2021 Week 11 Update

This week and the following week is results week for BB & GG. GG’s results came first and while it was more or less expected, she didn’t do as much as she expected to do which meant her cumulative GPA fell down a bit, for which she was upset for about half a day and then bounced back promising to bring it up in the next semester. BB’s results come out tomorrow and I for one, am in equal parts anxious and worried.

My leg and ankle pain is still there and some days are quite bad. I am lucky that GG is a talented maseusse, though she does not know any technique, but helps me once or twice a day to massage the aching parts. This means my walking this month is getting hit and I don’t think I would walk as much as I have done in previous months. This is a busy week for me, but I think if the pain persists, I will have no choice, but go to the doctor next week and have it checked out. I know I am probably being negligent, but I hope this goes away before I need to see a specialist.

Today’s quote is a classic positivity quote which asks one to bring positivity with them wherever they go. It’s a great lesson, especially for me, since I am trying quite hard to be more positive in 2021. It means bringing something positive with you at all times, and making the best of any situation.

That’s all for this week, stay safe people!

2021 Week 10 Update

This week marks the official one year mark when the WHO declared the Covid-19 as a pandemic. On 11 March 2020, deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction, WHO made the assessment that COVID-19 could be characterised as a pandemic. Singapore had been one of the countries affected with cases as early as in January 2020.

As of yesterday, we have 119 million cases and over 2.5 million deaths caused by the virus. Of these numbers, the United States accounts for almost 30 million cases and half a million deaths. A country which only accounts for 4% of the world’s population accounts for 20% of the world covid related deaths. Brazil has overtaken India as the country with the second highest cases and India is at number four in the total number of deaths related to the pandemic. Singapore with about 60 thousand cases stands at number 99 and with 30 deaths in total is at number 171.

This week I have spent in pain in my leg. The pain which came on and off for a few weeks in my ankles was so bad this week that I could only hobble. I also had a weird stiffness in the middle of one of my calves, like what happens when you calves cramp. I have been spamming lots of muscle relaxants and medicated oils and also using crepe bandages to get some relief.

Today’s quote is a lesson that people, especially me needs to learn. While every day may not be good according to your definition of good, but if you look hard, you will find something something good even in the worst of days. So look for the little things that bring that little joy to your day, it can be as simple as reading a beautiful sentence, a lovely sunrise or sunset or even something that a loved one said to you. Life will be so much more beautiful!

With this note, stay safe people and if you or your loved ones are getting vaccinated, please go ahead and book your appointment and get vaccinated, for the sake of yourself and your loved ones. It’s only when we do our part will life start going back to a semblance of normal.

2021 Week 09 Update

This week was a pretty quiet week because the children are on their semesteral holiday and with the end of this semester, they finish their first year of their polytechnic education. Though BB went to school more, GG spent almost all of the her first year having online lessons. As I have been saying previously, hopefully, she will go back to school on a more fulltime basis in year 2.

The good news this week was that my parents finally got the first dose of the covid vaccine. In Mumbai, both private and government hospitals were allowed to administer the vaccine and I spent a good bit of time trying to find a hospital near our home for them, but they managed to walk into a nearby government hospital and because of my father’s Parkinson’s disease, they were also jumped ahead in the queue. Now after their second dose, they will be in a much better place and my sister and I heaved a huge sigh of relief when they got the vaccine.

Tomorrow is the International Women’s day and while there is a post waiting for you tomorrow about the day, I just want to point out that during this last year, women have had to shoulder a larger part of the disturbances which we all have been sujected to. And this is not just anecdotal. I have been speaking with family and friends and especially those who have young children who are home schooling, have had it hard when they also have a fulltime job to do. BB & GG are older now, but I have been told that those with younger children, that is those not yet in school, also have to contend children becoming very sticky and clingy which again will impact them during their work day and when they will go back to work.

And so we come to today’s positive quote is about happiness. If we think about it, it is a state of mind and we expend the same energy to be happy as to be miserable, so why not just be happy instead of being negative and miserable?

On that note, stay safe people and wishing all my women readers a happy women’s day!

2021 Week 08 Update

And just like that, with the click of a finger, today is the last day of February.

I am still going strong with my resolutions and I am positively cautious that this will be sustained on an on-going basis for the rest of my life. My average steps per day were slightly less this month as compared to January, but I still managed to hit my target number each day. I have walked up to the norder between the states of Selangor and Perak. This means, from my house in the western part of Singapore, I have crossed the three states of Johor, Malacca and Negri Sembilan plus the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur and almost traversed the state of Selangor with the state of Perak just a few kilometers away.

I am reading enough, but not enough for my standards yet. I do try to read for 15-20 minutes daily, but sometimes social media and other distractions get in the way. In the past two months, I have read 14 books and am ahead on my yearly target for books to read.

And on that note, today’s positivity quote is something I am going to abide by. Nobody is ever too old to set another goal or dream a new dream.

We are still seeing COVID-19 cases across the world, but there seems to be trend of the number of cases dropping in many countries. Singapore routinely sees single to low double digit cases almost everyday with most of them being cases coming into the country or imported cases as it’s called. Local cases are zero to low single digits on a daily basis but we will not be moving out of our current phase of mask wearing and having people in homes anytime soon. I assume and pray that sometime in end 2021 or maybe early 2022, there may be enough herd immunity or enough people vaccinated across most of the world to allow some sort of pre-COVID travel.

We also had some family over yesterday for a dinner after so long, that it was refreshing to sit down and have a good chat. We did abide by our social distancing rules and there were not more than eight people in the house.

Have a wonderful week and stay safe, stay masked and be careful, especially with the vulnerable in your family, community and the wider areas.

2021 Week 07 Update

Today’s positivity quote is something we all need these days. Optimism has become a rare quality and we need to find something to be optimistic about. Because according to the author of this quote, Mary Lou Retton, optimism is a happiness magnet. If we think positive thoughts, then good things will happen to us.

This week was super hectic for me and I barely had time to catch my breath before the week ended. The children are a week before their exams and things are pretty quiet on that front too. They have gone through two semesters or one year of their first year and most of this year was online. BB has been going quite often to school this semester, but GG only had one face to face class per week. Hopefully, she will go back to school more often in year two.

Though the world has recorded more than 109 million active cases till date and more than 86 million of them having recovered from the disease which is about 99.6% of all infected. I also read that the daily reported cases of infections have been falling across the world for a month now and and on Tuesday, 16 February, hit their lowest since mid-October. This is good news for all of us, especially with vaccines being rolled out progressively across the world.

That’s all from me this week. Stay safe people!