Trip to JB, Independence and All That

Took leave last Friday to enable me take a trip that afternoon to JB for my other half's niece engagement event. But the day before that, I had to chair a viva examination for one of my younger colleague's student. While I have chaired many viva sessions before, this time I had both internal examiners not from the department; so, I did not know what to expect. Alhamdulillah, the viva went well and here is a picture of us after the viva is done.

For the JB trip, my eldest son drove us the whole way. All five of us were in the trip and we reached JB around 5pm. Experienced how far it is - five times the distance I travel to work each day. We stayed at Homestay Casa Tropika with my in-laws (three families). Our son in JB also came to the homestay to stay with us. That night, our nephews staying in JB decided to treat us for dinner at Family Port Asam Pedas Claypot. Here are some pics.

The next day, we went to my sister-in-law's place for the engagement function. Here are my other half with her sisters and nieces.

The niece (Amira Syafiqa) who got engaged is the one dressed in white below.

We headed off back to Seremban in late afternoon, reaching Seremban sometime in the evening. We had Sunday to rest. Bought a cake for the belated anniversary celebration (supposed to be on the day we travel to JB).

On Monday, I went back to work and I received a call from the auditor to be present at her office. I answered all the queries, some of which I just do not remember. Hope everything will be cleared up. Also, feeling a little touchy, I set up a group with my students and colleagues to help prepare the report for my research project (the final one, I guess). The report is due on Wednesday (independence day).

On Tuesday, I took leave to send off my son to his apartment in Desaminium Rimba in Lestari Perdana, Seri Kembangan, where he will travel to work beginning tomorrow.

Today is our independence day. The celebration is pretty modest. On a sidenote, I admired what Alffy Rev did for his country on independence day - people should watch his videos. Have many thoughts of what I think of independence within our own limited context, as I have conveyed to my younger colleagues. Within our limited scope of theoretical physics, we need to build a tradition of theoretical physics for which it is recognised (internationally) by others, and this is not easy.

Also today, with the help of my students and colleagues, I completed my research report (still have one final report to do later) and submitted it to our RMC. Hope this time, they will not make a fuss out of what we have prepared. I still got another report to prepare for another viva tomorrow. Pray that I have the energy to complete everything.

Being Old

Once I met a support staff who has opted for earlier retirement during breakfast and we asked about each other. He told me he was fine and mentioned that he left the department because he no longer knew anyone that close as most of the staff is younger. That strikes a chord with what I'm experiencing. I barely know anyone of the younger staff in the department. They are mostly of the age of my students during my first ten years of work in the department. The ones that I could really converse well with, are my own ex-students of theoretical physics, who have joined the department, and a professor whom I know quite well before. That (in addition of being an introvert) makes life at work as pretty lonely.

Each time, I drive to work, I would look at my hands that have developed wrinkles, reminding myself of being old. As I go through the awful traffic jam in the morning (at UPM toll) and in the evening (at Seremban toll), things tend to get a bit unbearable and wondered how much longer I need to go through this.

As I was cleaning my room, getting ready to retire, I found this leaflet of an event that I participated in as a speaker in a forum. 

I saw the names in there, the co-panel members are now all professors and even my former boss at INSPEM chaired the session (I did not really remember this). It was really twenty years ago but I remembered how I was still excited about work, trying to share whatever experience that I had. At the end of the talk, I remembered how Prof. Karen Badri approached me to tell how interesting it was. Today, I guess I'm pretty ignored by people (and I know some administrators, from their body language, avoided me like a plague), but this is probably my choice to shy away from people. After years in administration, some of which are sour, I have indeed preferred isolation as things tend to get meaningless. 

Found another thing as I try to bring home some old books, it was a proceedings of the first conference that I attended after coming back from PhD, after some years in Bintulu.

As a young physicist, I remembered how exciting it was this conference in 1992, held at Awana Genting. Presented a paper there, which extends my PhD work. I remembered how the late Prof. Lay Nam Chang approached me after the talk and told me that my work is related to quantum Hall effect (QHE). That remark indeed led me to propose a research project on QHE, and also the work of my first PhD student, cited by a student of Ted Jacobson.

Today, while research has intensified with more students under my wing, there seems to be less meaningful excitement due to the environment that we are led to work in. Most things today are driven by numbers (whatever they mean) that I hope to touch upon some day.

Back home, seeing my children growing older, I felt I have lost the opportunity to educate my children well. So I started writing my life lessons in our WhatsApp group (partly responding to some problems we are facing) and what I understood from religion, to help them navigate their life. I hope that I can be consistent in this. I do not know how much time I have left.

119 days left until retirement.

Paxlovid, Troubles and All That

I thought I should update my blog after a period of silence due to an issue came up and I think I should explain myself (for those who know will know).

First, my Covid experience. The first two days, I was feverish and mostly stayed in bed (isolating myself from the whole family). My view in those days was just what can be seen from the balcony.

On the third day of quarantine, I was asked to report to the nearest covid-19 assessment centre (CAC). Searched where it is (see link) and initially went to Dewan Orang Ramai Sikamat. The place was closed and had to call to get other CAC's. Apparent after the pandemic is declared over, we only need to go to the Klinik Kesihatan in Seremban 2 (they should update the webpage or social media links). After some wait, they had me physically checked up (blood pressure, glucose level and some exercises to see if I get out of breath). I was also asked if I want to take up Paxlovid, since I had high blood pressure, diseased heart and diabetes (borderline). I replied in the affirmative. But then they need to know what medication I am taking. So, I requested my other half (who was waiting at home for me) to take a picture of a page out of medical book containing the prescribed medication and showed it to them.

Apparently, I was told that I need to stop taking Lipitor (for my cholesterol) and I need to halve the dosage of Coveram (for my blood pressure) on taking up Paxlovid. The rest is unaltered. Here are some pics of the medicine.

The side effects that I had was the awful bitter taste in the mouth after two hours taking the medicine. During the period, I was eating less since everything tasted bitter. I actually lost about two kilos during this time.

While having Covid, we experienced another problem in the house, that had me increase my Qur'an recitation (some extended to more than an hour). Consulted those who are knowledgeable in these matters and learned something new. 

My quarantine ended on last Monday, and the following Tuesday, I was back at work. Was still feeling giddy and had some headache (perhaps rested too much). Also, joined the discussion on the Consortium for Quantum Computing with Dr. Yap. Hope all the universities will be receptive of the proposal. Some pics:

Last Friday, I was informed of a problem in the organization I was with before and today, the matter was explained. It does seem like a selective (political?) ploy. Having difference of opinions, resigned my position and my silence ever since, some may think I had a hand in this ploy (somebody made insinuations about this). I would like to state clearly that I had no part of whatever transpired. I have essentially avoided almost everyone at work currently, apart from my usual colleagues. I have repeatedly mentioned that all I want is a peaceful life leading to my retirement soon. In fact, I'm facing whatever they are facing, adding more to my worries. It is an unfortunate situation and I hope it can be resolved well for everyone involved.

The Day I Got Covid

It was Monday morning and it was raining heavily. In my mind, I will surely be late. I was not really well to start with but I was thinking that it was only my severe back pain and some constant headache that I had in the weekend, making me feverish (happened before). I arrived in campus at about 8.30am but by the time I punched it was already 8.40pm. Met Chan at the car park and he told me that there was a faculty meeting. I didn't have breakfast that morning but I decided to go along with Chan to the Faculty meeting.

The attendees were greeted by the Dean and we were reminded how important is the Faculty meeting. So it was a guilt trip early in the morning. Have not been attending the meetings for some time. I had my reasons while I was in admin in the institute (based on some understanding I had during formation of the institutes but some would dispute that particularly those who were pretty young in the admin) but after that, I guess I had no real reason of not attending. I did go to some of the virtual ones but this would be the first time of face-to-face meeting after awhile. As the meeting went on beyond two hours, my body could no longer stand the strain. I was feverish. When I got up from my seat, I almost fell (experiencing giddiness) and Nizam sort of led me out of the meeting room. As I was walking back to my office, I was literally dragging my feet and I thought something was really wrong. It was later in the afternoon, I developed some bad cough (and later in the evening, a runny nose). As soon as I get home, told my wife to purchase a Covid-19 self-test kit. By the time, she got it, I was already too tired and slept.

I got up just before 3am and decided to take my blood sugar test as well as the Covid self-test. As I suspected, I was positive for Covid-19.

I immediately reported this to MySejahtera and had this in my profile.

I immediately messaged Chan and Nurisya who were sitting besides me in the meeting and asked them to their own testing. For Nizam, I asked for their help to notify him. I also notified the office about the matter. I went back to sleep thereafter. As soon as I got up, I updated my profile and found the home surveillance order.

So it seems I will be out of action until 15 August. I also found this page containing the procedure for close contacts. So, it seems there is no need for quarantine unless they are developing symptoms and a self-test is required. I find myself on another guilty trip by being in the meeting or even coming to office. However I need to come to office to give the seminar marks to the officer in charge in the Faculty. It seems I can only load up the seminar marks (which I did on Saturday) for those that have FSA codes, while for those with SPS codes, they did not appear in my IGIMS portal. I do hope that the attendees of the meeting will not blame me of being irresponsible. I would not have gone to the meeting or even to office, if I knew I had Covid.

Today, I was mostly resting and tried to do a little work but I got tired easily. I opened the sliding door for better ventilation. I do hope that none of my family members will catch Covid.

At the time of writing, I'm still having cough and runny nose; my body is simply tired to do anything that requires sitting long or too much focus. Sleepy already.

The (Next) Trip to Malacca

Right after our Padang Besar trip, we took a day or two of rest but really we had matters to settle before Ihsan heads off to JB. Also, our cats were happy that we were back; some we had to send off to their 'hotel', but most of them are left at home with sufficient food and drink. Our next trip was last Friday where me and my other half headed off to Malacca to be part of an engagement party. We were given a room at Homestay Melaka Executive in Taman Bukit Serindit Jaya.  That night we had a luxurious dinner at Restoran Tomyam Puteri Ledang with (almost) all of my in-laws.

Here are some pics:

The next day was the engagement event. It was supposed to be a small event with only the uncles and aunts of the niece on our side. Below are some pics:

A funny thing happened. From our side, we did not expect the presence of a tok sidang from the other party (beng arranged as informal) and we were not prepared to have exchange of pantun, though the tok sidang recited some.  The other thing, our side's spokeperson (my brother in law) introduced me as a professor. Like many instances, it was not the right occasion to make corrections. But being introduced as such, tok sidang called me up to read doa selamat (was not prepared), saying this would be easy for a 'professor'. I did not do it, of course, but if pushed, I will just recite the normal prayers that I know. Finally, it was Tok Sidang who recited it.

After having lunch there, we decided to visit a relative of my other half who was staying nearby. She was said to be unwell and yet to be diagnosed properly. Here are some group pics:

From there, we send our niece back to her college and went straight home thereafter. The rest, went to Segamat. We had to go home as Ihsan will be leaving for JB the next day. So, the next morning, we had our breakfast together before he drove all the way to JB by himself.

Later in the afternoon, our in-laws stopped by at our place and we had lunch together.

The next day, I was back in office. But as I went back home from office, my car had problems with the engine indicator lit up. Since our local workshop can't check the sensor system of the car, we had to go all the way to Melaka to check what's wrong. According to them, there is something wrong with the shaft system. So, I will have to find another time to do this as they have not the device in stock. More money trouble.