Seven sounds like... half of 14, isn't it? It sure is; after today we're already halfway in our quarantine - and we're only getting started. Not. No intention to extend. Still, no worries, all good! Although, I do have a suggestion: 7 days hotel quarantine, 7 days home quarantine - seems to be what more and more countries are doing, it's much more pragmatic. Sure, some people quarantining at home are abusing the situation, but it'll be minimal and the risk is minor. Here's the math hocus pocus. Assume 1% of all arriving travellers carries the virus. Assume around 50% of them develop symptoms within the first week (should be more). From the remaining 50% going home, assume 25% of all people will not correctly obey home quarantine. Add all that together, apply to the 25.000 or so arrivals since quarantine rules in July - and you get a risk of around 30 extra cases in public compared to the full 14 days hotel quarantine - in nearly 2 months time. And honestly, it'll be clearly less than that, because I took some shortcuts. So, is that really worth the heavy burden of 14 days of quarantine? If anyone has access to the ministry: it's my suggestion. For free. No need to thank me.
 |
Did I ever say I wasn't going to do the daily food thing? Well, maybe, but just have to do it. We had bread for breakfast today, and a croissant! Yeeey! Maybe because it's Malaysia Day? By the way, no daily view from our room today, maybe that's OK then?
|
OK. Hope you didn't drop out after the above calculation. I have very different things to tell today. First of all: today is our 26th wedding anniversary! Hooray, 26 years of happy marriage - celebrated with an all-in 14 days hotel stay. I'd wish I could share a picture of our wedding in 1994, but these are safely stored at home - ah, we can't get there now. Did we do anything special today? Nope, not really - there's not real chance for that! Only with our secret little special book we can try a celebration later on... Speaking about which. When I asked for what you'd all like me to write about, the only responses I received (yet several!) were: more info on the positions we had tried so far! Oh, come on, you dirty b***s, you thought I'd be sharing that??? But hey, here are some more statistics...
 |
77 positions... In 14 days. That means, 5.5 per day to finish all within the quarantine. Hm. We're doing our very best, it's hard work! (it does not belong under the "housework" category from the title though)
|
 |
| Talking about exercise... Back in March, during my Leuven quarantine, I did some garden running (like 200 laps of 60m...). Now, in the hotel room, that really doesn't work. Look at my daily steps since our arrival. Ouch. We're doing our daily workouts, that's about all movement we have. We are doing several muscle strengthening and stretching exercises, plus a little bit of cardio work. |
Finally, I mentioned it before, this is not your typical hotel stay, it's "not a holiday". There is no room service for 14 days, no cleaning, no fresh sheets and so on. What you need these 14 days is roughly provided in the room in advance - although in our room I think things were provided for 1 person only. If needed you can ask for it, but the staff won't enter your room - that's the whole purpose of a quarantine of course! Being halfway, we did ask for 2 fresh bath towels, which they happily provided. We also needed some more toilet paper... We'll have to ask for more water soon as well, still waiting until we know how much more we'll need. The hotel service has been really great and extremely friendly, it must be said!
Meanwhile, we also need to find ways to take care of some other things... to keep (or get) things clean.
 |
We don't have any cleaning stuff, so we use what we have, tissue in this case - but first of all, we try to keep everything clean as much as we can... (by the way, these are crumbs from a very yummy crispy roti yesterday)
|
 |
Doing the dishes in the bathroom sink, without detergent, with a washcloth we brought. Well, dishes is exaggerated: 1 coffee maker, 2 cups, 2 glasses, cutlery and sometimes a plate. That's all.
|
 |
14 days without laundry would be difficult, especially because we didn't bring a container of clothes with us (see yesterday's post) and the daily exercises make us sweat a bit as well. Luckily we have a bath tub and bath soap, so that's solved...
|
 |
This is as close as we get to a drying rack on the balcony
|
 |
| And we also have other drying infrastructure in the room |
Getting there; as I write this, we are almost literally halfway in our special treat holiday and from now on we can start to count down to our release. I guess it's time we start to make a list and planning of what we want to eat once we get out. Laksa for instance... Mmmmmmmm.
