CB things
Now that Singapore is finally moving into phase 2 after months of circuit breaker – cb for short (7 April – 19 June), there are so much excitement to look forward to wheeeee! But then again, this period of circuit breaker has really been an unprecedented one for Singapore. A similar pandemic crisis would be in 2003 with SARS when I was around four… hardly old enough to remember anything :/ So in light of our current state of circuit breaker before we can finally a semblance of the life of before covid-19, let me digitally immortalised my memories of what some just-cb-things I’ve experienced in the past two months :’)
1. No more awkward ‘da-bao, please’
One of the most significant parts of our cb life is that there is no more dining in F&B establishments T.T Pretty depressing, but totally understandable. This makes for all the food that are purchased to be ‘da-bao’, which means to take away, by default. Having been saying ‘da-bao’ to indicate that not eating in for my entire existence, signifies the epitome of awkwardness when I say ‘da-bao, please’ by habit during the cb period when it’s already the default by law /facepalm/ Hey but on the bright side, it’s not only patron who do this silly habit, but also the food vendors as well. I’ve had more than a few hawker aunties and uncles asking me whether I want to ‘da-bao’ hehe. Now that phase 2 is kicking in, asking to take-away your meal is perfectly understandable so – goodbye awkward ‘da-bao, please’!
2. BUBBLE WRAP chaos; online shopping!
With only the essential services and F&B stores open, literally all our other products can only be bought online. Think all those short trips to the bookstore just to replace a pen, makeup/skincare products from a particular non-drugstore brands, electronics, clothing, etc. I have seriously taken all these for granted :( Fortunately for the internet now more than ever, we managed to get most of the stuff online yey! There was even a week where these parcels would just come at least once every day. And though we ordered the products ourselves, there’ll still be that element of excitement to check if the parcel is yours or just for some other family member oof. Pretty lame but those were some of the most exciting moments of cb :’) Now I truly understand why dogs get so excited when the mail man comes along hehe And sincerely apologies to the environment but those bubble wraps to secure the parcels really make my day – I’m literally addicted to popping them mindlessly while watching my drama heh
3. Get to know your family even better~
Since my family doesn’t really do grocery shopping as a household – we would grab our own supermarket stuff along the way home from school or work usually, this cb period has really allowed me to understand my family’s preferences a lot better. Not only in terms of this, but also having to get food deliveries together to save delivery costs really pushed us to our limits. This is especially since we are all so varied T.T Ultimately, we will compromise to one another and take turns choosing the restaurants for meals! The fact that we have so many meals together during cb period helps since we can’t go out on weekends to meet other people anyway.
5. Overgrown plants in a ‘post-apocalyptic’ neighbourhood
This is pretty much overlooked by most but in a garden city like Singapore where unkempt plants that have been left growing wildly for two months is practically unheard of until cb. Think of random tall grasses, wild dandelions and even mushrooms along the roadside curb! Also, in a city with SUCH high population density, it was quite a shocking sight how public spaces, usually filled with people, are entirely deserted. I could walk 5 mins to my nearest supermarket without meeting anyone at all… :o Pretty much like a ‘post-apocalyptic’ scene right out of a film.
6. Digitalised socialising as the new norm
The irony is that though most if not all of your family members are stuck at home with you, it gets pretty lonely because you’re not keeping up with your friends :( But the cb days has truly transformed the conventional way of socialising as we knew before. Taking the term digitalised socialising to a whole new level :’) Truly the thing of current times is zoom sessions, Netflix parties, skribbli.o, covidpoly (a covid adaption of monopoly deal), animal crossing and sooo much more!
7. New skills, new me??
Honestly this cb period was either a boon or a bane depending on each person. I mean, for the more privileged ones, this break is a long-awaited and very rare one to catch up on personal time and rest. But personally, the ‘freedom’ in terms of free time has brought me more stress than otherwise. This was exacerbated because of social media. It was especially toxic mentally because people were just sharing their entire cb life endlessly – baking, learning new instruments, cleaning their rooms, going for online courses, and much more activities. This established an idea of productive rest which may not be so mentally positive for many of us :( The constant need to be doing something ‘productive’ because you have all that free time anyway… But, what if you just wanted to slack around, watch some dramas, take naps all day long? VS other people who are upgrading their skills, widening the skills gap even further while you just… rested? :(
Afterall, each and everyone’s own cb experience is a unique one. Although everyone is suffering from the consequences of the pandemic, the extent of the suffer and struggles may not affect everyone the same. Regardless of how privileged we are, please let us not forget about those fighting the curve on the frontline, the hard effort of the invisible but extremely essential workers and those who are struggling mentally, physically, financially because of the ill consequences of the circuit breaker. :( Also, now that phase 2 has officially started (mostly to save our economy T.T) let us still continue to practise safety measures to keep ourselves, our loved ones and our country a healthy and safe one for everyone!~