Have WiFi, will stay home

SO are you being good and staying home? I’m pleased to say my family and I have been very obedient and are taking the movement control order (MCO) very seriously.

Two weeks ago, I wrote on why the MCO must be extended and how we must get used to this so-called “new normal” of staying in and working from home and if we do venture out, to practise social distancing. I quoted experts on why just two weeks was not enough to break the chain of infection.

And as expected, our government extended the MCO by a fortnight but I think we can expect another two-week extension, even though Health Ministry director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said a decision will only be made on Friday after reviewing the collected data.

While the authorities have been working hard to contain the spread, the data as of Monday, shows we have 3,793 positive cases, with 62 deaths and new daily infections that of late have been well above 100.

Clearly, we have yet to flatten the curve and if we don’t remain resolute, as warned by the experts, “transmission will quickly rebound if interventions are relaxed”.

So I am prepared for a longer period of MCO, much as I dread it.

Yet, I also think many of us are able to cope, thanks to the technology that we have, the heroes being the Internet and social media.

With WhatsApp, I can still “meet” my family and friends. I can do group video calls with my sisters in Sydney and Singapore and find out how they are coping and gossip about the latest K-dramas with my three best friends from the comfort and safety of our homes.

As for the Internet, it has become such an important link to the outside world that any hiccup or loss of connection is a major disaster and that happened to us about 10 days ago.

Our WiFi connection suddenly stopped and our computers went offline. Screams of horror reverberated through the house. Frantic calls to our telco got us nowhere and our handyman who had fixed the cable refused to come, understandably.

We resorted to mobile hotspotting but it was not the most ideal long-term solution.

After some intense checking by my son Nick – rarely have I seen him so animated and proactive in fixing a house problem – he figured out it was the ethernet cable that had gone kaput; maybe it got bitten by a rat or musang that got in under the roof.

The only way to fix it was to run a new cable ourselves. Nick works for a shopping mall and as luck would have it, the day he was on duty, he ran into a tenant who sells such cables and stuff, and who had come in for a stock check.

Nick came home with a blue 40m cable and we strung it from the modem in the living room across to the dining room by taping it to wall cornices, cupboards, curtain rails, looping it around the banister, over and then under my door to the router in the master bedroom.

It looks quite unsightly but it worked and we got our WiFi back which we now protect like Gollum protects his Precious.

Without Internet access, we won’t be able to work from home, get the latest news and medical information, the entertainment, the video games, the exercise workouts, the recipes and make the online purchases we need to stay safe and sane.

That’s why every time it rains we unplug our Unifi modem, along with other devices like our PCs and microwave oven.

A previous huge lightning storm fried the modem, along with the auto gate and house alarm. That was just days before MCO, so we could get a Telekom Malaysia technician to replace it. We were also able to get our gate and alarm fixed, just in time.

I live in fear of other devices and household machines breaking down, like the washing machine and in particular, the air-conditioners.

They are actually due for servicing and since that’s out, we did the next best thing: vacuum and wash all the internal filters ourselves and try to preserve the refrigerant by judicious use.

Other mods and cons that we took for granted but have also become precious are our water and electricity supplies.

Just as the MCO was to start, Air Selangor announced there would be a major water cut affecting many parts of Selangor and KL after it detected odour pollution.

Luckily, it lasted less than a day in my area. Can you imagine how nasty and unhygienic it would have been if it had been longer? That would have put paid to the need to wash our hands often and thoroughly.

Similarly, if there is a major power outage, we wouldn’t be able to run to a shopping mall or hotel to escape the heat and have dinner. Gosh, just the thought is enough to give me the chills.

My gardener is also staying home, my lawn and hedges look really untidy and overgrown. I am unkempt as well with overgrown and greying hair but I am quite fine with it.

I am grateful for what I have and as I have said before, the previous eight months of retirement had unwittingly prepared me for a Covid-19 imposed quiet life.

I go out only when necessary and that is mainly to buy groceries and medicines because I know that every time I step out even with my mask and sanitisers, I risk getting infected and bringing home Covid-19.

I am determined to keep it out of my home and my family because I have learned how dangerous it can be, especially to my 86-year-old mother.

I believe most Malaysians feel the same, which is evident in the vast majority I see sticking to safe distancing and wearing masks. It also shows that ordinary folk can be better informed and have more common sense than some Western experts.

Our Health Ministry shouldn’t wait for the CDC and WHO to decide if masks are important protection barriers.

All they have to do is listen to South Korea’s leading infectious disease expert, Professor Kim Woo-joo, who explains clearly how the virus spreads (https://youtu.be/gAk7aX5hksU) and why face masks are important.

As for anyone who still thinks he can fool around and take it lightly, listen to British expert Dr David Hepburn, who graphically describes how this vicious virus kills (https://youtu.be/ejlbCmRJMW4).

If that doesn’t scare you, then you are a bigger idiot than Donald Trump.

The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own.