For the last one and a half months, the girls and I have been back in Singapore. We flew off with Jon and my Mum on 15 May, and arrived on 17 May. It was the worst flight on my life to date, travelling with 2 children, and transiting in LAX. The girls took turns being cranky and upset, and as a result Jon and I got barely any rest during the flight(s), plus I still had to find ways to squeeze in pumping breastmilk/dealing with being engorged and in discomfort. Then trying to schlep all our luggage from the domestic terminal to the international terminal was another ordeal in itself. Luckily the LAX international terminal in itself was pleasant, and the TSA agents there were actually really nice (the best I've experienced so far). Still, it was a total of 25 hours of travelling time (not including the wait from when we left our house in St Louis), and it felt like every single minute of it.
Anyway I arrived back to Singapore, and within 6 hours was promptly hit by one of the worst colds I've had in my life with a fever and chills. It was shit and I basically spent the whole week out of it, so Jon and I were unable to do many touristy things with the girls. In the end we at least managed to visit the SEA aquarium the Friday afternoon of the following week, just before Jon was due to fly off back home. Jon and I also managed to go out together briefly, without the girls, for lunch on Saturday, which was nice. But in general it was a pretty low key week.
After Jon left, I moved back to my parent's place with E. Before that we had been staying at Mama and Yeh Yeh's place (M had been long sent to the care of my parents and Merlina, because I had physically collapsed so spectacularly after arriving back in Singapore). It took a little time getting used to the schedule of my family again, and we sort of fell into my parent's usual routine:
Mondays are when my Dad has to bring Yeh Yeh and Rosie (their helper) to acupuncture in Toa Payoh. So E and I have been follwing them them, and usally go to the library to wait until my Dad has finished checking Yeh Yeh in, before we have lunch together. On Tuesdays, Ryan has art class so we all go for lunch (M included), and while Ryan has his art class at the Devan Nair Institute, M has a baby spa session where she floats about a small tub with an inflatable tube around her neck. Wednesdays/Thursdays/Fridays the past few weeks have been when E and I either go out for lunch with Uncle KL or Mama. Saturdays are when Ryan has swimming lessons at Clementi, so E and I wander around Clementi central having a snack or going to the library in the interrim, then we have lunch out with my parents. Lastly on Sundays, my Dad goes to church in the mornings, then has to take care of Yeh Yeh from lunch time to mid-afternoon, and so I usually try to follow him out with E when he goes out to buy lunch for all of us. When I have gone out with friends, it's generally been for dinners that start at either 7 or 7:30pm (which feels unfanthomably late to me as the mother of two young children), and after this upcoming weekened, I would have pretty much met everyone that I have aimed to meet.
On 14 July, in a week's time, I'll be heading off to St Louis with my Dad and the girls. I'm not looking forward to the actual flight back, and am feeling a little anxious about leaving behind this new routine (routines are a salve for my generalised anxiety), but I am looking forward to being back in my own house. The temperature in St Louis however, has been insane the past week, hovering been about 100 to 110 Fahrenheit (which I don't even want to think about in terms of Celcius because it would then make the horror concrete), so I hoping that at least abates a little before we arrives back. Still haven't begun packing yet, but I don't think there will be much to pack.
