Tag Archives: Covid-19

Health & Fitness

Off with the face masks!

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It is now 3 years since the beginning of the COVID pandemic and since we started wearing face masks. Luckily, me and my family haven’t been infected till now. In India, most people didn’t take masks seriously to begin with. But now, masks are a mere distant memory of more inconvenient times. Which is why, it is such a culture shock to see how serious Thais still are about them. 

In Thailand, it seems like masks are here to stay. Although, the government has removed the compulsions of masks, the Thais have decided to stick with them for now. 

Thai students wearing masks
Thai students wearing masks

Almost every Thai wears masks, all the time, everywhere. On the streets, in shopping malls, at restaurants, in pubs and in offices. In offices, they wear masks even when sitting at their desks all day. When eating or drinking something, the masks are temporarily lowered for the bite/sip and then pulled back up. Basically, the exact opposite of Indians. 

I assume Thais take off their masks when they are at home and while sleeping, however I have no evidence for the same. Overall, I think it is commendable how Thais are so serious about protecting their health and of those around them. 

Of course, none of this compares with the Chinese, who have taken COVID precautions to whole new (crazy) levels. I still see people in full hazmat suits at airports everywhere and I know that when I look at their passports, they will turn out to be Chinese. 

Chinese taking masks to a new level
Chinese taking masks to a new level
Rant

It is not impossible to avoid COVID

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I recently got a COVID RT-PCR test done. It was negative. I also got a COVID antibody test done. That was negative, too.

This means I have never had COVID. This is weird, because as per most judgemental North Indians, I should be teeming with viruses.

I am living life as close to normal as possible in the last many months. I have been ordering food from outside, going to malls, pubs, restaurants etc. but with precautions like wearing a mask (properly, not like Covidiots) and maintaining social distancing. I have even been on a airplane three times.

This makes me wonder if most people in North India are focussing on the wrong things to avoid COVID all this time. Most North Indians are

  1. Not ordering food from outside
  2. Not stepping outside their homes at all
  3. Being over protective of children

However, none of the above is stopping them from getting their maids to slave for them at their homes everyday.

It seems that most people focus on the wrong things and don’t exercise common sense and then cry when they get infected (Front line workers exempted). Even the country’s president doesn’t know how to wear a mask correctly.

Ram Nath Kovidiot
Hate, Rant

Mall Covidiots

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The mall is where you get to see the worst of humanity, as I have previously noted here, here & here. These days, they are full of covidiots. On a recent trip to Ambience Mall, I decided to observe them in detail and discovered that there are different types.

The first type are the ones who wear a mask, but keep their noses out of the mask. Their aim is to fool casual observers into thinking that they are fully masked, but the joke is on you, as their respiratory tract is actually completely unobstructed. They can get away with this in 90% situations with minimal inconvenience of a mask on their face.

Covidiots-Type 1

The second type are the ones who wear a mask on their chin. They don’t pretend to be complying with mask rules, but have a mask dangling from their chin just in case someone challenges them, when they can quickly move the mask up and cover their faces like nothing happened.

Covidiots-Type 2

The third type are the boldest. They won’t wear a mask at all. They won’t even pretend to wear a mask, nor do they carry a mask in their hand. They are above all this pretentious bullshit. They roam around openly without a mask, just waiting for someone to challenge them, so that they can inform them who their uncle/father is.

Covidiots-Type 3

The saddest part of all this? It took me less than 2 minutes of sitting stationary in the mall to take these photos.

Rant

The Lockdown finally got me running

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The first few weeks of the lockdown felt awesome. No need to go to work & lot of time freed up from the daily commute. I spent most of this time drinking and lying around. However, eventually the lying around became quite tiring physically.

Things were so bad, I went through most days with less than 200 steps. The less I moved, the more tired I felt. Eventually, I was always tired and even getting out of the bed seemed a huge challenge. I knew I needed some exercise. I tried Darebee’s daily workout for a few days, but I didn’t find it motivating and couldn’t sustain it long enough. What I needed was to go out and run, but with the lockdown, that was out of the question.

By the end of the lockdown, I was so eager to go out and run that when we were allowed to go out, I started running immediately and fortunately, was able to maintain the habit over many months.

My energy levels came back up, I felt much better after the workouts, I could focus more at work and I slept better. I also started watching my diet and limiting what I eat on weekdays.

  • Body Fat
  • Weight
  • VO2 Max
  • Resting Heart rate

Some other quantifiable gains over these 3 months of daily running

  • Weight came down from 70.4kgs to 64.5kgs
  • Body fat % came down from 14.5 to 11.7
  • VO2 Max went up from 39.3 to 46.8
  • Resting heart rate went down from 65 to 55

It’s not that I am fanatic about running. Since I can spare only 15-20 minutes daily between meetings, I run only 2km each time. But I do this with consistent pace and do it regularly without skipping days. Whenever I feel like skipping a day, I think about how lucky I am to be able to go out at all.

Schedule

I hope I am able to keep up the cadence, at least till the air quality here goes to shit, like it does each year and going out becomes impossible.

Food & Beverage, Rant, Travel, Work

Weirdest Birthday Ever

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This year, I had the weirdest birthday ever. Normally, my birthday is spent with a close family lunch and a wider family dinner. This year, however, I had to travel to Bangkok for work & since this was my last week in this particular company, I didn’t say no.

I went on the company trip and planned my family to visit me on the weekend before my birthday and stay till the day after my birthday, but because of the Covid-19 situation, their trip had to be cancelled. On top of that, my birthday was a Thai holiday, so I was staring at spending my birthday alone.

I started the day waking up late and having a leisurely breakfast at the hotel.

English breakfast + Samosa

I saw a couple of movies, and then was surprised by the Hotel staff with a birthday cake. The cake was delicious and heavy, so I skipped lunch.

Weirdest Birthday
Cake!

In the evening, I took a long walk to Benjakiti Park, took the Skytrain From Asok to Phrom Phong station and spent some time at the Emquartier mall. After roaming round the Glass Quartier, the Waterfall Quartier, I headed for dinner at the Helix Quartier.

The Helix Quartier PC: รีวิวท่องเที่ยวทั่วไทย

The Helix Quartier is a beautifully designed section of the mall. As the name says, it has a gently sloping walkway in the shape of a Helix without a clear distinction between different floors, with restaurants lining both sides of the walkway. I found a nice Korean Organic Chicken and Rice place and had a hearty meal.

Organic Korean Chicken and Rice

After dinner, I went back to the hotel, alone, watched some TV and fell asleep, thus bringing to end, the weirdest birthday ever.

Rant

Lockdown Day 16

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Today is day 16 of my lockdown (Day 11 of the official government lockdown).

During this time, I haven’t used my car, gone out of my apartment complex, or seen many human beings (which is good). I have gone out of my flat less than 5 times, to collect essentials, which are now being delivered at the society gate.

Lockdown
Rare View

On the bright side, the air is clean, weather is starting to heat up and the flowers are blooming.

On the negative side, I am definitely getting some cabin fever now and my allergies have flared up. Hope for all this to go back to relatively normal soon.

Rant

Locked Down

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So, the entire country has been locked down for 3 weeks. No one can go outside. People who do go outside, face this.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdDGUvLoJvI&w=560&h=315]

Today is the 6th day of being cooped up with family. Patience is running thin and tempers are high; however, things are stabilizing slowly.

Between office work & household chores, there’s no time for boredom and the days are passing by quickly.

Today while cooking, I found this old friend, which should make the next few days a bit easier.

Old and forgotten friend

Kudos to delivery guys who are keeping us well stocked and fed. Shame on people who are deliberately hiding their travel history or flouting self-isolation requirements by socializing. I hope they are thrown into jail where they get infected again and this time rot in isolation.