singapore – Page 3 – trippingdifferently

August 31, 2024September 1, 2024

We are MOVING

Yes, it’s true. It’s sudden and it is happening quickly.

We believe this is God’s plan for this time in our lives. Our own human plans would have been completely different.

There’s a saying in Chinese – 人算不如天算 – it means human plans can not compare to God’s plans.

Our own human plans would have been to stay in Switzerland till retirement or at least for a few more years. But God dropped the offer of a new job for my husband into our laps. We prayed about it and told God that if this is His Plan, things would have to happen smoothly and quickly. And it has.

So we will be moving from Switzerland to Singapore.

We are sad about leaving Switzerland. We arrived more than two decades ago, newlyweds. Here is where we grew into a family of three, wonderfully supported by a beautiful church family and have made some wonderful friends both in our working lives and privately.

My emotions have been all over the place since we had confirmation that this is happening. But I have been focusing on the practical things we need to do, sorting, packing, giving things away, selling other stuff, looking into shipping the stuff we wanna bring with, the sale of our apartment and other paperwork such as what we need to bring Lexi, our Schnauzer with us etc.

But now it feels more real because some of the practical things have been worked through. Now I feel more ready to face my feelings about this move. And honestly, I think if it were just a human decision, I would be hmming and ahhing about this. But I know, in my heart of hearts, this IS God’s plan for us, so while my heart aches to be leaving somewhere I consider home, I know God is with us. Also, we are moving back home, even if I have changed and grown over time and am not the same person who left all those years ago, even though for me, I am not sure what my role would be when I get back to Singapore, we have loving family and friends we are returning to.

syc

January 17, 2024

Big Trip to Singapore, Nov/Dec 2023

Yep, it’s 2024! Perfect time to look back on the last 2 months of 2023. LOL!

We did, what I consider, to be a BIG trip to Singapore.

Big in more ways than one; big in length of time (at least for me, it was 7 weeks). I think the last time we were there for that length of time was when my son was born. And what a lovely bookend this is because on this trip we usher my son into a rite of passage for any Singaporean male; into National Service (NS). Big also because I had so much I wanted to get done. I think I managed just enough for now. More to do next time… lol.

So what did I get done?

There was a wonderful primary school class reunion, lots of drawers and cupboards to clear out in the living room, loads of items to sort through, furniture to get rid of, new furniture to build and then fill with the items which we decided to keep. My brother also had emergency gall-bladder removal operation just before I arrived so there’s trying to make sure he recovered well.

Of course, there were visits to our family and friends, with lots of yummy meals to digest as well. It’s with a little bit of sadness that I realised lots of my relatives are really getting on in years. While many of them are still in fairly good health, the health issues that are there is affecting their daily lives slightly. Yet I have hope as I also see that they do have good family support and also the health care in Singapore is quite good.

Here are some pictures (quite a lot are of food, which tells you how much we ate… lol):

This new chapter of our lives has began and we are all adjusting; my husband and I to being empty nesters, my son to life in Singapore with his grandma and uncle and my family to having a young adult in the house again. I sincerely ask God to help us so that we might find this a fulfilling and blessed time for all of us.

syc

August 31, 2022September 2, 2022

Summer Hols Photo Summary 2022

This summer it was back to normal programming for our annual visit to Singapore. No more tests or quarantine, just need to be fully vaccinated (3 jabs). And because the last week of school for the Son was project week and he could do that anywhere, we went early and stayed for 4 weeks.

Besides the usual; time with family and meeting friends, eating favourite foods and shopping, part of this trip was about preparing for the Son’s move to Singapore next year to do his military service. At least, we tried to make a start by clearing some space in the cupboards so he can have somewhere for his stuff.

We definitely enjoyed ourselves and it felt good to be able to freely meet up with people again. Here are some photos: