MCO Lockdown diary: 9 things to do

24 April 2020 - Given to say that we started the lockdown since 18 MArch 2020, there was definitely a chaotic and everyone was freak out when there was an outbreak happening due to mass gathering.

Many people shout out their frustration, thoughts, and so many uncertainties ahead us.

While everyone worried of extended lockdown, we should always stay positive and health is priority and not the money.

I am sure business owners have days where you made profit backthen. Just need to hang on tight, tighten your belt, and be smart on the current savings.

On the note for employment, companies are trying their best to negotiate and settle their staff on retaining the staff, by reducing salary, deduct annual leaves, and many more. If unemployment increases, we still try to stay positive. For now, HEALTH and staying alive without sickness are the most important thing.

So I was shocked when the Day 1 MCO lockdown, all the uncles aunties still take away their food, but sitting in the coffeeshop, refusing to leave and chatting as usual! #facepalm...Omg, do you know what is lockdown?

Then, came to the excuse of jogging is not alright? When you know coronavirus might transmitted through air, or even some infected joggers might touch something outdoor, and you might just bring the virus back home?

some also act like it is a holiday, by jogging around, grocery shopping with couples, finding excuses trying to fly back to hometown...

#facepalm.

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I would say thank you to all the real unsung heroes and frontliners of Malaysia who spend restless days to take care of our country.

In my belief, Malaysia has been doing it so professionally, in comparison with others country, which some of them still have doubt on strict rules.

So what's catching up in the Malaysia? Definitely the hype of online shopping for grocery, fresh meats, fruits, vegetables...and the government is still kind enough to allow restaurants to open at the green zone area.

So how have you been doing at home?

For me, the phase 1 2 weeks MCO (18-31 March 2020), the kids are occupied with TV. No guidance or instructions from the school. Hence, we all just chill around.

We adults work in between, exercise, cook and clean.
At first the whole of cooking was chaotic, as we heard of those long queue, no 1 meter social distance...some still going out in couple being lovely lovely... (gosh!)

While there are times we believe if there is a couple coming out, most probably 1 doesnt drive, and the other 1 doesnt know what the partner needs! Probably buy wrong things in between. (It happens in my house!)

So this is the tech we fully utilized on, and this is how we spend quality time at home being as productive as we can:

1. Work at home - Luckily, we still can provide copywriting services through 24/7, whatsapp, zoom video call, to solve any digital content.
   More info: https://mediawritingfocus.wordpress.com/
2. FOOD - chinese Cooking - cook soup, boil some noodle. The simple meals are always 3meals 1 soup. 1 vegetables, 1 meat, 1 egg/ beans. Then followed by the soup. For soup and braised meat, I use Philips pressure cooker. Oh Yeah, there was once I thought to boil a little bit longer like 15 minutes for the soup. So, I switch to VENT. Omg, turn out the whole pot of soup totally evaporated into the leftover soup ingredients! From that day on, I will remind myself not to use the VENT button.
   
   I also buy all those ready made cooking paste, for eg: herbal soup, herbs, dark soy sauce, hot pepper soup. So out of all those ready packs, we love marinate meat with the black pepper sauce (in th (in the morning), and just pan-fry (evening). Totally juicy and delicious. We used pork chop and pork loin, we mix both..and we don't know which part we have tasted, but it was very nice.
3. Italian cooking - beans, vegetables, Spaghetti bolognese almost everyday. I do not know why the kids are not tired of it!
   
     
4. Food takeaway - I started off heading to wet market and also visited the coffeeshops. I miss the big pack of local iced coffee. For Ampang nearby, I got pretty good pork noodles, chee cheong fun, nice coffee.
   
   Food takeaway blog: 
   https://jesonestop.blogspot.com/2020/04/caeley-eatery-cafe-kafe-cahaya-bulan.html
   
   https://jesonestop.blogspot.com/2020/04/sam-kee-joe-wanton-mee-shamelin-perkasa.html
   
   I also ordered a very delicious curry noodle, and they serve you distances off the Grab Food/ FoodPanda. Uncle Chong's signature food: Nasi Lemak fried chicken, Curry noodles, herbal chicken. Their coffee is excellent too. Muslim friendly food: https://jesonestop.blogspot.com/2020/04/uncle-chongs-local-delights-truly.html
   
   for a craving of western food, I definitely choose SAPORE.
   
   
   
   https://jesonestop.blogspot.com/2020/03/sapore-italian-spanish-restaurant.html

https://jesonestop.blogspot.com/2017/10/taste-unique-sapore-italian-spanish.html

1. 
2. I also ordered some food from Grab Food and Foodpanda. To compare both of these food delivery app, GrabFood performs better as their app is excellent. They allow us to contact/ communicate with the rider just in case there is some inquiry.
   
   "I ordered my dinner with Foodpanda, the fast food is 2km away, I waited 2 hours 6-8pm. The app shows 1 more min kitchen is preparing, but the screen just hanged there like for so many days. sms rider, no reply. no direct number for us to reach out to rider. Live chat with foodpanda, the livechat just told me that "I can see your food is being picked up by rider, and should be on the way. at 820pm, the order was cancelled! My kids were so hungry and dissapointed, we just settle them off with some fresh patty burger.
   
   Then we order mcd fast food using grab food the next day. I ordered in the morning, schedule for the lunch time. Rider arrives on time with no issue at all. Although FoodPanda might have many promotions now, it doesnt work cause their system isnt user-friendly at all."
   
   
   
   
3. Tabata class - I do share that I am teaching tabata online, a truly HIIT workout. I will be my very best to guide you through the screen. Do join us if you wanna kill time and some real sweaty workout!
   https://www.facebook.com/metafitsuki/
   
   
4. Phase 2 (1- 14 April 2020) onwards, the kids' school start to use 'Google Classroom' to teach the kids. I would say Google Classroom was pretty handy for a technology based e-learning for the kids. The function of submitting classwork, streaming are pretty good.
   
   
5. ZOOM - So everyone was so in love with Zoom, till there were news of hackers or data being sold in the black internet. Just don't use back the same password that you always use.
   
   They are people also using LARK, Microsoft Team, etc for work, some comes with price. Lark function is a bit too many settings, and many people unfamiliar with the layout, buttons, settings.
   
   Out of all video screen call I have tried (Zoom, Google Hangout, Whatsapp Video call, Fb Messenger Video Call), Zoom is the most stable video supporting 100 participants for the basic plan. The only downside is for free account, they limit up to 30/40 minutes of video call.
   
   Skype is pretty backdated, everyone like Zoom cause you can access by entering password, or just click on the Zoom invitation link. For skype, you still need to firstly add the person.
   
   
6. Movies - I am sure some of you might be end up like a coach potatoes, catching up some netflix, korea oppa drama, etc...For bigger screen, I am using dongle mirascreen, connecting my phone to my LCD TV. Then phone as a remote control, and we rely on movie apps.
   
   The one we always rely on are some simple movie search such as: Free HD movies, Popcorn time apk, newsfast.tv apk etc.

So, for a family person like me with the young kids, there are limited time to watch movies...I am defnitely busy, not bored, as this is how we spend our weekends during normal days, we don't really go out and just stay home.

Just that we rely heavily to face the screen to kill the time.

What about you?