BY MEIZHU PAN 

A café owner, parent and homestay host to three international students, Robert Mauldon is finding stage four lockdown immensely trying. 

From shopping for his café, for his homestay students and for himself, solo trips to the grocery store are extremely taxing for the 67-year-old.  

“I get numerous requests from my three homestay students wanting various types of food and because of their different cultural background, sometimes the shopping is a little more difficult,” Mr Mauldon said. 

His café, Perla@Mayflower, located inside an aged care facility in Brighton East, caters to about 250 people each day by providing coffee and meals including pastries and cakes. 

“For the aged care [residents], I need to shop for some kind of retro and comfort food. Food that can easily turn into café food,” he said. 

Even though the café is not as busy as it used to be, Mr Mauldon and his wife continue to serve the carers and residents of the facility.

“We are doing every duty from the kitchen, to the barista, prepping and delivery of meals to the residents and the coffee, pastries, lunch and dinners for the carers,” he said. 

“It is busy, but we are very experienced in managing and operating cafés, so it becomes a little bit of second nature, and we use our experience to make the job easier.” 

His role of being a homestay host is also adding to his frustration during the pandemic. 

“I have three students at home, all who are distance learning.”

“The students too are frustrated and bored because they are not getting the best education that they can during the lockdown,” he said. 

One of the students he is hosting, Xiran Yuan, is a Year 11 and is currently preparing for her VCE Chinese First Language exams to be held in late November. 

She has found studying at home challenging and said it is only adding to her stress. 

“I feel very distracted studying at home. I cannot pay full attention in the class and the teachers also seem to be not as prepared as they were at school,” Ms Yuan said.

“All oral practices have moved to an online platform, which makes me feel even more stressed about the upcoming oral exam, because you can’t really experience the exam condition at home.”

While students are finding studying at home challenging, the teachers too are having their own share of troubles. 

Jo Thompson, a Year 12 English teacher, working in a private school in Melbourne, shared the other side of the story. 

“Mostly our students do not put their cameras on, so it is hard for me to gauge my students’ reactions and sometimes it is hard to ensure students are engaged in class,” Ms Thompson said.

Ms Thompson’s son is in Year 10 and their classes often clash, giving rise to another set of issues for the both of them. 

“Sometimes it is hard when [my son and I] are having classes at the same time,” she said.

“We need to make sure that we don’t interrupt each other. [My son] does several music subjects, so that can be a challenge.”

“I need to support his learning but teaching remotely takes up a lot of my time, preparing and marking work. Sometimes I feel like he misses out a bit,” she added. 

According to Victoria’s roadmap for reopening in Metro Melbourne, VCE/VCAL students are expected to return to campuses in term four on October 5. 

This roadmap states the 9pm-5am curfew should be removed on October 26, with a five kilometre restriction on movement to stay in place until November 23.

When it comes to hospitality, outdoor seating service will predominantly be allowed after October 26, but people will be banned from dining indoors until November 23. 

A Beyond Blue report found two out of three requests for help from the Coronavirus Mental Wellbeing Support Service were coming from Victoria.

A Lifeline report found a 22 per cent spike in calls from Victorians during the second lockdown.

Premier Daniel Andrews is due to announce an easing of some restrictions tomorrow.