Items

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  2020-04

  Family facetime

  At the start of lockdown it became clear that my family would not be able to see each other for a while. Most of my family lives in Sydney, some of us live in Melbourne, regional Victoria and Canada. In response, my sister initiated a Coffey Family FaceTime every night at 6:30pm with whoever was available. However, this meant teaching my grandmothers how to use Facebook and how to start a call. More than 8 months later and both my grandmothers still can’t turn their video on without direction and also can’t start Facebook calls. This call kept us together when we felt far away. Celebrating father’s day and birthdays and anniversaries on FaceTime made some moments more memorable and some feel more lonely. Face timing each other was fun until there was a family dinner in Sydney and you couldn’t leave the state. However, there were fun moments, stirring up my parents dogs by yelling “walkies” or “dindins” and then leaving the call, FaceTiming on empty trams and using the weird face effects to confuse my grandmother about who’s camera was whose. The call gave structure to the days spent inside and caused me to talk to my grandmothers and extended family more about the current world events. HIST30060
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  2020-04

  Birthdays in lockdown - HIST30060

  When the pandemic caused Melbourne to more-or-less shut in March, my year 12 brother who attends a boarding school, and I, who lived in the city to be closer to university, had to move home to the Mornington Peninsula with our parents. All four of us, and our two dogs, celebrated our birthdays in lockdown - and not just any birthdays; my mum turned 60, my brother turned 18, and I turned 21. We had high hopes for grand celebrations which were obviously not possible under the government restrictions, so instead we did what we could from home and the celebrations were very special. Even though we didn't have access to some of the things we normally do for birthdays (e.g. dinners out at restaurants, movie tickets etc.) it was so nice to see the effort we put in to make each other's day special.
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  2020-11-04

  Happy 21st

  HIST30060 A person’s 21st birthday (whilst not as big a deal in Australia as other countries) is still considered an important milestone. I, like many other people in Melbourne, had the pleasure of experiencing my 21st birthday in lockdown. Friends were not invited. Family could not visit. Instead, I spent the day at home with only myself, my sister and my dog. I feel like this picture accurately represents what the time was like. Dead. Not literally, of course, but life had grinded to a halt during this period. And yet, that day was one of my happiest. Maybe because it gave an excuse for people to contact me. A theme I think runs through a lot of the pandemic. Because we could not meet physically, social interaction through technology became a lot more prevalent. And who doesn’t love being sent cupcakes?
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  2020-08-22

  Jewish Melbourne: "Happy Birthday Opa"

  This article appeared in The Weekend Australian Magazine, marking the 99th birthday of Max Arnott, a Dunera Boy, which happened in May, under Melbourne's lockdown. Max's granddaughter, Zoe Arnott, took a photo of three of her children outside Max's gate, celebrating his birthday.
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  2020-03-21

  Socially Distanced Birthday

  My birthday fell just before the height of the pandemic. While staying at home was not yet mandatory, social distancing was starting to be brought in. Luckily, some of my amazing friends dropped off this birthday present and left it outside my door.
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  2020-03-29

  First zoom birthday party

  One of my son's classmates turned 5. We were invited to make cupcakes and zoom into a celebration - it felt poignant, and incomplete.