Covid-19 Diary (Part 2)

Covid-19 Diary (Part 2)

Mar 30, 2020

Things get a bit trippy when the extension of MCO was announced. It got me good. I was highly anticipating it but it still shocked me when it was announced. The prospect that I needed to work during the week had also me feeling gloomier and just done for. 

It turns out good though. I feel better by day and I got to eat good food during the weekend. My colleague who rented a house near the hospital invited me to do this kek milo viral together and I ended coming both days just to eat. They made paratha with curry, nasi lemak which I have been craving for days and also roti puri. My housemates and I have also been so productive that we finally bought our own stove with tong gas (I googled tong gas in English and the best I found is gasholder which does not make any sense). My new housemate has been cooking ayam goreng kunyit with sambal sosej so we ended up sitting together eating decent home-cooked meals which was amazing.

News keep coming in. Now there are speculations and projections of data saying there will be a surge of cases in mid-April. The death toll has risen to 34 cases and it just really put things into perspective. The new  Bajet Prihatin funding announced is such a relief cause I've been thinking how bad B40 will be hit as MCO is extended. KKM has been doing so well that now the recovery cases have also risen up. I was so proud that WHO has chooses Malaysia in the research for Covid-19's medicine. What a tremendous acknowledgment!

On the other hand, Gardenia's are back on the shelves but it really moves out fast. Milk's popularity has somehow increased and I am now stuck with Dutch Lady ones. It wasn't as good as HL which is just sad. I bet it was all gone due to dalgona coffee craze. I can breathe well while wearing a mask and it caught me off guard when I first realized it that I ended up checking it multiple times just to make sure I was wearing it correctly. For the record, I always wear the mask correctly. The dispenser now needs to wear a whole-body plastic apron, face shield and also gloves so now we have different daily rosters that have a different dispenser in the morning and in the afternoon.

The daily needs for facemask still risked me for acnes. I started to use back my benzoyl peroxide cream but hydration is still the key for me to heal from any acne. I just bought a new Nutox's toner and essence plus Hada Labo hydrating cream. These have seemed to improve my skin as now it starts to glow healthily again. I guess the ceasing of the Nutox's essence is what made my skin dull. My skin has also become a bit drier than the usual so now I wore my Neutrogenana moisturizer which is heavier and a bit oilier at work. I usually wore this before sleep but since it will be a hassle to bring it back and forth from home to work, I just left it at work. I read somewhere that alternating your moisturizer (gel-based and cream-based) helps your skin to look glowy and it really does but I love doing this for how hydrating my skin feels. I exfoliate my skin last Thursday after not doing so for more than a month as I tried to minimize exfoliating my skin after my peeling treatment. It feels so supple afterward. I'm feeling much better as my skin got so rough up that past two weeks and now has improved well. Yay me.

Oh, by the way, I have been doing so many online shopping that the online thing stopping me is the possibility of judgments I'll get from my colleagues as all the stuffs were posted to the hospital #sorrynotsorry

I want to do a room makeover.

Covid-19 Diary (Part 1)

Covid-19 Diary (Part 1)

Mar 22, 2020

Warning - this post might sound a bit depressing.

Today is the fifth day since the Restriction of Movement Order (RMO) was invoked under the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 due to Covid-19. However, it is only my second day of actually staying at home since I worked in a hospital. I tried reading to pass the time but it made me sleepy. On a different note, my phone just slipped from my hand and now there is this major crack. To make things worse, there is only this one place that I trusted to repair it but it is all the way back at my hometown. Yay.

The world is becoming highly frustrating.

It seems like Italy's healthcare is overburdened. Donald Trump decided to help North Korea when Americans hardly get access for screening. We have now had over 1k of Covid-19 cases with nine dead and I think the South Africans somehow have a surge of lemon, garlic, and ginger shopping cause apparently, it can cure Covid-19. I made a point to keep the television on and there's these series of public service announcements for Covid-19 with the same background music which kinda stresses me out.

did you know that they lights up Eiffel Tower for about 10 minutes as a tribute for their healthcare worker. Idk, it kinda feels nice.

On the other hand, my housemate just discovered Plato (that interactive game, not the philosopher) but she told me it was called Palatao instead. We might be getting a new housemate who is about five or six years older and I am literally panicking since we'll be working together as well.

I worked in a small town. We have no reason to fear Covid-19 until the Tabligh's cluster. So now it's mask 24/7, constant hand hygiene and social distancing. We were lucky that everyone has been screened before coming to us. It doesn't stop us from being a wee bit paranoid as some of my colleagues kept their phones in plastic since wiping alcohol too many times may disrupt the screen sensitivity. 

*ohmygodmyphonecrackedsobad*

We notice a clear in traffic during the first day of RMO but there are some shops and even small stalls by the roads that still open. Later that day, there is this notice spread by our city council warning them and I notices the small stalls "disappear" the next day. Retail pharmacy around here still doesn't have any supply of masks and hand sanitizer. But that's okay since I just stayed home after work and there wasn't much crowd when I went grocery shopping last Thursday. Plus, it was grocery shopping for one so it doesn't take long.  I made it a point to shop on Thursday to avoid going out on the weekend but my housemate did and there wasn't much crowd as well.

Food wasn't really a problem since we always have this food delivery but now we sometimes ordered two pax for dinner as well. Breakfast is a bit tricky though since we usually bought some kuih from these small stalls by the road. But I think there is some new delivery for breakfast as well but it doesn't look really feasible for us yet the existence of a choice feels good. I might make some cucur to work tomorrow since I've been meaning to finish my flour.

I cooked ayam masak sambal and some fried cabbages yesterday which lasted until today's lunch. I used "Sambal Tumis" by Deli Mas which tasted exactly like a freshly made sambal. It was an amazing discovery cause I was scared it will taste like the ordinary cili giling which is so blerghhhh. The most annoying thing, however, it seems like my coffee tasted so off. I'm not sure why but it annoys me to no end. I've bought some ingredients for soup but I'm still undecided either to cook it as dinner today or as dinner for tomorrow. We'll see about it. I've bought some ingredients for soup but I'm still undecided either to cook it as dinner today or as dinner for tomorrow. We'll see about it.

I guess my main issue is how unsettling this situation is. It is a legit feeling but at the same time, I also feel so frustrated with some Malaysians attitude which made it worse. It seems like Malaysian failure to adhere to RMO until the military needed to be involved would probably mean the extension of RMO. I am all in for military cause I knew these ignorant Malaysians would never understand until they see the army. I bet they still don't understand but the fear they have for the army is enough, for now, I guess. Let's hope this will end my frustration at least. 

What's Been Going On Lately - Pharmacist Version

What's Been Going On Lately - Pharmacist Version

Mar 3, 2020

I wanted so badly to write but I don't want to be writing factual-ish stuff. I want to ramble. So here I am, rambling. I am going to talk about how my days have been and I wanted to slightly highlight my work just to remind myself that this is the major part of my life now.

In numbers, my life was rather simple. I'm a staff at outpatient which means the counter where you took your medicine. There are a whole lot of stuffs happening behind that counter. I worked 8 to 5 shift unless if I have an evening shift which means until 10pm. It's usually about once or twice per month. I'll usually have one weekend-shift per month and about one or two night-shift (10pm to 8am) on weekdays.  We are a small district hospital with only one specialist - a psychiatrist. We still have other clinics with a specialist but those specialists are visiting ones. We received around 150 to almost 300 patients per day (the higher ends being during clinic days). I took care of this service called Collect n Go (someplace called it Kad Temujanji) and some medicines supply. That's pretty much it.

WORK AND WORKMATES

Work has been mundane but I tried to do more things daily just to get the gear moving. We've been having insulin stock problems for weeks so now we got busy on counseling patients to use syringes instead since the only stock we manage to get our hands on were of a different brand from the insulin pen we're using. Complicated huh? Imagine needing to explain those. Apart from that, there this problem where my patience with these stuck-up MO's got really thin. I hardly got much respect for them anymore. I should really start to look for a new job before my contract ends though.

Most importantly, I am so grateful that I got some good friends here. It was fun. I didn't realize since when but I make this mental image that today's going to be a good day because I got to meet my friends. I could really be myself joking around and singing nonsense. I put on a good make-up look today and incessantly tell everyone I'm pretty and the annoyed looks are so worth it. We're going bowling tomorrow!

Not to forget my friends from PRP-ship as well. These are even better. These are the true warrior of the last-minute plan and an awful lot of good times. Sometimes I do feel weird that these bonds can simply be put into jeopardy once we got married. It was so silly isn't it?

READING AND POETRY

I couldn't find my IQ84 for the whole last week and it turns out I left it at home. Reading has been so slow since I'm determined to finish this damn thick fellow first. Plus, I've been putting it away because Murakami's work needs a whole lot of attention and being tired after work the whole day isn't really conducive. I find myself sometimes missing the serene calmness that came from reading the book. It was a good feeling thing to feel such wanton. #lol

I can hardly write any poetry too. I can't bring myself to focus on the whole process. I miss writing poetry so bad. 

ANIME, TV SERIES AND MOVIES

I tried to watch more award-winning movies. It's been a while. These movies are usually rather heavy and for the past year I have opted out "heavy movies" and choose to watch simpler ones. Action-packed and horror are my usual go-to. It seems that these deep and intriguing movies had won my attention once again and I managed to watch 1917, Jojo Rabbit and the so overdue Us. So good, highly recommended. 

I made myself marathoning Kimetsu No Yaiba. Turns out the story picks up once more characters were introduced which happened mid-season. Now I'm eager for a new season. There is this anime called "Fugou Keiji: Balance: UNLIMITED" which looks good. Not sure when I'm going to start watching it though. 

As for tv-series, I'm only watching Brooklyn 99 and only now got to the fourth season. The second season of Diableros and Chilling Adventure of Sabrina has been up. However, I only watched the first episode halfway through and just don't feel like committing. Altered Carbon still catches my attention but not having Joel Kinnaman as Takeshi Kovacs just brings a totally different dynamic. Anthony Mackie is good but it feels so different. The anger and the playfulness are different and thus a different Altered Carbon. I'm glad that we still have Poe.

SKIN CARE AND MAKE-UP

My  skin has been good to me. Although the need to always wear a mask has been a constant threat for jaw's acne but apart from that. I am quite good. Speaking of mask, please take a good care of yourself to make sure you don't get infected with COVID-19. The infected cases in Malaysia almost double in the span of three days! KKM is doing a good job at contact tracing. 

I mostly stayed with the basics these days - double cleansing, toner, moisturizer and serum. It has been a while since I wore a sheet mask. I tried to wear make-up more frequently which is mostly due to guilt that I have these stuffs but not wearing it. I tried to keep it simple to motivate me to be consistent. I love playing with eyeshadow! I still have two more sessions with Hannan Medispa. I wanted my skin turnover to be complete first so I'm planning to do my next session at least by the end of the month.

I think this is it. There some other random stuff I wanted to highlight but don't really belong anywhere.

1. I want to do a massage so badly but I want to buy so many things this month plus I just had the car serviced. 
2. I NEED TO DISCONTINUE MY CREDIT CARD. I only really need it to buy blog's theme at Etsy and to book a place at Airbnb. 
3. I love BTS's new album! ON is so good and I am so happy that it has a dance break as well. Everyone looks so good too.
4. I tried to shampoo and conditioned my hair more frequently now. I guess it won't hurt much since the products I use is so gentle and I'm getting better with hair care too. Let see what will happen.
5. My tudung bawal haven't been cooperating well these days and I just don't know why.

Last but not least -