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  2020-08-01

  Staying close through zoom beveraginos

  During lockdown my group of friends stayed close through sharing videos and memes on facebook and participating in tiktok trends. We had a weekly zoom set up with people from Melbourne and Geelong where we’d talk about our mostly uneventful weeks, gossip about uni and celebrity news and little bit about Dan Andrews or as he was lovingly known Daddy Dan/Dandrews. Regularly having a zoom call was a comforting experience because before the pandemic we stayed in contact mostly by planning parties and lunches. The pandemic definitely made us closer through creating group chats and organising to play a game together, usually Among Us on Wednesday night. This post includes the tiktok beveragino trend where people have drinks with their mates and film them popping out from random locations. HIST30060
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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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  2020-05-18

  Working at a bottle shop during COVID19

  Throughout the pandemic I worked in a bottle shop owned by Coles in South Melbourne. Sales increased dramatically during the pandemic for two reasons. Firstly, people were worried about Dan Andrews closing bottle shops during lockdown. Secondly, because bars and venues were closing, people had to source their own alcohol. During the interim period when people were discussing what the stage 3 and 4 lockdown would look like customers would come into the shop and ask if we were considered an ‘essential service’. I would respond with “I assume we’re considered essential,” “how would you survive without booze?” and “you’d know more than we do.” During this period of time it seemed like everyone knew a friend or an acquaintance of a friend who was in politics and sharing information about COVID lockdown meetings and what the next stage would involve. The uncertainty of not knowing if I’d be working next week was stressful and caused anxiety and it also caused me to panic buy wine (most of which was not touched). Nonetheless, we stayed open throughout all lockdowns and acquired new customers. During lockdown our sales increased on cocktail ingredients such as triple sec and campari because people started making cocktails at home. During the pandemic customers seemed to have more time to chat and browse and wanted to try new products. but this could also be because they liked the excuse to stay out of home for longer. As well, Coles gave employees who worked from March to May 2020 a one-off thank you bonus for working during the hardest weeks of the pandemic. Working during a pandemic had highs and lows, I was grateful that I didn’t live with my family, so I couldn’t bring home to virus, but it was hard juggling extra hours at work around online uni and other aspects of life. HIST30060
• 2020-05-01

  COVID influenced street art

  During the first lockdown in Melbourne the community in Southbank bonded through new COVID influenced street art. On the side of my apartment building on City Road, Southbank street artist Peter Seaton also known as CTO Art was commissioned to paint a piece over some recent graffiti. He titled the street art ‘trapped in a third dimension’, he described that COVID19 had caused fear and panic, which are the lowest emotions and he wanted people to experience and remember the feeling of love. This painting reflects intimacy during coronavirus and ideas of not being able to touch one another.