Today is Wesak Day but Buddhists in our country and in most parts of the world have to celebrate quietly while sheltering at home.
The photo below was taken on Wesak Day 11 years ago from the 5th floor of our hospital room in Penang. Cass, my helper and I were still camping at Gleneagles Medical Center, Penang. It was day 6 or 7 after Cass’ first surgery. I was dying to hear my baby girl fart or see her poo but it was impossible as something was seriously wrong with her guts resulting from complications from the first surgery. Her surgeon had no inkling of it as all the scans didn’t pick up the kink. We were discharged from the hospital the next day and went back to my parents in Ipoh. But a day later, we checked into the hospital again as Cass kept throwing up the moment I nursed her. And this began part 2 of our nightmarish stay at GMC Penang which lasted for another two hellish weeks.
Coming back to our Wesak Day today!
Today is my jailbreak from home quarantine! Hubs was to bring me to our neighborhood supermarket to do groceries shopping but at the eleventh hour, he drove to Mid Valley Megamall instead. It’s my first mall shopping trip during the MCO and it felt strange. I used to feel excited going to the mall but this time, I had a mixed of emotions – happy, excited, worried, tensed. I’ve now grown to be paranoid when I am near people and I know that they are afraid to be near me too. Everyone tries to maintain a physical distance. Yet we can’t help being near each other when we’re inside the crowded aisles in the supermarket.
Covid-19 preventive measures at the shopping mall is satisfactory. At the entrance of the car park and escalator, body temperature is taken and hands must be sanitized. Free face mask will be given as well, if you don’t have one.
At the entrance of Jaya Grocer, body temperature is taken again and the guard spritzes disinfectant on your hands and gives you a pair of disposable gloves. Another staff hands out a card with a number to you and at the exit later, the staff collects the card number back.
The queue into the supermarket was super long, spilling out to about 20 meters long outside.
Our loot – groceries for home and hubby’s shop.
I grabbed these so-called healthy snacks for the girls and I to munch away our quarantine blues at home. They’ve not gone out for over 51 days and are getting restless and insomniac at night!
Hubby ordered takeout from Din Tai Fung and was told to wait for at least 20 minutes for the food. To kill time, we walked around that floor and bought more food! I got myself a cup of Tealive with grass jelly (no sugar and no ice). I was supposed to claim a free cup of Tealive in March, which is my birthday month but due to the MCO, I guess my free treat is now null and void.
We got some bread, buns and cakes from Barcook, one of my favorite bakeries.
I must have sanitized my hands more than eight times today at every specialty store stop that I made and whenever there was hand sanitizer available. My hands feel so chapped now. And when I got home, I had an allergy attack with a super itchy and irritable nose that lasted for several hours. I guess it must have been caused by inhalation of the chemicals used in the face mask that I wore 😷
Dinner of oven baked salmon with garlic and black pepper with a dip of raw garlic and vinegar; anchovies egg drop soup with organic ‘Yeh Heong Fah’ edible flowers aka Chinese Violet Telosma Cordata, stir-fried organic baby spinach and Japanese curry chicken tenders.
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