My lockdown diary

By Sarai Peleti

25 August 2021

Today I had my violin lesson with Sistema Aotearoa. I was trying to be a “know it all” and tune my violin when suddenly I heard a SNAP! One of the strings came off but the tutor said that it was alright until ... TWING! Another string broke. I went to get my brother’s violin but was too scared to try and tune it, so I called Mum and she tuned it. When she was tuning the violin, she looked like she knew how to tune it but the funny thing is, Mum doesn't even know how to play it!

27 August 2021

Daffodil Day is for people who are battling cancer. The daffodil flower represents hope which is why me and Mum are dressed in yellow. I helped Mum open up her morning work meeting – we sang a duet, and I said the Lord's Prayer in Cook Islands Māori. Mum’s work friends were very happy with me, and said thank you and had giant smiles on their faces.

30 August 2021

Today was the first time I made muffins by myself. Mum only helped me to put them in the oven. It was a lot of fun and I loved doing it. We ate them after dinner, they were yummy.

1 September 2021

Sometimes I play chess by myself, on my brother's brown and white chess board. I had so much fun playing today, even though I was playing by myself. I played two rounds. Every round I won!

3 September 2021

Today my brother and I ate delicious mouth-watering noodles. I had the normal flavour noodles and my brother had the flaming spicy noodles. What about Mum? Well ... she had something different: garlic prawns and onions with rice.

10 September 2021

I felt bored and decided to make a scooter track with colourful chalk. I think I could have made a better track but my knees were aching because the concrete was scratching them. Even though it doesn't look interesting I had a lot of fun on my track.

30 September 2021

Phone sits on the white table. Shelf stands still like a statue pale coloured. Light on the modem flickers like the flame of a candle. The wall watches me as I do my work. Play dough rolls in my hand. A police car races down my street.