What Malaysians Miss About The MCO

2020 will be remembered as the year that never was. All the hype going into Wawasan 2020 was quickly shot down just three months into the new year by the MCO, which literally stopped the world. Shops and offices were closed. We weren’t allowed out unless absolutely necessary. No parks, no shopping malls, no coffee runs!

It was tough getting used to… but eventually, MCO was lifted and life slowly went back to normal, or should we say, “new normal”.

And now, it seems like many Malaysians actually missed their lockdown lives. Who would have thought! We asked around and here are some of what we missed from MCO days.

#WFH
This was on the top of the list for many of our respondents! It was fun while it lasted but it’s time to move back on to our usual 9-to-6. Many of us were only beginning to get used to the #WFH routine until it was announced it’s time to go back to the office. Oh well!

Read this for tips on how you can adopt #WFH routines in the office.

Cooking
If you looked through your social media during MCO, you would have thought that everyone’s on a cooking show of some sorts with all the cooking and baking happening. The demand of yeast more than doubled amid the pandemic and Gardenia even had to increase production by five percent during this time, which meant 2.2 million loaves of bread baked a day!

Video calls in your pyjama bottoms
Zero contact with other humans and staying in the comfort of your own home while still getting your job done? An introvert’s dream! Unfortunately, the days of daily Zoom calls with your colleagues and bosses are coming to an end if they’re not already over.

Clear roads
Because there aren’t many things worse than being caught in a traffic jam on a rainy Friday evening. There was just something calming about empty highways in what was once a bustling city. Unfortunately, the only place to go during this time was the grocer. But the joy of an empty road!

The sheer simplicity of it
For many of us, life under MCO was simple. Gone were the days of traffic jams and rushing to work. Our routines would look the same: Wake up, get breakfast with the family, get work done (slot a nap in on slow days!). For a lot of us, the biggest headache we would have was what we should do with all the spare time we found ourselves with!

What do you miss about the MCO? Tweet us @graduan or drop us an email through [email protected]

Photo by Volodymyr Hryshchenko on Unsplash