2020 the Odyssey: the ultimate nonsense diary

In our previous writing challenges, we have explored different strategies when seeking for inspiration/creativity: other books, authors and readers (Inspirational Christmas challenge); our peers writers and readers, their ideas and different approaches to the same narrative (Halloween chain horror story).
This time, though, we have explored REALITY with a bitter-sweet giggle: as we all know, 2020's events sound more like a non-sense fiction book than a real non-sense fiction book... Some days were good, some not-so-good, and some others were really hard to overcome. Therefore, why don't we make the most of it and create? Why don't we reset our creative essence by producing our own writing catharsis based on the real freakish-bizarre 2020 events?

Well, it's time to produce humour: by mixing a cup of reality (which already contains enough weirdness and non-sense) with a spoonful of likelihood, seasoning with a batch of irony, and then firmly stirring and cooking it. Sometimes the best inspiration is reality itself!

With all these ingredients in hand, our creative writers' task was to produce a creative-nonsense-ironic-humorous look at 2020, by writing a journal/diary entry with up to 200 words.
They were also invited to include a photo of the most bizarre plus a photo of the most inspiring moments of 2020.

As a result, I have compiled all entries by date (2 pictures each included) and therefore produced a full digital scrapbook-journal/diary with 32 entries inclusive of surprising "fictio-real" narratives!
I hope you all enjoy reading all the different approaches, views, feelings, thoughts and humorous images, inspired by such a dystopian year: 2020.

Thank you,
Ana Ferreira, Librarian

05th January 2020

Dear Diary,

Happy New Year! 2020 will be fantastic; there will be the EUROs, the Olympics, it will be a leap year (I love the idea of an extra day), it will be the Year of the Rat (finally!), we’ll have the Year 6 show and.... I will go to my secondary school! I will definitely miss my friends but I’m sure we will make the most of the rest of the primary school journey together - out of all the years in primary school, everyone says Year 6 is the best! This year will be perfect. It’s pretty cold though… I can always see a little cloud of condensation in front of me when I’m breathing but spring is on its way!

School starts again tomorrow, and I’m so excited to see everyone again! The next two school terms will certainly be memorable! See you soon,
Morrigan

PS: Jing and her family are coming to England again for some time. I’m elated to see them - Jing is my brother’s age but we’re still really close and I’m like her big sister. I heard them talking to Mum on the phone and I heard something about a “coronavirus” so I Googled it and apparently it’s some sort of virus in China. I’m sure they’re having a superlative time there. However, I don’t think it will really have any impact on us in England.

Ellalia, 7G

Dear most talkative diary,

I’ve had a wonderful day today! Masks, hand sanitiser and too much family time! Gosh, what fun I’ve had watching the news too. You know, they’ve said this lockdown is gonna last for at least 4 whole months. I mean, I’m so thankful to COVID for giving me an opportunity to get even more lazy and unproductive. We went for a family car ride to get some fresh air and the streets were so calm and quiet, it was like a breath of fresh air. Especially for all the animals! I would like to truly thank the biological phenomenon we call COVID, although I think Galore is its real name. I thank you for all the headaches, struggling, illness and confinement you’ve brought to our world. For your most thankless help, I would like to award you with a big hug and many kisses! Just to finish off, I really hope that the struggle is real. I’m so lucky it's just the start. I feel so invigorated and I also feel like laughing so much. Do you know why? It’s because some hilarious person described this year as being kenopsia, and they’re hilariously true.

Hugs,
Aadya

03th February 2020

Aadya, 9.4

Dear Diary,

10th March 2020

Today I was fraught with mixed feelings, for it had just been announced that anyone who had a cold had to self-isolate. As soon as I went to school, everyone was chattering like nothing had happened. Relieved, I thought that there was nothing to fear if everyone was unchanged. After registration, my teacher made an important announcement: one that changed my life forever.

“Covid-19 has come. If you have symptoms of this virus, such as a cold, you must stay home.” my dull teacher declared, reading her notes off cards. After the speech, a boy just sneezed and followed it up with a cough. Everyone gasped and edged away from the boy.

My anti-social teacher then groaned and squeezed some sanitiser on her hand, which had such a strong bittersweet fragrance (the chemicals and the aroma do not make a nice pair). As fast as she could, my teacher left the room saying that she had a conference in France, and that a replacement teacher would be coming in ten minutes. What a formidable teacher! Afterwards, the supply teacher disembarked in our classroo, and just looked at us and squirted some more hand sanitiser and took away our classroom stock of stationary!

“No more stationary! You must have your own!” he cried, saying that it was school rules. Like I said, complete life changer.

Disha, 7H

Dear diary,

I do not know what crime I must have performed in my past life to have deserved to be alive in 2020. It is chaos. Complete chaos.
So today we passed 3000 cases for coronavirus. A total of 3269 cases. Fabulous.

It’s the 3rd day of lockdown, and I can already feel how disastrous, derelict it will end up to be. All my family does is sit all day with their eyes glued to their computers, my dad in the living room; mum in the bedroom with my brother; and me alone in my room. We barely even talk - instead of quarantine making us closer to each other, it is pushing us away, far apart. Boris said that another proper lockdown will start from 23rd - fabulous. All that we could wish for. Apart from that, it’s been estimated there will be approximately 25000 cases by the end of the month. DO YOU BELIEVE THAT? I TOLD YOU 2020 IS GOING TO BE SUCH A CHAOTIC AND DISASTROUS YEAR. In just 12 days, the number of total cases will rise up to 25K! f a b u l o u s.

On the other hand though, there are some very inspiring things occuring in our world! I went for a “short walk around my local park the other day (I’ve got to admit, my heart skipped a beat as soon as i spotted someone within a 1 mile radius of me) and I saw this! Some man had so generously left free lunch for those in need and I gotta say, I was pretty impressed. Well bye for now. Signing off, Labdhi.

19th March 2020

Labdhi, 7S

31st March 2020

Dear diary,
What can I say? This virus has captured the entire world in only a few months. A virus smaller than our eyes can see; you need an ultra microscope to even see it, so naturally, it rules supreme.
I woke up this morning, and the first thing that came into my mind
was : blob. Great. Today is definitely going to be great.
I live near the suburbs, and the streets here are always buzzing full of people. Something about that feels odd, but I guess I must be imagining it. Now there isn’t a single person except for the mayor, who, being the craziest person in town, was strolling outside without a mask. Jeez, what was up with these people?
Switching on the tv didn’t help. I had to scroll through about 20 different channels before reaching one which didn’t blare “ 20,000 new COVID-19 cases are being filed a day! We have to take more precautions.” or “ Everyone is overreacting! The virus is a phoney! It’s not worse than the flu!” But at least it was nice to see everyone agreeing with each other.
I’ve almost run out of cereal. If that happens, I might be murdered by the food in my fridge, seriously. We’re in lockdown, so I can’t get anymore. Plus what good was food like lettuce, beans and carrots? It’s almost rabbit food.
Bleurgh!!!
Signing off, I guess.

Most inspiring moment of 2020: Captain Tom Moore raises over 30 million pounds for charity

Akshaya, 7S

Most bizarre moment of 2020: Viral news spreads over how people were actually planning to make a giant lasagne in Wembley Stadium

Dear Diary,

I awoke this morning feeling rather queasy.

At least I thought it was morning- my sleep schedule was pretty much non-existent at this point. My stomach churned and my forehead burned with a flaming passion. How glorious! I wondered why, before realising I had eaten nothing with any real nutritional value yesterday and sipped on Coke all day. I slumped down on my pillows, still in my pjs with no intention to get up. I flicked through the TV, looking for some monotonous humor to lighten my mixed mood. Suddenly, I stumbled on a program showing a floppy blond-haired man pointing at a graph showing an increasing trend.

UGH! I didn’t ever want to hear the word coronavirus ever again! Or Boris!

Instead I decided to scroll through my Twitter feed, hoping to find out when Taylor Swift would release her new album. I sighed after seeing this:

I turned off my phone, wrapped myself in the fluffy blanket and fell asleep, blissfully oblivious to the chaos ensuing outside of the house. And, the 46 undone assignment messages pending on my google classroom.

11th April 2020

Aarya, 10.4

Dear Diary,

Urgh, I’m so sick and tired of lockdown. But not anymore! I’m going back to school in 3 days!! As well as that, there were 377 deaths today so things are going great(!) After staying at home for several months going back to school is amazing news. I can’t wait to see all my friends again and go back to a normal-ish life-style.

When the lockdown was announced I thought it would be great. Apart from the endless hours of boredom and non-stop snacking everything was awesome. Sometimes your mood would drop and you couldn’t do much about it. I mean, it's not like we can click our fingers and expect this whole pandemic to vanish! Another thing that I hate about this whole pandemic are the masks. The uncomfortable, suffocating bits of cloth attached to our faces.

I think that Covid 19 is going to be with us for some time so we are going to have to get used to it. How amazing(! )The near future will hold some tough times so we need to be strong. More great news there(!) I bet you didn’t think a virus would turn the world around! Although I definitely wouldn’t want to have this pandemic again, it is definitely an experience I will never forget.

28th May 2020

Thendral, 7H

13th June 2020

"Station Squabble"
Photograph by : Sam Rowley
Winner of the LUMIX People's Choice 2020

"Masks for everyone"
Photography by Tushar Sabale / London

Dear Diary,
Well, today it was yet another hot summer day in the corona virus lockdown. Our tiny apartment was exploding with screams, some coming from my parents working from home and some from me dodging the mice. Yes we had a little Plague situation.
Today after a struggle of 2 months, we were going to see a human face in form of our ‘Plague Hero’.
The door bell rang and I did a little boogie before opening the door to see our ‘Plague Hero’. He was a small man in shabby dungarees with a blob under his nose or was that just my imagination?
I was waiting for him to notice the mouse traps and cheese around the flat and get some accolades for our preparations and bravery but wasn’t ready for what he said next.
‘I hope you guys don’t have cheese left around as I am Turophobic’
Turophobic- fear of cheese. Really?! A mice killer who fears cheese.
I remembered the review section on his company page that had 5 star rating
“Tremendous and fearless pest control service!”
The next I remember was he giving us rat arsenic and speeding out – almost like a mouse himself!

Kashvi, 7S