On the 7th day of October 2022, yours truly has finally contracted Covid 19. Whilst being annoyed at being infected, I am most thankful to Lord that I didn't contract it at the early times, when everything was so unstable and when most of us including even the authorities have little knowledge of how to combat the virus.
After hearing so many stories of how some would cope, I am thankful that other the first 2 nights which were rather torturing, I find myself regaining strength from each day and knows that it's only a matter of time before I am back to my feet.
Isiah 40:31 comes to mind easily as I have often prayed this verse for all my senior folks, loved ones whom I have grown to appreciate more as years gone by. Even if we do not interact often, these are people whose names have been on my lips and ears since I was a child and I pray that their energy be renewed like an eagle's when they rest their laurels with the Lord.
As I have also come to the realisation about my own physical limits in terms of soccer recently, I finally understand why it could be difficult for professional sports people to give up their sport competitively. Be it a professional or an amateur sportsman, I guess the decision to "come to terms" is often not an easy one. I pushed myself hard but while I have had the heart, the body doesn't respond as well and after several rounds of poor performance, I have come to accept that perhaps the standard has dropped so much that I would not like to remember myself as the Chinese player who can only hoof the ball out. I have a nice amateur soccer outing for 13 years old and I think I can have no regrets about not playing the game in person anymore.
Recently, I have had the opportunity to finally attend a 2-day course to learn about the ropes of the things/regulations to opening a fish shop in Singapore. It has always been an aim to attend a course where I can pick up more knowledge about fishkeeping. Although I would say that the 2 days are too short to cover everything in depth, I was glad to be able to use the course to inspire myself to find out more what was going wrongly for my community tank and also to determine what was wrong with my fishkeeping routine for the bettas. Every time when I thought I have got it going for the bettas, something will happen to tell me that I hadn't got it right yet. So, for a long time, it seemed that I have only managed to get it right on the surface despite keeping bettas for a long time. Without a filter in those tanks, it's always a challenge to go against the norms of water chemistry protocols, ie, filter, bacterial colony system etc. It's a challenge to go down to the root and try everything to get it right. Perhaps the most knowledgeable line I have heard at the course was: "Every fish has disease in them. It's a matter of time and when their immune system drops such that the disease is allowed to take over". As such, prevention is to be exercised at all costs, rather than cure. At this age, the grand trophy is not to have many trophies or winning fish. I would like to think that the grandest prize for fishkeeping would be to enjoy the companionship of the fish I bought for as long as possible without shortening their lives or getting them sick. It doesn't matter if the fish is super comp grade or not. If a hobbyist does not know how to enjoy the simplicity of fishkeeping, then he must have wasted his time. Fishkeeping is not about having 100 comp grade fishes and screwing everything up but knowing how to keep 1 fish healthy and enjoying the process. I have come to accept that every fish be it comp grade or not; it will end up dead earlier if we do not know how to take care of it properly.
On the Covid front in Singapore, everything has nearly gone back to normal except for people who are still required to wear masks on public transport. I feel personally that wearing the mask has been my sole protection for a long time until I got infected last week. I could only think of the time I had spent playing with futsal with 20+ people and other than that, having lunch at my own workstation, where there are colleagues who walk around maskless. Well, I could have gotten it from anywhere, but I just feel that it is insensitive not to be wearing mask when your neighbouring colleagues are still wearing them for obvious reasons: to protect oneself and loved ones. If my colleagues have that in mind, why would I want to disrespect them by doing the opposite and not wearing a mask myself? I suppose most anti mask people would think that well, you can wear them all you like, but I ain't wearing them. Thus, I feel as colleagues, we should also be sensitive about this and not just think, well its endemic, to hell ya with the masks. I have come to be a firm believer of the mask. Even if not for covid, can you imagine breathing in all the germs/bad breadth/fart from someone's a** whenever in the public? I only wondered why mask was wearing not educated to us more accurately - that it could actually prevent most people from spreading the disease and getting it etc.
Well, this world continues to amaze me with people and stuff these days that I won't even bother batting an eyelid about anymore.
Mr Ussenal