Half the year has gone and it does not feel like it. I guess because most of us are home bound and working or studying from home, it feels like we have not achieved anything, yet half the year is over!

Singapore is now slowly moving on and trying to get back to a new normal. Schools will reopen fully from tomorrow and both BB & GG will start to ease back to going back to school slowly. BB already has started going back to school twice a week for lab and some lessons, but GG has yet to step foot into campus.

In other news, my helper R will be back with us this week. We parted in very good terms and once we were back to normal, she was supposed to come back once a week to meet us on her off day. But she was very uncomfortable at her new employment. She just could not sleep at night and felt something off there. It is not to say she was not treated well, but she was not happy. She called me a couple of times to complain and each time I would counsel her that it is due to a change in the environment and she will adjust gradually. Early in the week, she called me almost in tears and asked me if I can employ her again. I discussed it with S and we felt sorry for her and so we said yes. Then everything happened very fast. One day in the week, she asked me to apply for her permit and it was approved the same day. Her current employer also decided to let her go since she was so uncomfortable and unhappy and long story short, she will come back mid-week.

So that’s our news this week. Stay safe people!

Singapore has now moved to Phase 2 which means more places are open. This is because community infection rates have generally remained stable, cases in migrant worker dormitories have declined, and there are no new large clusters emerging. The past week, we saw the numbers reduce greatly and this has given all of us hope for the future.

In this phase, retail outlets are allowed to open their doors after two long months, people can dine-in at restaurants and home based services like tuition and private enrichment classes are allowed to restart. Sports and other public facilities are also allowed to open as well as all healthcare services including face-to-face visits at residential facilities for the elderly. In all this, safe distancing measures still apply as well as masking up when outside the house. However, large spaces like malls must still restrict capacity and have tracking systems set up.

Companies have still been encouraged to ask employees to work from home for as long as possible with only essential employees to be in the office.

The total number of cases in Singapore is slightly short of 42,000 cases with about 33,500 cases completely recovered from COVID-19 and 26 deaths. India on the other hand, is seeing an explosion of cases in the past week with the country recording nearly 400,000 cases, 214,000 recoveries and 13,000 deaths.

Though I am itching to go out, I am also wary and cautious. I have heard most of the restaurants in Singapore over this weekend have been fully booked, what with people wanting to get out of the house and the fact it is the Father’s Day weekend. Speaking of which, to all the fathers and father figures reading this blog, here’s wishing you a very Happy Father’s Day!

Stay home as much as possible, stay masked and most importantly, stay safe!

I am fed up!

It’s been almost three months of being cooped up at home and there are times it really gets to me. At least twice or thrice a week, when I wake up in the morning, it takes me a few seconds of thinking to figure out which day of the week it is. Though we can get out of the house to shop or walk, I don’t get out unless it is absolutely necessary. Because of my pre-exisiting condition, I am already immunocompromised and if I get the virus, it may prove deadly.

Singapore’s positive count as of yesterday has crossed 40,000 cases, though most of the cases are from the workers in dormitories. We are averaging about 400-500 cases on a daily basis, and I am looking forward to a day when this number comes down to a low double digit.

This week, New Zealand became  the first country to officially declare themselves COVID free and they have zero positive cases currently. This is such good news and we are all cheering the country and hope this news gets replicated worldwide and soon.

In India, on the other hand, cases are only increasing. The current tally for the country is around 310,000 and India is now number four with the highest number of cases, behind the USA, Brazil and Russia. My home state of Maharashtra leads the country in the number of cases with more than 101,000 cases and accounting for around 32% of all of cases in India. My hometown of Mumbai is the worst hit city in the country with more than 55,000 positive cases and if you add the nearby city of Thane which is usually clubbed as metropolitian Mumabai,the total increases to about 71,000 with more than 2,000 deaths. Subarban Mumbai along with Thane and together with Delhi, Ahmedabad and Chennai, these cities account for more than half of India’s COVID tally.

BB went back to school this week for some lab work and I think he will be going back at least once a week for more of lab time since that is something you can’t do as home based learning. GG on the other hand, has no need to go to school, so she is at home only. They both also had tests or assessments this past few weeks. As per their personalities, GG panicked and was wondering if she wrote the right answer or not while BB was more blase about this. They are on leave now and school for BB will start the week after next and after two weeks for GG.

Well, this was our week, have a great week people and remember, stay safe, stay sanitised and stay home!

For the past few days, I have been anxiously watching the weather. The cyclone Nisarg was expected to hit the western coast of India and my home city of Mumbai was expected to be hit the hardest as the cyclone was expected to make landfall very close to Mumbai. This is the first cyclone going to hit the city in over a hundred years and everyone, including me, was tense. Then, miraculously, the cyclone veered as it reached the coast and made landful a few hundred kilometres south of the city and the city was spared with just some heavy rainfall. Everyone was so relieved and when I spoke with my dad and said how happy I was that the city was spared, he said the city of Mumbai was the city of Mahalakshmi and she wouldn’t allow anything to happen to her city. I don’t know if this is something that has been circulating among Mumbaikars, but the Mahalakshmi temple on the seashore in the area of Mahalakshmi, does hold a special place in the hearts of the locals.

Covid-19 has continued its hold on Singapore with more than 37,000 confirmed cases and 24 deaths. As of yesterday, we had almost 25,000 cases who have recovered, but personally, I am expecting a spike in the next 10 days or so when we cross the first two weeks since the lifting of the circuit breaker and people are mingling together. In the past week, we in Singapore, have seen visuals of crowded trains and buses and shoppers jostling with each other in supermarkets. I just hope that we don’t see the spike which will necessitate going back to another few months of being in a circuit breaker again!

It’s also been two weeks since R left our home and we are managing. I have now come to the conclusion that housework is the most underrated activity we do and that we are not paying our homemakers and house help enough. While I am happy that this period is a good teaching experience for the children to start helping around the home, I hope things become better soon so I can get a part-time helper to come at least once a week to work on some of the chores.

The children’s schools have also told them that they will be doing home-based learning the whole term and so they will only go back to school in semester 2 sometime in October. Understandably, they are frustrated about being stuck at home for so long. If we take October as a timeline, it will be about 11 months of staying home!

Anyway, this was our week, hope yours was also good! Stay home and stay safe everyone

Singapore will start easing up on the circuit breaker from Tuesday. This first phase of easing up on restrictions will be proceeded with caution and we have been told that instead of one month as it was initially said, it can even be eased earlier. After that will be the second phase which can last several months, followed by the third phase which will be our new normal which will remain until effective vaccine or treatment is found.

Companies have been told they should avoid having their employees in the office as much as possible and those who will be coming in to work will have to maintain social distancing, they can’t socialise with colleagues in the office and should not have lunch and coffee breaks together and a face mask or face shield should be on the face at all times.

Schools and junior colleges will also reopen on Tuesday and except for the graduating cohort who will go to school daily, the others will have one week of school and one week of home based learning. S still will have to work from home for now, though it may change when the country moves to the next phase. As for the children, they will finish up their term with home-based learning and after we will know if they will go back to school after the term break which should be in mid-June.

Singapore now has around 34,000 positive cases, most of whom are work permit holders who reside in dormitories. Singapore’s mortality rate is 0.067% which makes it one of the few countries with such a low mortality rate.

We are now a week without R, my helper and without sugarcoating things, I can say, it has not been very easy. I became used to not doing housework all the time for a long time now and to suddenly do everything, became a bit hard, especially while balancing work and the home. Of course, S and the children have been a huge help. Getting the children used to housework was one the biggest reasons I gave R my blessings and sent her off with a smile. She is still adjusting to a new place and new people but she should be fine in a few weeks or a month or so.

That’s pretty much my update for the week. Stay home, stay masked and stay safe people!