Singapore is done with four weeks of the circuit breaker and we head out to another four weeks from tomorrow. Cases, esepcially from the community and those from the dorms have reduced slightly and as of last night, we were at about 17,500 cases in total.

The children are done with week 2 of their home based learning and things are heating up slightly. One is always studying and the other barely bothers. When asked, says that they have done their work. S and I are sometimes flabbergasted that both are studying in the same year in poly, albeit in different polys and studying different subjects.

Otherwise things are the same day in and day out. Some days, when I wake up in the morning, I need to think for a few seconds before I figure out which day of the week it is. I am also attending some free webinars which is interesting and work is going on.

Life as we know it will be completely different once the world recovers from the panademic. This time has shown everyone that working from home is possible and people can be productive even at home. I am hopeful that once things start to go back to normal (or as normal we it can be), employers will be more receptive to people’s reasons for working from home.

Stay home and stay safe people!

As of now, Singapore has the highest number of Covid-19 positive cases in Southeast Asia. We are now in excess of 12,000 cases with the vast majority of cases now daily coming in from work permit holders who live in foreign worker dormitories. This is also due to the very aggressive testing that is being undertaken in the dormitories. A few days in the begining of the week saw more than 1,000 cases on a daily basis, but in the past few days, this number has been steadily decreasing, which is some consolation. Also, Singapore’s circuit breaker has now been extended for a month more till 1st June, so that’s another four more weeks of staying home.

The children finished their first week of school with Home Based Learning and this will go on for the whole term. Hopefully the circuit breaker is lifted in early June and they can actually start going to school. The school holidays has also been preponed to start from 4th May and school will resume when (hopefully) the circuit breaker ends in early June. The syllabus for the national exams this year has been cut across the board and I know some students are panicking about it!

Remember the video call I mentioned with my school classmates? We spoke with each other and most of us saw each other after a few decades! And as if this triggered some sort of switch, our WhatsApp grew exploded and people reached out to other classmates whom they were in touch with and got them to join the group. This past week has been very delighful with lots of old memories remembered and ignited. My hope is that when the situation stabilises, we have a full class reunion.

Stay home and stay safe everyone!

In the last week, Singapore’s Covid-19 postive cases have exploded, especially among the foreign workers who live in worker dormitories.In the last week alone, we have had nearly 4,000 positive cases, almost all of whom are the foreign workers. This is really bad, but was something we should have expected, given the conditions they live in. They live in dorm rooms, sometimes upto 20 people in a single space with not much space to really do social distancing. Many of the dorms have been designated as isolation centres and the government is actively testing here.

We are now in day 12 of the circuit breaker and this was when we were expected to see a significant drop in positive cases, but because of the surge in cases from foreign workers, it is actually quite disconcerting and worrying. I feel maybe the government may not life the circuit breaker on May 04 and we may have another few weeks of the same. This circuit breaker is expected to cost the Singapore economy S$10 billion according to one estimate. But the human life is more than this, right? So life goes on. Because of my diabetes, I rarely venture out, with S and the children running errands which need to be done. We also put on a face mask every time we get out of the house and not doing this has now become punishable offence.

The children start school from tomorrow after almost five months of holiday! They will be doing e-learning at least in the first instance till May 04 or until the government gives the green signal for educational instutions to reopen. It’s going to be a bit hard for them as they don’t know their classmates and teachers and will only see them later in the term or even only next semester if it comes to that!

I have restarted meditation and found an app which was giving out a year’s worth of free meditation lessons, which I signed up for. This is really helping me in the short term and I hope to make meditation a part of my daily routine by the time my free trial ends next April. I am also reading more than usual and make it a point to have a hard stop every day so I can read. Another thing which I started doing is signing up for webinars and online classes and again this is something I want to do even after the situation becomes better.

Later today, my school classmates are going to have a video call. We have not seen each other for ages as we are spread all over the world and holidays don’t always match. So we are doing this call across continents and countries and hopefully this will be something we do more frequently moving forward!

Stay home, stay safe and lets ride this all together!

The numbers are brining to get scary now. Singapore has more than 2200 positive cases with nine deaths so far. All of the deaths in Singapore have been the elderly. Worldwide the numbers of positive cases and deaths are worse.

After implementing a sort of lockdown which is called a ‘Circuit Breaker’ here, we will now start week 2 of this from tomorrow. But you still have people who just can’t seem to stay put at home. I feel so frustrated when we see and hear cases of people who are bored at home and so want to go to malls and parks with their whole family. Why can’t they just listen to what the experts say and stay home so everyone – them and us can remain safe?

Now they’re going to start fining people if they break the circuit breaker regulations here which is a very good thing and which I feel should have been implemented earlier.

On to better news. Last night, us cousins did a video call which was across three continents and four countries and this was so fun that we are already planning the next one. And this morning I woke up to a slew of messages from my friends in school talking about the same thing. That will be more challenging because we are spread across some 10-15 countries across four continents. But we are determined to do this and hopefully this will work out soon.

Stay home and stay safe folks! We will beat this and soon!

We’re now in the month of April and are still at home. On Friday, the Singapore government announced that it was implementing full home based learning for all schools, colleges and institutes of higher learning for about a month and then they will take it from there. BB & GG as well as the other incoming poly freshmen will have to go to school once between now and April 20 when school starts to meet some classmates as well as their mentor and then get set up for e-learning until the time schools open for everyone. I also heard from someone else that all graduation ceremonies have been cancelled and students are understandably very upset about this. But this is something that nobody expected, so we just have to take things in our stride. Pre schools and childcare centres will also be completely closed down during this period.

Workplaces have also been told to close for the next month unless you belong to an essential service. For those parents who can’t afford to work from home or work in a service which can’t be closed down, schools and pre-school centres plus childcare centres will be open for their children who will be supervised there.

Singapore’s Covid-19 postive cases has hit more than 1000 now and unfortunately, 6 people, all elderly, have died from the virus so far.

I have also been quite worried about my parents who are alone in India. Because of the lockdown they are unable to get out of the house, especially since they are amongst the most vulnerable group. Luckily there are some NGOs who are helping the elderly who live alone as well as an ex-helper of my mum who will send her husband with the necessities they need when my mum calls her.

With so much negativity in this world today, it is getting increasingly hard to stay positive. It is hard, but think of happier times, watch funny videos, support your neighbours, especially the vulnerable and take advantage of the extra time you now have to do something you have always wanted to do, but never found the time to do.

Take care folks and stay healthy. Don’t leave your homes unless absolutely necessary and stay safe!