February

Hello friends,

How was your February? So the coronavirus now called COVID-19 didn't go away huh? To date, Singapore has a total of 110 people who tested positive. 78 have recovered and were discharged. Seeing how aggressively the government is going about locating and testing suspected cases, I'm quite relieved the number of infection isn't higher. <touch wood> The number of infection is going to continue to rise. That's for sure.

The number of infected cases outside China has exploded and that is very worrying. From today, Singapore closed its borders to travellers (regardless of nationalities) who have travelled through Iran, northern Italy or South Korea in addition to China.

Just a thought: some countries which do not have a high number of infection are probably not testing for the virus aggressively enough.

Oh, we've managed to buy a few little bottles of hand sanitizer. I bought 2 from a costume jewellery shop. Then I walked past another shop and they were selling Himalaya hand sanitizer. So I bought another 2 more little bottles because I've heard of Himalaya brand but not the first one I bought out of desperation. Then I discovered supermarkets have ready stock of hand sanitizer. Grr... So we have enough hand sanitizer to last us till the year 2024. My son was very happy to receive the hand sanitizer.

Masks are still a bit hard to find at pharmacies and supermarkets. By chance, hubs walked past a pop-up and bought a box of 50 for $35 recently. We're still on the no-mask team unless we're sick so we're in no danger of running out of masks. Sometime in February there was panic buying of rice, instant noodles, canned food and toilet paper. Thankfully that has passed and life has pretty much returned to normal. During the period of empty shelves at supermarkets, I asked myself what would be the one food item I would hate not to have and it turned out to be carrots. Yes, carrots. Luckily carrots keep quite well. I buy 2 packets each time to last 1 week or so and I would get super annoyed if the supermarkets run out of carrots.

Recently I had to go to the Immigration center to get my ID. Since it's a government agency, I thought the crew would be fully masked up. I was surprised that apart from the thermal scanning of body temperature, there were no other precautionary measures. To enter any library, (yes, library) I need to get my temperature scanned as well as scan my ID and the crew were fully masked. The immigration staff had to touch my hand to scan my thumbprint and because my thumbprints were faint, she had to do it a few times on both my thumbs. I couldn't wait to get out of the place to go wash my hands for 20 seconds and guess what? I couldn't find a washroom. I ended up using my hand sanitizer which also made me sneeze my head off.

Then of course we had a medical emergency. My girl needed to see a ENT specialist ASAP but she had been delaying because she was scared of catching COVID-19. It didn't help that her doctor is located at the hospital which had a COVID-19 patient who was diagnosed late. The patient had Dengue fever AND COVID-19. Poor thing. Finally I put my foot down and decided my daughter's hearing is more important than the fear of catching COVID-19. Before we could enter the clinic we had to sign a health declaration form and go through the thermal scanning. There was a queue but it moved pretty quickly. Thankfully, the officers manning the queue were fully masked. One self-entitled woman went to argue with the crew insisting she be handed the health declaration form right away. I guess she didn't want to queue. I slapped her silly in my head.

Alright, enough about the virus. In February I made a few pairs of shorts. For each pair, I played around with the crotch curve just for fun.

My daughter said this pair of shorts is a little short for me. I guess she's used to seeing me in mom shorts. I used this fabric which keeps growing in my store room. Each time I use some, I discover more.

It's an ordinary pair of shorts with fold over band, elastic and I added in-seam pocket. By the way, is it in-seam or on-seam pocket?

I discovered a bag of 1 yard fabric which someone had gifted me years ago. I used some to make the next 2 pairs of shorts.

Same technique as the blue shorts, just a bit longer in reaction to my daughter's feedback.

Just to change things up, I added side pockets and a separate waistband.

The above 3 pairs of shorts - I think they're okay for wearing out. For home wear, I made 2 using fabric which could have been a bed sheet or a curtain.

I don't know why I made 2 pairs of shorts using the exact same fabric. No pockets as they're for lazing around. And I promise I won't wear them out.