HARLOW College student, Nicole Ruxton-Payne has been keeping a diary, regarding her experiences in Harlow during Covid-19.

Saturday 4th April 2020

Today was a special day that couldn’t be celebrated how I wanted. Today was my best friends birthday, and it’s tradition we celebrate our birthdays together for the past four years. However, due to the circumstances of lockdown measures being taken more seriously, we had to find another way of celebrating together. All I knew was that I wasn’t going to let this virus ruin my best friends birthday. So I woke up early this morning, sent her the longest birthday message to let her know that I was thinking of her and I miss her, and planned my surprise. The best idea came to me, and as soon as I thought of it I put on my face mask and jacket and hurried down to the local shops, and bought a tray of her favourite cupcakes. So we ended up celebrating over FaceTime, with me, holding her cupcake singing happy birthday to her with a candle, which of course I had to blow out for her. All I can say is thank goodness for technology, otherwise the situation could have been a lot worse.

College work had been extremely difficult. At first I thought I would be able to manage it at home, but now I’m starting to doubt myself. When you’re parents and brother are at work and you’re the only one at home, it’s hard to keep up with work that takes the whole day but also keep up with household responsibilities. Not only that but there’s plenty of distractions at home that keeps me unmotivated, such as my bed, and my TV. I mean, when you’re home alone the last thing on your mind is school work. Usually it’s raiding the fridge, or sleeping in for the whole day, but we all still have a schedule to stick to. Being stuck at home has made me discover new things about myself, such as my addiction to shopping. I never knew how much I loved shopping until lockdown.

Thanks to Boris I still get my wages ever pay date, so every two weeks I’m online looking for more clothes and jewellery to put in my basket. I have slowed down a lot however, as I know it’s not fair on the workers out there delivering these items to me, as they’re not seen as essential. My mum is also a postwoman, so thinking of her out there risking her life with no protection makes me rethink about my shopping habits. It’s quite scary knowing that your family is out there working amongst the public, so not only do I clap for the NHS, I also clap for all the key workers out there, like my parents and brother.

Although, I haven’t clapped outside my door yet, as they always catch me at the wrong time. Last time I had a nearly-passing-out situation in the bath whilst everyone was standing outside clapping. I’ll have to keep my eye out for the date and time next time so I don’t miss it. I hope tomorrow will be a more productive day for my work, as the Easter holidays begin on Monday, which I want to use for preparation for the next term of college, but also get some relaxing in there as well.

Sunday 5th April 2020.

TODAY I woke up feeling in a very productive mood. More productive than I’ve ever felt. But not really productive for school work, I wanted to try something new, discover a new hobby. I already tried learning a new language, and trust me, if you want to learn a new language, Korean should not be the first option.

I knew what I wanted to do, I wanted to bake. I immediately looked up cupcake recipes and all these fancy ones came up. I didn’t want to try anything too difficult, I don’t think my parents would be too happy with food poisoning or a burnt down house, so I decided to go with Victoria sponge cupcakes. I told my mum I want to bake them and her reaction wasn’t exactly excited or impressed, it was more hesitation and worry, but she let me do it anyway as long as it would keep me busy.

I went down to the shops and queued for about 20 minutes and got my ingredients. When I got home I decided to FaceTime one of my best friends, as we usually do our baking together. The whole process was going really well, Mary Berry would be so proud. It wasn’t my first time baking cupcakes, the first process didn’t turn out so well, as I don’t think anyone enjoys cupcakes with lumpy butter and flour inside. But these were definitely turning out better than the first, or so I thought. When I took them out the oven they looked and smelled amazing. They were the perfect colour, nice and soft. It wasn’t until I picked one up I realised I made a huge mistake. The bottom was so soggy, it was dripping. I never felt so disappointed in my life, I thought I did really well, I couldn’t think of what I had done wrong. It wasn’t until later when I was still racking my brain what happened I realised it was because I put strawberries at the bottom of the cupcake instead of blueberries before putting them in the oven, like the recipe told me to, but I ignored that because I don’t like blueberry cakes. I should have learnt from my previous mistake, where I tried to make apple crumble at school, we were supposed to use 3 apples but I don’t like apples so I only put one, and it turned out to be a very very dry crumble.

Oh well, third time lucky, I will try again someday. Everyone seemed to like them though, they were delicious, maybe not the cold, soggy strawberry at the bottom but the cupcake itself was delicious. The baking took up most of my day, after that I FaceTimed my grandma, who I miss very much, but I’m glad she’s safe and healthy. This situation is still strange, it still doesn’t seem real, everything’s changed so quickly, but we all have to change with the times, and just be hopeful for brighter days, that’s what I’m trying to do everyday, and I hope everyone is doing the same and not losing hope.

Monday 6th April 2020

IT’S the first day of the Easter holidays and I can easily say it has kept me busy. When I woke up I was in a mood I’m hardly ever in, a cleaning mood, and when I get cleaning I don’t usually stop. I hoovered, I dusted, I polished, I scrubbed. Did anyone notice? No, but at least I know that I was productive in some way. I did try hinting that I had spent the day as Cinderella, just dropping a few “oh the floor looks clean” or “oh wow the table is so shiny” comments but I guess everyone had their minds on other things. It is getting hard, being alone. I know that there are people who are less fortunate, who are completely alone and not allowed to leave their house, but I haven’t even been past the end of my road, and whilst everyone is working and seeing colleagues and friends I’m stuck at home, trying to think of new things to do everyday.

So it is definitely getting hard, but I’m trying really hard to stay positive and keep myself busy and entertained, which isn’t easy for a teenager. On the news everyday the death total keeps on growing, to the point where it doesn’t even feel real anymore, like it’s all a really bad dream or some kind of sci-fi horror movie, but it’s real life and that’s the scariest thing.

The thing that I find the most daunting is that just little over a month ago I was saying that this will all blow over in a couple of weeks, complaining about going to college and work, and now I would give anything to go back. It really hits you how quickly things can change, and now I’ve learnt that I shouldn’t take things for granted. However, people still aren’t really taking it seriously and still going out in groups, so now they’ve had to extend the lockdown for another three weeks. I’m still hoping for a summer this year, but each day I’m beginning to lose more and more hope in that wish, all because people choose not to stay inside. Tomorrow there will be another update on the Coronavirus and I just hope there will be even a little bit of light she’d on the situation.