Eve of the 16,071 days

 Assalamualaikum,

A gift from Joe

Setelah berbulan-bulan lamanya aku tak menjejakkan kaki ke office disebabkan bekerja dari rumah kerana Covid, pada 9 haribulan Julai yang sudah, dapat jugak aku menjengah ke office. Sengaja aku drive perlahan ke office pada pagi 9 haribulan tu, taking my own sweet time untuk menikmati all the small things yang aku tak dapat tengok sepanjang bekerja di rumah. I put my car on auto-cruise, slowly driving on the left lane of the Penang bridge, enjoying the beautiful sea view. Driving to work on that day was utter bliss.

Semasa di office, sewaktu mengemas my work cubicle yang dah berbulan tak terurus, I chanced upon a pen. Not any ordinary pen, it was a gift from a Chief Architect on a project that I worked on back in 2018. Pen tu dia yang buat, dari pokok yang ditanam di kawasan rumahnya di Austin, Texas. Dia potong kayu dari dahan pokok dan dengan menggunakan turning machine, dia carved out the shape of the pen. Bila siap turning kayu tu, dia tebuk lubang dan masukkan off the shelf parts untuk pen tu. When he gave the pen to me, he took the time explaining to me how he did it, giving me plenty of details and in the end thanking me for the hardwork and effort that I put into the project. Terharu.

Astra Zeneca

Alhamdulillah, I received my first dose of Covid vaccine on 13th of July. Opt in untuk Astra Zeneca, volunteered. Aku faham tentang risiko associated with Astra Zeneca ni, tapi aku beranikan diri disebabkan aku ingin to be vaccinated as early as possible. Memang gigih aku mencuba nasib pada 26 Mei lepas, dengan harapan dapat slot untuk vaccination. Dengan berbekalkan laptop dan handphone, boleh dikatakan hampir semua tarikh aku tekan, termasuklah tarikh Hari Raya Haji, dengan harapan tak ramai yang nak apply untuk tarikh tu. Alhamdulillah, nak dijadikan rezeki, aku dapat.

I was scheduled a slot for 12:30pm at SPICE Arena's PPV. Aku sampai kat sana tu dalam pukul 11:50 pagi. Tapi aku noticed yang MySejahtera was having problem, aku tak dapat nak buka Vaccination page. Dah gelabah dah, jenuh aku restart handphone, ingatkan handphone yang menjadi problem disebabkan sebelum bertolak aku masih boleh dapat access ke Vaccination page tu. Dah lepas cuba berkali-kali dari parking lot sehingga ler hampir ke kaunter di dalam SPICE tu dan masih tak berjaya, aku pasrah je lah. Rupa-rupanya, bukan aku sekarang jer yang ada masalah tu, semua yang datang time tu were facing the same issue. Nasib baik staff kat sana rileks jer cakap tak mengapa, they can still check dan register. Lega.

 Sebelum dapat jab tu, the nurse tunjukkan pada aku syringe and it's content. During jab pun aku tengok apa yang dia buat, and bila selesai jab, dia tunjuk syringe lagi sekali just to prove that he injected the vaccine into my body. Jadi takde la issue, cucuk jarum tapi tak dispense the content. When that was done, aku ke last station, being monitored agak lama, disebabkan aku ada masalah alahan. Other than those small issues, everything else went well. Tak ada masalah. Everything went smooth.

How about the after effect of the jab? In summary, it was not pleasant. I had to take leave the day after because I was feeling miserable. Headache, body ache, light headed, tiredness, sore arm, feeling sleepy, seram sejuk macam demam. Tapi selepas 48 jam, all of those went away except for the sore arm. Sore arm went away after 5 days.

I'm currently monitoring for any sign of blood clot. Will need to monitor for the next 4 weeks. Harapnya tak ada. Scared? Hell yes. Putting a brave face right now. Tawakal sahaja. Praying for the best.

Eve of the 16,071 days

In the last couple of years, I dreaded the day. Leading to the day on each year, I felt CHAPTER 6 all over again. I'm tired of the same problem. I used to take the effort to mend it, but after years of the same thing, I guess I'm broken. Fate has led me through it, I'm hoping for fate will lead me to the end as well.

Happy 44th birthday.