I'VE been almost sleepless ever since the Movement Control Order (MCO) was introduced. Everything related to my shut-eye patterns crumbled after my creaky bed gave a warning shot sometime back.
This was when a hairline crack appeared at the side bed frame (my side of the bed, not that of my late wife!) and I knew I had to do two things — get a new bed or lose weight. But, fondness of the marital bed was too great, I procrastinated — metal or wooden bed, big-name brand or just anything from the furniture warehouse?
On the night before the MCO, the bed somewhat gave an ominous sign of what's in store: the central bed base and wooden slats supporting the mattress gave way! With the MCO, there was no way I could get a replacement soon enough. Hesitation paid a heavy price.
So each night, I had to sleep gingerly on the mattress. MCO on the bed as well! A good lesson on decisiveness or the lack of it and Mark Twain's observations of "good decisions come from experience. Experience comes from making bad decisions" is very telling here.
Ever since the MCO set in, one of the most often asked questions to me was: How are you coping? Many were amused when I said I had been sharpening my marketing and cooking skills!
For a start, I didn't need to make a video call like someone did in a supermarket to ask what's the difference between onions and shallots.
On my shopping trips, I met many well-meaning people advising me that I can cut queue, thanks to my wobbly gait and strands of grey hair; and, service workers also helped me balance my laden trolley when navigating steep gradients. A lot of positiveness still prevails among humanity during these difficult times.
As for my hot-spells in the kitchen, they made me appreciate more the people who toil in close and stuffy confines daily to bring us yummy dishes on restaurant tables without fail. And what I had whipped up to feed me and my son had been fairly decent, nothing close to any Michelin star, but enough to leave me starry-eyed after each meal that I managed to do it!
Being quite aware of another axiom that if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen, I had been faithfully standing in front of a one-burner cooking stove to juggle my stuff. The other burner gave up on me and I was on the verge of getting a new double-burner until the MCO (again!) struck. Again, shilly-shallying was the root cause.
I'll never forget the date of March 18 when the MCO took effect as I had been geared up for an important task: transferring the ashes of my parents housed in two old semi-outdoor columbaria to an air-conditioned indoor columbarium that at present houses those of my late wife's.
The ceremony was to have taken place at 9am, but the priests said no go — the law is the law — the prime minister said no religious events. They were right as they adhered to the dictum of "it takes less time to do things right than to explain why you did it wrong".
Which is why I don't understand that 14,000 people or more had flouted the MCO's provisions. At RM1,000 per summons, the government stands to gain some RM14 million! It's not so much the money that's important, but more so on curbing the spread of the deadly Covid-19 virus.
These unseen enemies are no respecter of people as they had already skirmished Prince Charles and Boris Johnson in
the United Kingdom and caused the untimely demise of many prominent people the world over!
Until we've slayed these tiny but lethal beasts, we better stay home and out of harm's way, no matter how stifling it can be. It's as simple as that and MCO doesn't mean "must come out"!
The writer is a former chief executive officer and editor-in-chief of Bernama