Life Goes On
I have since returned to base for a week. Su joined me two days later, by which time Vail Resorts had declared that the resorts operations in Whistler would be closed for eight days initially; and by now, the entire skiing season. There are no more skiing this year for now. Su spent the rest of the week cancelling all other flights to Vancouver and related hotel bookings. She said she learnt a lot in the process. In the meantime, the Post Office has returned the mail they kept for us while we were away, which included the long awaited tax bills, to be settled quite soon.
The first thing I learnt after my return was that I was advised not to visit the Ricci Hall Chapel in the next fortnight, as part of the recommended social distancing programme. How can one refuse when they are so sincere? The news worldwide have since been all about the virus and related statistics, and the measures taken by various countries. We soon find that Hong Kong has effectively shut herself off from the outside world, as are many other countries in the rest of the world. In the fraternities with which I have been close, for example, Philippines has introduced the “enforced community quarantine” which would be enforced until 12 April 2020 2ith the entire Luzon Island in virtual lockdown, while in Malaysia. The “movement control order” or MCO started on 18 March 2020 for two weeks as the Malaysian Registrar of Societies has banned meetings and gatherings of registered societies until 30 June 2020. Meanwhile, Trump the comedian has continued his clownish acts, calculated to upset China as much as he possibly could, totally without regard to international relationship or protocols, and acting so childishly and totally unbecoming of a statesman.
The next thing we all found out was that all arrivals to Hong Kong from 19 March except from China, Macau and Taiwan are subject to 14 days self-quarantine and under CHP surveillance. Initially, I thought this new policy won’t affect us two, because we both had returned before the deadline. However, somehow many other institutions in Hong Kong have latched onto this “14 days” angle and one after another, all the clubs, social or sports, to which I belong, have issued guidelines to ban anyone going into club premises who has been out of Hong Kong in the past 14 days. I have nowhere to go, except to stay home until the end of the month, or almost, and for Su, certainly all the rest of March. We live in interesting times indeed. Luckily, we can still go shopping for food and vegetables.
Lest I might have given a wrong signal, Su and I are taking the matter very seriously and are doing our best to keep our immunities up and stay healthy, avoiding going out and meeting people. I am sorry to see politicians stilling kicking up unnecessary fuss and kerfuffle, wasting everybody’s time and valuable community resources, but what can anyone expect from these amateurish and brainless individuals.
With more free time on my hands though, I have yet to see it fit to open the many letters lying around and about. Again, it is a question of priority or maybe more properly, inertia, which is why we have always accepted as fact that the busiest people would get more work done over time. Talking of priorities, I have found cat nap a top priority. A cat nap can last five or ten minutes, but sometimes a few hours, even longer than a regular sleep. The optimum duration for me appears to be 45 to 90 minutes, and the longer the better of course. Once again, it reminds me of my late mentor Rev. Fr. Alfred Deignan who told us very seriously that afternoon sleeps were extremely important. I have since tried to follow his advice, but very often, one can’t find the environment to put it to practice. In Whistler, for example, we would sleep when we feel like it, normally after a skiing session or after a good meal, or whenever we feel tired, which happens increasingly more frequent, particularly in the last trip.
But seriously, I would use next week to continue with my memoire project. I have actually given the matter some serious thoughts while in Whistler. I would go through my blogs and do some editing and redacting and I am positive that it would invariably result in producing some handy stuffs. I surprised myself reading my own past blogs, for I could not remember how or the circumstances in which I had written them. I also located some hard copies of letters I had written to my daughter when she first began her stay in Irvine. They were something very precious, but I doubt I would publish them without her consent. It brings my thoughts to the little – well not so little actually – storage for which we have been paying to keep stuff that we can’t place in Mei Foo, including stuff of or kept for my children, but which I doubt they would ever claim ownership or be able to find space for or the time to take them over. As I have often told myself, we would cross that bridge when we are there. And until then, life goes on.
