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| A perfect day at the Dewa, but nobody is poolside. |
March 24
So much can happen so quickly. Since my last blog entry, England has shut down. The BBC had this headline on March 24: “Johnson announces strict new curbs on life in UK”.
Five hours
earlier the CBC had this headline: “Ontario, Quebec order closure of all
non-essential businesses to slow spread of coronavirus”.
For us, here in
Nai Yang, life has changed incrementally. Darrel still goes out to deliver and
pick up our laundry and to get Pad Thai from a road-side stand. But now he
wears his mask. We still go for our morning bike rides, but we wear our masks.
We wear our
masks because, reportedly, the Thais are all wearing masks and foreigners are not,
and that perception is making some Thai officials angry. We did notice that all
the Thai joggers along our bike route today were not wearing masks. We may have
jumped the gun, but will continue to wear the masks to make sure we don’t alarm
any of the villagers.
This morning we
were going to invite a friend over for coffee, thought about it for a moment,
and then decided, “Nah”. We chatted on the phone and ensured that we would be
there for each other should there be a need.
We have noticed
that nowadays our grocery delivery is later than requested and we even got a bit
annoyed yesterday when it was over six hours late. Then we took a breath and
remembered what extreme measures everyone is taking to make sure all of us stay
fed.
This morning we
noticed a sign by our pool. It has been closed due to a government order. The
gym is still open, though. We use neither during the high season, so weren’t
alarmed by either observation.
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| "Swimming Pool is Closed". |
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| Loretta poolside with a mask on, capturing Darrel on camera. |
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| Darrel practicing social-distancing. |
The Dewa Resort is
emptying out. Thailand is making it nearly impossible for anyone to come here.
Health certificates are required for entry and they must be recent - no older than 72 hours. We
think that is a good move right now but our hearts bleed for all the Thais who
are in the tourism industry.
 |
| Only a few occupants at the Dewa Residences. |
We continue to
watch news from all over. Our favorite source is still CBC, but we watch BBC
and CNN too. I get a number of news reports from my Facebook feed – New York
Times, Economist, Globe and Mail, and of course all my friends. I continue to
block most sources because some of the stuff is just too weird. But I was
hugely impressed by the graph that showed the trajectory of the new cases.
Impressed but scared too.
The English
news reporting in Thailand is pretty decent. We have to be careful to not overreact
to anything until we can verify it. But
we still react – thus the voluntary self-isolation and the masks.
 |
Hey, aren't you supposed to be six feet apart!?
|
March 25
What a
difference a day makes. Here is what’s
new since I wrote the above:
The Olympic
Games have been postponed. Canada pulled out before the announcement was made.
Our Thailand
province of Phuket has declared a full lock-down of everything but essential
services.
Thailand has
declared a state of emergency.
Today we didn’t
go for our bike ride. We will wait to see how everyone is reacting before we
head out again. In the meantime, we have our balcony and our roof-top deck to
enjoy fresh air. I haven’t told Darrel yet, but we will double our daily yoga
exercise time. We will try to order pizza today – Darrel needs the occasional
break from my cooking – and we hope that goes well. If not, we have a stash of
instant noodles we can use as backup.
Three nephews
have birthdays today. We wonder how they will celebrate.
I tried to find
funny things on Facebook to end with, and could find only one. Here it is (thanks, Barb):
That’s
it for now. Take care. Loretta & Darrel.
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