April 8, 2020
Lockdown Day 2
My morning begins with plenty of eye-rolling as I read the latest WhatsApp messages from mom. This time, it’s not about a young Indian psychic who ‘accurately’ predicted this global pandemic based on the alignment of the stars, but how the virus is engineered by the Americans to make China look bad.
“Please stop with all these conspiracy theories.” I texted back.
“The virus came from wildlife. End of.”
“Ya, must be a pro-China blogger. Her English is very poor,” she admitted in her reply.
Damn, I miss my mom. But maybe just a little bit.
Anyway, Wuhan — a massive industrial city in China where the virus originated from (and not America) — ended its brutal 76-day lockdown just yesterday, and the news is filled with reports of tens of thousands of excited people pouring out of the city by car, train and plane, even though the threat of infections remain far from over.
But I have far bigger things on my mind.
Like tutoring my 6-year-old, now that he’s supposed to be learning from home. The day starts out easily enough because it’s English lessons and I’m impressed with the riddle he has written.
Primary 1 math is also equally relaxed, until my 4-year-old does what he usually did when he is craving for attention. He starts climbing all over me and whining, and the rest of the lesson proceeds in such a fashion until I scream and my baby scuttles off to harass our helper.
It’s time for Chinese, and I start feeling beads of perspiration forming on my forehead. It is like reading hieroglyphics, except that the words in his book are mocking me: “Enjoy guessing, m****f*cker.”
I give up within five minutes and hand him the iPad to play some Chinese word games instead. Then he goes on Zoom, and brightens up visibly when he sees his friends and teacher.
Thanks to our ever so resourceful Alma, we eat pretty well (fishball noodle soup, if you’re wondering) despite running low on supplies. I hope this continues.
Mercifully, it rains in the evening so the kids know that heading outdoors is off the agenda. They begin working on their new Lego — we need to start rationing the toy loot if I want some ‘me’ time.
The husband called to check up on our families after dinner. The kids are mildly entertained because they do not realize the gravity of the situation. They do not realize how some families are torn apart in these times, but I hope reading this will make the realize how lucky they are.
We want to play Monopoly but — bad news!!!! — the dice is missing. No board games for a month?
God help us.
The boys start wrestling on the bed with their father. Great….they’re now bathed in sweat and highly-strung…and it’s way past bedtime.
Almost suddenly, I feel a debilitating pain from deep within my lower abdomen. I have mittelschmerz, a condition which occurs in about 1 in 5 women during ovulation. It sounds like a Nazi death camp because the pain is worse than labour contractions. I feel like dying.
I limp from room to room clutching my stomach, and finally collapse into bed for a restless early-night sleep.
