The zombie days are over – The Star Online

MONDAY marked my first anniversary as a retiree. I can hardly believe 12 months flew by so quickly.I blithely wrote about the start of this new chapter in my July 17, 2019, column titled My life as I never knew it.

I mused how I no longer have to set my alarm to wake up, get dressed and go to work. Instead, I was getting used to the new routine of staying home, taking over household chores as my maid was on home leave, tending to my mum, and feeling good and useful.

Seven months later, news of Covid-19, which was then an unnamed disease, started coming out of Wuhan. It was worrisome but it didnt seem so scary and my friends and I decided to go ahead with our holiday in Fukuoka, Japan, at the end of February.

And then came the movement control order (MCO) and life as I knew it took yet another unknown turn.

The family had to stay home and our house became our sanctuary as well as our unlocked prison.

From MCO, we moved to conditional MCO and now recovery MCO. Today, more businesses and facilities will be allowed to reopen: pre-schools and kindergartens; spas, and wellness and foot massage centres; swimming pools and cinemas.

Meetings, AGMs, seminars, weddings, religious and other social gatherings will be permitted.

All that on the condition the numbers are kept small and everyone continues to do their part by wearing masks (got waterproof ones?), practise good hand hygiene and safe distancing.

Thats all very well since it is clearly imperative we must somehow restart the economy and save jobs.

Yet, when some restrictions were relaxed under the conditional MCO, I was still extremely reluctant to venture out largely because of my aged and frail mother who lives with me and the fact I myself am also in a high-risk group.

I thought I was coping well with staying home, but I then realised I was slowly getting depressed. I kept playing the song Zombie by Korean rock group Day6 because I found the lyrics to be so relatable:

I feel like I became a zombie

Not alive, but Im still walkin

When the sunrise is upon me

Ill be waiting for the day to pass by, oh why?

I became a zombie

And theres nothing that can cure me

So tomorrow I know Ill be just the same

Youll see me wishin to stop and close my eyesI knew I had to do something to shake off this numb feeling of quiet despair. So I decided to be brave and meet my friends up for a meal. So far, I have done so three times in carefully chosen restaurants.

Then on Sunday, my family went out together for the first time since March 18 to celebrate my birthday at a Korean BBQ place in Mont Kiara.

Indeed, it was good to reconnect with friends and I feel a bit better shedding a little of the hermit-like layer I had grown.

Half of 2020 is gone and the whole world is trying to figure out what to do in the remaining months.

Governments need to get consumer spending back up again and they are trying to see whether they will permit travel among bubbles of safe countries.

Indeed, travelling was something I had planned to do in retirement. I am so thankful I went to Fukuoka as it may be the last time I can travel so easily. I am also grateful for the wonderful experience my friends and I had in that lovely, friendly city.

After Fukuoka, I was looking forward to visiting Beijing for the 600th anniversary of the Forbidden City, checking out Taiwan and doing my annual pilgrimage to South Korea.

All that got nixed and I have no idea when it will be safe to board a plane again. Do I dare book flights and accommodations for next year then? But what if there is a new wave of infections and it again triggers restrictions, quarantines and bans?

As I wait it out, my current priority is to figure out the best option for a regular supply of face masks.

The used disposal ones have become a growing waste collected in a big plastic bag. I have bought washable cloth masks for the family but they still need disposable filter inserts and the good ones dont come cheap either.

I find it quite ironic that back in September, I had predicted that the face mask would become the new essential accessory. But that was for protection against the increasingly polluted air year-round and not just during the haze season.

I had cautioned that the three-ply surgical masks were not effective against air pollutants as they were meant to trap microbes and bodily fluids. Who would have guessed those same masks are now universally worn and have indeed become essential accessories that we cant leave home without.

But do we add another layer to filter out microscopic pollutants should the haze season strike again later in the year?

I also pack anti-bacterial wipes and a hand sanitiser in my bag because I dont quite trust the sanitiser provided at malls and retail outlets as some of it feels very diluted.

That is my new normal. So is sticking out my forehead for security guards to take my temperature.

It can be rather tiresome that at every shop, we have to scan the QR code to register on the MySejahtera tracking app and write down our name, contact number and temperature. Still, what needs to be done, has to be done for as long as it is needed, even though I wonder if all it does is to give us a false sense of security.

As we emerge from the MCO, I am thankful none of my friends and no one in my family in Malaysia, Singapore and Sydney fell ill from the coronavirus and may we continue to stay infection-free.

My month, June, is over. So did everyone file their income tax forms before the deadline? I did and I hope its the last one I ever do.

In all my long years as a responsible taxpayer who paid all my dues promptly without protest, not once did I get a personal note from the Inland Revenue Board (LHDN). So funnily enough, a year after my retirement, I get my first ever e-birthday card from the board with the jolly message: Semoga panjang umur, bertambah rezeki dan dapat terus menyumbang untuk pembangunan negara.

Okay, LHDN, thanks for wishing me a long life but sorry to say, your hope that this retiree can increase her income and continue to contribute to national development comes too late. Go tax someone else.

The views expressed here are entirely the writers own.

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The zombie days are over - The Star Online

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero