General updates.

I haven’t written a post in a while… we’re still doing fun and interesting things, but mostly we’re living a pretty normal life. I guess I’m also feeling a little guilty writing that. The kids school is going well, there is no indication we will shut down again any time soon. In fact, I read a newspaper article that said another lockdown would be seen as a major public health failure on the part of the government. I’m holding them to that. We eat dinner out, play sports, stay in hotels. Our covid case numbers are very small. What’s keeping us safe and functioning? Lots of testing, quarantining and having the country still be closed. As much as I hate to write that, the 2 week quarantine for entry is really what’s keeping this little island going. I know the government is exploring ways to reduce it to allow more travelers to enter the country, but as of now, I don’t know how they will achieve that without squandering all the success we’ve achieved. But even wealthy little Singapore is not immune to the siren call of business. So we’ll see. we have so few Covid cases, maybe we can be a little risky?!?

I’ll work backward on updates… today I went to an adorable little shop in Chinatown for a tea ceremony with a few friends. I learned about “tea pets”, aging tea and how to properly hold a Chinese tea cup. All in all, an enjoyable afternoon.

Enjoying our tea my favorite was the “empress tea”

It’s been raining and raining here. Frustrating, but part of life in this part of the world. I find it hilarious when the weather report says it’s going to be a “chilly” 23 degrees Celsius. Sweater weather.

Last week I had my first tennis match. I joined the “soaring Swedes” in WITS (women in tennis Singapore). We are the lowest level for competition (D) so everyone is learning and pretty good natured. It is amazing how nervous I got for my first match! I was lucky to be paired up with my teammate Maria, who is a very calming and steady influence. Ironically, our first match was against the “Slice girls” of the American club. I play clinics with a few of their players at the American club, so that was fun for me. We made a few mistakes in our first set and lost in a tie breaker. Then we got rained out. A week later we resumed the match. Maria and I came back strong, won the second set and then beat them 10-5 in a super tie break. Happy to bring 2 points to our team bank! I play again this week with another partner, so hopefully we are equally successful!

I posted a bunch of pics on Instagram/Facebook, but Ryan and I had a great anniversary “vacation” at the Capella in Sentosa. It was a very luxurious and restful 3 nights in a stunningly beautiful resort. Silver linings from covid, we never would have stayed at that hotel if we were traveling. But it was amazing and I am forever ruined by a 5 star experience.

What did we do with the kids you are probably thinking? they stayed home with Janeth, our foreign domestic worker, or “helper”. Janeth has been a part of our family since April. She deserves her own post. Hopefully I’ll get on that soon… she and the kids were all fine. Maybe someday the Maldives will be possible…

Lastly, a few weeks ago, we packed our bikes up into a car and rode the punggol loop. It was an amazing bike trail. We made it all 26k with a little side trip to Coney Island for a swim. So lucky to live in a country that’s set aside so much space for outdoor adventure.