Wednesday, 11 March 2020

As the Covid-19 cases in our country increase by the tens and twenties daily, people's fear of contracting the virus is fueled to the point of being hypochondriac / OCD / paranoia.  I was at BIG Pharmacy yesterday to get some meds for the mil and I saw a long bee line outside the pharmacy. On some days, the queue will be almost 10 shop lots long till the end of the road! Each customer is only allowed to buy a maximum of 5 pieces of face mask a day.



I only wear a face mask whenever I'm at the hospital and it's only in recent weeks that I practise face mask wearing. In the past, I don't even bother to wear face mask whenever I'm in the hospital. I'm a heavy user of hand sanitizer though (only recently). I stash a small bottle of hand sanitizer in my handbag and there's a huge bottle at the entrance of our house. I sanitize my hands before I go out and once back home, I wash my hands with soap and water, pronto.  At the supermarket, I wipe the trolley handle with antibacterial wipes before touching it.

And now to toilet papers! What's it with everyone hoarding TP? Feeling panicky till they get diarrhea? 😂  I think it's more of feeling secured and 'kiasu' since everyone all over the globe is doing it too.

Since some people have been urging me to stockpile on TP, I have been obediently making trips to 99 Speedmart but what do I know?  All the TPs have been snapped up, including the most expensive brands since a few days ago and stock for my regular brand of TP hasn't arrived yet.

Below - scene at 99 Speedmart in the morning:


Only face tissues and serviettes are left on the shelves.

I went to 99 Speedmart again in the afternoon after fetching Sherilyn back from school and I saw lots of new stock, stacked up on the trolleys but I don't see my favorite brand of TP 😞



My hubs will surely shake his head in disbelief if he found out that his wifey has been switched into 'silai' / 'pat por' mode. I squeezed myself between the trolleys and boxes to check all the boxes of new stock but couldn't find my favorite brand of TP! 😆😆  I can't believe that I did such an insane thing too!

I'm going to check out the mart again later. And if there's still no stock for my favorite brand of TP, I'll buy the TP from the supermarket, which is RM3 costlier! Sorry if I made you panicky too. You really don't have to stockpile on TPs. Like I've written earlier, you can always use the bidet, bidet, bidet and wipe with a towel!

Yesterday was another super duper scorching hot day, with flash floods in the evening. I've never liked to be under the hot sun but lately, I'm seeing the sunlight in a new light.  I've been getting out of the shades to walk under the sun to 'rid' viruses from my body. I'm not sure if this helps but since the experts keep commenting that the Coronavirus struggles to survive in hot temperatures, there's no harm exposing myself to the hot morning sun everyday. Besides vitamin D, exposure to sunlight is thought to increase the brain's release of a hormone called serotonin. Serotonin is associated with boosting mood and helping a person feel calm and focused. I think there is indeed some truth to it as I  often feel happy and energized after soaking in the morning sun.




We witnessed the first Supermoon of 2020 on Monday, 9 March 2020 not from the planetarium but from our condo. As the skies have been very clear for the past few nights, the Supermoon was very clearly seen from night through pre-dawn from Monday through Wednesday.


On March 9, Earth experienced the full Worm Moon, the first of two consecutive supermoons of 2020. Compared to an average full Moon, supermoons are 7% larger and 15% brighter.

If you'd missed out on sighting this year's first supermoon, fret not.  The next supermoon, on the night of April 7/8, will be 2020's brightest, ~ 0.5% brighter than this year's full Worm Moon! So remember to mark your calendar and have a stroll outside with your loved ones that night to catch the supermoon!