Yesterday, after more than two decades, I exercised my political right and responsibility and voted in Singapore’s general elections. The results were not too surprising, but this is not a political blog, so I will not go in there. The whole process was quite fast and in my opinion, seamless. We were in and out of the polling centre in less than thirty minutes, including queueing up to enter which took some time as they only allowed a certain number of people inside at a time.

Singapore’s community cases have been increasing with the lifting of the circuit breaker, but I guess this was inevitable. Now we need to see what will happen. With a total of more than 45,000 cases, we don’t seem to see the light of the tunnel anytime soon. India’s cases seems to have surged and the country is now the third most affected country after the United States and Brazil.

Some countries which had successes have reported fresh cases which is cause for concern since they had opened up their economies and does not bode too well for the rest of the world which are considering doing the same.

I have been seriously meditating now for about a hundred days or about as long as since the beginning of the circuit breaker and it is now I really realise the benefits I derive from it. I used to meditate at night, but I started to see the the real benefits when I switched to meditating in the mornings. I like to wake up early, before everyone else and meditate in that silence, mostly in the darkness as well. So if there is anyone who is still on the fence about meditation, please go ahead and give it a try, you will not regret it. S also has started to meditate now, though not as consistent as me. But then it took me a few years of inconsistent meditation to start doing it consistently, so I have hopes for him too.

That’s all from my side this week. Stay home, stay safe and stay masked everyone!

R is back in my home after some drama with her ex employer’s agent. It is such a huge relief to have someone help me in my morning and cooking chores. Mornings are much pleasanter and now that GG & BB will start going to school more regularly, it means I would have lost my helpers at home. Actually doing all this work is not really a big deal, what is a big deal is that I usually start work by 8:30 am and have to rush to finish my household chores by then which used to really tire me out. Maybe I am so used to having help that doing things on my own is now slightly hard. It also does not help that I am getting older and am not as agile and have the kind of energy I had in my twenties or even in my early thirties.

Anyway, with COVID positive community cases coming down, things are easing up in Singapore. Even though we have more than 44,000 cases, most of these seem to be from workers with usually single digit community cases on a daily basis. So places like restaurants, cinemas and libraries have started to open up, with strict measures in place.

I had been having some pain and redness in my right eye for a while now and last week, I finally went to see a doctor. Apparently it was some kind of a parasitic infection, but they are still not sure. I have no idea how this came into my system since I have been more or less housebound for the past few months. The doctor who initially checked me thought it may have come from my trip to India in December when we went down south, but I am flabbergasted that it only hit me and that too flared up after almost six months! Anyway, with some treatment, it has been contained to a very large extent, but there is still some trace left and I was told that there will be a permanent scar in my cornea.

Singapore will be having it’s general elections next week and I am super excited that I will be voting for the first time here after becoming a citizen. When I was in India, I used to make sure I voted in each and every election, be it local, state or national because I knew it was my duty as a citizen. So yes, to exercise my constitutional right after a very long time is going to be something special.

That’a all our news for this week folks! Stay home and stay safe and make sure you mask up each time you leave the house.

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!