MCO extended

SO... the MCO is extended for another two weeks until 12 May 2020.

I'm not unhappy although am not happy either.

I just accept it as we have come so far, if we let our guard down, what we have done for the past 6 weeks would be wasted. 

In the past, the things we stocked up at home were food related items. These days, the things we buy over and over again are masks, sanitizers, alcohol wipes, gloves (which i am not using as it's really not environmental friendly), disinfectants... I also bought big volume of dettol and clorox for cleaning. 

Just a small part of my 'stock" :P

Speaking of gloves, i get really angry at people who think they look stylish with gloves on their hands  (not those who are essential workers) when they are doing grocery shopping or using the ATM machines etc. I know it's another layer of protection for you BUT it's really environmental unfriendly, as they are thrown away after one use. Actually, just make sure you wash/ sanitize your hands after touching anything will do. 

And what frustrates me further is that the people THROW used gloves on the ground! WTH! It's already bad that they are using gloves and yet they can't do something simple buy throwing them properly into the rubbish bin? I seriously think we human beings are the cancer cells of mother earth. I feel pity that there people who are still so uneducated and have not learned anything from this epidemic. 

Just look at the discarded gloves

34th day of MCO

Today is the 34th day of Movement Control Order. 

Yes, it has been extended 2 times. I kinda like being at home. And that everyone else is at home :P It's so quiet in the morning and night time. I can practically hear myself breathing! Amazing! 

When i was a kid, that's how quiet my neighbourhood was. Then when OUTSIDE residents found out that this road leads them to the other main road, saving them from traffic jam, my neighbourhood becomes noisy during day time. It's a even worse when it rains in the morning because the noise becomes louder as car tires touch the wet road. Imagine, being woken up at 6am by cars :S  

Blah, i am so happy during MCO that not many cars are on the road. Peace and quiet finally! Even a the birds come out to sing!

Two nights ago, just when i was about to sleep, i heard the sound of night - the frogs, the crickets were singing outside my home. It was like an orchestra, by the nature! I loved it and recorded the music with my phone. Let me see how to share it here next time. 

These days, when i turn on FB, TV, newspaper, chats, 99% of them are about Covid 19 virus. It's a global issue which each and everyone of us has a role to play. Soon, this will be over and in history. I like to think that we are now LIVING through history and one day when we all look back, we would go, wow, i lived through that crisis! I remembered, when i was small, my mum told me stories of how her life was during World War II. Now i too have great stories to tell.  I hope some day, when i am older, I could too tell my grand nephews and nieces that, hey kids, don't mess with your grand aunt! I saved the world.............. by staying at home! 

Oh, should i leave out the last four words? haha

But still, Staying home is the only way to stay safe! And to break the virus chain! 

What we do during MCO

今天是行動管制的第14天。接下來還有14天。

媽媽開始習慣不能隨時隨地出外的生活了。從原本要每天出去到後來只遊車河，到兩三天后才去朋友家拿菜苗 （沒和朋友見面，只是拿了掛在籬笆的袋子就回家）。我爸倒最聽話。他很少很少出外。每天坐在同一個位子。電視開著，他看。電視沒開，他仍然看著電視。哈哈，不知这是哪一招 ？也太厲害了！

為了不讓媽媽常出門，我們跟他說想吃家裡種的菜。萬一市場也不能營業了，至少家裡還有菜可以吃。她聽了馬上有了動力。所以最近只要外面沒下雨，我和媽媽都在整理菜園。

才幾天，開始可以收成了。接下來還有翁菜，番薯葉，羊角豆，姜，蔥，’漢菜‘ 等等。

以前家裡常有剩菜（不好意思，大食怪老化了，吃的不多了（其實也是媽媽煮太多了啦）），現在因為管制令，不能常到外面閒逛，也擔心食物短缺，所以非常非常珍惜食物。

自從18號開始，我們每一天都把飯菜吃完。有時候會有剩飯，下一餐媽媽就會有剩飯变成炒飯。媽媽每天煮三餐。真的難得呀！ 哈哈因为平日她只煮晚餐 ~

媽媽下廚，我當打雜的幫忙切菜及'收尾“。不知為何，我超級喜歡洗碗和擦地板的。 所以每天洗碗擦地板3次，沒有怨言~ 

除了在家裡打雜，我也是負責去外面買東西的那位 。難道這就是人家說的'出得廳堂入得廚房”？呵呵~   當然，這工作是我媽心不甘情不願的讓給我的。因我告诉我媽，現在警察很嚴格，兩個人出去的話會被罰款。啊~ 善意的谎言

今天她說家裡的食物快沒了，你去買。哇！難得她這麼豪邁喔。我邊吃早餐，她邊交待要買的東西。或許他看我不認真，就寫了一張 list 給我。哈哈哈，我媽真可愛呀~ 是有多少的東西要買呀？她之後還打電話給我加購了幾樣東西。哈哈，這叫 tele-shopping?

Mum's shopping list

後來我仔細看，‘麵包一大條“ ， 是說她覺得我會買3片麵包？ :P

Lock down isn't so bad

Thanks to Covid-19 virus, i am able to sit down to update my long-abandoned blog. 

Today is the 7th day of lock down. I do admit that i'm not home all the time because i still travel to station as it cannot be closed during this period. Apart from medical staff, i really respect all other frontliners - the treinekens workers for collecting our rubbish, the workers at supermarkets, eateries etc, the food delivery guys and of coz, our staff at the station. Because of these people, our lives are still able to function. However, people are still urged to limit their outdoor activities because by gathering together, we build the bridge for the virus to spread. 

Although this corona virus is deadly and causes a lot of inconveniences, fears and death, looking from another angle, it has brought many good things too. For example,

• All of us are at home all day which is a rare thing haha... and the rarest thing is, we all eat breakfast, lunch and dinner at home. Usually, we only eat our dinner at home

• have homecooked meals everyday. I am sure my cholesterol will drop to healthy level by 31 March

• Learn to cook with mum. so far, my greatest achievement is frying good omelettes. I got praises from mum AND my dad eats it. Because when he eats it, it means he AGREES it's good cooking :P

• Do gardening with mum. We managed to clear a few places to make way for sweet pineapples! yaye! and mum did a new vegetable patch today. Looking forward to having homegrown vegetables yum yum

• And friends whom i have not heard for many months suddenly contacted me because they need help in getting masks and sanitizers haha.. 

• The world is so quiet that i am able to hear my own breathing especially during night time. I feel grateful that i'm still breathing!

Because i still need to go out to work, i do see that there are very few cars on the road. I could drive very smoothly without stepping on the brake. That's how ferrari drivers feel when they are speeding on an empty road huh? haha...

this road is usually full of trucks and cars

Empty now

Most importantly, with less people outside, the Earth is finally able to rest and breath. We human beings are like cancer cells, destroying the earth slowly with our toxic and selfish acts. I admit, i am one of the toxic too but i try everything i can to make sure i don't do too much damage, like I don't use pesticide, don't use too much plastics etc...

This lock down, is like a warning, to let us know that we have overlooked and have taken many things for granted. We are now 'suffering' the consequences (因果). oh well... 

We all started it, let's end it together! FIGHTING!

*fight against virus ya, not each other ~

疫情，人心善恶

這疫情，讓我看到人善良的一面，也讓我看到人，自私的一面。

封城了但升為“essential service" 之一，我們不能關閉，繼續為民服務。雖然，我們跟醫護人物比起來，不需要每天面對病人，感染的危機或許沒那麼高但其實只要還是需要跟人類接觸，還是有一定的危險性的。

為了預防細菌傳染，我們大家做足了預防措施。員工們努力確保加油站的乾淨。除了提供洗手液，員工們努力每分鐘消毒顧客接觸點如 nozzles ，門把手，櫃台等。員工們的健康也是重要的，所以他們每天必須測體溫3次，確保自己是健康寶寶才繼續服務顧客~ 很高興很多顧客看到了我們的努力，不吝嗇的給與稱讚，讓員工們感到開心，更努力的為大家做好預防動作。

但也遇到了一些 @*#@)%—#！的人。不好意思，有點不雅所以被消音了 哈哈哈

昨天，員工照常努力的在擦拭玻璃及門把手。我親眼看著外面這位客人，狂指著門，員工以為她擋到他的路了，所以停下工作往後退。但這位客人繼續狂指著門，原來他不想觸碰門把手，要員工開門讓他進來購物。

然後我到外面貼佈告時，看到有人開著豪華車子來加油。他不願下車，估計是不想碰 nozzle, 所以從窗口把錢交給員工，然後請他為他加油。一次目睹這兩件事，我心裡有些不舒服。我問員工很多人都這樣做嗎？他們回我 ‘sudah biasa" (平常事了）。

雖然我們是服務業，雖然在這非常時期其他行業必須休息但我們還開著還能做生意，雖然我們也想像其他人一樣在家躲著以避免感染到病毒，但我必須說，在這非常時期，每個人的生命都是無價的。如果你覺得你的生命很重要，拜託，請跟著政府的封城命令，留在家裡別出來。如果要出來，請尊重現在還必須為你們服務的員工們。他們也是有家庭，他們也是不想得病，更重要的是，他們生命跟你一樣只有一條，所以請大家有一點同理心，別把他們的貢獻當成理所當然的。謝謝大家！

最後， 希望我們大家一起努力對抗疫情。願一切迅速恢復平安吉祥 _/||\_

記得勤洗手、多喝水，戴口罩，少出門

Do appreciate the hard work they have put in 

to make the place safe

Virtual gifts giving

haha, had a 'chat' with my cute little 4 yo nephew just now.

We don't get to see each other everyday but we do have conference calls a few times a week. He is growing fast and talks a lot. 

I must say, he is a very warm-hearted little boy. In January, all of us, including my dad who hates to fly, flew to Singapore to spend two weeks with him. My dad, he usually takes forever to decide whether to fly to a place. Many times, we ended up buying super unbelievably high priced airfare just because he didn't want to decide a destination or kept changing his minds on whereabouts we go. So, how did my cute little nephew  manage to convince my dad to decide IMMEDIATELY? yes! Immediately! I helped him buy airfare that night after he talked to my nephew! 

My sister video-called my dad one day. He saw his little grandson sitting inside a box so he asked him why is he in the box. My nephew replied, gong gong (grandpa), I wanna row a boat to visit you! My dad was so touched by what he said and he promised him that he would fly to Singapore to spend time with him. Grandpa's promise to grandson. 

See, it was only that easy haha.. My dad immediately ordered all of us to meet at Singapore :P

My nephew can really sweet talk. I need to learn from him 

Just now, he sent some voice recordings over. Awww.. what a cute voice. He gave us some hearts and in return, we gave him some ice creams, candies, sundaes, cakes.. which my sister usually doesn't allow him to eat,  as a treat. He then sent back 100 meaning he really liked the gifts and rated them 100. haha... Jane gave him gifts and told him to open one by one. He then gave us lollipops, teddy bear, gifts and hamburgers and told us not to finish the lollipops in one go. Can keep them in a box and they will last very long. And we can play with teddy bear and then have hamburger. Awwww.. It's so funny and adorable at the same time. 

That's our virtual gifts giving session and best of all, it costs nothing and leaves melting hearts haha...

Be responsible of your own actions!

When haze was a big problem here, i bought masks at pharmacy at 50 cents. A few months later, due to corona virus, masks become so scarce that even if you have money, you can't buy any masks. 

Recently, because of one gatherings, all of a sudden, the once-clean-of-virus- country quickly overtakes many others the chart. And some high ranking officers made many 'interesting' remarks like people are meant to die anyway, so if u contract the virus and die, it's fate. 

Ummm... i dunno about this logic coz I'm not the wise one. BUT at least i know, fate is in our own hands. U create your own destiny. You are the master of your own life. Although death is inevitable but while we are alive, we should make good use of it. We just need to understand and acknowledge "impermanence" because things changed constantly. Even your hairstyle can grow out of style in just a few weeks time, so does that mean, u don't wanna do anything about it? 

Okay haha, I'm just trying to put it into a simpler term so that our high ranking officers can easily understand that, although death is 100%, we don't need to purposely do things that we know, will kill us... and others. 

Or if you still think death is your destiny, how about you do it at your own home and don't drag others who still wanna live, into your circle? Thanks for being socially responsible. You have no right to get others to die with you. 

So now masks are hard to get. I figured probably a reusuable one would be a good idea. After all, it's better than being naked haha..

I found someone selling handmade masks online and contacted her immediately. Turns out, she is one of the Lions members. I went to her shop immediately and bought a few masks from her. Oh my, she has to cut the masks one by one and sew them together. And she OT just so that she could make many for people who need masks. And guess what, she is only selling it for 8 bucks! Oh my, is she making any money i wonder. She said she doesn't know if she is making any money but she hopes everyone is well protected. My, what a kind hearted lady

Be responsible! Protect yourself, protect others!

I got it from Margaret's Patchwork :) Lots of design to choose from. For kids and adults~