When we landed back in Singapore it was initially quite a relief but when I turned my phone back on I was worried to see a message from our daughter saying that she and her boyfriend had both tested positive to Covid-19.
They live and work in Munich and as it was early morning we had to wait a few hours before we could get phone them back. BT assured us that they were OK and only had mild symptoms, like a heavy cold, but she also mentioned that she was finding it annoying that they couldn't taste or smell properly, in a few weeks time this was to become recognised as a likely diagnostic symptom of Covid-19.
Another surprise, but this time a really pleasant one, BT and MG introduced us to joining contacts on WhatsApp and added HT, his girlfriend KA and their flatmate SS for a family video chat, it was great to see everyone including HT's new puppy, Jasper who had grown hugely since the last time we had seen him, he's going to be big.
Luckily BT and MG only had relatively symptoms so were able to stay at their home whilst they recovered, friends left any shopping on their doorstep. They had to remain in quarantine for at least 14 days and could only start going out once they had been 'symptom free' for over 48 hours after the quarantine period. The fact that these two young people had caught the virus really highlighted to me, that anyone can catch the virus, even young healthy adults.
By now Coronavirus was having a huge impact around the entire world. In Singapore there were now over 450 Covid -19 cases and sadly on 21st March the first two deaths from the virus was announced, it was truly shocking to all. The Singapore Government implemented safe distancing measures advising people to keep at least 1 meter away from others. Events and gatherings of 250 participants or more were suspended and from midnight on 24th March Singapore closed it's borders to tourists and short term visitors. the border
The focus of attention shifted away from Asia as the main hub and now Europe was the new epicentre for the infection. It was desperately sad to hear that in Italy the numbers of infected cases was over 59,000 with 5,560 deaths, Spain and Germany were not far behind and France was reporting big numbers too.
By now Coronavirus was having a huge impact around the entire world. In Singapore there were now over 450 Covid -19 cases and sadly on 21st March the first two deaths from the virus was announced, it was truly shocking to all. The Singapore Government implemented safe distancing measures advising people to keep at least 1 meter away from others. Events and gatherings of 250 participants or more were suspended and from midnight on 24th March Singapore closed it's borders to tourists and short term visitors. the border
The focus of attention shifted away from Asia as the main hub and now Europe was the new epicentre for the infection. It was desperately sad to hear that in Italy the numbers of infected cases was over 59,000 with 5,560 deaths, Spain and Germany were not far behind and France was reporting big numbers too.
Back at home, although we had avoided being issued with an official and legally enforceable SHN, Stay at Home Notice we decided that we should self isolate for 14 days plus Papa T's work said that he would have to work from home for the next 2 weeks and RDA and pretty much everything else I was involved in stipulated the same. So for us, our lockdown period commenced
on March 20th.
With Papa T having already done one week of working from home just before our holiday I could see what a sedentary day he was leading. He could no longer go out to physically meet up with clients and colleagues, he wasn't even having to walk to and from the bus stop to get to work as his 'office desk' was now only a few feet from our bedroom.
I was keen to try and get hime to take some exercise and persuaded Papa T that we should start each day with a short walk around our neighbourhood.
This has now become our daily habit, we go for a 30 to 45minute walk and have created several different routes. We have walked along some roads that we've never even noticed before and always see something of interest, maybe an old Black and White house or an ultra modern house
or a row of the bizarre but beautiful Cannon ball trees in full flower.
It's a nice way to start the day and then we added on swimming 20 lengths of the pool at lunchtime.
This got Papa T away from his desk and doing a bit of exercise twice a day, he started feeling fitter and the pauses whilst completing 20 lengths became shorter and less frequent.
Like most people we have many jobs lying around waiting to be done, and generally ignored, sometimes they've waited months and sometimes even years! We started tackling some of these. We sorted out the whole 'office area', threw away lots of redundant paperwork, filed what should be kept and tided up the bookcase getting rid of the books we will never read again. This gave us a reason to go out for a cycle ride down to the local Salvation Army where we could donate the better quality things.
We also finally commenced copying and storing all our old slide photos, something we intended to do when we moved to Singapore 6 years ago. There are 10+ boxes with hundreds of sides in each box so there's enough to keep us busy for a good long while and hopefully we will find some great memories as we work our way through the collection
Our 14 days of self isolation was up on 3rd April and Papa T was looking forward to returning to his office on Monday 6th. I planned on going back to help at RDA (even though there were no sessions some volunteers were going in to muck out, groom the horses and clean tack) and we both hoped to meet up with friends again.
However with the growing spread of the virus amongst the Singapore community ( 1,114 cases, 5 deaths) that same day Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong addressed the nation and announced 'Circuit Breaker', a much stricter set of measures that would be implemented from 7th April to at least 4th May. All non essential workplaces and schools would close, people would work from home or stop work, including construction on all construction sites (of which there are a lot here) children were to have Home Based Learning. All restaurants, cafes and food courts would close to dining in but could still provide take away or delivery service.
The wearing of masks was now encouraged and every household was to be given reusable face masks. It was made clear that people were to stay at home as much as possible.
That weekend Papa T and I planned what we could do to keep busy. We started a jigsaw puzzle, 1 of only 2 that came out from the UK with us and spent the best part of Sunday making 'Lockdown Marmalade'
We couldn't find any Seville oranges so the marmalade is a tangy mix of ordinary oranges, grapefruit and lemons, it is delicious
It was a big shock when we woke up on Monday morning to hear the news that Boris Johnson had been admitted to hospital as his condition was deteriorating having had Covid 19 for 10 days. It was another shock to hear the next day that he been transferred to ICU, he clearly was seriously ill. Fortunately as I write this on 16th April Boris has been discharged from hospital and is recovering at home.
It was hard not to feel depressed when Circuit Breaker came into force on Tuesday 7th April and my mood took a further dive when we found that the condo swimming pool, gym and all communal areas were now closed, all condos shut their facilities. This new measure was to discourage people meeting up and further enhance social distancing
Our daily swim could not now happen, I was so upset.
Fortunately online contact with family and friends was great and boosted my mood plus lots of new jokes were circulating. When I looked at the news it made me realise just how lucky we were, yes we had lots of restrictions but the sun was shining and we were safe and healthy. We also had Easter to look forward to, although our, and everyone else's, choices of what to do and where to go were extremely limited
We also finally commenced copying and storing all our old slide photos, something we intended to do when we moved to Singapore 6 years ago. There are 10+ boxes with hundreds of sides in each box so there's enough to keep us busy for a good long while and hopefully we will find some great memories as we work our way through the collection
Our 14 days of self isolation was up on 3rd April and Papa T was looking forward to returning to his office on Monday 6th. I planned on going back to help at RDA (even though there were no sessions some volunteers were going in to muck out, groom the horses and clean tack) and we both hoped to meet up with friends again.
However with the growing spread of the virus amongst the Singapore community ( 1,114 cases, 5 deaths) that same day Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong addressed the nation and announced 'Circuit Breaker', a much stricter set of measures that would be implemented from 7th April to at least 4th May. All non essential workplaces and schools would close, people would work from home or stop work, including construction on all construction sites (of which there are a lot here) children were to have Home Based Learning. All restaurants, cafes and food courts would close to dining in but could still provide take away or delivery service.
The wearing of masks was now encouraged and every household was to be given reusable face masks. It was made clear that people were to stay at home as much as possible.
That weekend Papa T and I planned what we could do to keep busy. We started a jigsaw puzzle, 1 of only 2 that came out from the UK with us and spent the best part of Sunday making 'Lockdown Marmalade'
We couldn't find any Seville oranges so the marmalade is a tangy mix of ordinary oranges, grapefruit and lemons, it is delicious
It was a big shock when we woke up on Monday morning to hear the news that Boris Johnson had been admitted to hospital as his condition was deteriorating having had Covid 19 for 10 days. It was another shock to hear the next day that he been transferred to ICU, he clearly was seriously ill. Fortunately as I write this on 16th April Boris has been discharged from hospital and is recovering at home.
It was hard not to feel depressed when Circuit Breaker came into force on Tuesday 7th April and my mood took a further dive when we found that the condo swimming pool, gym and all communal areas were now closed, all condos shut their facilities. This new measure was to discourage people meeting up and further enhance social distancing
Our daily swim could not now happen, I was so upset.
Fortunately online contact with family and friends was great and boosted my mood plus lots of new jokes were circulating. When I looked at the news it made me realise just how lucky we were, yes we had lots of restrictions but the sun was shining and we were safe and healthy. We also had Easter to look forward to, although our, and everyone else's, choices of what to do and where to go were extremely limited
The days rather merged into one and gradually we became more accustomed to staying at home. After our morning exercise I sometimes carried on and walked for a bit longer whilst Papa T commenced work. I went out food shopping most days, partly as reason to get out but as we don't have a car I can only buy as much as I can carry. The supermarket queue to be allowed inside the store wasn't too bad but with self distancing and maybe because people are eating at home more the queue to pay often took half an hour, even in the 6 items or less aisle. I've tried doing online food shop but it's almost impossible to get a delivery slot nowadays.
Good Friday was a public holiday so we 'celebrated' by going on an outing and cycling to the Community Centre to collect our reusable masks. In hindsight we should have checked them before leaving as we have since discovered that they gave us child sized ones! Fortunately we do have a few full sized surgical masks for Papa T to wear and they are a lot more breathable than the cloth ones
On Saturday evening we were really excited to join friends on our first virtual pub quiz night. It was fantastic fun with 12 teams answering 10 rounds of really tough questions set by our brilliant quiz master, who along with his wife and daughter coordinated the computer technology and questions. We and 2 other friends made up the Rushaw team and wee pretty pleased with out overall 5th place
On Easter Day, of course it wasn't possible to go to a church service as all churches are closed. Easter Sunday was also the 1st anniversary of last year's awful bombing in Sri Lanka. Our friend and Papa T's work colleague had been on holiday in Sri Lanka with his family and tragically his wife and both of his children were killed. BN has initiated and been involved with many challenges to raise money for the memorial fund he started up in memory of Anita, Alex and Annabel fund-https://www.atlasfrc.org/appeal/anita-alex-annabel-nicholson-memorial-fund
and had made plans for fundraising events over the Easter weekend but because of the lockdown these could now not go ahead. Instead he asked people to go for a walk, run, bike ride and record them on an app as a 'virtual tribute' to his family.
We went on a bike ride and circumnavigated the Botanic Gardens, not a huge distance but that wasn't the point
We had to wait until the evening for another Easter highlight, the opportunity to speak with our families. This year with all the anxiety and tragedy happening around the world because of Covid 19 it felt particularly special and I could not wait.
First we spoke with Papa T's side of the family, plus both of our children.
Later on we had the pre arranged zoom meeting that all my side of the family had been invited to join but we didn't really know if it would work and who was available.
Oh my goodness it was wonderful. In spite of us being scattered around the world, living in 6 countries, ( UK, France, Germany, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand) and across 5 time zones everyone made the effort to get in touch.
At one point there were 24 of us on the line, sharing our news and best wishes for each other.
I think this may be the most memorable and special Easter day I have ever experienced, a true rainbow of hope in a currently very sad world.
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