And now, my thoughts on the matter.
Well... it's a shame that we have a spike like this just when we are about to head to the start of the end-game play for SIN city's COVID-19 situation. Could it be avoided? Of course, since the location of the cluster wasn't even in some kind of ``essential'' category for basic survival---it was purely for entertainment. And in times of crisis, I think that it is acceptable to give up entertainment for a while until the crisis has been averted. That the people involved knowingly decide to circumvent the measures put in place to help bring about the start of the end-game is pure hubris and nothing more.
Am I angry with them? No, just disappointed---I've resolved to not get angry at people over things that should rightfully be considered disappointments instead.
It still doesn't affect me too negatively since I am on sabbatical. Call it a premonition or something, but I did recently turn down a meet-up request from some of the CO fogeys---to be fair, the reasons are more prosaic than prophecy; I felt like I needed a little bit more space away from scrutiny since I don't really have anything else going on that was worth talking about. Much of what is going on is in my head (and dumped out here where applicable); not being at work means a lack of human interaction from that front (which reduces the amount of friction that needs to be dealt with and thus vent about); not having any rehearsals mean that there was little to nothing to talk about with respect to music---all these are in comparison to their budding couple's life, dealing with work-place metamorphosis due to the extended COVID-19 changes, among other things.
An outsider like me with only loose ties with people will eventually become an even bigger outsider when these loose ties get ever more loose thanks to the social isolation that SIN city's COVID-19 measures strongly imply/enforce.
That feeling is showing up even among the care group, though I'm not sure if it is just me being sensitive (an irony for sure), or is actual/factual.
Sometimes I fear that at the end of 2021, I would be an even bigger outcast/hermit than I was before. But only sometimes though.
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In other news, I bitched nearly a month ago about how the construction process was so drawn out. Well, I have some updates.
The good news is that the covered walkway linking my cluster of apartment blocks to Hougang Village across Hougang St 61 is completed---it even has accessibility features like a suitable ramp on the far side to allow the wheelchair to go up smoothly.
The bad news are:
- Design flaw in connecting the end of the covered walkway to the extended roofing---the covered walkway goes above the extended roofing, so when it rains, the rainwater will flow along the roof and drench whoever is trying to transition from the walkway into the Hougang Village area;
- The central concrete island divider has been hacked flat with the covered linkway overhead to provide acessibility, but the exit points of either side have not undergone that treatment---the nearest one is from that legalised ``illegal'' accessibility crossing made some 5 m away, which is uncovered;
- The `p' and `q' metal barriers that were supposed to limit cyclists' speed can be easily circumvented by just going around them, since the newly constructed covered walkway extends the width by another 1 m or so.
What the heck man. I sure hope that they are going to rectify these issues, otherwise I'd be wondering just what the heck are they doing.
Anyway, they have been doing more welding in the past few days, which meant lots of funny bright light at the corner of my eyes, and the associated vapours. I wouldn't be surprised if that shortened my life a little, but I'm frankly not that sure.
Well, that's about it for now. It's a Friday, but days don't really mean anything to me while I am on sabbatical---only the diurnal cycle is meaningful enough for me to keep track of. Till the next update then.
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