I am very active online, to burn my time and I watch documentary about WWII most of the time and I rarely go out to jog around my park during MCO after my dinner, so I decided to do it in my bunker. Let me tell you my view about Covid, in 2020 we had something coming over us that the world could not expect, an unknown foe invaded our nation, our people and our empire. It hit us where we are most humans in close contact, in hugs, talks, and celebrations. This virus made normal behavior risky, and unusual protective behavior normal, and 2020 is the year where humans learn. The virus pandemic was a once-in-a-century political, social and economic challenge. It must be suffering year for each leader of each country. 

In this month, I’ve read a lot of books about WWII and I find it very effective for my own wisdom. I seldom go out and eat during MCO and instead, I always cook a simple meal for myself as no one will help you, and I know there is plenty of people still going around during MCO and people are risking themself to death which is hard for me to understand, I always thought to myself, “Be the change that you want to see in this world” and therefore, it prevented me form going out. 

       But what’s the point of staying at home? We do nothing, not to say nothing but by playing video games, watching Netflix all day, staying in bed. I should be one of them but I did something better than that. Overall staying at home is not too bad, we get to spend more time with our families at home. We don’t get to be around with them when we get older so this will be the best chance to stay with them. 

       To start off my holidays.I do workouts to keep my body healthy from dancing. I dance ballet every Wednesday and Thursday so I am good to go with my health. And this holiday as I expected will not end so fast. I started a dancing account on my social media so I spend wisely on learning and practicing everyday through this holiday at home and post it up. So I will not have time to say boring things at home. At least I have something to do. And this is useful enough for me that can help me in the future.

         I love cooking and I am glad that I know how to cook. I started cooking when I was standard 4, my mom taught me the easier way for me to cook by not using fire because it is dangerous. I used a cooking machine at home and it is easy as I just dump all the things that needed for that dish and on switch and that’s all. Soon after I started getting older to be able to cook using fire and cook for dinner at home. This holiday I am not cooking dinner and I did some dessert or snack at home. At least this takes my boredom off my heads.

 

         Sometimes I could sit on the sofa watching drama for a few hours by doing nothing but just scrolling on dramas all day. This might be the life for me. On weekends me and my families would go on a hike through the jungles in the evening to train our body. We hike high up to the mountains and we reach the top. The scenes of the sky are so beautiful, scattered lots of candy floss around, a patch of them floating on the sky. 

        I guess this is what my holiday would be like everyday. Simple, but things to do during the day without any boredom.

        

       

          

   Well, it just sounds like nothing to me. Due to the increase of covid cases, the one-month holiday was extended to two months. But… I have no idea what is the point for having this holiday? A holiday is supposed to be having fun with family, travelling all around the world, go shopping with friends, have parties and so on but because of this epidemic, the government has announced to extend mco. All of us can just stay at home without wandering around outside. So… how did I just spend my time during these two months? 

   Of course, for sure, I didn't even touch any of my books, either played with my phone or watched variety shows. I can feel that my brain is like a piece of white paper without any words on it, the screws and nails that used to make it function are beginning to rust down slowly. However, my vacation is still not that decadent. I did learn something new during my holiday as well. 

    During this holiday, I have no idea why I would just fall in love with baking. It might just because of me watching too much of people in china tiktok were baking different kind of scrumptious food and makes me started to have the feelings of learning baking. I used to think that baking was a very troublesome thing but just suddenly realized that it is actually a very interesting activity to do during free time. Although sometimes it will fail but the so-called "failure is the mother of success" as long as you keep trying, you will be successful. 

     Without a doubt, exercise is indispensable. I believe that most of the girls and women were also doing workout at home everyday during this mco right? Well, I know that people around me might say that

 "Aiyo, so thin alr why still wanna keep fit"

 or

 "You're not suppose to keep fit now, you're still young, should eat more, if not how you grow taller and stronger," 

    Well, for me, doing workout is not actually just to keep fit, it can also make us sweat, helps our bodies to release all the toxins. It also helps us to build up muscles and makes our flesh not that slack. At the same time, I did realise that keeping fit can actually help me to become more self-discipline and independent. Why did I just say so? 

     Before I started keeping fit, I would only get up when the sun was high in the sky and hit my 🤬. However when I start to keep fit, I always get up on time every morning before the alarm goes off. Besides, keeping fit also taught me to stick to the end and never give up easily. It taught me that no matter how difficult things I encounter, as long as I persist, there will be good results waiting in front of me. 

      On 12 of Jan 2021 while we were still having holiday, I had moved to my new house! It was like a new year, a new start for me. But seriously, moving to a new house is really a tiring thing. We had to clean up our new home, sorted all the things from the old house and put them in boxes, took the furniture back and forth several times to the new home. As we were moving during the epidemic, so the time was actually very tight, my parents were always worried that they might not have enough time to finish building on time. Those few weeks, I could really see the exhausted figures of my family members. 

      This was basically how I spent my 'holiday' during this mco. Simple, pleasant and fulfilling. Well, I hope my next holiday is not going to be with my house, the epidemic and my phone. 

    I have learned how to cook many delicious foods throughout this holiday. When I first started cooking, my parents were petrified as youngsters nowadays are only keen on electronic devices. Nowadays watching youngsters -especially in between the age of 12 to 18- to do housework or chores are actually quite surprising. I cook many scrumptious foods such as mashed potato, pasta , pizza, french fries and more. Other than that, I also baked burned cheesecake with my mother. 

    In this long and boring holiday, my hobbies will make it more fun. In my opinion, listening to music is the most relaxing activity to carry out during such a boring holiday.  In fect, playing musical instruments is more fun and exciting. I started learning piano when I was still in primary school. I played many songs and personally I enjoy it very much. I also played many songs on the guitar. Whenever I play a musical instrument, my father will join and play with me. Such an enjoyable and memorable moment.

    During this holiday, the most exciting event that we have all been waiting for is obviously Christmas. We spent our Christmas and New Year in Penang in my cousin's house. We played many board games until the special time came “ and 3, 2, 1 ! Happy New Year!” The following day, we went to the beach and had a wonderful time. I ate many varieties of Penang food as it was mouthwatering. To be honest i really like to play with my cousin’s dog named Sugar. She is very adorable and fluffy. She is the cutest dog I have ever seen.

 Of Course it wouldn’t be fun without playing games during the holidays. I played thrilling and exciting games which require response capability with my friends and siblings. Since this mco we were unable to meet up, chatting with my friends is a very fun thing to do as we can keep in touch with them. We had a great time watching some movies together. 

Other than having fun, we also need to be serious about our studies. Since I decided to change school, this new term will be very challenging. It will be a brand new year for me. 

  My life began on the 7th of December. No alarm clocks, no assignments, only eat, sleep, play, eat, sleep, play, repeat. Yay! After all the tiring exams, I could finally watch the series that I eagerly wanted to for DECADES, ‘Stranger Things’, I looooved that it inspires viewers to not be afraid of taking risks and put goals into action. Furthermore, every episode always finishes with a cliffhanger, which made me stay up until 2-3 am to continue. Additionally, this series was not only produced for entertainment purpose, yet numerous lessons that could be applied to life. Apart from Stranger Things, I also watched other masterpieces on Netflix, for instance, The Hunger Games, Hotel del Luna, Charlie’s Angels, etc. To sum up, Stranger Things was my favourite and I can not wait for season 4 to be released.

  What did I do for Christmas? The only special part is that my family and I went to ‘HaiDiLao’ (Chinese hotpot restaurant) for dinner and it was our first time. Besides, we were impressed with their outstanding customer services. 

  Needless to say, “New year, new me,” so I thought of changing my environment a little bit, therefore, I did a room makeover. It had been 7 years of me surrounded by pink wallpaper with Disney princesses printed on it, which made my room look dark and small. Hence, I tore it off and painted it white - speaking it precisely, it is called ‘Walden white’. The process was quite smooth, but it would be challenging without my parent’s help. Moreover, I was content that the result turned out to be spectacular, and grateful for having a new desk. 

  In conclusion, happy times fly rapidly. Instead of sitting in front of the computer, playing games, students like me can use this perfect opportunity to spend it with your loved ones (family), clean your room,  find a hobby, more and more. This covid-19 pandemic has been going for one year plus, and I hope that it will bring to an end. 

I can only use two words to describe my few months of holiday, BUSY and MESSY MEETINGS everyday. I couldn't take it anymore, I had so many things to get on with. I had presentations to work on and had at least 5 meetings per week just for training and ‘virtual sports day’ of my school. But i couldn't do anything about it to reduce the work because no one forced me to be on the sports committee, i volunteered myself so i had bare with it. 

Of course besides meetings i still had other stuff to get done with, which is a video on our schools virtual sports day. By the way to the teacher who is reading this, remember to help me share the video on facebook and most importantly remember to add on the hashtag or else no mark will be counted. Alright so back to me, the fundraising group told us that they needed my department to complete the video in a day. ONE DAY! Seriously? Out of nowhere? 

Just for this video i spent around 3 hours and i couldn't even count how many shots i've took, the worst part of it is when you think you're done and the fundraising group texts you and changes your whole script. I already had so many things to get ready with and now they changed the whole script when i'm done with the video. Isn't it just ridiculous? So after a 10 to 15 shots again i was finally over with the video. BUT it was only the video.

My teacher in charge of my trainers department was Ms Jaydee, just as i was done and thought i could get some rest she told me we were going to meet Ms Cheryl, who is one of the disciplinary teachers and also the one who is in charge of all these ‘sports stuffs’ the next day. Therefore we had another meeting to prep for our presentation, just by the prep there are already tons of mistakes and leaks in my speech. Out of no choice i had to force myself to get familiarize with the script again and ask question myself about our presentation. I went through my slides over and over again until god knows what time. 

'OI you stupid or something ah? Got such a nice bed for you, you don't want to use, choose to sleep at the table. Very special ah kids nowadays.’

What a surprise, my mom came into my room early in the morning to check on me and sees me laying on my table and some saliva having a race with a snail on my chin. I got  up, cleaned myself and got ready for the presentation in just one hour. Went through my slides for the last few rounds and Ms Jaydee sent an invitation to her zoom meeting, at this moment i knew it was the time to prove my hard work.

Fortunately, Ms Cheryl actually liked our presentation. Which was what i thought of, i know it also wasn't what you're expecting to see right? Too bad, my hard work paid off. After the meeting Ms Cheryl talked to Bill who is the assistant trainer and i about our team Hermes. 

‘You guys will be meeting all the teachers, captains and house committees this Friday so i really hope that you all are well prepared for this Friday. Besides that definitely either one of you are going to lead our house in the future, maybe even the both of you might lead our house together, so i need the both of you to be very serious right now and take up this responsibility as a sports organizer.’ 

‘Bop-bop… bop-bop…’ my heart pounding imagining that i might be the captain of Hermes. 

‘PUT YOUR CAMERA IN THE RIGHT POSITION! Do you guys hear me and understand what i said? Any questions?’

Her voice fading away, my vision getting blurry. 

‘TIM WEI!!! Are you seriously sleeping in my class? How could you? I am literary in front of you and you still can fall asleep? 

Isnt this Mr Eddie’s voice? It was all just a dream turns out i wasnt chosen to be a sports committee after all.

 

 

During the holidays, I had a great time with my family. We had many activities together and I felt that I had a greater bond with them during the holidays. Every morning when we wake up, we would gather at the dining table to talk about what are the plans that we are going to do. For example, doing house chores, doing tuition homework or practising piano.

When I am doing the house chores, I realised that it wasn't as easy as it looked when my parents were doing it. When drying the clothes, I need to take the shirt, hook it with the hands of the hanger and hang it up to the drying rack. Doing it for about 50 times made my hand feel sore and a little painful. But after doing one house chore, I felt a sense of proudness and I was looking forward to doing the next task of the day. 

Other than drying the clothes, I had done something which I couldn't believe I had done. I cooked dinner for my family. Although it takes a long time to cook, I find cooking very fun and it could be a form of entertainment. Cooking is very interesting. When I add some different ingredients, the taste of the food would be different either by being nicer or not nice. I was satisfied by what I cooked that night, which are vegetables, chicken and onion eggs.

When the news said that we are able to go out, I was very excited. On the first day, my family immediately went out shopping and ate dinner which has not been eaten for months. When I sat in the car, I felt very happy for some reason and I was calling my parents to slow down because I felt that it was too fast. Surprisingly my parents were just driving at a speed of 50m/h.  From there, I realised how grateful I was for being able to eat outside restaurants and have a family which can support life.  

At home, my family and I also had movie time together. It was very rare for me to have everyone in the family to watch a movie as my father alway needed to go to work and as a result, he would not be able to join my mother, sister and I to watch movies. 

I had a great holiday and was able to spend more time with my parents which made me more happy. Although during the pandemic we had suffer a lot but I felt thankful that I was able to have more happy time with my family.

   To be honest, it was not bad on the first month of my holiday. Seeing that it was before the pandemic in the country had gotten to a serious position, compared to now. The citizens were allowed to travel interstate, from one state to another. This indicates that I did travel to the other places and states, at least. However, I still stayed at home for most of the time. Holiday is the period that I could spend more time on doing things that I loved. Especially when I was spending my hour just at home, I can spend more time with my family, trying and learning new things too. 

   The happiest time I ever had during this holiday is with my grandparents, in their remote hometown. They live in a rural area, neither the refreshing air nor the relaxing pace of life can I experience in a city area. I’ve experienced the lifestyle without network or internet connections, it was the first time that I felt a day could be so fulfilling without phones around. I was totally isolated from knowing what was happening around the world. Living with my grandparents was great, learning about their lifestyles, as well as their entertainment. It was so simple. I will never regret the time staying with them, and experiencing their basic lifestyle in a rural area.

   

   When it comes to the beginning of the new year, the pandemic in the country is getting serious. Looking at the innovative number of patients diagnosed with viruses, the increase of numbers like it was not going to end. Without any better choices, the states are officially announced lockdown. My “night terrors” are back again. So, I spent the rest of my holidays laying at home. It was quite boring actually, but I tried to entertain myself up. Wondering how the world is outside now.

         

       

    So every morning I will go and buy breakfast for my family because there is a restaurant near my house . I'm in charge of my family breakfast , so I will buy breakfast every morning . After having breakfast , I will assist my mum with housework .She will sweep the floor , after that I will mop the floor . After doing housework my happy mood starts , which is playing games with friends. Sometimes I can play video games for whole afternoon. 

    Other than housework and video games , of course i will do some proper thing which is having meetings with Sports committee almost everyday. We plan for something new on sports day . Due to covid 19 , we can’t have normal sports day because of SOP . So we need to make changes on sports day. The first time I had a meeting with all the teachers , I was worried because it is my first time and I don't have any experience . BUT overall its was done well and i'm proud of my whole team.   

       So my holiday is just not good at all because we can’t go anywhere because of MCO . Compared to past year , this year is the worst holiday that i had.

        Interestingly, a lot of creative activities had come into my mind during the lockdown -baking, yoga, cooking, gardening, studying and trying out new foods but, I had spent my first month just as any person would do which is doing nothing, besides the nerds. I had spent less time on my books to the point that I could not remember what is 1+1,  I tried new sports such as badminton to kill time. Badminton was the sport that I really wanted to try out for a long time. I learned the basic rules of badminton and how to hold a racket properly. Besides that, I’ve tried baking as well but when I was opening the oven, the tip of the oven burned my finger, from that day onwards I did not not have the audacity to touch the oven again...welp. 

         So basically, I spend my holiday/lockdown at home with my family. Although I couldn’t spend my holiday outside, traveling to other countries, I still enjoy staying at home studying, learning new things. I did feel a sea of change in the first two week of lockdown, but I realised that the best resource is to keep going and do not give up. I loved that lockdown had taught us so much, bringing me closer to my family. 

     

     You could be thinking that whether we have the right to eat animals is ethical. If humans are selfish in not breeding animals, we won't have meat as our food. On the other hand humans will have second thoughts about going hunt on animals for food. But this makes it worse, the more you hunt the wild animal the lesser the animal appears. This could happen to make an animal become extinct in the world. For now we are safe and lucky to have factories that produce meat to the supermarket every single day.

 

    Then why is eating meat unethical. Well  by lowering the amount of meat people consume, it will decrease the amount of torture animals go through. It's unethical for people to eat meat considering humans don't do it out of survival, they do it out of enjoyment. Therefore should consider more plant based diets. Humans are selfish and since human survival is not at stake, eating meat is unethical, and people should go back to living off of a plant-based diet like our ancestors.

    Moreover If you accept that animals have rights, raising and killing animals for food is morally wrong. An animal raised for food is being used by others rather than being respected for itself. Modern agriculture often violates other key animal interests as well  for example: like to live in nature freely, free from fear and pain…

 

    Other than that many human beings don't believe animals have rights as they think that animals are useless, but do think that animals have important interests that should not be violated. But some of these people enjoy eating meat and fish, and so face a conflict between animal and human interests: the trivial human interest in eating meat versus the basic animal interest in staying alive.

     In conclusion, there are positive points and negative points on this. People know killing animals is not good but we can’t all stop from it. In this world you will know that there are millions of animals. We eat meat to live although some are vegetarian but not all. There are no rights or wrongs in food conditions that we need in our basic life.