Honestly, ‘2020’ is such a misnomer. That’s because we’re still being plagued by the effects of 2019. Yes, we’re talking about Covid-19, the infectious disease associated with a year.
We learned many more words and strange happenings in 2020: words that were there but were never in our vocabulary. At least not in our everyday speech prior to 2020.
It was 11 months ago (has it been that long?) that we first heard about Wuhan. And the word closely associated with Wuhan: coronavirus. Corona Beer became the butt of jokes. And we learned the name of the virus that causes Covid-19 is SARS-coV-2. Can’t they just call it SARS-2? Less drama like that.
We also learned that there are many shades of orange. And language-changing tea cups became an overnight sensation. Toilet papers, hand sanitizers and face masks flew off the shelves. Food delivery riders became heroes.
Before long, terminologies like safe distancing, new normal, lockdown, circuit breaker, work-from-home become part of our everyday speech. Some of these words have their own abbreviations like CB and WFH, which sounded rather coarse to some people. Zoom used to describe how fast you’re going, now it refers to a collection of talking heads on your screen.
Migrant workers suddenly have the spotlight turned on them.
Then hopes were raised and dashed with the travel bubble burst. A property bubble burst would have brought on less tears.
The proposed flight to nowhere was grounded before it took off. Ideas for cruises to nowhere were floated and realized, only for one to be docked sooner than expected.
Then, as if our social lives are constantly metamorphosing, we’ve got phase I, phase II and now phase III. So, pray tell, when we get to phase IV – if there’s one, do we fly?
Suddenly everyone got excited about visiting our own backyard. Seems that the hands responsible for the Merlion are at work again: Singapoliday, anyone?
Well, what brings 2021? Pfizer, which mere mentions will turn some men blue, uh, red, came to the rescue: Vaccines. Perhaps things will be different then.
Oh, there’s definitely one name that won’t go wrong: Sunday Shades. They have a whole range of runner-friendly sunglasses with a wide selection of colours. They don’t bounce, are lightweight and made for the Asian profile. Get them here today!