06 April 2020. It has been 28 days since the Covid-19 containment battle begun in the country. It felt just like yesterday that Maria started to work on shifts as part of the BCP. By today, she is actually getting the hang of it, this new, albeit temporary, normal. Maria only woke up at the regular time on the first day of the working from home arrangement, before realising who’s gonna check anyway if she’s already out of bed or not. Nobody! So, on the second day and onwards, Maria deliberately didn’t set her alarm, and enjoyed the sleeping in, every second of it. It’s like Sunday comes around every other day.

Apart from the work from home aspect, there is no serendipity in other pandemic-forced adjustments to daily life. The closures of mosques, suraus and prayer halls have been extended, first until 30 March 2020, then to 06 April 2020 then to 13 April 2020. There have been no Friday prayers for the past three Fridays, leaving men still feeling so surreal having to skip something that they’ve done weekly all their lives, not once, but three times now.

Schools which were initially due to begin new term on 31 March 2020 remained closed and schooling continued through e-learning. Teachers scrambled to adjust to the new situation. Parents are overwhelmed with the demands to facilitate their children’s e-learning. Those with no ICT gadgets and bad internet connections struggled. Stress and tensions are flaring. Some teachers and parents are at each other’s throats. At the press conference, a Minister lost his cool when he snapped at a reporter during the qna session. Nurses buckled under the strain of working overtime, desperate for a breather. For anyone who ever wondered about the level of resiliency of the country’s population in the face of a major crisis, there you have it.

At the supermarkets, the panic buying seemed to have stopped as the panic shoppers eventually snapped out of it, probably realising then that they had unnecessarily fallen victim to the mass hysteria syndrome that swept the globe. In fact, as the country entered its third week of the Covid-19 outbreak, shoppers traffic at the supermarkets and shopping malls began to dwindle to a point where, even at a usually packed supermarket like the 1^stEmporium, less than 10 cars can be seen parked at a time. Perhaps, at this point, the wider public have come to their senses and started to take the threat more seriously, or so I thought. The same week, when hand sanitisers and masks were back on the shelves, all bets were off as people crowded the shops to get their hands on those evasive items.

28 days after Case 1, the number of positive cases in the country stood at 135. It took 20 days before the virus picked up by Bruneians who attended the tabligh gathering in Malaysia was stopped at its track. It made an impressive journey into 71 people altogether, which are more than half of the country’s total number of positive cases.

While the tabligh gathering chapter of the containment effort was finally closed (hopefully!), the delay in imposing the 14-day isolation requirement for people coming into the country meant that a number of people carrying the virus from overseas had already slipped through and passed the virus to whoever they had contact with. Before the imposition of the isolation requirement on 19 March 2020, 13 people who had flown back from various countries including Indonesia, Malaysia, UK, Philippines and US had carried the virus with them into Brunei. These 13 people went on to spread the virus, altogether contributing to additional 43 cases. Not everyone who slipped through got themselves tested though, meaning there could be more than the 13 people who brought the virus in.

Beginning 19 March 2020, Bruneian students overseas began to make their ways back to the country. Upon arrival at the airport, they were picked up and brought straight for 14-day isolation. The same also applied to Bruneians who returned from trips overseas. A number of them had indeed brought the virus back with them, but the mandatory isolation ensured that further spreading of the virus to their families and contacts were nipped in the bud. As for foreigners, it was later announced that effective 24 March 2020, all foreign nationals are not allowed to enter or transit in Brunei through land, sea and air control posts until further notice.

By 03 April 2020, the chain of local transmission appeared to be broken (although the jury is still out on this), where the sole new case that day, Case 134, is a local student who arrived from the US through UK who had been isolated upon arrival on 29 March 2020. Similarly, the sole new case on 04 April 2020, Case 135, is a local man who returned to Brunei on 03 April 2020 after traveling to Malaysia and Indonesia. He too was also directly isolated upon arrival. On 05 April 2020, for the first time, no new case was reported for the day. So as the next day 06 April 2020, no new case was also reported.

On 20 March 2020, 11 days after Case 1, the first recovered positive case was announced. In the days following that, more and more positive cases recovered. As the recoveries were gaining momentum, unfortunately, however, on 27 March 2020, Case 25 succumbed to the virus, leaving a big scar on the hearts of the country’s population. By 06 April 2020, a total of 82 positive cases had recovered and allowed to go home, leaving 52 cases still undergoing treatment, 2 of them in critical condition.

The increasing number of people who recovered combined with the small or zero number of new cases have taken some pressure off the health system who at some point before was nervous about the isolation centre quickly reaching its maximum capacity. For those who took the figure at face value might have thought that the end of the crisis is near. This was translated into people beginning to think that it is already safe to go out as normal, unwittingly letting their guards down, slowly dismissing the social distancing advice. Some even began to tune in to the press conference only for the first 5 minutes, sighing relief upon hearing 0 new case and seeing the flat “curve”, not interested to hear the rest of what the ministers have to say. This presumptive optimism is surely destined to backfire.

Last Tuesday night close to 1 am (well practically it was already Wednesday) I heard a continuous clunking sound from downstairs. I knew that sound right away, the sound of a trolley being wheeled. But at 1 am?? So I went out to the balcony to check it out. Yep, I saw a man pushing an empty shopping trolley in the middle of the road. He was wearing dark clothings. He looked clean cut, didn’t seem like a homeless guy. Definitely not a ghost. What was he up to?

So I kept watching him as he pushed the trolley down the road, “cling clung cling clung”, like he had no care in the world. Even the dogs who notoriously liked to bark and chase after joggers and cyclists just stood there staring at the guy. He went passed our building, and as he reached the garbage bins area at the back of a nearby restaurant, he stopped and started to rummage through the bins. Oh, he could be collecting recyclable items, I thought to myself. I’ve seen people collecting cans and tins from garbage bins before, but those who were on foot I only saw doing it at town centres. I have also long known that, in the area where I live, at around 2 am everyday, a man in a white van would make his rounds to every garbage bins area to collect cooking oil tin cans.

Now, back to the trolley guy. Without care about the noise he was making, he reached his hands inside the large bins like it was no one’s business. Half of his body disappeared from sight. He found a plastic barrel, emptied its contents and put it on the trolley, and off he went. With the barrel now on the trolley, the clunking sound of the trolley wheels became muffled. Hmmm…perhaps he was not looking for recyclable items after all.

I continued watching him pushing the trolley down the road until he disappeared from view.  What an anticlimax to a potentially interesting thing that went bump-in-the-night.

Ooh, the TFC….

Although, the late 1980s was the turning point for the fast food culture, long before there were these fancy fast food restaurants in the country, there was a local food outlet, the Tenderly Fried Chicken or fondly called TFC, which made its debut way back in the late 70s. It was actually the first restaurant that introduced some of the types of food that would later identified as fast food – the fries, coleslaws, mashed potatoes, burgers and of course fried chicken. Back then, however, their prices were higher than the local favourites, the likes of mee goreng and martabak, and thus only the “rich” kids and parents frequented the TFC. The “mainstream” children and youths often just congregated and lepak outside the “cool” restaurant just to soak in its vibes and enjoying the aroma of the fried chicken.

So far, no one can tell me yet when this restaurant went out of business, but it sure had a good run, having opened 4 branches at its prime. The first one was at Batu Satu at the building right opposite the building where Lai Lai is. Back then it was a hip area with the nearby Klasse Department Store, Seri Theater and Thien Thien, among others. Its second branch was in Bandar, next to Citibank. Then it opened its third branch at the Anggerek Desa Swimming Pool near the National Stadium. It also has a branch in Seria.

Ooh, Klasse Jaya Department Store….

Klasse Jaya Department Store will always be remembered as the first building in the country with escalators. Adults and kids were all excited about the “moving stairs”. Older folks at that time needed more convincing to trust the escalator to bring them up and down, hesitating to put their feet on it during the first try. But they eventually got the hang of it.

The Klasse Jaya Department Store opened its doors in the late 1970s. Back then, the Hua Ho retail shop has not transformed into its superstore status yet, therefore Klasse Jaya, or fondly called just Klasse, enjoyed a lot of the limelight as Bruneians flocked to the store not just to check out the escalators, but also for the “modern” shopping vibes. It had two branches. One in Bandar and one in Batu Satu. By the late 1980s, retail competition became more intense with Yaohan opening its department store here and Hua Ho’s growth. The First Emporium retail chain also expanded. After more than a decade of operation, and providing lots of good memories for the generation touched by its presence, Klasse eventually succumbed to the tough competition and closed down, much to the heartbreak of the population.

After the closure of Klasse, Bandar went to hibernation and remained asleep until today. To rub salt into the wound, the QAF group, which acquired the business, demolished the Batu Satu Klasse building to the ground. It was said that QAF wanted to build a new building for shopping and entertainment. However, 30 years later, the site remained empty.

Ooh, Jetsin….

Not much are written about it and it has ceased business, but generation Xers will certainly recall Jetsin. Back in the 1980s, Jetsin was one of the popular go-to shops to get cool things. It was located in Bandar at the block where Ayamku Restaurant is now. It occupied the ground and first floor of the unit. Jetsin was not that big of an enterprise, smaller than department stores like Klasse and Ocean Emporium at that time, but it was bigger than small retail shops. So I would say Jetsin was in a league of its own.

That was a period when the “kedai komunis” concept and term have not entered the local scene yet. In a way, Jetsin was the trailblazer in such kind of concept in the country. In fact, that was Jetsin’s niche, one could find almost anything there, for any purpose and occasions, at affordable prices. I distinctly remember going to Jetsin everytime I wanted to buy fancy things for birthday presents, and I could trust that I would definitely find something good there.

As years passed by, Jetsin eventually lost that niche. The development of commercial areas away from Bandar, such as in Gadong and Kiulap, had also taken a toll on Jetsin’s customer traffic. One day, I went to Bandar and saw the shop was closed, its steel rolling shutter was down and it looked like it has been desolate for a while. I felt a sense of guilt for my ignorance, not realising, not knowing when Jetsin actually opened its door for the very last time. It just faded away quietly.

Friday has always been my favourite day of the week. It’s a day to wind down and shake off all the stress and drama from the past four and a half days of office work. Yes, there are sure lots of drama where I work. The makcik from hell still haunts our work place. Shes not going away anytime soon.

One Friday, as any other Fridays, at 12 noon, I drove home from work all excited for the much anticipated break. As soon as I got home, I wasted no time, dropped everything on the floor and headed straight to my bed. I let out a long, relieved sigh…HAAAAAHHHHH…and laid my head on my pillow. Houston out.

When I woke up, it was about to get dark outside. I called out to my phone, hey google…whats the time? She answered “Its six fifty pm”. Wow! I slept for a good 6+ hours. I wished I had elexa at my home to switch on the light. Oh, let it be dark for a bit, I said to myself. I was too lazy to get up. I looked for my ipad to watch some youtube videos. Oh darn it. It was still in my work bag by the door.  So, I just stared at the ceiling, not thinking about anything, blisfully enjoying the moment of zen, just enjoying the silence…

Oh wait a minute. It was never silent here at this time of the day, I thought. There should be the noise of vehicles from the road and nearby highway, music from the nearby supermarkets perhaps, dogs barking at joggers, at least. Then out of the quiet, I heard a faint whimpering sound coming from outside.

I went out to the balcony, it was almost dark, and looked down to where the sound was coming from. I saw something crawling on the road. At first I thought it was an injured dog. As I looked longer and more carefully, it became clearer that it was not a dog! It was a humanoid thing, a moving upper body of that of a man, groaning and whimpering, nothing below the waist, no legs. It used its arms to hoist and move its body. I could not make out how its face looked like as its entire body including the face was covered in mud-like thing or something gooey, dripping on the ground as it moved. What..is..that?? And where is everyone?? Where are all the cars?? What the freakin hell is going on?? So many questions went through my head all at once.

I was gonna dash in to grab my phone, take a video of this unbelievable thing that I saw or call the police. Ok, I was gonna take the video first then call the police, just in case the thing disappeared when the police arrives I wont sound like a complete idiot. But, before I got to do that, I saw a man approaching the thing. He sure got some balls. So, I stayed put, didn’t want to miss seeing what will happen next. He got really close before getting startled when a few more of the thing suddenly emerging from the forested hill by the road. The man took off so fast like a bullet.

More and more whimpers could be heard with the sound of something moving through the bushes coming from different directions down the hill. MHMHMHMH…. MHMHMHMH….. One by one they appeared out of the forest. So many of them now on the road, with some moving towards our building. Yikes!

Now, I really needed to get my phone already. I went inside to grab it. None of my cats was visible. They must’ve gotten spooked by the eerie whimpering sound. Whatever the things were up to downstairs, me and my cats were out of danger. There was no way they could reach the elevator button to get up here, I thought to myself. I hoped Dupey and his strayfriends were safe hiding too though. Then, just in a matter of seconds, the whimpering sound got louder, sounding really close, like they were outside my door, my balcony door. You must be kidding me!

I opened my balcony’s door, just a small crack, just enough to peer outside. To my horror, I saw one muddy hand reaching for the edge of my balcony. Oh no no no you are not getting in here! I shut and locked the balcony’s door. Time to call the police. But when I tried to dial, my vision got blurred. I couldn’t see the numbers clearly. I was panicking as I heard the whimpering sound right against my door. Then, a loud bang. One of my cats knocked down my ironing board. HUUUUHHH! I took a deep breath of relief as I was awoken by the bang. It was all just a bad dream…

My top 5 car situation:

5. Was driving home from my mom’s. It was a 40 mins drive. A rainstorm was brewing. I didn’t want to get caught in a heavy rain so I picked up the speed. Then big raindrops started to hammer down. Turning on my wipers. Only that my wipers didn’t budge. I could stop under the nearest overpass and wait till the rain passed, but I was just about 10km away from my place, so I hit the accelerator so hard and drove like a crazy woman trying to beat the rain to it. Got the wipers motor fixed the next day.

4. One sweet day, while driving, as I turned the steering wheel to go left I heard a snapping sound then my turn signals stick went crazy going up and down making the turn signal lights went cuckoo blinking left and right non-stop. I tried to make it stop by holding the stick still, but the rowdy stick refused to be restrained. In the end, I used some rubberbands and strapped my lipstick to the signal stick to buffer its haywire movements. It worked. Im a genius. Got it fixed the next day.

3. Went to the petrol station to fill up the tank. Paid the attendant, said thank you then starting the engine. Only that my car won’t start. I maintained my composure at first, then lost it after trying to start up the engine many times. I looked at the rear view mirror and there were like 4 cars queuing behind mine. Oh crap! The attendant then pushed my car to the side to give way to the other cars. He asked me to wait for a bit while he finished up with the 4 cars. He temporarily closed his section, went to get his car at the back and using his jumper cables helped me jump start my car. Everything took less than 15 minutes. What a class act. Got the car battery replaced right away.

2. Went to attend a conference, parked my car, got out, locking the car door (Yes, my car is still the one with keyholes). Only that as I turned the key to lock the door, the key broke. I was left with the top part in my hand and the rest still lodged in the keyhole. To make matter worse, a security guard approached me asking me to move my car as I was parked at the wrong parking area. It wasn’t hard to convince the security guard that I can’t move my car when I showed him the broken key. I had to hitch a ride home after the conference late in the afternoon. My poor car stayed overnight there. Only in the morning the next day my staff helped sent me back there (bless him) and I used my spare key to enter the car from the passenger side and drove the car home. The following day, the same staff (bless him again) brought the car to the workshop to remove the broken piece from the keyhole and he also got some extra spare keys made. What a class act.

1. Just returned from a 2-month long course overseas. My car was parked at my parent’s while I was away. Time to pick up my car. I reconnected the car battery and the car started normally, no issue. Drove the car back to my place which was 40 mins away. The drive was smooth (so I thought). Stopped by a petrol station nearby my place to fill up the tank. As I pulled in, the petrol station workers ran away like they’ve just seen a ghost. Puzzled, I stopped the car and went out to check what was wrong. To my horror, I saw smoke coming out of my rear wheel. Seconds later the smoke faded away and disappeared. Turned out that the brake pad did not release like it should so the brake disc heated up as I drove the car releasing the smoke. The image of the workers scrambling away for their lives still sticks in my mind until this day.

Top 5 things that annoy me.

5. Price stickers. I got two issues with this thing. First, why the heck, of all places, the sellers always placed the price stickers in the middle or front side especially on glasswares like plates, glasses and jars, knowing that they are sooo hard to peel off completely. Second, their sticky residues are just too stubborn to remove. I tried to scrap them off using my nails and they tend to just smudge to other areas, looking worser than before. The same goes with the annoying road tax stickers which left a lot of mess. Arrrgh!

4. Suction cups. I never had any success stories with suction cups. No matter how hard I pressed them against the glass or tiles, wet them first and everything, they will pop off the moment I turned my back. Some were promising at first, but they would eventually end up on the floor. Arrrgh!

3. Sticky tapes. Sticky tapes come in many sizes. Whatever size they are, I struggle to find the end of the tape roll all the time. Sure they are tape dispensers and many tips on youtube, but who got time to prepare all that during every tape situation? Double-sided tapes are equally annoying too, especially thin ones which are so hard to peel off. Arrrgh!

2. Garbage bags. Garbage bags come in packs of 10, sometimes 50. I don’t know if there is a trick to doing it that Im not aware of, but everytime I tried to get a fresh garbage bag I struggled to neatly slip one out without unraveling the entire pack and having garbage bags falling all over the floor. It seems like I have to lay the pack on a surface, unfold them, take one, then fold them back again. Quite annoying especially if I’m in a hurry. Arrrgh! The other issue with garbage bags, in fact all plastic bags and everything plastic including disposable clear plastic gloves, is that they are so hard to open, it took quite a struggle each time. Arrrgh!

1. Dust. Omg! Where do I even begin. Even talking about it gets me worked up. Dust dust dust everywhere! everyday! I can even see them now on my screen and keyboard while I’m typing this. Even my vacuum cleaner is depressed from being too overworked. They came back in less than 24 hours. Arrrgh!

Information on google said that one can recall events from age 3 to 4 years old. For me, I don’t actually remember a lot. But a few moments that happened in the 1970s that I specifically remember clearly being there and experiencing them, after I was born of course.

One that keeps on replaying in my mind is the moment when my brother was born. It was in 1978 when I was just 6 years old. Like myself and the rest of my siblings, my brother was born at home. There was nothing in my memory about me noticing, being curious or asking my mom about her pregnant belly. So when one day, my mom and this stranger lady entered the room and locked the door I was so curious about what were they doing in there. I distinctly remember peeking through the crack under the door but I couldn’t see anything. Turned out that my mom had a baby. I don’t remember being excited about it, although thinking about it now I am really glad that I have a baby brother.

The other thing that I can recall clearly is waiting for my dad to get home from work. My dad worked at the Belait district. So he would leave for work very early in the morning and only got home late in the afternoon. The road to Belait was only one lane back then making the commute slower and more daunting. My dad’s first car was Datsun 120Y by the way. Me and my sister, who is 16 months older than me, would excitedly wait at the porch. Everytime my dad got home, he would sit on the sofa at the porch, took off his shoes, then we would pull out his socks for him.

There are a lot of memories from school. Me and my siblings went to the same primary school, Sekolah Rendah Sinaut. The school was very close to our house, just a minute walk away. Unfortunately, I don’t remember my first day at school. I should be 5 years old when I started Darjah 1. But I do remember joining my parents sending my sister to her first day of school the year before when I was 4. I remember that day I was crying because I wanted to go to school too. Had I known that school was hell, I wouldn’t bother crying.

Something amusing which happened that I remember very clearly when I was about 6 or 7 years old. It never failed to make me smile everytime I think about it. The school canteen started selling the Nutella mini packs for 50cents each. It was definitely out of my budget at that time which was only 20cents per day. I remember being so curious and wanting to taste it so much. So my solution was to walk home and ask for 30cents from my mom. When I got home, not only that my mom scolded me for not being at school, she also didn’t give me the 30cents that I cutely requested for. I disappointedly ran back to school and was about to cross the road when my mom changed her mind and called me back to get the 30cents. She was afraid that I would get run over by cars because of “kepunan“. I got to buy my nutella in the end, and the taste was glorious and worth the effort.

We went to visit my dad’s grave yesterday. It has been 14 years since my dad passed away. I kept on asking myself if I have done enough to show my appreciation to my dad when he was still alive. I remember back in the days every time I went to visit my dad he would ask me what did I bring for him. My dad really loved curry puffs so I never missed getting them for him. His face would light up as he enjoyed the curry puffs that I brought. He would sit by his small radio listening to the memukun programme wearing his white singlet and kain pelikat. I hope he was happy.

When I went overseas, my dad always asked me to get the Body Shop perfume for him. He would call it minyak undar. I can still remember the Body Shop scents that he liked, Activist and White Musk. They would be his trademark smell. I always made sure that he never ran out of supply.

So after the trip to the cemetery, I went to my mom’s house for sungkai. The weather looked like a bad storm was coming. Continuous thunder could be heard. Leaves flying everywhere as the wind became stronger. The sounds of broken tree branches could be heard. I peered outside to check if I was parked near a tree. Then came the heavy rain.  There was no way that I would drive in the heavy rain. So I stayed longer until the rain stopped.

It was close to 9pm when the thunderstorm subsided. It was still drizzling though, but it was my mom’s bedtime which was the cue for me to go and make my way back to Bandar. The were still many cars on the highway. I was driving very slow as always. There was this large bus driving so fast. It even overtook me. My car’s radio somehow didn’t work. Maybe because of the weather. I played some youtube music video on my iPad just to make the drive not as long and boring as it already was.

As I arrived in Bandar, I stopped to buy some fried chicken for Dupey and his straymates. I just couldn’t stand looking at their disappointed look when I brought nothing for them. So I made the effort even though I was already tired and looking forward to call it the day.

It was around 1030pm when I finally reached my place. Dupey was so excited to see me, wagging his tail, jumping about. I gave him three fat pieces of the fried chicken which he happily tucked (all three!) in his mouth and off he went. I gave one each to the “onlookers”.

Tired, I dragged my feet to the elevator and went up to my floor. I unlocked my gate and door. I was expecting my cats to meow frantically as they always did when they hear me at the door. But it was all quiet. Strange, I thought to myself. When I opened the door, I was overwhelmed with the smell of perfume that gushed out. The smell was so strong to dismiss the fact that something was going on.

I sniffed and sniffed to ensure that it was not just my imagination. I tried to follow the source but the strong smell was everywhere. It has permeated throughout my apartment. It was the smell of my dad’s Body Shop perfume. I sat on the edge of my bed resigned with the idea that my dad was there visiting me. My eyes were bawling and I said dad Selamat Hari Raya… Im sorry if I ever made you felt that I took you for granted… I missed you so much…

After catching my breath from the heavyduty water works, I went to check on my cats who have not been seen and made no sound since I arrived home. I found them in my bathroom all huddled together on top of the cabinet. They got the spooked look on their faces. On the floor I saw black glass shards scattered everywhere. I knelt to take a closer look. Turned out that they were pieces of a broken Body Shop’s Activist perfume glass bottle which my cats knocked over. This explained their scared look and them being quiet because they knew that they were in trouble.

It was quite a big bottle that I have kept on the display rack in memory of my dad. The content seeped through the bathroom’s tiles and the vapour travelled throughout my place. Oh well, I knew it was too good to be true, but the sense of relieve and closure  during the intense seconds still felt so real…

Top 5 WTF forgetful moments:

5. Went to gerai, ordered $10 worth of fried chicken, told seller will come back in 5, went home. Only remembered about the chicken the next day.

4. Got home, went to bed. The next day could not find my car key, looked for spare key, went down and saw the car key still in the keyhole.

3. Got home, popped the car’s trunk, unload some stuff, carried them upstairs, went inside, played with my iPad, relaxed in bed, heard dog barking, went out to balcony, looked down and saw my trunk still wide open.

2. Got home, unlocked my door, went inside, went to bed. The next day discovered my house key still in the keyhole outside.

1. Going to work, hands were full, put my phones (2 phones!) on the car’s roof to free up one hand to get car key, got key, started the car’s engine, went in car and drove off. Phones still on the roof, flew off, landed on road, ran over by multiple cars. RIP both.