Tag Archives: COVID-19

Thoughts in English

Plants and Me

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I like plants. Plants present me with a certain symbol of growth and life. From a young age, I have been amazed at how a small seed, plucked into some soil, could grow into a mung bean tree. And my success sort of stopped at that. Despite attempts to grow different kinds of plant, to my mother’s dismay of bringing dirty soil to our apartment knowing that my little garden would be abandoned and the task of cleaning up left to her, I have never been successful at keeping them.

A few days ago, I decided to order two succulents from the internet. Yes, I just ordered plants to be transported to my apartment lobby through the internet. And this is where the motivation to write an article on plants began. Come to think about it, I have many imprinting pieces of memory about plants. This article will revolve around my various encounters with and thoughts about plants at different stages in life with the hope that I will not fail this time round.

The Childhood Lessons

  • One of the first practical lessons about nature was growing beansprouts. We were given several beans to start with and some wet tissue papers. It was such a life-changing experience for me. As a kid, it was wonderful to see a new life growing from a tiny seed/bean. We were then taught to put the different seeds and beans into soil to learn that some plants take longer to grow. Then things got harder and my skills plummeted. Apart from beans (which do not need any effort to make them grow), I don’t think I had been successful in any other plants. As a homework, I was tasked to grow jasmine (not from scratch but from a blooming jasmine (tree?)). After a while, leaves started to fall and no more flowers were to be seen. I should probably have taken heed of that lurking omen that I did not have a green thumb.
  • In science lessons, I was introduced to the concept of oxygen and carbondioxide. At this point, you can probably guess what happened. I learned that plants give out oxygen during the day and emit carbondioxide which is not good for us to breathe during the night. This concept stuck until well into my twenties. When I was in the UK for my university, despite the urge to grow a plant, I did not dare to do it out of fear that I would suffocate at night. I only learned that the CO2 amount that plants emit is minimal as long as I don’t grow mangoes in my tiny unit when I started working at 25 years of age.

Vegetables in my own backyard

  • Despite my unsuccessful attempts at growing plants when I was a kid, I was still confident that it was only because I was too ambitious. Every flower is difficult to grow. This is what I kept telling myself. Herbs and vegetables might work. Since one of my favourite dishes is stir-fried pork/chicken with basil, I decided to grow basil in the house I shared with my friends at university in the UK (not in my room of course! the tree would make me suffocate!). Some of you may have seen the ready-potted basil sold in supermarkets like Sainsbury’s. I bought one of those. I cut the first few leaves to cook and was so happy that I would not need to buy basil leaves ever. I continued to water it but no leaves grew back. I kept the basil pot at the windowsill near the kitchen. I was in Durham at the time. I did what most Brits do. I blamed the weather! The wind was just too strong and the sun was no where to be seen for 360 days a year. So I abandoned the basil experiment.
  • After I finished my studies and came back to Bangkok in 2014, the idea of growing my own vegetables reemerged. This time, I was told that nothing could go wrong with growing morning glory. So I brought home some soil and morning glory seeds. I put the pot on top of the air-conditioner’s compressor on my tiny balcony. It took only a few days for morning glory shoots to be seen above the soil. I was very happy. Yet, they stopped growing. They stopped at the height of about 4-5 inches. I thought to myself, ‘well, maybe they did not have enough sun since there was another medium-rise condominium next to mine. Also, the trembling AC compressor was not conducive to plants. Another failure.

Starting afresh, plants for aesthetic purpose

  • Now this bullet is connected to the revelation that one can grow plants indoor. Special mention needs to go to my supervisor at work, without whom, I would have continued to resist having plants in my room. Having failed at various kinds of plant in the past, I resolved to grow cactus. I bought two from a market one day. One for me and one for my colleague (who is now my girlfriend). Cactus for me is probably the most fool-proof plant in the world. You can go wrong with morning glory but you really can’t go wrong with cactuses. But I did. Both plants started shedding yellow leaves/spikes. And they were slowly giving up. But then, maybe they did not have enough natural sunlight.
  • So here I am. In Jakarta, my unit has a lot of sunlight especially in the morning. A colleague asked me a couple of weeks ago where could she find decorative plants in Jakarta. That gave me the inspiration of getting plants for myself. To my surprise, they sell them online. I have never thought of buying plants online before. After payment, I was excited to think how they would transport my plants (yes I bought two). It turned out that the shops were really good at this. The pot and soil were packed separately. Each plant was covered with tissue paper inside a box with protective wrappings.
    I put them on the windowsill, with a lot of sunlight. I even looked up how to take care of them this time. I resist giving them names for now. I hope they will survive.

And I will update you, my dear readers, on this.

Thoughts in English

…and I had to cut my own hair

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A few weeks ago, when my hair was of medium-length, I mentioned about not being able to go to barbershops due to the measures adopted all over the world to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Since then, I have procured myself a set of clipper, combs, and scissors for my very first self-haircut.

I do not intend to post my photos here. But I want to talk about the preparation and resources I relied on.

First thing first, I had to have an idea of how I want my hair to look like. My hair is best described as a long faded cut. Short but tapered at the sides, longer at the top. So I could not just have the clipper, I would also need a set of ‘trimming guides’, the plastic tops of different lengths to put on the trimmer. And thinning scissors (which I found to be most valuable). Another thing that you should never forget is the hand-held mirror so you can look at the back of your head. I cannot stress how important this is.

Then I studied Youtube videos. There is quite a lot of videos out there teaching how to cut your own hair. A word of advice here, watch a lot of videos and you will be able to decide which technique suits you best. In the end, I only used about half of the instructions from Youtube. The rest, I learned when I was actually cutting my hair.

So here are some of the things I learned.

  • On Youtube, some say you should dampen your hair a bit. I’d say there is no need especially if this is the first time. Doing the cut while my hair was dry allowed me to see how much I cut and whether the cut was equal on both sides of the head.
  • You may also hear that you need to part your hair and put on some hair clips to keep your hair at the top in place, thus making it easier to cut your sides. In reality, my hair was not that long and wouldn’t hold. I even tried rubber band but still, it would work if my top was longer. So I’d say, don’t worry too much about this.
  • Look carefully at how the Youtubers use clippers especially the angles, the finishing and how they blend different layers of hair together. That proved really useful for a fade or an undercut.
  • The back is almost always the hardest. Use the hand-held mirror to guide. If that is too hard, then use your other hand to mark the point where the clipper should stop. This will prevent you getting a buzz cut unintentionally.
  • Thinning scissors are really versatile. Basically, they allow you to just go around the top cutting until you reach the desired length without feeling embarrassed.
  • Have a vacuum cleaner nearby.

Having done it once, I guess I won’t mind doing it again! Good luck!

Thoughts in English

When barbershops are closed…

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For more than two/three weeks (depending where you are) now that shops have shut their doors to customers. Some of us might miss the restaurants, the bars, or cinemas. But one thing that might concern most guys is the closure of barbershops. Correct me if I am wrong and depending on what you do for a living, guys (between 30-59 years of age) tend to have their hair cut about once a month. By now, many, like me, may start thinking what to do with our hair.

One thing that I am considering is to buy a set of clipper and scissors. During my first year in the UK, it was difficult to find an Asian barber so one of my friends, with her set of special scissors and comb agreed to cut my hair for me. It went well. This nostalgic thought then inspired me to look around Youtube how to cut my own hair.

Youtube clips may be deceiving but they have made it seem easy enough. Clip-on combs that can be put on the clipper allow you to adjust the length of your side and back. Then trim the top with scissors.

At the same time, I have also been warned! It may not turn out the way I wanted and I may have to walk around with a cap long after the COVID-19 situation gets better.

So I guess I will wait a bit until it’s unbearable. Then I will write a short review about it!

Thoughts in English

2020 Resolution while being at home

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By now, most of the world are practicing social distancing. Many companies and organisations have adopted the Work From Home (WFH) arrangement or reduced the time for personnel to physically be at office to keep everyone safe from being infected and infecting others. It appears that social distancing will be a 2020 normal at least for a quarter of the year.

While our choice of activities outside our homes is temporarily limited, what we gain instead is time. Working from home, for instance, saves you from commuting be it by public transport or the comfort of your own cars. You gain, on average, an hour or two everyday. Even if you don’t work from home, you still have to cut down your activities outside drastically. For me, this is a good opportunity to take up the extra time at home and make good use of it for self-development. Here are some of the things that I want to do with the extra time I have. This is my 2020 Resolution while being at home. You may want to think about yours too!

  1. Cooking – I have always wanted to cook better. Perhaps I have been watching too much Masterchef. My usual recipes revolve around stir-fried vegetables with some shredded meat or baked fish. Over time, I have also become bored with my cooking. But you know the feeling of coming back from work and not wanting to cook anymore? Quite often, the hunger gets over me and I end up cooking something quick without paying much attention to taste, composition or ingredients that would enhance the taste of my dishes even further. Moreover, learning a new recipe takes time.

    So this is the time. I can learn a new recipe from Youtube or I can just refine and put more efforts in the dishes I usually cook.
  2. Finance Planning – I do have an extensive (and somewhat sophisticated) financial plan. But I only update it from time to time. So it’s not doing its job of advising me on the best course of action to take financially. So with some extra time, I am hoping to update it more often. Besides, the plunge in stocks around the world is a strong enough incentive for me to review some of my plans!
  3. Keeping fit – Due to the fact that I like to do many things in a day, I allocate exercise to about 3-4 times a week. With the extra time, I hope I can do something to be in good shape everyday. Also, my goal of running a full marathon within this year is still intact. And I am still hopeful that the situation with the coronavirus will ease towards the end of the year. So I am using this opportunity to do some core strengthening and get my body ready for the intensive trainings later when opportunity allows.
  4. Be organised – With work, travel plans, functions, gatherings, it is not easy to have a fifteen-minute sit down to declutter my life everyday let alone to ponder long into the future. This is no doubt a good time to organise and review a long term plan for my life.
  5. Learning – This sounds nerdy and cliché but as a firm believer in lifelong learning, I can’t help but reiterate this idea again. The world is changing at a more rapid speed. The cost from not learning is much higher as knowledge now makes a difference between life and death. A friend of mine once introduced me to online learning platform Coursera. I have not enrolled in any course yet but it may be something worth doing, perhaps on something finance-related!
  6. Writing – To be a good writer, as someone said to me, you have to continue to write – write everyday, he said. Thus, I am trying to get into the habit of coming up with something to write everyday. I am also working on my novel (written in Thai) and I hope to get it done by my 31st birthday.

What is your 2020 resolution while being at home?