In the middle of the week, Singaporeans were treated to the good news that from tomorrow, all COVID restrictions will be stood down and the disease alert or DORSCON level will move down to the lowest level of green. This also means that Singapore establishes a new endemic norm as we learn to live with the disease and adapt to it. This puts COVID-19 in the same category as the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and the H7N9 bird flu strain.

According to the Ministry of Health, this is due to the mild nature of the disease, especially among those who have been vaccinated, and the minimal disruption posed to healthcare capacity and daily lives. The DORSCON level has been maintained at Yellow – the second-lowest tier – since April last year, after more than two years at Orange.

From Monday, masks will no longer be mandatory on public transport as well as in some healthcare and residential care settings. However, visitors, staff, and patients will still be required to wear masks in settings where there is interaction with patients as well as indoor patient-facing areas. These include hospital wards, emergency departments, consultation rooms and waiting areas, pharmacies, clinics, and nursing homes.

Today’s quote is attributed to the singer Brian Nhira who exhorts us that even though we may not have reached our peak, we are still on our journey and on the way to the top. This is a quote that is full of hope that tells us not to give up, even at our lowest. And I think this quote is perfect for today because in the last three years, when we thought the restrictions and limitations would never end, today, many countries have opened up completely and we are on the way to a world where we have learned to live with the virus.

BB & GG are very busy with school with BB finalising his project report and preparing for his project presentations while GG is super busy with exams that start next week. She has been doing late at night and early in the morning studying, and I hope she does well and gets the reward for her hard work.

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

And just like that, we are in the month of love, February. I always associate February being a month filled with love and laughter and so hope that this month is like that for all of us.

I finally reached my home state of Maharashtra this month, after walking nearly 6,000 km since the beginning of 2021. I am currently on the outskirts of Maharastra’s third-largest city and its winter capital, Nagpur. To reach my home in Mumbai, I still need to walk another 700 km.

I exceeded my expectations this month and read 12 books, a mixture of both fiction and non-fiction. I don’t think I have read this much in a month in recent years, so this was a very good start for the year for me, in reading terms. Now comes the part, which is to sustain this reading pace.

This week’s quote comes from Ralph Waldo Emerson, an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and his ideology was disseminated through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States. Waldo as he was known as tells us that our past and future circumstances are not important as our character; no matter what setbacks we’ve faced or challenges that lie ahead, we can succeed if we have inner strength. Food for thought, right?

The children are busy with school and winding down to the end of the last semester of their polytechnic education. And GG is also busy with university applications and I hope she gets admitted into the course of her choice at the university she wants to attend. BB will now be liable for National Service and we are still waiting for his enlistment letter which should come anytime soon. So after the end of his diploma, he will start focusing on his fitness, so that he does not have too much of a problem during his Basic Military Training.

That’s all for this week. I hope February is just as lovely as the promise it shows.

Today is the first day of the Year of the Rabbit. Here’s wishing all my Chinese readers a very happy Lunar New Year. Gong Xi Fa Cai, Xīn nián kuài lè

We have a long weekend here in Singapore because of the Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations, so it is a time to rest and chill and just be with one another. I would have loved to go on a short trip, but because of the children’s school and the fact that GG has exams coming up, this remained a dream for now.

Today’s quote is from Walt Disney, the man who seeded the child in every one of us. Disney says that all our dreams can come true if we dare to pursue them. What this means is that nothing is impossible, and all our dreams can come true as long as we don’t give up. It’s the courage to pursue them even after the failure which is important the most. All our dreams can be turned into a reality, but, It has to be authentic and realistic. So be real, listen to your inner voice, believe in yourself, and have the courage to continue even after a setback. What you do when you fail defines everything.

China is likely to see 36,000 Covid deaths a day during the Lunar New Year holidays, making it one of the most deadly periods of the pandemic, according to an updated analysis. The country will likely experience one longer, more severe Covid wave, rather than repeat peaks and valleys, as the traditional festival marked by millions of people returning home to reunite with their families fuels high levels of virus transmission. Hopefully, this will not be a return to what happened in 2020 which was also fueled by the Lunar New Year travel.

I have been obsessed with reading this week and read four books this week. I have been reading every chance I got during the day and some days, late into the night trying to finish a chapter or a book. I hope this continues for a long time this year and I read more and more.

Stay safe people and here’s hoping the year of the rabbit is happy and prosperous for you and your loved ones.

To all my readers from the Tamil diaspora, here’s wishing you a very happy Pongal! May this festival of harvest bring happiness and prosperity to you and your loved ones.

A couple of days back, I read a news report which was quite worrying. According to the World Economic Forum, the cost-of-living crisis will be the biggest global risk over the next two years. Global inflation remains at sky-high levels after energy and food costs rocketed last year following the invasion of agricultural powerhouse Ukraine by major oil and gas producer Russia. Supply constraints caused by the Covid-19 pandemic have also contributed to decades-high consumer prices. Conflict and geo-economic tensions have triggered a series of deeply interconnected global risks, including energy and food supply crunches, and strong increases in the cost of living and debt servicing. Such crises risk undermining efforts to tackle longer-term risks, notably those related to climate change, biodiversity and investment in human capital. This report described the cost of living crisis as the biggest short-term risk by 2025, followed by natural disasters, extreme weather events and geo-economic confrontation. Hopefully, there is an upturn very soon for the world.

Today’s quote is from the Buddha. He tells us that thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. What this means is that when we share our happiness with others, our happiness will not reduce when we share our happiness, it shimmers around us and even multiplies when it is shared. So spread happiness all around you today, you will see how beautifully impacts your life.

That’s all this week. Stay safe and be happy!