2021 Is The Year Of Delta Variant And Living On Auto Pilot Mode

Hello, lovelies!

It's that time of the year when I roll out my take on the past 365 days. 2021was not an easy year for me. As you noticed, I barely blog this year. Well, it's because there were not much to tell. After going through from one lockdown to another, I was living the year on auto pilot mode. 

Here are the recap of 2021 in a monthly basis:

January: Got an offer to work on another writing project on earthquake aid relief. Finally received the payment on the work I did in Sumba island last December. My colleague was admitted to hospital due to HNP, so I had to take in her work load.

February: Worked on the earthquake aid relief stories, while also taking in my colleague's work load. Things were already looking glum, and it's just the second month of the year.

March: A friend got a chance to house-sit her friend's apartment for a few months. I went to visit my friend on the weekends and get access to the apartment's swimming pool. Managed to go to the tax office and submit tax reports for the 2019 and 2020 (I couldn't submit last year because all tax offices were closed due to the pandemic and I didn't understand the format for freelancers, I just had to come to the office and ask for assistance). This was probably the month when I felt most at ease in 2021.

April: M was ill for one week ahead of Ramadhan, but fortunately, she recovered just in the right time to face the fasting month. However, D's glucose level dropped on the second day of Ramadhan and we had to rush him to ER. He got better after a few hours of treatment. One of the SG-based clients ended the contract.

May: Two of my clients extended the work contract, with the SG-based client only extending until end on August (not a good sign, though) and the ID-based client for one year (Alhamdulillah!)

June: Had a quick jaunt to Bandung to attend a meeting. The number of cases began to surge. I received news of friends getting sick, and two of my uni friends died due to COVID-19 this month.

July: This was the month when I heard ambulance sirens at least three times a day. I received my first dose of COVID-19 vaccine made by AstraZeneca, became feverish for around 36 hours but got better afterwards. Tokyo Olympics, which was supposed to be held in 2020, was officially opened on July 23, and the sport event had been God sent. For around 20 days of Tokyo Olympics, I forgot what pandemic is like.

August: Couldn't really remember anything special from this month, apart from taking an online class on Al Quran study. We went from one lockdown to another in this month. Things passed by in a blur.

September: Took another online class on Al Quran recite study. M&D finally got fully vaccinated, they got Pfizer. My business partner was deceived by a scammer, and unfortunately she borrowed money from me to give to the scammer, so I also lost money.

October: Completed my COVID-19 vaccination, no side effect in this second dose. My manager of the SG-based client informed me about the salary cut that reached 70%, although the report was only 30% simplified. I asked for a few days to think things over. Then, one of my Indonesian clients informed me about contract suspension. This left me with no option but to continue with the job that had salary cut, but I asked that I got a day off every Monday. Checked out the recently-opened IKEA store in Cakung, East Jakarta.

November: Had a meet-up with a friend who has been working in Paris since 2017. Took two simultaneous translation works, one was from a mining company, while the other one an NGO. I also had a chance to take a free one-week mini course on business development in technology (sales in tech), quite interesting I must say.

December: Had a mini reunion with my uni friends in Ciputat. Took an online mini course on data analysis. Drafted a list on things to do for 2022 and beyond. Lo and behold, news of Omicron variant already circulated.

It was a good thing that I jotted down my daily activities on my handmade calendar. Otherwise, I would feel that 2021 just passed me by. Well, nothing brought ultimate joy this year, but at least I am still here and have gained some new experiences. 

I pray that in the year to come, Allah grant all of us health, wealth and stronger hearts. Can I get an amen?

Some #AchievementUnlocked In The Past Few Days

After working hard in January and February, I managed to visit a friend who was house-sitting her friend's apartment in the past few weeks. The apartment building has a swimming pool area, which was always vacant, so I got an opportunity to enjoy the whole pool for myself. Yay! I think I will come on every weekend as long as she is still apartment-sitting there.😀

I introduced my colleague who was injured with HNP to my friend (she also has had HNP) and we went to the pool to do some physiotherapy. My colleague could not swim so she used the kid's pool, while I practiced my backstroke in the bigger pool. I miss swimming so much. The pool was not doused heavily in chlorine, so it had been a very convenient swimming session.

The Sumba Island project and the earthquake aid relief project have been completed. My colleague has been able to take up half of the work load, so things have been going better so far. I still had to do more than what I should do, but being the work-organized person, I managed to finish everything on schedule.

Last week I picked up the tax-related documents from my clients and a few days ago I went to the tax office near my home to submit my tax reports for 2019 and 2020. Last year I could not submit the report because the online format for freelancers was confusing. I would rather come to the office and ask assistance from one of the officers.

Apart of going to the swimming pool and the tax report-related businesses, I spent time at home and monitored the news on the government's vaccine program (because it's part of my work). I have started some advocacy work on M&D so they take part in the vaccine program, but still no positive result from them. Let's just see the progress in the next few months.

February 2021 In Recap

February always feels shorter as it only has 28 days, but this year's February felt like zooming past me. I spent the days taking in my colleague's work load, my own work load and also working on my other clients' assignments. 

This month I still had three projects from the SG-based clients and two projects from my ID-based clients on a fixed contract. Meanwhile, I was also working on the revision on the Sumba Island project and starting on the earthquake aid relief project. Whenever I woke up from my night sleep this month, I quickly checked the day/date and the to-do list that I had wrote down the day before. This habit actually helped me to stay on track and finish every daily/weekly tasks on time so that I still had time to work on the other projects.

In the past, my colleague often joked that I have this mechanical response and work on a predetermined schedule. Well, look who's benefiting from my unique trait, none other than herself! 😆

Anyway, the writing assignment on the earthquake aid relief turned out to be in either raw form or in limited amount. Some of the data are in the form of newsletters, while some others still in the form of audio/video files. I also had to do additional interviews (note the plural form!) via Microsoft Teams, transcribe the audio/video files into text and then compiling the words into comprehensive articles.

Tangent: after using Skype and Webex for the SG-based client, I have been using Zoom, GMeet and WhatsApp Call for various work purposes. However, this was the first time I used Microsoft Teams and I was impressed. Teams can allow a computer to take over another computer so it can browse the content of the overtaken computer.

If I had more time to work on this assignment, I could enjoy the process more. But it was all about catching up with the deadline, so to be honest, I would say that it was not one of my best work. On a normal situation, I would beat myself for not giving the best result. During this pandemic, I just want to end the assignment as soon as possible, I could not wait to feel at ease again.

Works And Occupational Hazard

After completing the Sumba project, I thought I could have calm days ahead. However, another write-up project has waited just around the corner. This time, it's about the earthquakes that hit Lombok Island in 2018. I did not have to fly over to Lombok Island as the team promised to provide me with the necessary data. However, the data compiling process was not as smooth as I had expected and there were some interviews that I should conduct via Microsoft Teams, so the project was a bit delayed behind schedule.

 

The main issues that I needed to write were about emergency relief and disaster risk reduction. I am excited to work on the project because it is a relevant issue for Indonesia, which sits on the Ring of Fire and is vulnerable to various kinds of natural disaster. 

Tangent: it's a bit funny that I have been getting works on long-form articles because a few months ago, I sort of complained to a friend, wishing that I could write long-form articles.

 

Due to this Lombok earthquake project,  I downloaded Microsoft Teams on my cellphone, as my trusty old laptop (which will turn 11 years old this June/July) could not download the app. I simply hope that my cellphone (which will turn four years old this May) will be able to keep up working with Skype, Webex, Zoom, and Google Meet that have been downloaded previously.

Another issue that happened this week was my work partner experienced hernia nucleus pulposus (HNP) due to sitting for hours on the floor without any cushion during this Work-From-Home period. She was hospitalized for a few days, and then she was scheduled for MRI or CT scan (?).

On HNP, I have a few friends with the conditions, so I have been trying to connect my work partner to my friends. All of my friends with HNP recommended swimming or walking on the swimming pool as part of the physiotherapy. I relayed the information to her, but at the moment, she insisted on going to an acupuncturist.

I had to take over her duties because she was still in pain if she sit for too long. So this week, I had to adjust and worked around my schedules to ensure all works were completed on (or before) deadlines. My boss asked whether I needed a back up, but I think it would be a hassle to train an intern just for several months. I think the works are still manageable, as long as I stay on course.

Anyway, this incident that happened to my work partner has raised my awareness on the hidden risk of working from home. As working from home is far more comfortable than working from office, sometimes most of us could sit for hours, and this is not good for our backbone health. Now, I try to have a five-minute break after one-hour of work to stand up, stretch my body and have a glass of water. 

I guess I will have my schedules busy in months ahead, until she gets better and resumes her works. In the meantime, let's keep working and carry on stretching in between works and breaks, people.

When I Tried To Cook Prawns, But The Foods Did Not Turn Out As Instagrammable As I Expected

After months in the pandemic situation, people would start to do the unexpected. In my case, it was cooking. I can cook for survival, but I would not find any joy if I have to do it on a daily basis. This cooking journey began with me missing the restaurant foods and trying to be frugal since we have yet to see the end of the pandemic and the economy crisis. I ordered a pack of shrimp (or is it prawn?) from an online shop. 

Most of the recipes are from Devina Hermawan's YouTube channel, with a few tweaks because sometimes I did not have the exact ingredient at home.

Can you guess what these are? Well, they are supposed to be "lumpia udang ayam kulit tahu" (shrimp and chicken wrapped in tofu skin spring roll). The ones sold in the restaurant are usually in small sizes, but since I felt hungry and generous, I made them gigantic. Despite the ugly appearance, these tasted  quite okay.

 

This one was supposed to be Singapore chili prawn. I was afraid that it would turn out too spicy or sour, so I kind of reduced the chili and tomatoes, resulting on this pale-looking dish. But it still tasted good, at least M said so. We both ate this dish in one sitting.

 

I was trying to recreate ebi furai (fried crispy shrimp) of Hokben, and lo and behold, what the hell were these chonky-looking bent prawns? While I currently could not pass the appearance test in cooking, I tried compensate in the taste department. These were actually good and delicious.

 

I believed this dimsum was the most successful prawn-based dish I have made so far. But again, you can never fail in making dimsum. The best thing about dimsum is you can keep them frozen and steam them later.

While I enjoy cooking these dishes, I have to take a break from the prawns, because the cholesterol level has spiked afterwards. M actually loves it when I cook, because it means she does not have to cook. I guess you will see a similar post in the future under this label :).

Let's Do Something Different This Year :)

Found here