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

  ANZAC Day 2020

  Like many families we participated in a dawn service unlike any previously held this year. As gatherings and official ceremonies were cancelled people looked for alternate ways to commemorate ANZAC day. Across the country there was a movement to participate in a unified but socially distanced way. Lighting a small candle and observing the minute silence made us all feel a little more connected during the height of the Sydney lockdown.
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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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  2020-04

  Jewish Melbourne: Chabad Kingston resources for Pesach

  L'Chaim Chabad Kingston assembled a website of resources for Pesach 2020, providing information for congregants: "As Jewish people around the world prepare for Passover under the pale of coronavirus, we are faced with a host of new challenges and questions. How are we to prepare with minimal ingredients and limited access to communal resources? How to celebrate the Seder alone? How will we celebrate the Festival of Freedom with our movement restricted? Find answers to all this and more ..."
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  2020-04

  Feeding the Locals

  At night when I look outside my loungeroom window I can see lights dancing in the shadows. It gives the comfort of life going on, a party, a celebration. But of course that's not what is happening. It's just a guy trying to save his business by reinventing it for Isolife XOXO