Had a Long Cotton Swab Shoved [Gently] Up My Nostril

Well, it happened.

My neighbourhood is now entangled in the ever-increasing cluster(s), mostly because of the nexus that is bordered by Hougang Street 61, Hougang Avenue 8, and Hougang Avenue 4, the so-called ``Hougang Village'' (who comes up with these names?). That's the main shopping district for the surrounding areas for daily necessities as well as food in both their raw and cooked forms.

The problem is sufficiently big enough that they have set up a large [temporary] swab test centre for the region at the Neighbourhood 6 Park overnight for the week beginning today to get both mandatory testing (stall owners within the Hougang Village region) and voluntary ones (visitors of Hougang Village).

I had mine done just this morning after camping overnight for the update of the booking site. The process was relatively straightforward from booking to the actual test.

1. Head to the relevant registration form based on the testing site;
2. Fill in relevant information that can be obtained from the NRIC, using the dd mmm yyyy format for entering the date of birth to avoid clicking like an idiot to the correct birth year;
3. Enter and validate the mobile phone number with the OTP---this is needed for the SMS information;
4. Pick relevant date for test;
5. Submit and wait for SMS confirmation of time slot for the given date and test centre.
6. Arrive 10--15 min before allocated time to get into queue;
7. Report for registration with NRIC;
8. Get a cotton swab shoved [gently] up a nostril;
9. Done.

And that was it; done.

While queueing, there were quite a few disgruntled talks among the residents about how it was all ``the fault of those old people who don't wear their masks and are always spitting everywhere'', and how some of them were going to have to miss work. The [mainstream] media had also swooped down to film and interview random people to fulfil their quota.

I just shut my trap and got on with the whole exercise before heading off for home later on. It's just a swab test---go in quick, get out fast, and then wait for the results. There was nothing else to talk about really---it's not like we are medical professionals trained in epidemiology and thus know how to accurately weigh the risks and manage them accordingly.

We're all just following the orders for public health as well as we can. And if the calculus failed due to the uncertainty, it's just the luck of the draw and nothing could have been done about it since it is strongly implied that any and all public policies are made with [sufficiently] careful consideration of possibilities.

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I've more or less completed Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, and I enjoyed it. It's a metroidvania like Hollow Knight, but unlike Hollow Knight, I do end up feeling mighty near the end of the game, as opposed to always feeling like I am two hits away from being obliterated no matter what I do. I think I'll just wrap up the game through finding all the remaining unvisited rooms (probably one or two left), and then I will be done. There are other characters to play (Zangetsu and Bloodless), but I think I am fine with the 55 hours that I have put in so far for Miriam.

I still have Bayonetta to complete, and would like to do so soon so that I can go play something else.

That's all I have for now. Till the next update.