Tag Archives: quarantine

A Recovering Situation

6 Jul

There has been much progress in containing the spread of the Covid-19 virus in Malaysia. Statistics tracking new cases and deaths have been very positive with very little or no big breakouts; it looks like the country is well on the road to recovery. As such, various restrictions are easing up and many sectors are reopening. Health guidelines are also being relaxed for life to be back to normal.

Last week the SOP for golf has been revised and golfers are now allowed to twin-share a buggy for a round of 18-holes. No more single-player, single-buggy rule.

With this update, it looks like our weekend (and weekday) games from now on will be with the use of buggy, twin-sharing, and less if not, no more walking with a golf trolley for our group.

So we shall see how it goes as we took a break from golf over the weekend to spend some quality time with M2.

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It’s So Tedious, Part 2

3 Jul

The DIY house project has been such a challenge. While it’s a nice change from carving, it’s truly a test of patience and skills. Putting little pieces of furniture and accessories together is not the easiest hobby on earth, especially when it comes to gluing fabric. It’s so darn hard!

My two kitchen chairs took several days to complete because the fabric, upon gluing, wasn’t bonding with the wood well. I had to use clothes pegs to hold them down so that they can set properly to dry. And it took several attempts as I ended up having more glue on my fingers than the pieces!

Once the kitchen chairs were finally completed, I worked on another equally aggravating set of chairs for the bedroom. And if I thought this was the ultimate test of patience and skills, making tiny pillows take the cake! I’ve managed only three pillows so far and have procrastinated on the last two.

Tiny chairs and tinier pillows to aggravate you!

On a brighter note, the ground floor has been completed and it looks impressive despite an initial misalignment of the chandelier. The chandelier had to be moved so that it’s directly over the coffee table when the sofas were put in place. All’s good now. Phew.

Top: Chandelier was off; bottom: my pretty ground floor

A few days later, the first floor was also completed as I got those darn chairs glued properly. It’s only a matter of time now to shift my energy and focus on the open-top floor with the swimming pool.

Fancy staying in this place? Hehehe

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It’s So Tedious

29 Jun

When it comes to furnishing the little DIY home, it’s so tedious. It’s not as easy as the instructions show. And it takes patience and accuracy to ensure the alignment is precise.

I started off working painstakingly on the itty bitty pieces of furniture and accessories once the main structure was put together. Then focused on the kitchen area.

The kitchen: before and after the wall cabinets, light and top floor were up

When that section was completed, I worked on more itty bitty pieces of furniture and the bathroom on the first floor.

Shower area walls are not straight!

The wiring of the whole structure to be lighted up was tough because things were very delicate and fine. Generally, while it has been slow, I’m rather pleased with the progress.

 

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My New Normal?

26 Jun

Last weekend’s plans to walk 18-holes was derailed by the rain. On Saturday, my flight had three holes left to play at the Hills course when the skies opened up. Luckily the halfway hut was close by and we got there on time to wait out the downpour.

When the rain lightened and there was a slight reprieve, we quickly made our way back to the clubhouse. It certainly wasn’t comfortable with the pants and socks all wet. Luckily, the weather on Sunday was better and we completed a full round but I had a terrible game. I am very inconsistent. Sigh…

Despite being another slow week at the office, I played only one game (on Tuesday), giving the Thursday game a miss so that I could sleep in. And today, I will be in the office.

I now wonder if this will be my routine for the next few months. Once or twice to the office, an additional Tuesday game on top of the weekend games and an occasional Thursday game thrown in. Welcome to the new normal.

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Finally A Haircut

23 Jun

Last week during the slow week, I managed to schedule an appointment for a haircut. After three and a half months (my longest stretch ever) since my last visit to the salon, the unruly mop of hair has been tamed and it felt good. I must admit, I did snip at my mop twice because the length was irritating me.

The visit was quick and short, and I had my stylist cut it very short in case there’s another lockdown and we cannot venture beyond a certain distance. You’d never know what with the virus ever-changing and cannot be contained still.

 

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It’s Rather Monumental, Part 2

19 Jun

In between working on the DIY homes, I decided to complete the Monument piece. I knew what I had to do if it was to be converted to become a door stopper. I couldn’t just glue the carving to the wedge as is because it won’t be strong enough to hold together.

So I carved an interlocking section in the joining area of both pieces for better support. The snug fit then had Elmer’s glue added for additional strength.

Thankfully, the whole process didn’t take long and all it needed after that was time for the glue to dry and a coat of varnish. A pat on the shoulder for me for the well-done effort!

 

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Getting Fitter

19 Jun

Life under RMCO has become quite enjoyable, although it is worrying at the same time too. There’s hardly enough work at the office to keep me busy, so I end up playing more golf to pass my time to balance all that cooking and cleaning. Then there are the DIY houses to finish up on days when I am neither in the office nor the golf course.

Last weekend, I managed to walk 18-holes on both days, carrying my bag with ten clubs. Then on Tuesday, I played 18, using the buggy at the Lakes course and walked 18 again on Thursday at the Hills course.

In between the golf days, I went into the office twice.

The coming weekend is without a doubt another two rounds of 18 carrying my bag. Yes, I am getting fitter and very pleased about it.

 

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A New Activity, Part 2

16 Jun

M2 and I were aghast at the challenge ahead with my DIY home that arrived first. All the furniture pieces are so tiny!!! What have I gotten ourselves into?

Checklist of all items to construct my mini 3-story bungalow!

The mess working on the kitchen chairs

I had to put aside finishing up the Monument piece to focus on this. So the two of us worked on my house at every opportunity available. But it has been slow because cooking and cleaning the real house takes priority over fixing up the toy house. Don’t forget, there’s all that golf to play too during the weekends. The DIY home was merely to fill up any free time available.

Props are tiny beyond tiny!

However, there were days we didn’t look forward to the daunting task because the pieces were so minuscule to handle especially the props and materials. Half the time at such close proximity, I had to remove my glasses to see better. But I felt we couldn’t abandon the three projects just like that simply because things were tiny.

Everything here was so hard to glue! See the size in comparison to my glasses

Clips to hold and to hold down the fabric after applying glue

At times, I had to use a clothes peg when working with fabric to hold the pieces when applying glue. And the clothes peg also doubled up to hold the material down to bind with the glue. If I didn’t do this, I’d end up with all the glue on my fingers instead! And it’s rather time-consuming because the glue needed to dry before we could progress further.

When the second shipment arrived, M2 moved on to fix her house, whilst I concentrated on mine. And both of us agreed that hubby will not fix his house up because the parts are way too tiny for him to handle.

The incomplete first floor of M2’s DIY 2-story home. Check out the books on the bookshelf!

Once the two of us have completed our homes, we’d work on his together.

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A New Activity

15 Jun

My latest online purchase was done on a whim. After purchasing a couple of kitchen appliance/utensil items, I itched to buy something for myself. After all, those kitchen things were more for hubby to use, and we’ve hardly gone out to do any shopping, let alone go out.

So what did I buy?

A do-it-yourself home! And I had to buy the biggest house with teeny weeny parts to be put together with glue and tweezers. And as if that’s not enough, I bought two more houses too, one for M2 and one for hubby to fix! Crazy.

My house arrived slightly squashed but all contents were intact

The DIY house kits arrived separately – mine first, at the end of May and the other two several days later.

These two came more squashed but nothing broken

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Sleep vs Sun

12 Jun

Morning golf is always a challenge, especially when I have to wake up at 5.30 am. It gets tough when the night before was a restless one, and it’s usually the case. I don’t know why. Pre-game anxiety?

It’s always a debate on sleep versus the sun for me. An early tee-off means less sleep and a late tee-off, more sun (and heat) to deal with. Sometimes there’s also rain to contend with regardless of tee-off time, but rain is not the main thing.

Our regular weekend group generally prefers early morning golf. But these days, it is not easy to book an early tee-off at our golf club because of reduced slots. With the CMCO in place, tee-off times are ten minutes apart instead of seven minutes, and this has reduced the playing slots available.

The early slots are gone very quickly if we’re not fast enough to book ahead. Pre-MCO days, we usually tee-off at 7.15 am, but these days, we’d be lucky if we can even get the 7.25 am slot.

This past weekend, we played at the Lakes course on Saturday on a single-player single-buggy basis following the CMCO guidelines. Not the earliest tee-off (8.45 am for me, and 8.55 am for hubby), I thought I’d have the sun and heat to deal with. Luckily it was cloudy and cool, and I had a good game.

The next day, it was a different story. The flight registration for my tee-off at 8.25 am was muddled up, and I was not updated, so this flustered me. Then I misplaced a flight mate’s membership card. Not a good start. Sigh. Thankfully hubby found it before my flight headed to the tee box.

And my woes didn’t end there. The sun was out full force, and I lost focus as the heat got to me. At Hole 13, Par 3 with several houses flanking the hole, I pulled my ball into the backyard of one of the homes, something I’ve never done before! Yikes.

Then I dropped my Maruman Conductor utility club cover somewhere along the walk on the fourth nine on the Hills course. Sadly, I can deem it lost unless someone found the cover and kindly returned it. Boo hoo hoo. On the last hole, I launched my ball into the ditch in front that wasn’t even in play. The putting was terrible, the short game was off, and my flight mate even hit my ball wrongly. You could say I didn’t have a good round.

If anything good that came out of this terrible round of golf, it was the determination to walk the 18-holes carrying my bag with my 11 clubs. And I did it. For this and this only, I felt very accomplished.

Looking back, I’d rather forsake a little beauty sleep for an early tee-off, so I don’t have to deal with the heat and have unnecessary mishaps.

As the country entered its recovery phase on 10 June (CMCO is now Recovery MCO or RMCO), tee-off times have been revised and are no longer ten minutes apart. I hope the coming weekend’s 7.47 am tee-off on both mornings will result in better rounds of golf for me.

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