Lockdown Day 27: A delightfully low-key day
13,562 cases.
And no new cases in my community. Just one day with no cases. That was a relief.
Last night I put the similar ingredients into the Xiaomi instant pot as the last few days - about a tablespoon of rice, daikon radish, Napa cabbage, and carrot -, but I only set it to pressure cook for 15 minutes. After it was done cooking, I mixed in about a tablespoon of doenjang, and topped with some kimchi. The sharpness of the kimchi really made a difference. This was my favorite bowl so far of this kimchi!
But maybe it wasn’t so filling, so I had one of my muffins later. I’d have three of these by the end of today!
For lunch, I reheated two of my daikon pancakes that I made on Saturday, and had my stir-fried cucumber and lettuce, and braised green beans cold. A fully vegetable-based lunch!
Then I finished up my last little bit of coffee - half of a single serve cup of instant Saturnbird coffee, that I had found from maybe a year ago. I had that with some of my Laird coconut creamer (that I got originally in 2020!), and a matcha almond cookie.
Around 1:30pm, the entryway leader announced that we wouldn’t be doing the PCR test today (no reason given). What a nice surprise!
This afternoon, I heard a persistent knock on the door. This was the style of the entryway leader, who recently hadn’t been doing door to door deliveries. But today she handed out a bottle of Dettol. This is like liquid Lysol. I’d first used this brand when I was living in Hangzhou during the SARS time. Living in the foreign students’ dorm of the China Academy of Art, my bathroom had a squat toilet basically right under the shower. Because SARS (and COVID-19) can be transmitted through aerolized drainage water, I poured some down that toilet-slash-shower drain for peace of mind. Maybe I’ll try that here!
I finished up my meeting around 6:30pm, and leapt up because I had just forgotten that I needed to submit my annotated photo of my antigen test by 6:30! Now, when I first used these in San Diego, I really followed each step religiously, because I really wanted to know whether or not I was positive. Here, on the other hand, we test twice a day with antigen tests, and most days have a PCR test, so I’ll admit that I might have rushed this test a bit, because I was already a few minutes over the 6:30pm deadline. I didn’t wait the full minute with the swab in the reagent, and I took the picture to submit as soon as the “C” line was clear enough (entryway leader rejects the result if the line is blurry), rather than patiently waiting the full 15 minutes in case the second line showed up at the last minute.
After the test, I did my workout of the day (Wednesdays are full-body bodybuilding), and because I hadn’t had protein all day, I made myself a little smoothie. I took out my stash of bananas that I had frozen right at the beginning of lockdown with the big bunch of bananas I bought and was getting too ripe.
And then I blended that with the unflavored protein powder (Orgain), and some cucumber. It sounds weird, but it works! The banana lends creaminess and just a hint of sweetness (I only used maybe 1/3 or 1/2 of a small banana), while the cucumber has a refreshing taste.
After showering, I had my jambalaya, and a good amount of my cabbage and carrot curtido. This curtido might be my favorite way to eat cabbage so far - crunchy and sour.
While eating dinner, I heard a lot of commotion outside. I wrote to my friend who lives on the other side, and she speculated, maybe another government delivery? I dreaded the thought of more cabbage, since I’m only just now feeling on top of my cabbage situation!
Well, today our neighborhood government gave us this selection of dried foods: dates, lily bulbs, shiitake mushrooms, goji berries, white fungus, and lily flowers (unopened flowers). They’re all from the same brand so I assume it’s a donation.
I’m quite happy with this gift! Of course, I love how they are shelf-stable and don’t take up fridge space. But I like the variety of stuff - dried mushrooms always come in handy to give a flavor boost, and a lot of the other things like lily bulb and white fungus aren’t things that I would buy myself, but since I have them, I’m excited to try out some recipes with them! Perfect for the upcoming long weekend, due to May 1 holiday…
Besides the dried food, we also got a small bottle of hand sanitizer.
Now it’s on to do my midnight antigen test.
So one day with no PCR test, one day with no new cases in my community - I liked how uneventful it was. And yet it was still exciting with not one but two deliveries of useful things.
