Friday, February 21, 2020
Long February
Hi everyone, how has your February been going? It is a longer one this year with the extra day, but I feel it can feel especially long if you're impacted by the coronavirus. I can say that my life here in Singapore is impacted. There are some things that we have to do now and cannot do anymore for the time being. Some easy things can turn out to be not so easy. I'm supposed to take and record my temperature twice a day everyday, but I haven't been able to really do that because I don't have a thermometer and it's not everyday I'm at places with a temperature check station. I tried to buy thermometer, but there's no thermometer to be bought. Though today finally I got one. 3 stores in the mall and only 1 seems to finally has some stock. As for the other aspect of my life that has been impacted, well I'm not gonna talk about that. So far I am okay, though with how things are going right now, there have been moments where I wonder if that slight rise in body temperature, that one sneeze, that weird feeling in my throat means something or nothing at all. I've somewhat had gone through this before, because I was here during SARS, but a thought did come that the situation now is different for me. During SARS, I was a student living in a hostel. If something was to be wrong for me, I would be rescued, there would be people helping me. Right now I feel like I have to fend for myself which is actually what I have been doing all along, but it's just it's quite nerve wrecking if I should come down with the virus. So it is something to be thankful about that so far I'm okay.
The way this coronavirus has spiraled public's reaction especially the one in Singapore was something rather shocking to me. I can't remember if it was the same during SARS. Perhaps because I was in my hostel bubble where meals and things like toilet paper would always be there that I didn't experience or witness the freak-out back then. This time around when I saw the nearest supermarket to me had their shelves empty or almost empty, I was quite shocked. Also shocking that the replenishing of it was not immediate. I remember that it was on a Friday that panic buying happened. Through the power of social media, people back home heard the news and I guess saw the pictures that I had people asking me about it. On Monday when I went to the supermarket, toilet paper and tissue shelves were still empty. It's kinda funny to me that toilet paper is one of the priority for the people here :D
So anyways, I went back to Indonesia for Chinese New Year break on January 24th. The day before I saw quite a number of people wearing masks in public. I remember thinking at that time, what's going on, is it a thing now, why are people panicking? At that time there's no case in Singapore yet. On Chinese New Year, I remembered talking to cousins that by then there were cases in Singapore. However since I'm at home, I didn't know how the reaction was or really cared actually. What I was hoping for was that there would be no case in Indonesia so that by the time I come back to Singapore, I wouldn't get into a hassle. By God's grace, Indonesia still doesn't have any case. I know that there are concerns that Indonesia is not equipped to detect this. I know many Indonesians themselves may feel this, but I think if there's an undetected case, there would be an outbreak right now, like a whole family or neighborhood would get sick, but so far there's no report of that. As our health minister said, with social media and stuff this is something that cannot be hidden. He also said that we should be thanking God for the blessing so far. True that :D
So anyways, my trip home was okay. I did some things like going to see Sukabumi's suspension bridge with the parents, an aunt, and a cousin. I wasn't keen because it was a really early trip. It was a long day, but it's not so bad. I got to eat bubur ayam / Indonesian porridge. The view from the suspension bridge looking down was pretty cool. You only see tree top and foliage, so I'm not sure how high the bridge is. Then we walked to a waterfall which was okay. It wasn't very tall. Walking back from the waterfall it was raining, so that wasn't so fun, but me made it to another bridge which was shorter and back. I do have to say the ticketing in the place didn't make sense to me. We had to pay to enter the compound. I get it if you pay for parking, but paying for each person didn't make sense because we had to pay again for admission to go on the trail to the bridge and waterfall. Granted this second admission ticket also includes snack and coffee or tea, but that first admission for each person to the compound, that should be removed I think.
Other things I did also include going to pray with mom. It's kinda our thing now, something that we try to do every time I get home and I do cherish the opportunity. Then me, my brother, my parents also went to another temple to pray. It was my first time going to that temple which is located in a rich area. Being rich doesn't save that area from being flooded. Though the houses were not affected, but the streets in front of the houses were and we actually had to walk on the flooded street to reach the temple. I kept on saying to mom, isn't it amazing that with all the flooding that's been happening in Jakarta this year, our neighborhood is amazingly safe and dry :D
I also met my best buds. They surprised me by choosing to eat at an Indonesian restaurant called Remboelan which I so love very much because yay Indonesian food! Remboelan is a more classical word for moon in Indonesian and the restaurant used the old spelling to spell it. There were quite a number of people there. There were some foreigners, but the majority were Indonesians which was kinda nice to see because that means Indonesians don't mind paying more for something that they can find easily all around on a cheaper price. The restaurant has a very extensive menu which really makes me wonder how they can ensure it's cost effective. There can be a lot of things going to prepare Indonesian food and to have all the ingredients at ready, I so want to see the kitchen. Food was great, I love all and most of all I got to eat bubur sumsum. I googled this, it seems to be quite easy to make. When I was a child, there used to be a man selling this on his cart, but now it's kinda hard to find this, at least for me. So it was something that I really wanted to eat. Even my cousin was saying that it's like the taste we had during childhood.
All and all it was good to be home and as usual I felt it to be rather short, like I didn't have enough alone time to be with the TV. Being here now, well as the beginning of this post says, it's been a long February. I hope things will get better soon.
:) eKa @ 7:30:00 PM •