So much in 2019. We revisit & look see 😁 https://bit.ly/3IOlNW1

When my gal was sent off at the airport, I quietly said a prayer but brought back the rational self; she would visit Singapore again. It is home.

Saying goodbye is always hard, however, I also told myself we had seen various unexpected events unfold in front of our eyes. After going through life for over half a century, I know that there are 2 things that may really separate people. An infectious plague is one; we saw SARS in 2003, which happened only a few months before my family moved to Singapore. We were lucky. Mankind was lucky.

The other is a sizable conflict between countries, which is an absolutely awful/appalling event knowing how much destructive power modern apes had managed to harness over the last few decades… with those thoughts in my head, I set off running back. There I was at Mr Prata having my milk tea, curry and prata, deep in my thoughts, emotions and 25km of exhaustion, until I saw our Kampong of runners flocked in. They made my day and gave me the energy to march again. No one knew how grateful I was.

I would say my daughters did reasonably well at school. Within a few weeks, I found I received a long string of messages from my elder daughter on one early morning. In short the school had to be closed due to Covid-19 outbreak and the international students need to return home in 3 days time, which began her months of zoom classes!

Alisa had to wake up by 1pm, followed by a meal before her zoom classes started off at the morning time of UK, she would finish her lessons by 10-11pm, then she would be on her homework and hit books until about 4-5am before she goes to bed. A perfect schedule for ANY teenager!! Who during their teenage year would not fancy to wake up late and stay up until dawn!? 😊

Family was a little stressed, as our second daughter was also taking her O-level examination. Hana was reasonably hard working. I managed to see Alisa and chat with her a little every morning before I go for my run. The lockdown of Singapore was not unique, as almost every country had their own version. We managed to send Alisa back to UK in September for her second year A-level education. However, another outbreak was on its way in the UK by late November 2020, my boss decided it was needed to bring Alisa back to Singapore even though it meant she had to forgo her year-end school examination. My boss was of course spot on again (no surprise) and get my daughter enrolled into a new school to finish off her A-level. Hana was a brave/great young gal, she finished her O-level, did reasonably well and agreed to start off her A-level education at the same school as her sister even though she knew it may be a tougher path. Once again, both gals go to the same school in the same uniform. Both gals are coping well with their new endeavors. (to be continued…)