How has your year been?
It is the term-three break this week, but this year seems to have been one long holiday anyway. It has either been too long, too short, too interrupted, or just plain strange. With COVID-19, this year has been anything but normal.
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| Taking a ride to catch the sunrise |
Things have generally returned to normal in Singapore except for a few exceptions.
- You have to wear a mask whenever you leave your house. The only time you can remove it is when you're eating or sitting in your own car. I guess you can also take it off it when you're visiting someone - but if it's only for a short while, you probably should keep it on our of courtesy. Actually is keeping your mask on a sign of respect or suspicion? I've often thought about that.
- You have to scan QR codes everywhere you go to check-in and out of locations. Just today when we went out, I think I scanned a total of ten or more. QR codes are now the norm everywhere you go to help with contact tracing.
- There are sticker markings on floors, tables, and chairs to remind where you should and should not stand and sit. Safe-distancing is the buzzword that is going to be around for a while.
Once you're familiar with all these, you can pretty much do most things - including going to cinemas and museums. When the virus still ravaging parts of the world, and in all likelihood spreading unnoticed in Singapore, it does feel strange to have this degree of freedom to allow people to roam willy-nilly wherever you please - how dare you!
But we all need to try to return to living. Since April, our worlds have turned upsidedown and the taste of normal, not even great, has never been sweeter. The simple act of going shopping, or having a meal outside with your family, has become a novelty meant to be savoured and appreciated, like a rare visit to the Garden of Eden. Or steeping outside after the Apocalypse.
Appreciation - that is what we've learnt. Learning to love the simple things, being with the people we know. And living the lives that we have been given.