June 17th 2020

Dear Diary,

I can’t believe that it’s been three whole months since we went into lockdown. On the news they keep
calling this whole situation “unprecedented”. I looked that up because I had no idea what it meant,
and apparently it means that nothing like this has ever happened before. Back in March, we had been
hearing bits and pieces about the coronavirus for a few weeks, but I never expected that it would
become so serious. There are so many new rules and, most bizarrely of all, we can’t go to school!
Who would have ever guessed I’d miss it so much?!

The thing that I miss most of all is being able to see my friends. We can’t even interact with people at
the supermarket! Everyone is having to come up with creative ways to stay in touch. I always wave at
my neighbour when he gets in his car to drive to work each morning. He smiles and waves back, so I
feel like I make his day a little bit happier. Mum also let me stick some of my drawings up in the
window to cheer up people who go past our house on their daily walks. Most of my drawings are of
rainbows- they’re a popular symbol of supporting the NHS at the moment. Speaking of the NHS, have
I told you about the weekly clap for our carers?

Every Thursday at 8PM, we go out onto our driveway to clap and cheer for the people who are
working hard to keep us all safe. The whole street joins in and I love that I get to see my friends who
live over the road. Although we can’t play out together anymore, we send huge smiles to each other
during the clap. One week we even took out pots and pans to help make our street the loudest in
Bradford! We pretended we were in a rock band and danced on the pavement. It was the highlight of
my week.

I’ve been able to stay in touch with some of my friends through FaceTime. My mum sets it up on her
phone and I get to spend some time chatting to them. It’s not quite the same as kicking around a
football or giving them a big hug, but it’s nice not to feel alone. Sometimes we make up songs and
dances; sometimes we talk about our schoolwork. Even though we’re not physically at school, we still
get sent work every day online. We’ve started using Google Classroom so that we can send work to
our teachers and get feedback without even seeing them! If there’s something we don’t understand,
we can leave a comment for our teacher and they can send us comments and videos back to help us.

Before lockdown, I was used to spending many evenings at my grandma’s house. Now I can’t see her
at all and I miss her desperately. She struggles with FaceTime because she doesn’t really understand
how to use a mobile phone, so we just have regular phone calls instead. I’ve also been sending her
letters with adventure stories and colourful pictures to make her smile. Whenever the post comes, I
run to check if I’ve received a letter back from her. It always makes my day when I have.

One thing we are still allowed to do is go outside once a day for some exercise. Getting some fresh air
always helps me to feel refreshed and occasionally we take our bikes out to cycle around the local
park. It’s nice to see people and say hello from a distance as we pass them on the street. My older
brother leads the way so that we know where we’re going. He tells me hilarious jokes over his
shoulder and I have to focus really hard on pedalling so that I don’t fall off when he makes me laugh.

As much as I love riding my bike, I’ve saved my favourite lockdown activity until last… BAKING!
To keep ourselves occupied, we’ve been making cakes, cookies and pies galore! I have to supervise
my little brother because he tries to sneak bites of the cookie dough when mum’s not looking (how
cheeky!). We always make far too much food to eat by ourselves, so we’ve been wrapping some of it
up and dropping it off for our cousins who live nearby. My uncle gives us a huge thumbs up from the
window and then collects the goodies from the doorstep when we’ve gone.

Although things have felt quite scary over the last few months, we’ve found special ways to connect
with each other and keep our spirits up. I hope it’s not too long until I can hug my family and friends,
but I know that I can show them I care about them from afar.
I’ll write again soon,
Ayesha