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!

A couple of days back, the headline in The Straits Times screamed that the world had surpassed 5 million Covid-19 cases. Today we have surpassed 5.21 million cases with more than 338,000 dead and more than 2.05 million who have successfully beat the virus.

Today I heard that WHO has declared South America to be “a new epicentre”of the coronavirus panademic, following a surge in the number of infections of Covid-19. Brazil is at the forefront of these new infections with more than 310,000 positive cases and experts saying that because there is a lack of testing in the country, the real positive figures are much more. Today, Brazil ranks second in total positive cases behind the United States, having overtaken Russia. India ranks in at number 11 with over 125,000 cases, aroud 52,000 recovered and about 4,000 deaths. Singapore is ranked at number 26 with more than 31,000 positive cases, about 13,000 recovered and 23 deaths.

Countries where governments are easing up restrictions are seeing new surges in positive cases, which will probably lead to more clampdowns and further restrictions. Singapore will slowly start easing down the circuit breaker from 2 June and some retail establishments will start to reopen as will schools. For the graduating cohort, they will have to go to school every day, while the other classes will alternate between home based and classroom learning. The children will be screened before entering the school and they will have to wear a mask or face shield during their time in school, except when they have physical education lessons or are eating in the canteen. I am hoping and praying that the four weeks of the stage one of the easing of restrictions in Singapore does not lead to a new surge of cases and push us back to more severe restrictions.

After a month of fasting, Muslims around the world will be celebrating Ramadan Eid today and tomorrow. Wishing all my muslim readers a very happy Eid. Eid Mubarak to everyone reading this and celebrating the festival. As always, stay home and stay safe folks!

It’s the end of another week and we are (hopefully), getting closer to the end of this circuit breaker. The other day GG burst out saying she was sick and tired of being at home and wanted to go back to school. They have had around a month of classes online and I guess they will complete this term before a week’s term break before they finally start physical lecturers. I did some calculations and if this happens, they would have been at home for some seven months from the time of their last O level exam to the first day of physical school in Poly!

I am also quite fed up with this enforced break from work and school. As someone who loves being alone and is not scared of silence, I actually find the fact that everyone is at home and under my foot all day, every day quite unnerving! I am now looking forward to the day when everyone is out of the house and I get my home to myself!

R’s new employer has gotten approval to hire her and so sometime the end of next week will be her last day with us. She will probably know a couple of days in advance when she needs to go to her new employer’s home and will let us know then.

Singapore has more than 27,000 positive cases now and more than 99% of new cases which get reported daily are from worker dormitories. The cases in the community seem to be falling daily so there is cautious hope that come June 01, we will be able to start to lead a normal life, albeit the new normal being wearing masks at all times that you are outside the house and practising safe distancing. I have also read reports of experts saying that the COVID-19 is here to stay as long as there is no vaccine for the disease and you have even one person somewhere in the world still showing any sympotoms, we are all still at risk. There is a possibility, that even with a vaccine, the disease may never go away and will linger especially in the more vulnerable communities.

So stay home, especially if you are older or have any chronic condition. If you have someone close to you who fit these categories, make sure they stay safe!

Singapore is about six weeks into the circuit breaker and the government is now looking to start easing up on our lockdown starting next week. Some businesses will re-open, but our new normal will be to wear face masks outside our homes and social distancing enforced when outside. Students, especially those from graduating cohorts like those taking their national exams like the PSLE, O levels and A levels will be called back to schools in small groups for face-to-face lessons, but I understand if the students don’t want to come back to school, they will not be penalised.

Our new positive case totals have crossed the 22,000 mark with a majority of cases coming from workers residing in dormitories. With over 3 million workers in Singapore, I expect this to not reduce anytime soon, but I am hoping and praying that the healthcare frontliners are able to catch and contain positive cases and so things go back to a semblance of normalcy for everyone.

In other news, our helper of seven years has decided that since she is not really needed at our home, she will be moving on to help another family. We are sending her off with our blessings as I have been telling her that we don’t really need help now since the children are grown up now. This is a good time for her to move on so that both GG & BB start to do more household chores. As it stands now, they do the bare minimum and I don’t want a situation where, if they go out of Singapore to either study or work, they are one of those you see ridiculed on social media about having no concept of what constitutes household chores. So once things start to get better, she will move on to her new home and hopefully, we will still meet her during the days she is off from work or during any special celebrations. If she is still in Singapore, I definitely want her to be part of any celebrations in our family.

Healthwise, I just had a scare – I had some bloodwork done last week and my white blood cells were more than it is normal. After probing me, my primary care physican decided to have new blood taken, so she can get another reading. Apparently when you are sick, the white blood cells increase, but I am as healthy as I can be and if this second reading is also high, there is a chance that I may have to be tested to check if everything is ok with me. So I am keeping fingers crossed for the reports to be better this time around and this is also a wake-up call for me to start taking more self-care. I have been quite lax about my diet and exercise this last month or so and this is my wake-up call to start treating myself well.

Well, that’s all from me this week. Stay home, stay safe and let’s all work together so things go back to business as usual as soon as possible!