Ten months ago we moved to Madrid. Since then, I’ve thought about writing a blog post at least a dozen times. Today it is raining, our houseguests left yesterday, and I have run out of excuses. The thing is, I find it hard to get started. I want to write a post that is interesting, thoughtful, and has the right order, flow, and words. In short, I am a perfectionist. So you can imagine how humbling it is for someone like me to learn another language. By its nature, language acquisition means making mistakes and enduring embarrassing moments. Like the time the fishmonger dropped a tuna on the floor and joked, “it’s alive,” and I thought I was being equally witty and said, “tengo mierda” […]

My friend Kathy made a suggestion many years ago, as I sat in tears amid the rubble of our DIY home demo and renovation: clear a spot and place a vase of flowers there. That way, I would always have something grounding and beautiful to look at when everything felt disrupted or in shambles. I have relied on that strategy many times since, including now, in what seems like the umpteenth Airbnb we’ve stayed in over the past two years. Such is creating a sense of home for the life in transit. We left Singapore, for the last time, about six weeks ago. I am still processing our departure and what our time in Singapore meant to me. In many ways, the past two years […]

I have neglected my writing for months. I see two attempted posts languishing in my blog archives. You see, border restrictions relaxed in March, so we hopped on the travel bandwagon alongside other cooped-up Singapore residents. Since then, we’ve been to Australia (twice), Sri Lanka, the US, and Dubai. And I am trying to figure out how to squeeze in more travels before we depart Singapore for good this summer. Yes, you read correctly. Skip to the last section if you need the immediate scoop. For more on our travels, read on. Sri Lanka After months in orderly Singapore, I was hungry to experience the real Asia. Sri Lanka checks all the boxes in terms of variety, wildlife, culture, and beaches. We visited three of […]

When we were planning our move to Singapore more than two years ago, I had our upcoming Christmases planned out. For the first one, the kids would visit for a few days and then we would head across the causeway to explore Malaysia. For the second, we would meet in New Zealand. The pandemic quashed those plans, as borders across Asia closed to visitors. The kids couldn’t even come to Singapore. Until this recent Christmas, that is. In October, Singapore introduced Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) flights, which allows quarantine-free travel for vaccinated travellers from select countries. Because we have discovered how much there is to see and do on this tiny island, we were happy to stay put and have Leo and Siri visit us […]

“You can find magic wherever you look. Sit back and relax, all you need is a book.” ~Dr. Seuss “Do people actually read the books?” I asked Katy, the coordinator of the Friends of the Museums (FOM) Thursday morning Asian Book Club. I had promised myself that, during my limited time in Singapore, I would only commit to activities if I could do so wholeheartedly. So if I was going to join a book club, I wanted to read and discuss the books, by gum. Six months in, I have not been disappointed. I have been a reader for as long as I can remember. There is a black and white photo of me when I was about four years old with my sister’s friend […]

A sure antidote to lift my spirits is a visit to the Singapore Botanic Gardens. A mere 1.7 km walk from our condo, these 82 hectare (202 acre) Gardens were established in 1859 during the British colonial administration and dedicated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015. It is the crown jewel of Singapore parks, and set in the middle like a bezel diamond is the dazzling National Orchid Garden. I’ve had a love affair with orchids ever since we grew them in our backyard in the small Caltex oil camp of Rumbai in central Sumatra. Nahir, our gardener, was known for his horticultural talent, and ours was a garden to envy. I had no idea that these flowers, ubiquitous to SE Asia, could be […]

The phrase “third time’s a charm” does not apply. There is nothing charming about serving 14-day hotel quarantine for the third time in a year. No elite club membership, no perks or bonus miles, no fanfare. The privilege is simply that we have been able to get off island so much, whereas others have not. I call these two weeks Living in the In Between. It is the pause between our whirlwind time in the US and the resumption of our lives here in Singapore. The pace slows. There is plenty of time for working-reading-napping-binge watching-exercising-catching up with friends. Days are marked by milestones that denote where we are in our 14-day timeline: Daily milestones: record our temperature morning, noon and evening; take a phone […]

I can’t help myself. I see everything now in terms of lines, reflections, shadows, light, and frames. It is the amateur photographer’s affliction. Does this make a good image? Last week I completed a six-session Basic Photography course through Objectifs, a funky arthouse for photography and film. I had already learned a few tricks about composition and editing using my iPhone camera, and it made me want to learn more. I figured it was time to learn how to properly use the Canon Powershot SX50 HS we bought seven years ago, before we went on safari in Tanzania. The course was divided into class time and photo shoots. We learned camera basics, including rule number one: put-the-strap-around-your-neck so-you-don’t-drop-the-camera, dummy. We also learned what those dials, […]

I confessed to the Indian women in my book group how little I knew about India. What’s embarrassing is that I spent an entire month in India during college. My memories are ochre coloured, probably influenced by the Bollywood movies I’ve been watching. I remember the spicy food, vibrant dancers with jangly gold bracelets, bumping along in cramped auto rickshaws, cows in the road, and of course the Taj Mahal. History? Not so much. We were discussing Nimita’s Place, a novel by local author Akshita Nanda. The book parallels the lives of two women, both named Nimita. One story takes place during Partition-era India, when the subcontinent was divided into Muslim-majority Pakistan and Hindu-majority India. It is the story of a young woman’s dashed aspirations […]

In the taxi ride home after my first tennis clinic last year, I messaged a friend saying that I may as well have been wearing cut off jeans and knee high tube socks. Such is how completely out of place I felt among women kitted out in proper attire and smart visors. I was also nursing a pulled muscle from a tumble I took, in front of everyone, adding to my feelings of defeat. She wrote back saying that tennis – especially the expat women’s scene – was a thing here and to stay the course. This is the same friend who gently suggested that if I just worked on my technique, I might actually return more balls over the net and become a decent player. […]