singapore – trippingdifferently

September 23, 2025

Happenings March to September 2025

It has been almost 2 months since my last blog post and a whole 6 months since I talked about settling into life here. Yes, it will probably take a while more to truly settle in.

I was just telling some friends recently that it has been a slightly sad few months for my family and friends, 5 passings in the last 6 months; 2 of my uncles, an old friend’s father, and 2 primary school friends’ husbands. May they all rest in peace.

It’s not all sad. The more positive things we have gotten to do are fun things, such as attending pet/dog events with Lexi and having some of our friends from Switzerland visit – three sets, actually. We joke that we see more of them than our friends who live in Singapore. LOL! Making a short trip to Bali to spend time with my god-daughter and family was another highlight. Oh, I also went on a little day-trip across the causeway to JB (Johor Bahru).

Medical matters occupy quite a lot of my time – regular appointments for my mum and God ma, helping my cousin for a short time as she recovered from knee surgery, my brother and son also had some medical appointments to attend.

Another matter is housing, which has been a bit trying. We currently live with my Godma because there are no more bedrooms at my mum’s. But we are just a block away, so not far at all. We are trying to buy our own HDB (Housing Development Board) flat. For non-Singaporeans, that’s like public housing. But it’s proving to be trickier than expected. Some contradicting information and red tape, which do not see our unique individual situation, are blocking us from being eligible to buy a HDB flat at the moment. We have appealed, and our MP has written to help us, but we still haven’t gotten the waiver we wanted. They are offering a different waiver, which would allow us to buy, but it would deny us a HDB loan and CPF grants, including our first-timer’s grant. It’s frustrating because it’s taking a long time (6 months already). In the meantime, we missed an opportunity to buy a flat in the same block, on the same floor as my mother. Sigh! Right! Enough venting. We will plod on and submit documents and appeal till we get there.

Now onto nicer things. Photos! Enjoy them.

At Red Can Run monthly event, we walked.

Wishing you a blessed week ahead! Next time, maybe I will highlight some Singapore scenery and food.
SYC

March 14, 2025March 14, 2025

Happenings in Feb 2025

There has been another 6 weeks of no posts on this blog… not back on usual schedule yet… LOL…

It’s been a busy February. The week after Chinese New Year was filled with packing. No, we are not moving again. Hahaha.

There was a need to rewire my mum’s flat so that we could change new water heaters (the old one in my mum’s room broke) and we decided to do a few other things as well; such as put in air-conditioning in the rooms, new kitchen lights and bathroom lights (they were just naked bulbs before), new CAT6 cables (Hubby’s request for faster internet cables and points in each room) and to finish off painting the kitchen and living room.

Initially, we were just going to live with the mess, taking refuge at my Godma’s during the day and coming back to sleep among the mess. But Hubby decided it’s best to get out completely so the Son and my mum moved to my Godma’s. Hubby, my brother and I moved to a serviced apartment for a week. It’s easier for Hubby and my brother to get to work from the serviced apartment location.

Next was the move back in and clean up. I am still slowly getting all the stuff we moved out back from storage.

Soon after all that was my mum’s and Hubby’s birthday – we had a nice celebration in a nice DimSum restaurant. Thanks to the staff at Chao Yun Xuan Dim Sum (Capitol) for their efforts in making such a lovely presentation piece for the birthday celebration.

The next weekend, the Son and Hubby were off to Japan for a ski trip – all very last minute , but they had fun, even if it was a completely new country for both of them and they had to find their way around.

My brother and I attended a career fair, both of us, looking to give our careers a little boost. It was helpful to have gone but now I need to decide what areas I wanna upskill in. I am not yet looking for a job, but since the government has given upskilling grants, I thought I should take the opportunity. Let’s see what happens.

And now here we are – the middle of March already! April is shaping up to be a busy time too… looking forward to friends from Switzerland visiting and maybe a big family get together, plus our shipment arrives (so more packing – sigh, my life for now).

Hope your days are filled with joy, even in the busyness of life.

syc

February 6, 2025February 6, 2025

Celebrating Chinese New Year 2025

It has been so very many years since we have been in Singapore, in person, to celebrate the Chinese New Year (CNY) with family. So it’s been really good to be able to do so this year.

It’s the year of the snake and lots of snake puns have been included in the CNY greetings in social media. Here is one example: the Chinese character for snake 蛇 reads as “She (2nd tone)”, phonetically “sir/sur”…

Of course, food also has a starring role in our celebrations, one of the big ones being the Reunion Dinner on the eve of Chinese New Year. People generally go back to their parents’ or close relatives’ homes to celebrate. In the years after my mum stopped cooking big meals, my older cousin usually hosts this dinner. This year, we co-hosted at my mum’s, each family cooking a few dishes to contribute. It was lovely and yummy 😋

Then on the first day of the Chinese New Year, we go visit our relatives, usually the younger ones visit the elders. Many of our relatives have passed on so there are only a few people we visited this year. But still it was nice to see them and catch up because a couple we don’t get to meet them often.

Lexi wasn’t left out, she couldn’t visit with us but enjoyed people coming to my mum’s. And thanks to our dog groomer (Poochylandd) she was dressed for the occasion for a lovely impromptu photo shoot. So here’s Lexi wishing you a Happy, Blessed Chinese New Year.

If you do celebrate CNY, hope you had a good celebration. If you don’t, we hope you had a good week.

SYC