Avoiding COVID-19

What an eventful first quarter of the year. We had an elected Prime Minister then he became an interim Prime Minister (may or may not be caused by the failed political coup) then the King interviewed potential PMs before appointing a new one. For commodity front, oil price tanked, hovering at the twenties dollar per barrel and of course, the biggest news would be Covid-19 which has been declared as a pandemic by WHO. Ripple effects of the latter are felt by many if not all, from Asia to Europe to North America and the rest of the world.

Here, for us at the home ground of RM250b economic stimulus package (about 15.5% of our GDP), we are well into the 2nd week of Restriction of Movement Order (RMO) and we are to stay at home till April 14th to help flatten the curve of infection. Basically,  if you have food supplies and the necessities, justbloodystayathome!

Looking at the bright side, with the RMO fully enforced, I realised that I can do a lot less of few things and a lot more of other things such as;

• Super minimal -ve talkings, aiming to make it none at all
• Perform Dhuha
• Qada solat (did you know this is one of the debts or the only debt that ONLY you can settle it? nobody can help you with this once you are 6 feet under - unlike zakat or hajj where someone can pay on your behalf)
• Reciting quran or listening to one all day long, the feeling is just ......or crying out of the blue while imagining what hell is like?
• Wudhu before hitting the ZzZzz button
• Control what I consume (I'm on diet remember? Lost 4kgs so far!!)
• Learn something new or revisiting old ones - my pinyin or candlesticks

People say you can create new habits in 21 days, we have 4 weeks to fully indulge ourselves. Let's do this!

So far going into 2020

I guess making one entry per year is the way to go. I remember myself asking my 10yr old self, who would want to live till 2020? That's way into the future. I guess being young and naive just can't be bothered with the complexity of living.

I'm running out of motivation to work for some time now. It would be great to know somewhere along the tunnel, there's a stopover or a milestone to chart your progress but I am kinda stuck in a rut. I need to work on getting my mojo back, have to earn the paycheck and make it worthwhile.

Also, I've just started a 2 months meal-plan program. Been cooking diligently for the past 3-4 days. It's actually not bad, do-able definitely and who would have thought the cost is so much lower than what I normally spend per day for breakfast and lunch. Skipping dinner because it messes up my sleeping time (i.e 9.30PM in lalaland).

Oh yes, I stepped out of my comfort zone ;)
Applied for a scholarship to get certified as Applied Data Science Analyst, got accepted, attended 9-5pm Saturday and Sunday classes for 3 months, made friends (this is huge for me) and passed all the exams. Now, I'm certified!!!WOOHOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

I was supposed to go for my annual 'pilgrimage' to China a.k.a. Beijing last month but Covid-19 took over globally. Hence, had to cancel my trip there for the 2nd time. It seems like I really have no luck with Beijing :)

Feels good to be jotting down things here again.
Will see how long apart my next one would be.