8/31/2020 ‒
We are all beekeepers now

At the beginning of the year, I wrote about how nice it would be if we as a country learned to wear face masks when we're sick.

Eight months in, I guess that happened. Well, there is the fear of the coronavirus. Or the fear of being prosecuted, possibly criminally, for not wearing a mask when you're out and about. I don't think we would've done so without those two factors. But it's come to a point when all of us wear a mask automatically, the same way we don't wear jeans anymore. I mean, little kids probably now associate wearing a mask with leaving the house, and basing on the reactions Shalla's nephew and niece make, wearing a mask must be a good thing.

I even think we're going to swing to the other extreme now at some point, and berate anyone who doesn't wear a mask even when most of us have been vaccinated and the pandemic has long subsided. I don't know when that is, but I'm sticking to that prediction. I mean, you know how we do.

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8/30/2020 ‒
Talkin' talk is not just talk

These days making small talk is an important ability to have. I mean, if you'll be stuck in the same place for weeks on end, you will crave for some degree of interaction with other people, even if it means becoming a bit chattier to the people who deliver your food, or whatever you bought online.

Well, that's a horrific scenario if you fiercely insist that you're an introvert, and therefore, more special. But I digress.

I wouldn't call myself a small talk expert. Even I can find it a bit horrific, if that's the right word. Iris - how are things in Romania? - put it best when she described our accidental corporate event tag team as "I initiate the conversation, and you continue it". Maybe that counts for small talk, too, but I believe small talk requires being able to make something out of nothing. I pick up on a thread and make something out of it. That's not nothing. That's something.

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8/11/2020 ‒
Worn down

It's been a week since Manila was brought back under a slightly more severe form of lockdown. Or should I say strict? I don't know. Do words even matter?

We did see it coming, of course. When medical professionals made a public plea for a "time out" to allow them to cope with the rising number of cases, it was just a matter of time before the government said yes. It was supposed to just be a matter of how many letters the quarantine will have, and for how long. We got four letters, at least two weeks, and the president lashing out at those medical professionals for daring to use the word "revolution".

Of course, people got angry. I woke up on Monday seeing an anger that had never been this palpable. For a moment, I thought, foolishly, that this would be the moment things will shift more visibly. Of course it wasn't. People - at least those who share the same echo chamber as I do - seemed quick to move to trying to remember what those four letters mean again. MECQ? What are we not allowed to do under MECQ?

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8/01/2020 ‒
There is no plan

So, two more weeks of this.

To be honest, I've been expecting, for the past couple of weeks, that we would be brought back under "enhanced community quarantine", or perhaps its slightly milder version. Cases have been going up, in record numbers these past few days. Manila being a pretty busy place, more or less the crossroads of everything, most of the cases are here. Much like four and a half months ago, the major hospitals are announcing that they can no longer accommodate potential new cases.

Sure, the government has been pretty upfront about their hesitation to bring back the capital under ECQ, this being the center of the whole country's economy and all. We can't afford to close things again, they said. The best we can do is have everyone follow minimum health standards and have local governments impose lockdowns when needed, they said.

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