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Phillip Jarrell’s log (1): Stocking Up On Daily Necessities
By:Phillip Jarrell  |  From:english.eastday.com  |  2020-03-05 15:42

I am a photographer, video director, singer, songwriter, and music producer. 

Every year I stay in Shanghai alone during the Chinese New Year. This time of the year being the darkest, longest nights, coldest days, there is a real sense of gloom anyway, but there was plenty of news about the virus in Wuhan coming out before and during the exodus of friends leaving Shanghai. So I was very concerned about their safety.  

As my dearest friend was on a fast train passing through Wuhan, and we were extremely glad to find once the train stopped in Wuhan the platform was empty and no one was allow to get on the train. That was a close call. People were allowed to get off.  

(Photo courtesy of Phillip Jarrell) 

Daily I got text message to my phone which lead me to the official virus website, and was able to get the Chrome browser to translate most of the pages. The phone messages are in Chinese so I needed to copy them into the google translator in my phone. The numbers on the virus were pretty shocking and I would search the count for Shanghai, and then to see if any were in my local area. I could understand that my chance of getting the virus was very small, but the possibility was very real considering the nature of the virus and the fact that its character was not fully understood yet. I was surprised that I knew a lot about this type situation from movies I saw when I was a child. Also the fact that I grew up in a military family gives me a type of innate knowledge about such things. We always had boxes of canned foods in our home in case of sudden emergency.   

My assessment of the situation went like this, find the mask I have somewhere. Go to the supermarket and buy a pack of plastic gloves, the type you hold fried foods with, a pack of 80 pieces. Cleaning materials, like Clorox, and masks which were already all sold out.  

It is normal that things are not restocked quickly during the CNY. I see they are back in stock now. I contacted a Chinese friend to go to a City Shop to check if they had any Lysol products which is an American brand that can Kill 99.9 % of the bad things in the world. She found it and was so kind as to gift me 4 paper masks.

Next on the list was gloves to wear while cleaning and cooking. Then for foods, to buy as much as possible that would last as long as possible. Thinking if it gets worse and I can’t go out to the super market again, what would last as long as possible. 

I bought foods like vegetables that last 3 or 4 days, potatoes and carrots which can last for weeks, dried beans, noodles, frozen and powdered foods can last for months. Packaged cakes, dried fruits, raisins, nuts, rice can last for months. 

Normally I filter and cook my water anyway. All of this while trying to create some healthy meals, that I would actually enjoy eating. 

This was not just a survive-and-hide project, it was a get healthy and stay positive project.

(Image courtesy of the Internet)

(Story by Phillip Jarrell)

在沪老外的抗疫笔记(1):我的家庭应急储备经验

我是一名摄影师、视频导演、歌手、词曲作者和音乐制作人。每年春节我都是一个人在上海过年。但今年的春节假期,却是近几年来最灰暗的,又正值冬季最冷的时候,整个城市都笼罩在阴沉之中。 

我的朋友们陆续加入春运的大潮,而在这期间,关于武汉新冠肺炎的消息铺天盖地,这让我很担心他们的安全。我最好的朋友就搭乘了一辆经停武汉的火车,幸运的是,列车停靠武汉站后,大家发现月台上空荡荡的并没有人,因为不允许上客,但可以下客(此时武汉已经开始封城)。真是有惊无险。 

(图片来源:Phillip Jarrell) 

每天,我手机上都会收到上海市各部委发布的有关疫情的短信,上面还附有相关部门的官网链接,我会用翻译工具浏览这些网站。我收到的短信是中文的,所以我需要把它们谷歌翻译一遍。新冠病毒的感染病例数,确实令人震惊,然后我会搜索上海本地的情况,查看我附近的疫情动态。当然我也知道,染上病毒的几率很小,但鉴于这种病毒的性质和特征还是未知,被传染的可能性还是很高的。我不禁想起了小时候看过的一些电影情节。不过,我成长在一个军人家庭, 对这种事有一种先天的应对方式——为了以防万一,我们家总会囤积一箱又一箱的罐头食品。 

所以,根据我对疫情的判断,首先要囤口罩,然后得去超市买包塑料手套,就是你吃油炸食品时需要的那种,一包80只的。不过,我去超市的时候发现,例如Clorox的清洁剂、口罩已经全部卖光了。  

春节期间,超市断货很正常。现在,之前缺的货都补上了。我的一位中国朋友正好去超市,我请她帮我看看是否有Lysol的产品(Lysol是一个美国的家居清洁品牌,这个牌子的产品据说可以杀死99.9%的细菌)。我朋友在超市里帮我找到了这个牌子,她还顺便送给我四只一次性纸口罩。 

接下来,我开始寻找打扫卫生和做饭时需要的塑胶手套。然后,尽量多买点吃的,必须是耐存储的那种。我想,如果疫情变得严重,就没法去超市了,所以得买点经得住放的食品。

这不仅仅是为了生存,而是为了保持健康积极的生活状态。  

(图片来源:网络)

本文作者:Phillip Jarrell

翻译:吴琼


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