Colin Charles Agenda

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…

This is again in what happened yesterday. I should have done this yesterday, but I stayed away completely from my computers, with the exception of my iPhone and iPad. I could totally write this in Ulysses, but old habits die hard, this comes from BBEdit which only runs on macOS.

Trump recommends Americans wear masks! (He also made a gaffe about models, though he may think it was a joke.) The WHO kind of agrees, but still says you should reserve medical grade ones for frontliners. This sounds more like a supply chain issue. In London, it was a good day, i.e. there was sunshine, and people there too have decided that it is OK to picnic, gather in groups, etc. So it turns out while I support exercise alone (that UK and Singapore have allowed), I fear Malaysians just can’t hack it.

From a Malaysian standpoint, we have seen the quarantine facilities (14 days for anyone arriving into the country) – they don’t seem so bad. Students got some kind of hostel (thread with photos and videos), others are at hotels nearby the airport. It is now such that April 10 2020 is an important date — because the Health Ministry will decide if the MCO gets extended further. Sincerely, I hope it doesn’t. We had 150 new cases (80 still linked to the tabligh cluster), so our total is now 3,483, and the death toll is now 57, 99 at ICUs, 50 on ventilators, and 88 went home (so recoveries stand at 915).

Exercise was a great routine with Isabel & Marcus. Food was completely at home (steak for a combination of lunch+dinner).

Up early for HIIT by Ishaq. Loved it. Was pretty hard. Measuring the Internet speeds I am getting and I can say it is very flappy — I’m getting between 1/6th of what I’m paying for, to sometimes exactly what I’m paying for (but to be fair, I’m getting mostly 2/3rds of what I’m paying for especially when it comes to international bandwidth). We’re also getting 1GB free data on our mobile plans (so even my iPad has more data), and will I even consume it all before they expire? No.

One meal today was from GrabFood (spicy nasi lemak, with pork rendang), and the other was at home (sausages, baked beans+egg).

Malaysia has 3,333 confirmed Covid-19 cases, 53 deaths, and recovery rate of nearly 25%. Singapore has also basically got a MCO for a month, but they are calling it a “circuit breaker”. Some of it is different, i.e. you can still exercise outdoors in neighbourhood parks. 4 weeks from the get-go, for two incubation cycles (so this is very much like Malaysia’s stance). Read more at: Coronavirus: Most workplaces to close, schools will move to full home-based learning from next week, says PM Lee. Seems they’ve found more clusters at Singapore Cricket Club, and the MBS rooftop bar. Back to Malaysia… the 10km distance thing from your home, is now at the discretion of the police officer you encounter.

One more thing about Singapore — the idea of wearing masks (and the government providing some to households) is smart. They’re breaking from WHO tradition, and there is likely also a paper supporting this theory, at least for symptomatic patients: Respiratory virus shedding in exhaled breath and efficacy of face masks. I am more or less convinced that we all should wear masks when we’re outside. I presume that this makes going to a spin class just a little more expensive for me because I’ll have to wear one before/after; then again, if I am just getting out of my car to the studio and back, maybe I’ll be fine.

This is an experiment in delayed reportage. Maybe I will do this every morning, and focus on the previous day? Main reason is I had to wake up today (Day 17) for an early HIIT class and yesterday I was supremely tired from all the work I did… Ozark is over, and I’ve started on Better Call Saul but it didn’t even last 10 minutes for me.

Yesterday’s exercise was by someone new to me — Calvin at Flyproject. Seems he only does HIIT and not spin. Explains why I’ve never had him before. Ate at home again.

Love waking up to find your Mac completely restarted. No issue, it was a macOS 10.15.4 automatic update. But still, I’d like to choose if I can defer them.

Covid-19 front: We’re now at 3,116 cases, 50 deaths, and a huge amount of recoveries (as expected) – 122 yesterday, bringing the total to 767. I’m glad people are realising that flattening the curve isn’t zero cases (it is to ensure there are enough ICU beds and doctors don’t have to choose who gets a ventilator), and we may have peaks in mid-April. But maybe the most interesting statistic? Health D-G: 80pc of Malaysia’s Covid-19 cases asymptomatic or have mild signs of infection We are quarantining them out of precaution. Which begs the question — why don’t we all just be masked, wear gloves if you want to, but wash your hands frequently, socially distance, and just get on with life, as is? April 10 is now the day they’re claiming they’ll decide if MCO ends in Phase 2 or not… Singapore has identified a few new clusters, and Mustafa Centre a place where many shop has a huge number of cases linked to that.

A lot of people seem to be developing cabin fever. So far, the only thing from that list of symptoms that I have is changes in weight (1/13), which is weight loss. But this has been planned and in the works for sometime. My goal is to be 70kg before my next birthday, and the deadline set was end-April; I thought I’d have to push it back but I’m doing daily HIIT style workouts at home, so I think this is going to be okay.

One article that caught my eye in the FT: Muslims fear backlash of India’s coronavirus fury. Their cluster in India, is from Tablighi Jamaat. Malaysia’s largest cluster is from the same event (with 5th generation spread). I asked on Day 5 what goes on at said event… I’m still curious. How does this change things in Malaysia?

As for Malaysia, it is also worth noting theft is increasing — either while you’re standing outside to buy groceries or medicine. As are house break-in’s. Which is likely them not coming on a motorbike but as a gang. These are troubling times, and I don’t know if we can depend quickly enough on the police force to act. Stay safe takes on a whole other meaning.

Oura was unhappy with everything but what is new. Ate at home again so it is good to be self sufficient! Enjoyed a 5pm workout with Ping. Work is still busy.

From the Covid-19 front, it is interesting to see that intelligence reports suggest that China is faking numbers. Flat out, “the report concludes that China’s numbers are fake.” China Concealed Extent of Virus Outbreak, U.S. Intelligence Says.

Malaysia has made the MCO a little more drastic — you only can go a 10km radius from your house to buy food/groceries. And everything that is allowed to operate does so from 8am-8pm. I’ve seen a lot of videos of the police telling people to make U-turns at roadblocks.

It is possible the MCO is working in terms of curve flattening, but without effective understanding of social distancing after this, say at a Ramadan bazaar, things are going to get ugly again. We are also seeing things like Tower Regency Hotel in Ipoh shut down at the end of the month (yes, there will be more casualties).

We see a bit more flip flopping, i.e. NGOs running soup kitchens can now send aid with supervision. Singapore leads the way again with regards to moratoriums, Individuals can apply to defer property loan, insurance premium payments amid COVID-19: MAS, which are better deals than what Malaysia has offered so far; incidentally, Singapore has also said that they will help retrenched Malaysians find jobs (which is great for the brain drain).