Do you remember when you had a meal in a nice restaurant with family or friends? Eight days ago, two weeks, one month? What day of the week is it? I must admit, my sense of time is playing with me.
The lockdown still means Francien, Marcella and I are not allowed to leave the apartment other than for doing grocery and pharmacy shopping, going to work (only essential companies and services are operating) and emergencies. We remain holed up in our condominium and only go out once a week.
Part of our new routine is doing fitness in the morning. To reduce the amount of the mind-numbing stair climbing I have been doing the first two weeks, I put together a couple of improvised weights (a gas bottle, toolbox and 25 ltr. water dispenser bottle) and started weight training every other day. Yesterday morning I had to push myself to start: oh, it sucked! But I did and I felt good about it. Francien and Marcella continued their daily live yoga and meditation classes.
Yes, our living room has been converted to a restaurant, conference room (Marcella works from home), yoga studio, arts workshop, weight training room, barbershop and coffeeshop.
The past week the Dutch Foreign Affairs had organized three repatriation flights from Kuala Lumpur. It was possible to sign up with the Dutch embassy to get a seat and indeed some people have taken that opportunity to fly back to Holland. However, Francien, Marcella and I are happy to sit it out in our home here in Kuala Lumpur.
A few days ago our friend Berry, now stuck in Adelaide until the lockdown will be lifted, celebrated his birthday. Yes, you guessed it, together with two other couples here in Kuala Lumpur we did organize a virtual surprise. We used WhatsApp to share with him our best wishes and musical talents (Berry, sorry about our bad singing, but we gave it our best…).
We use chats and video conference apps like WhatsApp, Skype, Facebook and Zoom to create interactions with friends and family around the world. It is indeed nice to do that, but this technology was not designed to cater for our social lives. We see each other on camera, but the sense of distance is still there. Maybe a business opportunity to develop something which will overcome that?
One day just after sunrise, I spotted an eagle gliding graciously in front of our high-rise. Usually these birds do not fly that low (you can sometimes see them high above the skyline). I guess with the city eerily quiet especially at night and the early morning hours, these animals venture closer to the city parks. It made me wonder how quick nature would take over again when human beings would seize all activities. Most of us go through life with an arrogant belief that humans are the masters of this planet. We’re not, as a tiny 120 nano-meter in size virus is proving to us. And that eagle is still free to go wherever it wants: are you right now? Makes me wonder what that means.
I cannot say that I enjoy going to any supermarket, but in these strange times this is definitely a welcome distraction just to get out of the house. Simply going to buy groceries means having to go through a rigorous routine to limit the chance of infection: prepare for questions asked at police roadblock, wear your face mask, bring lots of bags, use hand-sanitizer, wait at entrance for your temperature scanning, keep trying to maintain 1.5 meters distance while negotiating the narrow aisles. It certainly takes much longer, but we are in no rush. The not so good news: Heineken stopped the production of beer in Malaysia on 25th March and indeed we saw stocks in the supermarket were low if not depleted. Isn’t that all bizarre?
The Chinese believe in every crisis there is an opportunity, so I use the time to complete the online course at Yale University ‘the Science of Happiness’, an appropriate topic in times when there is plenty of time contemplating about what is important in life! I am reading the book ‘The Silk Route’ by Peter Frankopan, whetting my appetite even more to travel to Uzbekistan. Francien and I had planned to travel there together with friends next May, but for now cancelled all our travel for the rest of this year. I agree with you, that is the least of our problems right now.
A tropical thunderstorm blankets the Kuala Lumpur skyline with a curtain of water
Looking at the bright side of all this:
1. We do not spend much money, because we can’t.
2. Family and friends take time to reply to our e-mails and messages with long and elaborate write-ups.
3. Everyone we know is coping one way or another.
Sunrise in Kuala Lumpur
4. Like the first weeks, the three of us continue to talk to family and friends we have not seen for a long time, catching up, talking about COVID-19 and reminiscing about those common experiences.
5. Thinking back only three weeks ago how our normal life was, it amazes me how adaptable people are.
6. The three of us are enjoying hot (30 – 33 C) sunny weather with occasional afternoon thunderstorms, making sitting on our balcony a bit of an outdoor experience. We gaze at a ghostly city skyline while taking in some healthy vitamin D: not bad!
You might be isolated, but you are not alone. All of us are experiencing change at a rapid rate which can really throw you out of whack. We all adjust to this in our own way. Please share with us some positives you get out of your personal experiences during this pandemic. It helps to stay upbeat.
Keep in touch, stay inside.