Nature Walk - Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park

Living in a city-state with a very dense population spurred me away from locations where people tend to congregate. I therefore often try my best (not always successful) to avoid crowded places, especially since in the current pandemic it's highly advisable to do so.

Yesterday, I went to make new specs in J8, since I got my bonus. I wanted to, well, treat myself a bit better, especially since my current specs is 5-year-old and it's about time to upgrade anyway. Luckily, my eyesight was fine. It didn't deteriorate further, although with my busy work and constant looking at screens whole day long, I definitely thought it had regressed.

After that I went to Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park. I often go there, but it's always at night when I jog. So I chose to go during the day so that I can soak my legs in the water.

Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park is a naturalised park. That being said, it was a concrete canal that was demolished to artificially recreate a biotic system. It is marvellously beautiful, wildlife does thrive well. Plants there are awesome. Fish and tortoise can be seen in the pristine water which looks clean enough to drink (but it is untreated, so don't). The picture above was taken on a bridge that led to a 24-hour McDonald's in the park.

Look at the turtle and the fish. See how clean the water is? It's beautiful! 

There are stones where people can walk on to cross the river. It's not slippery, and it appeared to be designed such that water is diverted besides it instead of over it. So it's always safe to use that. Plus, I'm a Malaysian. I'm used to unprotected, natural pathways that are very much sneakier to traverse.

The picture above was taken on the river.

I like Bishan-Ang Mo Kio park. I love the waterway. Not the park itself - okay I like to jog there, but there's nothing interesting about the park except the river. A naturalised river.

US Congress Certification

 I woke up today to the horror of learning a staged insurrection occurred in the United States while I was sleeping. Trump is insane and he's capable of mobilising mass protests but breaking laws to invade the Capitol Building for the first time in two centuries is a level I wasn't anticipating. 

The US Senate and House were meant to convene and certify Joe Biden's victory, and I guess Trump just got desperate.

The consequence? The count was suspended but resumed hours later. A thorough investigation would be launched to determine how it transpired, given that it should be one of the most secured buildings in the world. Facebook and Twitter both suspended Trump's accounts, with Facebook entirely blocking it for 24 hours which is a harshly different approach it undertook earlier. 

In the end, the counting pushed through. Mike Pence did not bend for Trump, and neither did Mitch McConnell. Objections were raised for Arizona and Pennsylvania but eventually, both were rejected roundly by both the House and the Senate. The landslide majority by the Republican-controlled Senate was rather eye-opening for me - I expected much stronger resistance but it turned out the Senate shot it down very much faster than the House.

The number of Republicans supporting Trump is disgusting, despicable and deeply disconcerting. Trump is a criminal and ought to be chained behind bars with his mouth shut.

I spent one whole working morning listening to live video of the counting (since I was working) all the way until 3.44pm when they concluded and officially announced Biden as the 46th President come 20th January. Today has been breathtaking for me, to watch democracy survives in face of siege.

Trump should be ashamed, but cult leaders rarely do, don't they?

Also, the Dems won both Georgia seats, meaning the Senate is split 50-50, and Kamela Harris is allowed to be the tie-breaker, which means the Democrats controls the Senate.

In four years, the Republicans lost the House, the Senate, and the White House. Can't say I sympathise Trump's suckers. They deserve it. I just hoped they lost even more and got more brutalised. 

BLACKPINK - 'Ice Cream (with Selena Gomez)' M/V

Okay, admittedly, this isn't the kind of song I often listen to.

I'm not a K-pop fan. Still ain't one, though I won't say I won't become one in the future. Now it just doesn't appeal to me.

The lyrics are complete garbage with no actual meanings other than sentences that kids seem to cook up while learning a new language.

But, I admit the song is pretty catching.

Okay, rather enjoyable. 

Next.

2021, New Hope?

It's the 1st of January, year 2021. 

It's amazing how time flies, doesn't it? Last year, this time, we were all so looking forward to the year we grew up looking forward to: the year 2020. The year of Wawasan 2020 which we learnt when we were in school. The year we visualised to be everything like science fiction. How funny it has turned out to be.

End of year 2019, some day nearing the end of December, I was having breakfast at Marsiling market before doing a visual inspection. It was that day, in CNA, that I first read a news report about some mysterious pneumonia that had emerged in Wuhan. I didn't really bother about it at that point because new viruses kept emerging, and the last full-blown virus epidemic didn't turn out to be as scary as it was first reported. Okay, to be fair, Zika was horrific for pregnant ladies, but it otherwise was fine. I lived through H1N1. A(H1N1) was also treated with extreme fear, reported to be a fusion of three flu viruses and people were scared shit. Few years down the road, it was reported H1N1 infected about 25-50% of the world's population and people have since stopped giving so much care about it. I thought it would be the same for whatever new virus that was being investigated. To be fair, I also thought it might just be some existing virus which they might not be able to identify yet. It probably wouldn't be nothing, or so I thought.

Then, it was reported it was a brand new virus with seemingly crippling effects. It hadn't reached Malaysia or Singapore's shores, so during CNY, travelling back to home was still expected. And so I did. Only when we reached the Tuas custom, we learnt that Singapore had since recorded the very first case on its soil.

CNY went through relatively quietly. Then I travelled back to Singapore.

One month down the road, in March, apparently, the situation in Malaysia spiralled out of control. Malaysia imposed a lockdown. Singapore followed suit when the cases in the dormitories balloooned. 

And now, the first day of 2021, still no end in sight. The virus is still spreading. We all thought it would have ended end of 2020, but as it turns out we're still so far from it.

Well, news about vaccines have emerged and vaccines have begun being distributed. It's a silver lining, but the road to recovery seems uncomfortably long.

I crave for the pre-covid normality. What we have now is survival. It couldn't last. Fatigue has set in for many people, and this cannot continue anymore. The people are getting tired.

So, here's to 2021, hoping that covid-19 would cease to become relevant.

Happy New Year everyone. May 2021 be a better year than 2020.

End of Year 2020

 So, 2020 is coming to an end. I know, the year Wawasan 2020 was all about. The hype around it - we basically envisaged it as a modern, high-tech, incredibly advanced Malaysia with flying cars, skyscrapers and those dorms you see in science fictions. Quite funny, isn't it, that our country has headed in an entirely wrong direction. We thought we saw a glimmer of hope when BN was ousted in 2018, but then PH collapsed and our country's political landscape got altered altogether and has gone down into the unknown. All political coalitions in Malaysia are deeply fractured - the Malays are very divided. 

Anyway, let's see what's next - oh, Covid-19 struck. It got full-blown in March, and successive lockdowns began worldwide. I went back to Penang for CNY, and came back to Singapore with trepidations, and a month down the road we entered Circuit Breaker (CB), a fanciful term invented by the minister who is an electrical engineer to mean 'lockdown' without, however sweetly, trying to create chaos and panic. Try as he had, panic did ensue. Instant noodles were gold and snatched clean. Till today I've no freaking idea why the hell people stock toilet papers. All canned food were swept clean as well, but this is rather understandable. Snacks were taken. The absurd part was the fight for sanitisers. Some people got so desperate they even hoard alcohol swabs meant for injections and some diabetic patients couldn't get their insulin shots because they didn't have the swab - selfish bunch of people. During a crisis it's clear, the people's priority has always been self-survival. Collective action my ass. Look at the people trying to rip people's off by selling masks at a cut-throat price. Ya, masks were ridiculously expensive, could cost ten times what it cost now.

Okay, I'll probably wrap this year up on Thursday. Well, I've got to work tomorrow, and I'm working half day on Thursday, and on Friday we will be welcoming a next year. For the better or worse, we don't know, but what's life without some suspense ei?

Here's a picture of the Marina Bay Sands, taken on Christmas night, which was incredibly cheerful and ceremonious in Singapore. Normality has pretty much returned and life is inching back to pre-covid level, although some scars and alterations may have become permanent. Still, life goes on.

Avicii - The Days (Lyric Video)

There really aren't a lot of artist's songs I regularly listen to.

Avicii is one of the two I follow, the other being Lady Gaga.

Avicii's suicide still hit hard. I really hope you rest well.

This song punches me hard. But I love it. You have no idea how many people you've changed.

Thanks Avicii. Here's to you, to show your fans never forget.

Recent Events

 Well, hello.

Recently, my life has been a little monotonous, nothing exciting has happened much.

A show which is greatly influential to me has ended. Supernatural has concluded its series after a long 15 years. I do feel kinda hollow as a result but I've got to admit, this show has come to its timely end. I would have loved to see more of Jack though. The introduction of a son to the series really changes its entire recipe.

Work has been fun, but recently for me it has got a bit slow. I've cleared most of my outstanding work, currently awaiting for some missing information, so, to be honest, I don't have much going on right now.

Inspections at hospitals prove to be a tedious task, mostly because the rooms to be inspected are often occupied and because they are emergency wards, there just isn't any telling when are they discharged or when new patients will be admitted so it proves an uphill task to gain access despite needing only 10 minutes max. 

Otherwise, I've visited covid-19 wards, and to be honest it doesn't look very scary.

It has been rainy these few days, shifting from late mornings to late evenings, which is disruptive of all my outdoor plans. It's now year-end, and with covid-19 still raging, it means travelling outside the country is not possible, which means I couldn't get home. Consequently, I still have a pile of annual leaves to clear. But with rainy days, there isn't much I can do with my leaves.

Well, I'm monitoring my food intake, because I'm leading a much more sedentary lifestyle now and gaining weight becomes so much easier than I would have imagined. Sometimes, I sit through the time between my lunch and dinner with nary a movement. It's disturbing for me - sometimes I dream about quitting and getting a more active job. Office work could be boring sometimes and, obviously, unhealthy.

Well, that's all I guess. Nothing much has happened, due to covid-19. Covid-19 has temporarily halted many events and it sucks, but I guess in life we need a pause sometimes.