The phrase "new normal" has become the new cliché as Thailand eases restrictions on businesses and activities. You can go to a cinema without having to worry if anyone will see you bawl your eyes out during an emotional scene since the seats around you are empty. As we learn to live with new norms of everyday life, you may come across some that don't seem to make much sense. Here are a few for your entertainment.
Eating out together, but separately
Covid-19 inflicts an ironic spin on eating out, turning what is supposed to be a bonding experience between friends and fam into a somewhat isolated one. You know the drill by now. You and your dining companions scan a QR code before you enter a restaurant. Then, you'll either be asked to sit solo at separate tables even though you come together, sit diagonally from each other or sit across from each other with a clear shield in the middle. I mean if no one in your family has contracted the C-word and everyone religiously wears a mask when they go out, there's no reason for them to have to be seated at different tables, isn't it? IMHO, this is overkill.
Fortunately, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration announced that table shields aren't required anymore for group dining out but dining tables must be at least one metre apart. Restaurants inside Central shopping malls allow a family of three to eight who live in the same house to sit together in a designated zone but each must use separate serving spoons. No double dipping!
Still complicated but it's better than celebrating a birthday at four different tables, surely.
No munching while watching a movie, almost
Okay, I get why airplanes shouldn't serve food and drink during a flight since the flight attendants have to be in close contact with passengers while handing them the food tray and retrieving it back. But no popcorn while watching a movie? Preposterous! C'mon, the snacks on offer are prepackaged. And can't you just sell bottled drinks? Believe it or not. When it was first announced last Friday that cinemas would be back in business on Monday, one of the reopening stipulations was that no food and drink would be allowed inside a cinema, thanks to the Department of Health.
Fortunately, thank Buddha that someone with authority came to their senses. Major Cineplex announced on Monday that food and drink are allowed inside. Moviegoers can resume digging into an unreasonably huge bucket of popcorn while enjoying a flick as they did in the pre-Covid world. It's not much but we'll take it.
Open-air BTS?
Last week, the BTS did a short trial run with the windows opened in a bid to further curb Covid-19. Their corporate communication department reported that, although the ventilation inside the train improved when they opened their windows (kinda duh), they concluded that the ventilation inside the BTS system was good enough as the trains are already high above street level and stations are spacious and open for air to flow freely.
Fortunately, they deemed opening windows inside their trains unnecessary (but you may argue that they should have known that without the trial) and that it could cause inconveniences for passengers (Helloooo, it's the rainy season, guys!). The proposal could obviously backfire too. First, the passengers would feel less comfortable since the temperature inside the train would go up. Also the possibility of getting showered (and possibly electrocuted) while riding a train isn't a risk passengers would take to kindly. This proposal, although clearly well-intentioned, sounds like it would lead to more problems. So relieved that BTS didn't put this plan into use for real.
Not (so) convenient stores
At the time of writing, you have a choice of writing down your full name, phone numbers and times of entering and exiting in a book provided instead of scanning a QR code before entering a 7-Eleven. Not so convenient way to enter a convenient store, amiright?
You see, the old school way of logging with your handwriting poses several more concerns. To protect privacy of customers, some stores put a sleeve on the book so you can write down your info but can't see other people's info. I don't want to brag but I won a handwriting contest when I was a Prathom student so every Thai can read what I write. But when I look at other names before mine, some were just plain illegible. Some wrote down only their first names, which were also illegible. Some left the phone number and time columns blank. Therefore, the book's effectiveness in helping to track Covid-19 cases is questionable.
Heck, a troll with a dark sense of humour could put "Covid-19" as their name and may get away with it. g