Lockdown Tales

Two days ago, we found out from our friend who runs a Chinese restaurant at our hood that two of her shop neighbors had died of Covid.  This happened at the plaza that recently had a cluster -- the same place that Maria stays. The same place where the supermarket that I go to is.   We are also friends with the two deceased. One is an owner of a photo shop and another, an owner of a Chinese medicine hall. We had been patronizing them for decades. A few shops away, something unfortunate happened to the owner too (who is also our friend), albeit not Covid. He suffered a stroke and is now hospitalized.   Although our friend's restaurant had to be closed for 2 weeks twice in a span of 1.5 months due to confirmed Covid cases from her workers and shop neighbors, thankfully our friend and her family members who help out at the restaurant were spared. They had to fork out thousands of Ringgit on Covid swab test for the entire crew. 

I couldn't sleep after I learned of the news. It was only three weeks ago that I saw one of the deceased when I went to the plaza to buy lunch and he's now gone forever.  Covid could infect anyone, even the fully vaxxed ones.

Life is very fragile. Tragedies, illnesses, death and other unexpected bumps in the road remind us of that fact. Unfortunately, a long life is not guaranteed. Some of us will get to live to be one hundred while others will live a fraction of that time.  

This reminds me once again that I should live in the present moment and take it one day at a time. With so much uncertainties over the future because of this pandemic, we can no longer plan ahead anymore.  I am trying hard to enjoy my lockdown days, though it's not easy. 

To beat the lockdown blues, I do quite a bit of online shopping.  I really enjoy waiting for my parcels to be delivered. That's the only thing that I can look forward to now.

Last weekend I ordered something that I've long wanted to try - lemang and beef rendang from a Malay seller and paid a frigging RM15 for delivery!

The lemang came encased in a bamboo.

The seller sent me a You Tube tutorial on how to remove the lemang from the bamboo. Cass tried it with a pestle by knocking the bamboo with it and then squeezed the lemang out.

The beef rendang melts in the mouth and very delish. But I had unquenchable thirst after that!  I read the ingredients and saw the word 'flavor enhancer'.  I thought I was going to reorder from this seller  but after the terrible unquenchable thirst episode throughout the day, no thanks 😁
Nonetheless, we all enjoyed the lemang and rendang.