Close and casual

Last week I received an sms from the government's Covid-19 health portal, saying that I have been classified as a casual contact with a person or persons who are infected with the disease. The message further told me to remain calm and perform home monitoring assessment using the MySejahtera app installed on my phone. My better half received a similar message.

I duly checked the app and saw that my C-19 risk status has now turned yellow - Casual Contact No Symptoms. The system has identified me as such, based on my check-in history to the various places that I've been to. The app also provides me with directives and advice on what to do next. This includes answering three questions relating to my current health status, every day for the next few days or so. Presumably, until the app is satisfied that I'm full okay and can be re-classified.

It is now two years that the MySejahtera app has been in use. Despite various updates in that time, I do still feel that the app has so much room for improvement. This latest information about me being a casual contact is an example. Why can't the developers include the source or location where the close contact happened? When my wife and I received the notification, we spent the whole afternoon wondering where we could have gotten the contact or perhaps we had been slack in practising the required SOPs. If this information had been provided, we could at least know where the contact occurred and be more cautious when we visit the same place in future.

But I guess user convenience and satisfaction is not on top of the list of the app developers.

Current status. Have tried setting up the MySJ Trace but had trouble loading the page

Booster dose

The first month of the new year has zoomed past so quickly that I realise we are on the brink of another new year tomorrow. The Chinese Lunar New Year will happen on 1st February 2022. It will be the year of the Tiger, of which I am one.

So what has happened in the month of January 2022? Nothing much really. I had my third so-called booster vaccine earlier this month. The booster dose was the Astra Zeneca type compared to the two Pfizer shots I had earlier. It was also done at a different vaccination centre but the process was not less efficient.

Some minor side effects were felt in the evening after the shot. The next day my left arm and shoulder felt a bit sore so the whole day was spent resting at home.

I do hope that no further vaccination would be necessary. Getting tired of being pricked.

Booster dose done at Persada International Convention Centre

Events to close out the year...

 Park this space. Write up to follow.

1. Floods in Selangor

2. Family BBQ at Huda's Haven Resort

3. Letting go of the Harrier

It's all in the genes...

A few days ago, our second son messaged me for help in getting some of his boyhood photographs to be scanned and converted to digital format. He asked me to select a few photos from when he was a baby and into the time he was at kindergarten and primary school. For some throwback project, he said.

I am a photographer and for sure I have tons of pictures of my family using the various types of cameras that I owned. Of course, the photos of my children in their younger days are in the old school printed format. Buy the roll of film from a photo store (usually a Kodak or Fujifilm, ASA100 with 36 exposures), load the film into the camera (be careful to ensure the leading edge of the film roll is engaged to the sprocket of the frame advance lever), close the camera caseback and advance the film (either by the manual lever or, for motorised cameras, by pressing the shutter release), proceed to take photos while bearing in mind to check for exposure and composition because you wouldn't want to waste the film by taking poor shots, roll back the exposed film into its cartridge after you have used up all the exposures (manual or auto rewinding, depending on the camera), open the caseback and take out the roll, send the roll to a photo processing outlet to be developed, come back in a few days (or a few hours if you are willing to pay extra for express processing), get the full set of 3R sized prints either in matt or glossy paper, plus the negatives of the roll. You then get to see the results of your photo-taking skills. How many of your shots turn out to be under-exposed or over-exposed, or out of focus, or blurred, or skewed, or colourless, or bland, or just simply lousy. But the few prints that turn out sharp, colourful and well-composed give you that strong sense of satisfaction.

Gone are the days of such excitement in non-digital photography.

Anyway, as I was sifting through the old photo albums, I came across a photo of our youngest son taken in September 1997 when he was about 2 and-a-half years old. I realised that I have a recent digital photo of our 1st granddaughter in a strikingly similar post. So I searched for it in my mobile phone's memory and made a collage of both photographs side by side. The similarities are obvious. Definitely in the genes.

The uncle and his niece, 24 years on

Thirty-three and hopefully more...

17 November 1988 : We started life as husband and wife

17 November 2021 : Thirty-three years on, we are blessed with relatively good health and a happy family.

When we started life as a young family all those years ago, Allah swt blessed us with 3 boys. We are now further blessed with 3 lovely girls as our granddaughters. Looking forward to growing old together.

Just so happen that this restaurant has a suitable backdrop

A good time to try the Meat Cartel restaurant at Bandar Dato Onn, JB

Double dose of joy in being a grandfather

We made the trip to Selangor last weekend. The four-day itinerary was jam-packed with visits and stopovers. Truth be told, 4 days is never enough to cover all the things that we wished to do but we have to manage it somehow.

This trip is the one we had been waiting for for quite a while, having been prevented from inter-state travel for a number of months due to the pandemic situation. We visited the graves of three siblings on my better half's side, dropped by the houses of some nieces and also managed to squeeze in a visit to the new gallery of illustrator friend, Emila Yusof. The highlight of the trip was meeting our twin granddaughters only for the second time.

Afra Humaira and Afra Haura are now 10-months old. We look forward to more joyful occasions with them in the near future.

We are now blessed with 3 granddaughters. Praise to the Almighty for granting us these jewels.

Double trouble or twice the joy, it's a matter of choice

You can do it...

The wonderful thing about being semi-retired is the opportunity to spend the free time doing things at a leisurely pace. No time constraints, no pressure and for sure, no high expectations. Doing things just because you want to try and that it doesn't matter if it doesn't work out.

I consider myself a DIY enthusiast. Not really a skilled craftsman but an amateur handyman who can tackle the minor repairs that often need to be taken care of at home. Basic stuff such as plumbing works, install light fittings, replace faulty locksets and the like. The extent of what I am able to do is limited by the tools that I have, which, while not much, is more than sufficient to cover the routine maintenance work. Until recently, the only power tools that I own are a used corded drill and a jigsaw. The drill was given to me by my late brother many years ago. Also included were a few of the most common and necessary drill bits. I've used it many times for drilling into brickwork walls or timber posts. Works fine and there have been no problems so far.

But such a tool is not suitable for screw fixing work such as in the assembly of flat-packed furniture. Not really a necessity because a manual screwdriver does the job just fine but then, where's the fun? Any serious DIYer worth his salt should have a few power tools in his arsenal. The first tool that most skilled woodworkers or handymen suggest getting is the cordless drill driver. I had been longing to buy such a tool for quite some time. There are so many in the market and the cheap no-brand ones from China can be got for less than RM200. Many times I have been tempted to buy such an unbranded drill, the reason being that I'm only to use it occasionally, hence an inexpensive one would do just fine. However, after watching some Youtube videos by seasoned DIYers, I followed their advice and opted for the established makes. 

And so, two weeks ago I took the plunge and placed an order for a Black + Decker 18V cordless drill driver from a dealer on Shopee. I chose the most basic package available; single battery plus charger (don't see the need for spare batteries as I won't be doing continuous drill driving work), no drill bits (I already have some) and without dedicated casing (an old toolbox I have would do fine for now). I went for the B+D brand because the corded drill that I have is a B+D and that has been very reliable so far. Black + Decker is an American brand but like most other manufacturers nowadays, assemble their products in China.

Delivery from the dealer was quite fast. The package arrived within 5 days of ordering.

The first task I put the drill to use was in the repair work to an old folding banquet table that I bought in 2011. I use the table for my bonsai gardening hobby (pruning and re-potting). The original tabletop made out of fibreboard has rotted and I replaced it with 12mm thick plywood which was also bought online. The plywood board is sold pre-cut to the dimensions of 600mm wide by 1200mm long (or 2ft x 4ft in old-school terms) and this is exactly the size of the existing tabletop. No further cutting is required except that I rounded off the four corners for a neater look. For this, my jigsaw came in handy.

Other additional works that I did was to cover the plywood top with wallpaper (which was already on hand from a botched attempt to re-coat an old refrigerator) and to spray paint the table legs (also from cans already on hand). All in all, I like the look of the finished product. Not sure how long this plywood top will last but hey, I now have the tools and experience to make another one if so required. No satisfaction like do-it-yourself.

Have gun, will DIY

Old banquet table set to be given a new life

The blue table legs because that's the leftover paint
my son used to spray his bicycle

Spread your wings...

 

Maisarah at AEON Mall Bandar Dato' Onn, Johor Bahru

Work hard and aim high,
You'll never know if you don't try,
The only limit is the sky,
So spread your wings, my dear and fly...

Lunch and a day out at the shopping mall with my eldest son and his family yesterday. The first time we took our granddaughter to the AEON Mall at Bandar Dato' Onn was in January 2019 when she was still a babe-in-arms. At that time, her parents were on assignment and we gladly agreed to babysit her for a few days.

This time around, Maisarah is a 3-year old toddler. Highly observant and very talkative. Her parents wanted to buy new sandals for her and the children's shoe section at AEON has enough variety on sale to allow the young lady to pick out the pair that she likes.

After choosing her shoes, it was just a short skip to the adjacent section which all kids would not want to miss, the toys department. While her parents were at the cashier, I took the young lady to browse the toys.

"Tengok saja tau, take beli ya," I told her. Ok, she agreed, although I had doubts if she would actually keep to this arrangement upon seeing the huge range of toys on display. We had recently bought her a toy for her birthday last month, so I didn't think it is time yet to get her another one.

True enough, the moment she laid eyes on a particular doll, she told me she wanted it. So I said, you can hold it for a while but we are not buying it. A few minutes later, she walked to the stuffed toys area and picked up a unicorn. She hugged the toy and told me she wanted it. Again I gave the same response. I was pleased that she was quite obedient although there's a visible look of disappointment. The important thing was that she did not create a tantrum. I could have easily agreed to buy the toy because it wasn't terribly expensive. But I was hoping to teach her something and I do believe there is no better time to start than at an age when she is already aware of things that have value.

After a few more minutes of browsing, I told my granddaughter that it is time to move on because we had other places to go to. As we passed the stationery section, I spotted a sticker pack of the cartoon characters from Didi & Friends (a local animated series). I pointed it out to Maisarah who immediately became excited and picked it up from the display stand. She looked at me imploringly and said that she wanted it. I finally relented and said okay, I'll buy it for you. The look of delight on her face was precious. Those stickers would probably not last the week when she gets to play with them but her happy smile I will remember for a long time.

Maisarah kept her hold on the sticker pack as we made our way to the cashier counter. I told her to place the pack on the counter for the cashier to scan. After making payment, I told the cashier to hand over the sticker straight to my granddaughter. Without prompting, Maisarah said, "Thank you, Achik."

The young cashier was pleasantly surprised, smiled back and replied, "Sama-sama."

That's another person that Maisarah has caused to smile that day. Lovely.