Covid-19 Pandemic – Page 10 – HEALTH FREAK MOMMY

MCO Day 23 ~ 9 April 2020

Today is Cassandra’s 12th birthday! It’s another birthday celebration in house quarantine for our family but we are very, very blessed that hubs could still get sumptuous takeout food and cakes for dinner from Red Kettle, our favorite cafe in the neighborhood.

This is not the first time that Cass has to spend her birthday in house quarantine. 11 years ago, she had to spend her first birthday in house quarantine too. I had to keep Cass free from infections and sicknesses as well as plump her up from 7kg to at least 8kg so that she is healthy and strong enough to undergo a complicated surgery on 5 May 2009 to fix her urinary tract.

Today’s breakfast is pork ribs porridge just because the Ketua Keluarga craved for it and his wish was her command. No I didn’t cook it. The mil did; she cooked it in the slow cooker last night so that everyone could have it for breakfast today.

In our household, we have organization of duties. The matriarch usually cooks. The eldest daughter cleans the dining table, brings the garbage to the refuse chamber; the second daughter washes the dishes and the youngest dries the dishes and keeps them. The Ketua Keluarga sometimes helps to wash the dishes, keeps them and he does the bulk of the groceries shopping. I do all the shit that no one likes to do like bending my back and knees to mop floor, clean up greasy kitchen floor and stove, scrub bathrooms and climb up the ladder to clean fans and air cond filters.😑 I can’t wait to have Maria back in our house to help out!! And I symphatize with her that she too, has a loss of income throughout the MCO.

MIL made scallion pancakes for tea time, for the first time. This ‘lockdown pancake’ has been trending on social media lately and many of our friends have been making it. Not bad for a first try, though it would be better if the pancake is thinner and crispier. Not totally satisfied with the end result, mil vowed to make this pancake again soon.

Our delectable spread from Red Kettle to celebrate Cassandra’s 12th birthday!

Someone wasn’t in the mood to take photo (as usual 🙄) but she’s got no choice as it’s her birthday! 😆 I had to hide behind my girls as I was in my night gown, sweaty and sloppy from house cleaning.

It looks like Cass would not be getting her My Kad (identity card) any time soon. I’m sure JPN will waive the penalty. Even when the MCO is lifted, no way would I be risking Cass and myself at the overcrowded government department to apply for the My Kad, even it if meant paying a late penalty.

Happy birthday Cassandra! My only wish for you is for you to be healthy and happy everyday of your life. When the MCO is lifted, you will be allowed into our condo gym without dad & mum accompanying you. Congrats! 😆

No. of times viewed = 19

MCO Day 20 ~ 6 April 2020

Some of the pet peeves that really vex me during the MCO:

The littlest rascal hoarding my phone to attend online lessons whenever #2 hoards her dad’s laptop to attend her online lessons.

Not only does the littlest rascal hoard my phone, she hoards my desktop PC simultaneously too, as she says she has to submit her online homework immediately via Google Classroom to her teacher whilst they are still engaged in Zoom class.

#2 instructing me to turn off the radio whenever she attends online tuition / classes conducted by school teachers. She also instructs Cass not to practise the piano whenever she attends online tuition and online dance classes. Yesterday evening, she instructed everyone in the house to remain as silent as a dead mouse for almost an hour as she had to record a dance move for an online dance teacher in Australia to review.

So what am I going to do when I have no phone, no music, no PC and no newspapers to read?! And I can’t frigging get out of the house to exercise or dump all the negativity from my mind or indulge in a little window shopping! I can’t even sneak on a Magnum ice-cream without the littlest rascal taxing half of it.

And oh, those nagging from some insensitive people on silly trivial matters, trifling as a smell-less silent fart. Oh. My. Gawd. I am going bonkers!

When the MCO ends, there’s bound to be an increase in mental cases, domestic violence and divorce (already happening as reported in the papers) and diseases from eating too much processed foods, deli meat and canned food and from lack of exercise.

So when I am about to dial 999 for help, I just lock myself in my room, cuss, swear, breathe in and breathe out and pray that this MCO and damn virulent pandemic will completely come to an end pronto!

Our MCO day 20 dinner:

Braised pumpkin with dried shrimps and minced garlic, lotus root + arrowroot soup again, 12345 pork ribs, leftover foo pei from lunch and sauteed cabbage with turmeric and fish cake.

No. of times viewed = 29

MCO Day 17 & 18 ~ 3 & 4 April 2020

Our condo Management issued a new circular to all the residents yesterday, with some new restrictions added to the already long list of prohibitions at the condo throughout the MCO. The new restriction prohibits residents from doing all forms of recreational activities within the compound of the condo! With this restriction, I can confirm that I will go bonkers and can check myself into Tg Rambutan if the MCO is further extended!!

Can you imagine being cooped up in a 1,500 sq ft unit with kids, mil and spouse 24/7 without being allowed to even walk within the compound of the condo? It can get really depressing on some days.

Today (4 April) I finally got out of the house to our neighborhood supermarket to do grocery shopping. It’s been exactly 7 days since I last went out of the house. Driving my car felt weird and I thought that my car felt bumpy and strange 😆 Thank God my car could start!

Brunch on MCO day 17, 3 April 2020:

Oven-grilled pork chop with Gouda cheese and croissants that our neighbor gifted us:

Sherilyn who is also bored to the core offered to cook dinner. She grilled organic chicken thighs, made a yummy creamy mushroom sauce to pair with the grilled chicken, grilled celery and carrots and made a mash of potatoes, carrots and orange sweet potato.

And grilled gigantic Portobello mushrooms seasoned with olive oil, minced garlic, salt and ground black pepper.

No. of times viewed = 31

MCO Day 16 ~ 2 April 2020

Hubs and I went to town on a motorbike yesterday to get some groceries. Under the second phase of the MCO, only one person is allowed in a vehicle when they are out shopping for food and essential items. But we were both on a motorbike, defying the law blatantly. We were courting trouble and trouble did we court. We were stopped by the police and then all of a sudden, I was left near Dataran Merdeka alone. My mobile phone battery has gone flat and I couldn’t call the hubs. I was waiting for the public bus to get home but the crowd was unimaginable. I didn’t have a face mask or sanitizer with me. I felt terribly insecure without my armor. Suddenly a lorry came to pick up people stranded on the street but I didn’t want to get up the overloaded lorry for fear of getting infected by the Virus. I was scared of humans, of the crowd, of being alone in a sea of people. And my dang phone is now useless. And my dang useless husband left me stranded in town while he went back to his office! I was fraught with fear and anger!

Thank God it was only a bad dream that I had last night! I was jolted up from my sleep by this terrible dream and got up with a crick in my neck and shoulder blade.

This fear of crowd and going out is so immense that it has gotten into me 🥶 I think this phobia will stay with me and most of us for a very long time. Thank you very much Covid19.

Alycia must have been so dang bored cooped up in her room attending online classes and tuition that she got up early to cook breakfast for us. Never in her life has she done that before! That’s one of the plus points of this pandemic and partial lockdown. It has pushed a reset button in all of us.

Alycia pan-fried spam meat with eggs. With both my eyes closed, Cass and I shared a piece. Both of us cringed as the spam meat is SO salty. Imagine the amount of sodium and nitrite used to preserve the meat in the can for years! Why did hubs buy spam?! Spam meat will only spam our health 😫

I chugged down a huge mug of hot matcha to wash away the salty after taste in my mouth. So did Cass. But I am glad that Alycia took the initiative to cook for us.

Fortunately mil cooked pork ribs porridge and the spam meat didn’t taste that salty when paired with the porridge (no salt added).

Dinner was delish Sarawak curry laksa that hubs bought to support his best friend’s Nyonya restaurant, Lima Pulo, Baba Can Cook, during this difficult time where most retailers and restaurants are hit hard by the MCO.

MIL also dished out steamed fish, braised turnip and radish soup.

No. of times viewed = 18

MCO Day 15 ~ 1 April 2020

The Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown in almost three quarter of the world seem to be the biggest April’s Fool Joke for the entire world’s population this year. If only this pandemic was indeed a joke and when we wake up tomorrow on 2 April 2020, things would be back to normal again. If. Only.

Today I watched a viral video on an Indian astrologer’s prediction on the Covid-19 pandemic. According to this astrologer, he was very certain that this worldwide pandemic will be over on 1 May 2020. He was talking about the movements of the planets and how the positioning of the planets caused the pandemic and new positioning of the planets in the days to come would mean that the pandemic will be over. I know that I can only believe 50% of what this astrologer predicted but nonetheless, I am still glad to have watched this video with such comforting and assuring words in volatile and depressing times like now.

Anyway whether the pandemic will be over by 1 May or continue to no ending in sight, we have to be prepared for the worst. But I try to remain positive everyday. Sitting in front of my PC reading news updates is starting to bore and worry me even more. My eyes sting and get blurry from having too much screen time. So today I decided to do something productive to kill time, like washing air cond filters and wiping the ceiling fans in all 3 bedrooms. Tomorrow I’m going to wash the balcony floor. Only God will know when Maria, our beloved part-time helper of 8 years can ever come back to help us.

I have not climbed up the ladder to wipe ceiling fans for over 20 years as I’ve always had full-time or part-time helpers to do this chore. Actually this will not seem like a chore if you condition your mind to enjoy it as a form of exercise. The thought of sweating buckets and having fat and calories burnt really got me going and moving🏋🏼‍♂️

Breakfast was toasted bread with bacon, eggs and baked beans, cooked by my other half.

Dinner of stir-fried zucchini, grilled chicken thighs and leftover Hakka pork.

Today, Ganesh, my bachelor neighbor who stays opposite our unit rang on our door bell and gave us all another surprise — a bag of 10 croissants (super yums!) and a loaf of wholemeal oats bread 😆 According to Ganesh, he bought a few cartons of croissants and bread to help out his friend who is a supplier of bread and pastries during this difficult time. God bless his heart. Now we really have a goodly supply of bread, pastries and pau in our freezer.

No. of times viewed = 32

MCO Day 11 ~ 28 March 2020

This morning I had a craving to eat bitter gourd pork noodles but there was no bitter gourd or fish balls in our fridge. As I’d skipped exercising in the morning, I decided to go to our neighborhood supermarket instead to pick up the items for our bitter gourd pork noodles tonight.

The thought of the SOP for pre and post groceries shopping trip often turns me off going shopping these days. I used to look forward to doing my groceries shopping everyday but now it feels like a chore and a tall order too. And the fear of bringing the Virus back to my family is numbing.

Before I left the house, I sprayed Sodium Hypochlorite disinfectant water all over my body and grabbed a face mask. The mil who wasn’t convinced that I’d sprayed enough of disinfectant came towards me and slathered more SH disinfectant water on the back of my arms 😆 I think she was more worried than me. Suddenly going groceries shopping felt like going into the battlefield!

I reached the supermarket at around 8:15 a.m. I was lucky that I managed to get a parking spot right outside the supermarket the moment I arrived, thank God! The queue into the supermarket was already building up. All the shoppers had to queue outside the supermarket with a 1 meter distancing from each other. Our temperatures were taken too and hand sanitizer provided. Each time a shopper exits from the supermarket, a new shopper enters. Even with this controlled entrance, it was still crowded inside, particularly the fruits and vegetables section.

Within 5 minutes after I queued up, I turned back and saw a long queue that spilled onto the road, at least 30 people deep. Thank goodness I was 5 minutes earlier than them!

Once back home with the groceries, I quickly wiped down each item with Sodium Hypochlorite water, sprayed the shopping bags with SH water and wiped the kitchen tops and floors with disinfectant wipes.

Today hubs prepped breakfast of fried eggs and boiled sausages.

Lunch was quiche that hubs bought yesterday.

Dinner was bitter gourd pork noodles with fish balls, fish cakes, ‘fu pei’ and cabbage in anchovies soup.

In the evening our neighborhood pau seller delivered the assortment of frozen pau and siew mai that I ordered to my condo, which I collected at the lobby. I ordered over RM100 worth of these via Whatsapp and paid via online banking last night.

And again, as per our usual SOP for bringing new food items into the kitchen, I wiped the plastic packaging of all the paus with SH disinfectant water. It’s so tedious having to carry out this sanitization step on all our newly bought food items every single time.

On my birthday tomorrow, I will eat these paus and siew mai for brunch and don’t know what for dinner and then slog in the kitchen washing and cleaning up 😁 It will be my first time celebrating my own birthday in my beautiful country that’s in a partial lockdown. Cass will also be celebrating her 12th birthday in similar fashion next month. 😅

No. of times viewed = 30

Protecting Ourselves From Covid-19

During the initial days of Covid-19 in late January / early February 2020 when Malaysia only had a handful of cases, it didn’t strike us that we would need to stock up on face masks and hand sanitizer. No one saw that a month on, our country would go on a partial lockdown. When the mil went to a face mask wholesaler in Klang with a friend to get a few cartons of face mask for sil from Hong Kong, we only kept a few pieces for ourselves and shipped everything to her.

Fast forward a couple of weeks later, the number of cases soared and everyone went into panic mode and hoarded face masks, hand sanitizers and antibacterial wet wipes. We didn’t hoard any as we couldn’t get them from nearby pharmacies and didn’t want to queue up to buy them. We asked a friend who works in the pharmaceutical distribution line to help us get some whenever she had the opportunity to. She also helped us to buy hand sanitizer whenever stock was replenished.

Now, these face masks and hand sanitizer are like our bodyguards, sitting atop a cupboard at the entrance of our house. Before anyone of us gets out of the house, our SOP is

1. spray sodium hypochlorite water all over clothing, limbs and shoes. This is for hubs or me who have to go out shopping for groceries or food.

2. apply hand sanitizer on hands.

3. grab a face mask.

Our precious stock of hand sanitizers and face masks, which keep getting out of stock at pharmacies.

Hubs’ friend gave him a 5-liter bottle of PECA sodium hypochlorite disinfectant water. As hubs is the one who usually goes out either to his kitchen or to buy stuff for the family, he sprays PECA disinfectant all over his body for protection. PECA is a safe product and can be used even for face washing and throat gargling.

What is sodium hypochlorite?

The active ingredient in bleach – sodium hypochlorite – is very effective at killing the Covid-19 virus. The agent works by destroying the protein and what’s known as the ribonucleic acid (RNA) of the virus – this is the substance that gives the blueprint for making more virus particles when you become infected.

Before chlorine disinfectants like sodium hypochlorite were routinely added to our drinking water beginning about 100 years ago, many people became sick and died of waterborne diseases. These diseases were caused by germs infecting people through the simple act of drinking water.

Sodium hypochlorite solutions disinfect food preparation surfaces, food sorting machinery, containers and instruments of all types involved in producing, transporting and preparing the foods we love to eat. We spray this solution on all takeout plastic bags before placing them on our table.

If anyone of you is interested in getting PECA sodium hypochlorite water, just give me a tinkle at mobile number: 019 266 4290 or email: shireenyong@gmail.com.

No. of times viewed = 164

MCO Day 9 ~ 26 March 2020

Today the girls cooked brunch!

Sausages are such a rare sight on HFM’s blogs but since the head of the family is now tasked to do the shopping, he buys not only what’s on the shopping list but also all his happy food items… like chips, sausages and instant noodles 🙄

Here’s our brunch menu today, not the healthiest of food but still better than food delivery, in my opinion:

Sherilyn cooked ramen using Korean instant noodles. She added pork chop, fresh corn kernels, lady fingers, fish balls and onions to her ramen. The ramen eggs aka ajitsuke tamago were made yesterday and left in the fridge to soak in the marinate sauce.

Alycia was tasked with boiling the sausages and Cass made the scrambled eggs and toasts.

These food safety steps have now become an SOP in our kitchen:

1 The head of the family comes back from grocery shopping. He stands outside the unit and I spray sodium hypochlorite water all over his clothes, hands, legs and shoes. Sometimes he washes his clothes and shoes before leaving the clothes in the laundry basket for another round of thorough wash in the washing machine. Sometimes he showers.

2 He leaves the groceries on the kitchen floor. I rope in the girls to quickly remove all the items from the shopping bags and bin the bags immediately.

3 Things wrapped in a packet are wiped with antibacterial wipes and canned food items are washed with soap and water and left to dry.

4 Once the groceries are cleared, the kitchen floor is immediately wiped with sanitizing wet wipes.

5 For takeout food, the plastic bags are sprayed with sodium hypochlorite water before placing them on the kitchen top.

6 Fruits are washed with soap and water before the skin is peeled off.

The scene is akin to one at the hospital ER. Everyone works swiftly as though there’s an emergency but our mission is to safe our own lives. 😆

I won’t even let Cass peel the banana skin herself. I carefully peel the banana skin for her, cut off the top part of the banana flesh and squirt the banana out of its skin onto a plate.

It is SO tiring doing all these steps after every shopping trip. But no complaints. Since our movements are really limited during the MCO, all these crazy activities help to burn some calories, else everyone will be seated at their nest, comfortably hibernating with eyes and hands glued to their devices. To hit as many steps as I can each day, I have now become an OCD, moping the floors 5-6 times in a day. I. am. so. tired! But this is nothing, absolutely nothing compared to the front liners all over the world saving people. My absolute respect for them.

No. of times viewed = 39

MCO Day 7 ~ 24 March 2020

Besides updating my blogs on what we cooked and ate throughout our MCO house quarantine, there’s really nothing much to update about. What else can we do besides cooking, eating, moping, cleaning, glued to the phone and computer and sleep? And the whole cycle repeats the next day, everyday, for God knows how long more. This MCO could be extended and everyone is guessing that it will be looking at the number of cases everyday.

The government keeps reminding everyone to stay indoors via social media, newspapers, radio, TV and even text messages every single day. Never have we in the past received text messages from the Nasional Security Council and Health Ministry until Covid-19. Everywhere feels grim and desolate, except for the shops that are opened for people to buy food and essential items, which are not plenty.

Our condo is eerily quiet too. It feels like being in a science fiction film where some alien force has spirited away nearly everyone from our condo. I’ve actually had repeated dreams of running away in an apocalypse or panic situation with my family; this MCO seems like a deja vu.

So as expected from me, here’s the update on what we ate and did at home today☺️

Our brunch of fried meehoon with homemade lard, pork, fish balls, fish cakes, cabbage, carrots; a big pot of red bean tong sui (forgot to snap photo as I was busy cleaning up the kitchen after the mil cooked)

Dinner of siew yoke, stir fried fish slices with ginger + scallions, phai kwat wong (pork ribs king), stir fried lai park veggie, braised chicken, vegetable soup and leftover braised Hakka pork from yesterday.

After every meal, we have 4-5 baskets of plates, bowls, cutlery and kitchenware to wash, dry and keep. There are two neat freaks in the house who are super anal about leaving the clean dishes unattended to, so everyone has to rope in to do the washing, drying and storing them after every meal.

MIL’s duty is to cook, Sherilyn’s duty is to wash the dishes, Alycia has to clean the table and bring the garbage to the refuse chamber and the littlest brat has to dry and keep the dishes… but she always gets away from her duty as her daddy will wipe them for her before she keeps the dishes. My duty? Everything else in the house – bathroom scrubbing, floor mopping, few rounds of laundry and anything that you can think of. Oh my poor chapped and wrinkled hands 🤲 🥺

Our dancing queen woke up at 8-ish in the morning to attend a free online exercise class conducted by an acrobat teacher in Canada. At night, she attended a free online dance class.

The only time the girls get out of our unit is to the basement to collect groceries from the ‘head of the family’, who’s now in charge of shopping.

Today we attended a virtual birthday party of the girls’ cousin, E, in Hong Kong. Via Zoom, the attendees were the mil’s daughters and their families from other parts of Hong Kong and Auckland. We sang happy birthday to E and took photos of the virtual celebration 🤭

What’s the first thing that you’d like to do on the first day that the MCO is lifted? I’d love to go mall shopping as that’s something that I really miss and of course soak in the sun every morning when I run my errands.

I’d like to wish everyone to be patient and remain indoors. This MCO will soon past ☺️

No. of times viewed = 40

MCO Day 6 – 23 March 2020

Today we didn’t have to cook brunch at home, yes! Brunch of delish nasi lemak, Mee Siam and ayam goreng berempah (spiced fried chicken) was collected from hubby’s kitchen as he has food box packing for a corporate event today.

I heart those crispy fried spices from the fried chicken, composed of lemon grass, onions, curry leaves and a bunch of other freshly chopped spices, fried till crispy. So aromatic and addictive; goes well with rice, bread or noodles.

After collecting brunch from hubby’s kitchen, I went to 99 Speedmart to have a look see and was pleasantly surprised to see so much stock being replenished! How could I leave the mart without getting anything right? I don’t want to come out again tomorrow. So I picked up a few items before heading home and spent the rest of the day at home doing chores and reading updates on the Covid-19 situation from my PC. Also watched the PM’s speech on the Covid-19 situation. Nothing to rejoice over. I have this hunch that the MCO will be extended.

Below: Alycia watching a pre-recorded video of her Math tutor conducting online lesson last night and attending a life virtual class on Principles of Accounts conducted by her high school teacher today.

Below: Sherilyn attending a life virtual class conducted by her Math tutor.

Today sirens can be heard blaring throughout the day. There were road blocks by the police at several areas at our neighborhood yesterday.

How’s everyone keeping up? Have you lost track of time? My kids seem to have and sometimes ask me what day and date it is. We watch the days go by one after another and don’t know how long days like this are going to last but one thing’s for sure, the MCO won’t be forever. We will regain our freedom again soon.

We have 8 more days of MCO to go. Am hopeful that there’s no necessity for the MCO to be extended. Wuhan was on total lockdown for 2 months and still is, albeit the lockdown has eased a little now. The field hospitals have already closed as the number of new cases in Wuhan dropped. If it takes Wuhan 2 months to have the lockdown loosened, it might be the same in our country if people are stubborn and not truthful to the doctors. But let’s pray and be hopeful that we don’t have to go through 2 months of MCO 🙏

No. of times viewed = 32

MCO Day 4 (Saturday, 21 March 2020)

Today hubs and I went out at 9-ish in the morning, hoping to get some essential items from D Market but the moment I stepped into the supermarket, the long queue at the entrance horrified me. It was a mass gathering of panic shoppers!

Had I join in the queue, our shopping trip would take at least an hour, having to queue into the supermarket, wait at the weighing counter and queue at the checkout counter. No way was I going to risk myself getting infected doing this. I left pronto.

And I don’t see the 1 meter distancing!

We headed to 99 Speedmart instead. Crowd was not crazy but all the essential items like eggs, bread, onions, toilet papers and most canned food were sold out. Since we couldn’t get what we wanted, hubs grabbed some ~~junk food~~ snacks, box tissue papers and a few cartons of packet drinks for a client’s function next week.

Next stop was at our regular tai chow restaurant to get takeout lunch. All our favorite kopitiam shops have shuttered down throughout the MCO period and the only available food for us to get takeout is this tai chow restaurant that sells chicken rice and wanton noodles. So yeah, we’ve been eating wanton noodles, char siew, siew yoke and chicken rice twice this week and starting to get bored of these.

We passed by this stall that sells the best char siew and chicken rice in our neighborhood but after seeing the queue, hubs drove away to the next shop.

Luckily we reached Sing Kee Kitchen a few minutes earlier and didn’t have have to queue up. Notice the stickers on the floor? That’s for customers to toe the line and practise social distancing.

While hubs waited for our takeaway lunch, I went to the pharmacy next door to stock up on antibacterial wipes and toothpaste.

Our haul for today, which ain’t satisfactory as we still couldn’t get eggs and onions. Guess this will be the last time we go out together during the MCO as the Government’s latest directive is only the ‘head of household’ or representative can go out at any one time to shop for essentials.

Back home, hubs went on round 4 of Marie Kondo spree and annoyed me heaps but after the entire afternoon MK-ing my stuff (yeah, today he MK-ed my space!), I was kind of satisfied with his job. The hubs (who’s an OCD neat freak) is the male verson of Konmari / Marie Kondo. He can execute an excellent job throwing out unwanted things (which are new and unused at times and annoy me again), clean up, arrange and transform a dirty and cluttered place into a spick and span space. Tomorrow he is surely going to annoy someone when he MK her personal space!

He removed all the Ikea boxes from the cupboard, vacuumed, wiped and dried them, threw tons of unwanted stuff and now I have two clean empty boxes to store more rubbish 😆

Today my poor hands turned more wrinkly and rough. I think I must have mopped the floor more than 20 times today! When the OCD hubs removed stuff from the drawers, dust flew everywhere and OCD me is allergic to dust, thus had to keep moping.

After MK-ing my space the entire afternoon, hubs fished out a packet of Twisties to chillax while he entertained himself on the phone. He bought the Twisties (and other junk food) as emergency food before the MCO started. The second he poured the Twisties onto a plate, our 3 piranhas who seem to be deaf (or rather have selected hearing) and were engrossed with their own things suddenly had perfect hearing. The eldest who was having her siesta suddenly woke up. They darted and crashed landed next to daddy and each fought for a fistful of Twisties and stuffed them into their mouths. This is what happens when the mother who’s a health freak forbids junk food in the house 🙄

And the packet of Twisties was polished off in under 5 minutes. Boy it tastes so good too! 🤭 I can’t remember when I last bought Twisties.

Today hubs randomly threw a few packets of junk food into the shopping cart when we were at 99 Speedmart. The girls grinned from ear to ear when we got home with our shopping loot. They are definitely enjoying their 14 days of house quarantine with their phones and junk food🤨

This is our simple dinner today – steamed kampung chicken, blanched lady fingers, stir-fried kangkung with sambal belacan, char siew and old cucumber soup from yesterday.

How has everyone been on your MCO home quarantine?

For the rest of my readers from other parts of the world who are also under home quarantine, stay healthy and stay at home. This will soon past. Enjoy every moment that you are at home, enjoy the mornings that you don’t need an alarm clock to wake you up, enjoy the days that you can be in your pajamas the whole day. You’ll miss this one day 😉

No. of times viewed = 102

Movement Control Order (MCO) Day 1 & 2

Today is day 2 of MCO and I am starting to feel terribly bored and missing the malls! I miss walking on the streets and eating hawkers food at my favorite kopitiam without a care. Our girls are happy as long as they don’t have to wake up at ungodly hours to prep for school; as long as they have their phones and as long as they can do what they want… in the house for the next 2.5 weeks.

Both Alycia and Sherilyn started online tuition classes today. Sherilyn found several sites that provide free online dance classes and participated. Cass is happy doing drawing, painting and reading novels all day and occasionally video calling her besties to chat.

I still have several online assignments to submit and have been struggling to work on them as my heart has been very distracted; I have been clicking on online news portals to check on the Covid-19 updates in our country. The number of cases in our country is so depressing. The Police force has already been deployed on the streets to ensure that everyone stays off them.

Today will be the last day Maria our part-time helper comes to our place as a safety precaution and to obey the MCO. So from tomorrow onwards, I’ll be busy washing and cleaning whilst the mil will be busy whipping up meals 3x a day. God safe me please! I hate cleaning and washing. The skin on my hands has started to peel and turn wrinkly from all the washing and sanitizing. I can’t wait for the entire MCO to come to an end but the order can only be lifted IF everyone is obedient and just stay home. Our PM last night pleaded with the Rakyat repeatedly to “JUST STAY HOME”.

I miss having my 1-hour pre-dawn exercise every morning. Since I now have ample sleep, I will wake up at 5 a.m. tomorrow to get an hour of workout at our condo compound. Can’t wait to exercise again after almost a week of skipping it. The gym, pool and playground at our condo are off limits throughout the MCO. Even jogging outside is prohibited now.

This is our breakfast, lunch and dinner on MCO Day 1:

The nasi lemak and chicken rendang are from hubby’s kitchen. He now packs food boxes and delivers them to his clients.

Hubs went to a nearby restaurant to get takeout chicken, char siew, siew yoke and wanton noodles for breakfast yesterday.

Our breakfast on MCO Day 2:

DIY sandwich with onion omelette (leftover from previous night dinner), shredded roast chicken with mayo (roast chicken breast from previous day takeout) and avocado.

Sherilyn’s plate – she made blueberry jam the previous day to go with her toast.

Our lunch of guava, tomatoes, sweet corns and steamed nian gao with grated coconut.

I went to our neighborhood supermarket to get some groceries this morning. The scene was one of panic buying again! Egg shelves were almost empty, pork shelves were empty and people were queuing up for new stock, vegetables and chicken shelves were almost empty too. I wanted to buy big onions but all the onions (big and small, red and white) were all sold out! Panic buying in crowds is seriously wrong too during the MCO! The next time I go to the supermarket, I’ll make sure that I’m there at 8:30 a.m. when the supermarket opens its shutters.

The empty egg shelves – luckily I managed to grab 2 crates. We’ve been using a lot of eggs lately as we’re cooking 3 meals a day. I’ve told Sherilyn to stop baking as we have to ration our eggs for our meals and not for baking. Eggs are one of the essential items that’s always sold out in a heartbeat in supermarkets. In times like this, we now have to ration our food to avoid running out of them and to minimize trips to the supermarket.

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Food Safety In The Wake Of Covid-19

In light of the current state of play of Coronavirus, I’d like to share some food safety tips that you can practise at home. We’re also practising these precautions at home.

In case you don’t already know, Coronavirus is believed to be able to survive up to 3 days on surfaces. Scary!

The other day, the mil unknowingly bought a punnet of kiwi fruit that’s from Italy. When I told her about how serious the pandemic is in Italy and she should not buy anything from Italy as a safety precaution in tensed times like this, she started to panic. She quickly took the kiwi fruits out of the punnet and washed them thoroughly with water mixed with baking soda to sanitize them.

Here are some tips on how to sanitize your food at home:
1. Wash all fresh produce in warm water mixed with a few tablespoons of baking soda or special fruit & veggie soap.
2. Only eat thoroughly cooked foods to be extra cautious.
3. For the vulnerable (senior citizens and those with weakened immune system), extra precaution should be taken; wash all food jars, caps and packets before removing the contents.
4. Skip takeout from fast food joints. Support local restaurants by asking for takeaway food you can reheat at home.
5. Avoid raw food like sashimi and salad.

If you have any queries pertaining to Covid-19 and want clarification, below are the hotline numbers. Do store these numbers on your mobile phone.

And here’s something hilarious just for laughs to melt away your Movement Control Order house quarantine blues and depressing Covid-19 cases figures 😁

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Movement Control Order

So my worst fear came true. Last night at 10 p.m. our prime minister announced that a Movement Control Order (MCO) will be invoked in Malaysia for 2 weeks from 18 March through 31 March 2020. It’s like a partial lockdown. With this, government and private premises would be closed except those providing essential services. Although hubby’s business is considered as essential service as it’s under food distribution, his business has however suffered a blow. There has been almost 99% cancellation of orders and postponement of functions. Though it’s announced that the MCO is only for 2 weeks, it will be extended should the number of Covid-19 cases continue to rise. Our aim now is to flatten the epidemic curve. Even hubs himself was hoping that the Government will announce a lockdown of sort as it is only through this strict implementation that the Coronavirus can be contained. And it is only after the Virus is contained that his business and all other businesses affected by this pandemic will rebound. And we as responsible Malaysians must all cooperate and work together to stop the spread of this invisible silent killer.

Yes our family will be affected financially but this will only be temporary. I have gone through even worst situations when I was growing up. During the recession in the mid 1980s when my papa lost his job and we had just enough to live by, my wise late grandma managed to put cheap but tasty food on the table for all of us. Have you all ever tasted ‘recycled pork or chicken’ that’s so yummy that you’d crave for it everyday? My late grandma could easily transform meat used to cook soups into another lip-smacking dish by sauteeing it with soy sauce, sugar, salt, garlic and dash of Chinese cooking wine.

I remember that in the year 1987 when my dad was hit by the recession, I had no new clothes for the entire year and only wore my school PE t-shirt during CNY! I am made of tough stuff and I will raise tough girls too. I think our girls are pretty easy-going and flexible.

Onwards and upwards! Because of this MCO, hubs and I can now sleep in. We don’t have to rush to go anywhere. I don’t have to do school and tuition runs. The girls’ tuition centers will be conducting online tuition / eClass soon. Alycia’s highschool will start eClasses soon. I’m still waiting for Cass’ Chinese primary school to announce the interim measures to be taken so that classes can still go on. Sherilyn’s gym and dance center will be temporarily closed. Our condo Managment is now having an emergency meeting to discuss whether private tutors, visitors and cleaners can still enter the premise.

Our girls are so happy that they will have an additional 2 weeks of school holidays, making it a total of 3 weeks! Wish us luck for our 3 weeks of house quarantine! I’ve been briefing them on the financial implications this MCO will have on the family as daddy’s business will slow down. Luckily we have our Rainy Days savings to tide us through this difficult times. I can live without having new clothes, new shoes, new bags, new lingerie, boba tea, no fancy dining. We can definitely ride out this storm together and when the storm has ceased, we will see the beautiful rainbow in the sky. Hubs will be super busy again with his business. He has so many confirmed events that have been postponed indefinitely. When this is all behind us, our busy lives will resume again. For now, I am so happy that I can catch up on my sleep, I don’t have to sweat it out under the sun running errands and doing school + tuition runs. It’s a great time for hubs and I to take a break to rest and rejuvenate our mind and body before the busyness takes over us again soon.

We managed to do some grocery shopping yesterday morning at our neighborhood supermarket. Many shelves were empty or emptying any time. The queues at the checkout counter were a few meters long throughout the day. And this was the scene at almost all the supermarkets and hypermarkets in most parts of Malaysia yesterday.

We stocked up on mung beans (red beans sold out), sweet potatoes, matcha powder, nuts, seaweed snacks, biscuits, eggs, shampoo, potatoes, vegetables, meat and only 1 packet of toilet rolls 😁

The pork shelves were almost empty and staff were busy replenishing them.

I’m so glad to know that I can still go to the supermarket and pharmacies throughout this 2-week MCO. But I’ll only limit my movement out of the house to twice a week.

To all my blog readers in Malaysia, stay calm, stay at home and don’t panic. Don’t travel out of town unless absolutely necessary. We can do this together and ride out the storm and come out even stronger than before 💪

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