Saturday, June 27, 2020

Cars

Because of the easing of the quarantine, some businesses are opening again.  Scheduled maintenance of my cars is either past due or due for the month.  So, made appointments.

June 13, I have already made an appointment at Toyota Manila Bay for the preventive maintenance of my Toyota Avanza.  My service advisor is not available as he is stranded in Canada.  Settled my bill and left.  Edgar, the driver, will pick it up later.  Since I am already in the area, decided to go to SM Mall of Asia.  I have been toying with an idea of buying a personal laptop which is faster than my Asus netbook.  Was able to buy one (an Asus laptop) at Octagon Computer Superstore.  Will leave my new personal laptop at the office (bring it home every weekend) as my office-issued laptop is left at home.  Why?  I won't be bringing my office-issued laptop everyday as I use my office desktop in the office.  It is convenient to use messaging applications (both personal and official) using my personal laptop.  And in case the government declares a heavier category of quarantine, I can easily work from home.  Went to St. Paul's for I plan to buy the Holding Cross.  The store is closed.  Was planning to buy food-to-go at The Aristocrat but their branch at MOA is also closed.  So went to their main branch instead.

June 20 is an appointment at Ziebart for my Toyota Avanza.  Settled my bill and left.  Edgar, again, will pick-up the car later.  We would be going to Tita Norma to drop of my early Christmas gift to her.  Tita Josie already received hers months earlier.  It is a personal air purifier that emits negative ions.  It is an additional protection against SARS-CoV-2 virus.  Better that she have it today and use it already instead on December.  Waze helped locate her residence.  After, passed by SM Mall of Asia to buy food-to-go at Max's.

Today, I have an appointment at Honda Makati for the preventive maintenance of my Honda HR-V.  My service advisor is also not available  as they are on shifting schedule--for physical distancing.  Settled my bill and left.  Edgar will pick-up the car later.  This time, I will be going to Glorietta (my favorite mall!) and The Landmark.  My purchases include ink for my printer, measuring glass and spoon, kitchen knife, knife sharpener and water bottle.  There were very few people.  Some stores are still closed.  I wonder how these stores earn...  COVID-19, indeed, has a very big impact as it disrupted people's lives.  And, it was fast shopping for me--I come then go.  It is a lot safer to be outside than inside a building.  If I were to take a public transport, I would choose a non-airconditioned bus than an airconditioned one.

posted by ~GFA~ @ 6/27/2020 09:50:00 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, June 24, 2020

Back

Am back!

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is really nothing much to write about given that we are stuck at home, hoping that we would not catch the #coronavirus.

Even without an office-issued laptop, was able to do work from home.  But it was arranged that we all have one.  So, when I was advised that it is already available, walked my way to the office last April 29.  Took me about 30 minutes.  It was nice going out and getting all that vitamin D.  There are very few people on the street and I made sure there is at least one (1) meter distance apart.

Going inside the office building, there is a disinfecting mat, your temperature is taken and hands sprayed with alcohol.  There is also a limit in the number of passengers in the elevator.

The laptop is there but my VPN credentials is not yet ready.  Decided to leave the laptop and will pick it up again once everything is a-OK.  Walked home again.

Around May 5, the VPN credentials are available and I would be picking-up the laptop.  Walked again.  It took sometime to set it up and decided to clean-up my office e-mail as the inbox is full.  This is to make full use of the office-issued laptop at home.  Good thing my friend is also in the office that he decided to drop me off on his way home.  At least, I won't be walking with the laptop.

The policy of working from home is changing depending on the category of the quarantine being declared by the government.  First, make sure that at least 20% of your people is reporting in the office.  Then, people is grouped to alternate reporting in the office for one week.  Finally, everyone is already reporting in the office.

Controls put in place are:
a)  Acrylic put on the tables to separate employees.
b)  Masks and face shield were provided.
c)  Vitamin C with Zinc is provided for frontline employees.
d)  You can already eat at your desk instead of the pantry.
e)  Temperature is taken twice a day.
f)  Meetings are through conference calls/ video conference calls.
g)  Avail of shuttle.
h)  Rapid test kit.
i)  You can order food from office canteen and have it delivered.

And for my personal controls against COVID-19, I have my personal (necklace) air purifier that emits plasma, table top air purifier with HEPA filter, a table top air purifier that also emits plasma, and a UV-C sterilization box.


posted by ~GFA~ @ 6/24/2020 10:32:00 PM 0 comments