Today’s positive quote is from the famous activist, Martin Luther King Jr and tells us about not to lose hope. Hope is the one thing that keeps us doing doing what we do each and every time, all the time. A life without hope is a life that is completely barren. So even if we do accept disappointments, we cannot, never lose hope.

So why talk about hope today? Cases in Singapore are rising at a steady rate and we are looking at about 3,500 plus cases on a daily basis now with cases poised to hit the 5,000 mark very soon. But the good news is that most of the affected are either asymptotic or with very mild symptoms.  I’ve stopped thinking about and even obsessively checking the daily numbers because now I know we have to live with this. Singapore is also starting and is in talks with multiple countries for quarantine free travel and this means that people can start to travel again. I am now waiting when India will come on this list and hope that day is not too far away. I also read that India is opening up to tourists and visitors and people can start travelling to India from as early as mid-October.

As I mentioned last week, GG was hospitalised for about 12 hours and has now been diagnosed with hypothyroidism. She has to take a tablet for the rest of her life and she is coping with it well. She wakes up at 4 am, takes the medicine and goes back to sleep. This is because she can’t eat or drink anything for an hour and has to avoid diary products and anything that has calcium in it for four hours. So having the medicine at 4 am allows her to eat breakfast around 8 am.

My parents have finally made a decision to move to a retirement community outside Mumbai. They are currently there now looking at possible homes to rent or buy and this is making me sad on many levels. On one hand, I am happy that my parents will be in a place where they will access to healthcare and not really be alone as we have extended family in that place. This is especially true since my father has been diagnosed with a degerative disease about five years back and over this period, he has slowly, but definitely gotten worse. So this move is for their better. I am quite sad that I will be unable to visit Mumbai again. I do hope I can make one last trip, but in the current situation, it looks unlikely. I may make a trip when my sister visits India and stay with her for a bit just to get my Bombay fix, but that will be all I can do now.

That’s all from my side this week. Stay safe and take care everyone!

I am better than I used to be is how this affirmation is attributed to Marianne Williamson. And it is something I need this week. I keep repeating this over and over this week.

On Friday, we went for a scheduled appointment of a gynaecological nature for GG. To continue the investigation, they did a couple of blood tests and we were immediately called back after just a couple of hours because of some abnormalities in her blood work. And so we went from the first hospital to another, bigger one, because the first hospital didn’t have the resources we needed. She was admitted because the doctors felt they needed to run some more tests and long story short, she has been diagnosed with a thyroid condition which will be most likely a lifelong one. Luckily, she was discharged within 12 hours and we all were so relieved.

I have been walking slightly more this month because I want to reach India’s borders by the end of this year. This month, I have walked 489 steps and 320 km which brings me to have walked about 2330 km, well into Myanmar, crossing the Kayin State and into the Mon State. I am now about 1100 km from India’s borders.

I have also been reading slightly more this month compared to August. I am almost in spitting distance of my goal for the year, but will continue to read more and beat the goal! I have read 72 books till the end of September, so now I am thinking, I should move the goalposts a bit.

Cases continue to increase in Singapore and I am waiting for that peak, after which things will start calming down. We’re taking so many precautions that yesterday when we went to get GG discharged from the hospital, it took more than 2 hours just to get to her! This including multiple registrations and contact tracing and an Antigen Rapid Test or ART. Hopefully, this will slow down the virus, especially for the elderly and the vulnerable.

That’s all from us this week! Take care and stay safe everyone.

Today’s quote is a quote from the celebrated author and female icon, Maya Angelou. It is a simple one which tells us that nothing can ever dim that light that shines within us. So keep that light burning bright and don’t let it dim, so that shines and lightens the path in front of you and is a beacon for others.

Singapore’s woes don’t seem to be ending anytime soon. We are now firmly in the midst of the second wave with cases hitting more than 1500 per day, with the signs pointing to it reaching more than $2000 positive cases per day before we see any sign of decline. The numbers today are higher than the peak last year. And all of us are tired, but we must soldier on.

BB got his results this week and he did not do as well as we thought he would do. Everyone was upset, though I think the most shocked was BB himself, who probably thought he could coast along. This setback seems to have hit him quite hard. Since the day the results were declared, he has tried to make small changes to himself. It’s still early days now, but I am hoping to see a better man emerge from this adversity.

GG has been busy preparing for the first of her professional certification and with lessons in the morning and homework and studying going on in the afternoon, we barely get to see her outside of mealtimes. I am hoping she gets the grades she is aiming so all her efforts are for naught!

That’s all from me this week, but with how things are here, we are going to be home until and unless it is necessary to get out. Stay safe people!

Singapore is in the grip of a second wave, with cases poised to hit at least 1,000 per day. And this is from less than 10 a day less than a month back. And it seems that it will take another month or two for this to go through the community and for cases to subside. It was also reported that  in the last four weeks, more than 98% of local cases were asymptomatic or had mild symptoms. The ministry of health also said that as of last Thursday, 82% of the population has completed their full vaccination regimen, while 84% has received at least one dose as of Thursday. I guess we should be careful, mask up and use soap and hand sanitisers as much as possible and even more so when we have the elderly and the vulnerable living with us or near us.

Today’s positive quote, or rather again an affirmation comes to us courtesy of Michelle Obama. It’s again a very simple one. All we need to do is ask ourselves, Am I good enough? And give ourselves the answer in a very resounding voice, that Yes I am! As Dory told us all in Finding Nemo, in the face of adversity, to just keep swimming.

BB & GG turned 18 last week and though celebrations were very low key, they did meet friends and some came over to wish them. BB got a professional mic set with headphones from his school friends while GG’s friends got her clothes. GG also got her results the day after their birthday, but the results were as expected and she has more or less mainted her GPA. She is also very busy preparing for the first of the many professional exams she will have to take for her career and that has been pretty much all she has done in the holidays. BB’s results will come next week and we are all on tenterhooks for that. He has not done well in the first two semesters, so this one is a crucial one, especially if he wants to go to university after his National Service. More on that next week.

That’s all from me. Stay safe everyone!

I’ve been in a kind of funk state all week. And this meant I was barely productive. When I think back, I know it’s because of the surge of cases here in Singapore. From single digit cases a month or so back to more than 500 cases per day this week, it looks like we are all going back to last year. Cases are doubling every two weeks and it looks like the Delta variant will be more lethal than the original variant. The government is predicting that we will hit 2,000 cases daily by the end of the month and that’s more than the peak last year. And last year, it was mostly confined to the worker dormitories, but this time it’sin the community. Every time I step outside, I wonder if that day will be the day I get infected. And what’s worse is that with more than 80% of the population fully vaccinated, I am sure a major chunk of the newly infected are those who are fully vaccinated. And so fatalistically I just want this to get over with. If I am to be infected, and the way things are going, I will be infected sooner or later, I’d just rather it be sooner so we can get on with our lives. Am I making sense? I really don’t know and don’t think so, but that’s the kind of mood I have been in.

This week an article from a UK bedding manufacturer, Sleepseeker came out which reported that Singapore is the most fatigued country in the world. And that’s not surprising, given that from the minute we wake to the minute we lay our heads down in bed, we have to be hyper-connected, hyper-updated and on hyper alert, especially with the pandemic situation. Singapore has outdone traditionally overworked countries like China and Japan, the only other Asian countries in the list. Singapore has worked the second most number of hours on average, only behind Mexico and the country with the third-most time spent on the internet daily, behind Brazil and Mexico.

The children are in their holidays and their results should come sometime next week. They also turn 18 next week, which in many countries would make them legal adults, but they have a few years more to go to become a legal adult in Singapore.

Today’s positivity quote is from Louise Hay. It’s a very simple one, more of an affirmation, rather than a quote. All you need to tell yourself that you are in the right place, at the right time and doing the right thing and things will begin to fall in place. Maybe this quote resonated with me as I really need this affirmation right now.