Kmart, so I've been playing with him everyday. Covid-19 is the second worst pandemic, behind the 1918 flu. I'm waiting for restrictions to be fully lifted, but that doesn’t seem to be until probably around October. Hope I don’t lose my sanity.

It is Wednesday today, and there are two more days until I can go back to high-school and meet some of my classmates and friends. At high-school, there will be new rules such as social distancing and more hygienic administrations because of COVID-19. Over the past two months, COVID-19 has had many impacts on my social life as it keeps me away from socialising with people which ultimately makes me feel restricted and gloomy, but the government has to take action on this wide-spreading disease and put restrictions on our society to limit the spread of COVID-19. I can't do activities which were common in the past, and that staying at home and not moving outside the proximity of my home makes me bored. My parents are implementing new methods so that I won't get COVID-19 (I travel by train to high-school so there is a higher risk). The government is planning to ease restrictions soon, but I feel apprehensive as there might be a second wave (hopefully not because I want to get back to high-school). Sitting down on a chair and looking at a screen for an extended time could be unhealthy, but it is compulsory for remote learning. I don't have to move to classes physically and there is no physical teacher creepily watching me doing my work. Doing remote learning can be distracting when doing work as many distractions around me can make me procrastinate as no teacher is supervising you to make sure that you are doing your work and not playing some kind of video game. It also seems that there are more tasks and homework to do compared to face-to-face teaching. I hope that COVID-19 will end soon so that we can go back to our normal life.

Dear diary, So far 2020 has been the toughest year of my life. What I thought was going to be a new experience, mainly because of a new school, new friends, new teachers and new subjects, was very different to what i had imagined. This goes to show that life teaches you the lesson to learn to trust the journey, even when you do not understand it. At first the news about coronavirus took me by surprise. I felt like a wave of resentfulness was washed upon, due to the news. I had just bonded with friends, I had just gotten used to high school life, but then Covid 19 forced us to stay indoors. The trip to America where we were going to see our cousins for the first time in 8 years was cancelled. My public speaking competition was cancelled, IMP was cancelled, debating you name it. But after a while it made me realise how selfish i was being. People out there who are all alone trapped inside their doors. Like senior citizens, nurses and doctors and even my grandma. This is the time where i decided to spend time with my family more. Although my parents were busy with work and my brothers were spending every second of their time gaming (until they were told off), I was blessed to have a family to be stuck inside with. Even though covid 19 was definitely not a good thing to happen to our world, it made my family closer together then we would ever be. But knowing Australia, knowing the world, and how good we are at rising above problems, I know we will get through this together and it won’t be the end of our world.

Online school sucks.