Colin Charles Agenda

These days of crashing at about half past two and being up around nine seem to be quite normal. But today was a tad earlier since I had a call to get on. German-styled breakfast again. Lunch was a highlight — ordered some Chinese food (butter prawns, squid, lala soup, and glass noodles). It was extremely scrumptious, but the kicker is the restaurant called us to inform they were open for deliveries. We last ate there approximately six months ago. Clearly, restaurants are doing “inside sales” now and are finding a hard time (1.5 months so far to close right?). Had to pay cash for this transaction. Did an Ishaq workout and felt hungry after, so an omelette was on the plate.

The Star has gone behind a paywall. I really don’t know how I feel about paying RM9.90 a month. I do read the business news, but it is still money that goes to a MCA controlled entity… (public listed, 27 sen, thankful I didn’t buy in at 50 sen; EPF ceased being a substantial shareholder, they’re doing a share buy back now). Besides, it is not that I don’t pay for media… I’m probably in the top 1% of readers out there buying tonnes of media.

Malaysia’s Covid-19 situation gave us 170 new cases, total infections now 4,987, 5 deaths (total: 82), 202 discharged (total: 2,478). Singapore has had a massive spike, with 334 new cases, numbers standing at 3,252, and from a data visualisation standpoint, I think CNA gets it correct.

It seems that the UK has decided an extension to the lockdown makes sense, so they get 3 more weeks. The problem is, “The Treasury warns of “systemic failures” if the economy is not brought out of its coma by mid-summer. “There’s a point where there just isn’t anything to come back to,” one well-placed source said.” And if this goes on longer, the UK economy could shrink by 35% with 2m job losses, warns OBR (and if you want some nice graphs, The Times satisfies). This is just looking ugly. Even the IMF says so, Coronavirus: global economic downturn in 2020 likely to be worst since Great Depression, IMF says (naturally, I expect one to read beyond the headline, and unpack the statistics).

Back to Malaysia. It seems there’s yet another contact tracing app being developed, this time by Khairy and MOSTI. I am not entirely convinced, but will want to analyse this further, likely tomorrow if I have a bit more time. So far the rest of the world seems to be thinking about deaths in nursing homes (old folks homes to some), but in Malaysia we don’t hear much about this at all, which I consider weird.

There’s an excuse to lump all this up… Day 24 was Friday and I worked till the wee hours of Saturday morning. I spent the weekend not doing anything that involved a computer (this is what, the 2nd week running), and today is Day 27, Monday.

Friday, Day 24: Considering I slept at nearly 4am, the getting up at 11am+ was good. Breakfast, work, a very fun workout session with Lye that got me burning a tonne, dinner (vegetarian claypot tofu, it is apparently a good thing to eat on Good Friday), and more work. As I write this, I’m still waiting for a 1.30am call…

Saturday, Day 25: Slept late again, so up late too. Varied breakfast (scrambled eggs) and then for dinner, just did sardine salad, with mangoes as a dessert. Did a workout with Theresa (barre, interesting). Mostly finished watching Better Call Saul on Netflix.

Sunday, Day 26: Despite little sleep, I was up for Ping’s workout. The highlight of all workouts, it is booty popping. Easter Sunday. Got an Easter miracle — weighed in at 69.9kg, which is just under the 70kg goal I set for end-April, to be under-70 before my birthday in May. Lunch was briyani rice. I also did a second workout with Zoraya, 1,000 moves HIIT, because why not, right? Spent time catching up on Ballers on HBO (now I’ve finished that too).

Today, Day 27. I switched up breakfast, what I’d normally have in Germany — bread roll, butter, cheese, and a full boiled egg. It was amazing. Lunch was leftovers from yesterday, and for tea/early dinner I had 2 crêpes (so good!). Did a workout with Nick today, also much fun. Overall, there has been much to do, work-wise. 45 days of sitting in KL in a stretch, not seeing a plane nor hotel. It is clearly… getting to me.

Malaysia got another 2-week extension to the MCO on Friday. This means we will be home for 42 days, and it now ends April 28. The claim is the Health Ministry wants to monitor 3 cycles (14 days each) of the virus. Cases are still going up (as expected). Before the MCO, R0 was 3.55, by April 14 (tomorrow) it should be 0.9, and lets just hope this ends when they claim it should (source).

There was a bit of a fiasco that allowed barbers to open on Friday, now rescinded today. Irony is the barbers themselves did not want to open. But we had a medical doctor (and MP) suggest that blood pressure could be lowered by getting a haircut. Turns out he didn’t read the complete paper. And he is a medical doctor. Shocking.

Stats wise, total cases are 4,817, 2,276 recoveries, and we’re at a total of 77 deaths. Seems there’s a new Bali cluster in Kuantan!

Boris Johnson not only left the ICU, but also hospital, and is on the mend. Macron (French premier) wants the Schengen area to close borders until September. Australia thinks they should only reopen in 2021. What is wrong with all these people?

Usual breakfast, no lunch, but a roasted chicken for dinner, and rum & raisin ice cream for dessert. Did a workout before dinner, ballet core, not exactly my cup of tea and I didn’t get the burn I expected.

Malaysia’s Covid-19 situation suggests we might get an extended MCO to Phase 3? Urgh. Worse is they may be using bad data to suggest it is a good idea, i.e. a Telegram group that gets low engagement. Doctors groups seem to think it is best to extend till after Hari Raya… But you can’t mollycoddle the masses this way, can you? Education is clearly more important than telling people to sit at home.

109 new, total infections 4,228, deaths are now 67, and 121 patients recovered (1,608 total). Some dire stats from the Statistics Malaysia: MCO: Almost 50% of self-employed Malaysians out of work, survey finds and Many Malaysians say not financially prepared for an extended MCO – survey.

Another day of shelter in place, and not leaving the house. Besides the usual breakfast, it was a steak dinner and no lunch. Ping did an excellent workout as she always does, and I spent the rest of the day doing work.

Malaysia’s Covid-19 situation seems to be getting a little dire… additional roads are being closed in Petaling Jaya. The two places that they put under enhanced Movement Control Orders? About 16 people live in an apartment; this is not how we should be treating our foreign workers. What disappointed me greatly though is that people are happily breaking the MCO: one has caused a cluster in Rembau, one has also passed away while going through two states. This is ridiculous, people are just not listening.

Finally, Malaysia will distributed 4 masks per household and are breaking away a little bit from WHO guidelines; I sincerely hope they are reusable masks, though from the video it doesn’t seem like it might be. Singapore has had no issue recently giving away reusable masks. Why hasn’t Malaysia followed suit with the 500ml hand sanitizer?

We’re at 4,119 cases, 156 new cases, death toll at 65, and recoveries at 166. Nearly the whole of the Klang Valley is a “red zone”, but the reality is once you pass 41 cases you become a red zone. No one seems to wonder how you go back to being an orange or green zone. It is like the counter never resets. Where is the logic in this? Why are our journalists not asking the pertinent questions? I am at least glad today, reading Malaysiakini, they have started calling this a “partial lockdown”.

Up reasonably early, ate a usual breakfast, had a sloppy joe for lunch and a burger for dinner. Did Aiman Ox’s workout today. And worked most of the day.

Malaysia’s Covid-19 situation stands at 3,963 cases, 63 dead, 1,321 discharged, with 170 new cases today. It is important to note that we will get more new cases, because testing increases. So people thinking the MCO should get extended because the case load does not reduce, should not just be looking at new cases — more tests, remember? We should be looking at ventilators, ICU beds, etc. And it maybe is shocking that we aren’t commandering the private healthcare institutions as a backup plan (maybe we are, they just aren’t talking about it). Malaysia also got 2 more “apartment” buildings locked down under the enhanced MCO.

Boris Johnson has gone to the ICU. This is not quite what I expected, but I am thinking the recovery he makes, the story he can tell, would be a good thing. The fact that places like Hong Kong don’t even want transit traffic makes me miss Cathay Pacific. They have some seriously good data though: Latest Situation of Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) in Hong Kong.

Hello from Day 20. How can I quickly wrap up Day 19? Breakfast was puttu, followed by a burger in the late afternoon. I did a Ping workout in the morning. I avoided my computer again being a Sunday and I knew that today was going to be a long day. I mostly read, catching up on the iPad.

It has been a long day, I’ve been working so much I didn’t even get a workout in. I barely scraped 199 days of my Move goal on the Apple Watch. Breakfast was a roti telur, and the usual two half boiled eggs… which sustained me till the evening when I had a bowl of spaghetti bolognese.

Covid-19 wise Malaysia is at 3,793 cases, 62 deaths (only one today), a lot more recoveries, but shockingly still 131 cases today. This means during Phase 2 of the MCO, people were still contracting the virus. There are a handful of other clusters identified now as well.

Malaysia announced an SME stimulus. Weak compared to Singapore, but it is better than nothing, I guess. Singapore announces Changi Terminal 2 is going to close for 18 months! I have fond memories of this terminal… and Terminal 4 is running a skeleton crew. (source) Boris Johnson is sicker than expected and is heading to the hospital. Stocks everywhere seem to be doing better…