Hi guys! It’s been so long since I blogged about something personal; usually, I like blogging about my writing (like stories, essays and stuff like that). How are you guys doing?
So today I thought I’d give you guys a real taste of my life (spoiler: it’s pretty bland).
Most of you are aware of the fact that due to the COVID-19 pandemic schools across the world have shut down and have now moved to distance/remote learning.
What does this mean? It means that worldwide, everyone from little kids to senior citizens are confined within the walls of their home.
While I admit that the boredom can get frustrating and sometimes excruciatingly painful, this is also a wonderful and admittedly different way of learning and collaborating with others. And at the end of the day: it eeess what it eeess (haha did anyone get that joke? No? Okay then)
I tried to record the stuff I did (this was yesterday) and took a lot of photos on my phone while keeping it as real as possible.
*Keep in mind that this is during a period of self-isolation so I have absolutely limited outside excursions (as should you) in order to curb the spread of the virus.
**A huge shoutout to all the nurses, doctors, journalists and all other essential service workers across the world who are putting their lives on the line so that we don’t have to. Please respect their efforts by avoiding the outside world and taking care of yourselves and your loved ones.
Disclaimer: I live in Singapore and there is no official “lockdown” put in place by the government yet. However, we have still limited ourselves to our condo.
Here goes!
You’d think I would put an alarm and wake up all by myself. Zero fuss, zero crankiness and zero grumpy faces.
Not really.
Usually, my mom has to wake me up (yes, I realize that I am in fact a 5 year old) and more often than not, I wake up without much of a fuss. Can you believe it? A teenager waking up without a fuss and a tantrum? Unheard of.
I’m also a diehard fan of pillows, cushions and soft toys (if you can’t already make that out from the picture). Anything soft and fluffy makes my day. So I always surround myself with at least 4 of them, sometimes five.
HAHAH this photo is so funny. Please excuse us and the hilarious looks on our faces. I was trying my best not to laugh. (fun fact: exercise releases endorphins)
Since my entire family is at home for at least the next few weeks or so, we have decided to make use of our time together and workout in the morning. In all honesty, I never saw myself working out during free time but it eeess what it eeesss (please not again).
So in this humiliating picture, you can see us doing an overhead squat while smiling at the television screen (it’s called multitasking look it up). My school PE teacher is hellbent on making us workout and stay fit (bless her) which is why she sent us a PE Bingo consisting of a range of activities for us to complete. One of them was a HIIT (High-Intensity workout). These are 40 minutes long with a 10-minute warm-up, 20 minutes of exercise and a 10 minute cool down.
You’re probably sitting there thinking “40 minutes? A 5-year-old could do that.” (Not gonna lie, they probably could. Have you seen the energy a 5-year-old has?)
But that’s beside the point. Those workouts are tough. If there was a word that meant (tough * sweating like a pig * exhausting) then that would be nowhere close to describing what we felt after that workout (haha maybe it’s just me, I’m not that fit)
And then came the moment we were all waiting for. Food. Breakfast. It’s all the same. My mom is an amazing cook. Probably the best cook. Ever. You’d think she’d pass those genes to me right? No. She’s selfish. She wants the good cook award all to herself.
What you see in the picture above is an Indian dish called “poha.” My cousins call it yellow rice. While it may look like rice, it’s not. In fact, I don’t know what it is. Just that it’s tasty and that’s all that matters.
Because of COVID-19, all schools in Singapore have moved to distant learning. Teachers try their best to mimic classroom environments by using apps such as Google Meet and Google Hangouts.
This is a picture of my brother using a resource provided by his teacher to study Spanish. I have yet to start my online learning classes. To be honest, I’m really not looking forward to this because when it comes to technology, I’m a boomer (there I said it). I’m probably going to be that one kid who doesn’t know how to turn off the microphone and everyone is going to laugh at me. And that’s just one of the reasons.
But then again, we are an extremely lucky generation: one that gets to continue its learning and economic life, to some extent. Previous generations have never had this opportunity.
I’m so sorry about the pictures!! About halfway through lunch, I realized that I had forgotten to take a photo of it! So I ended up taking a picture of my half-eaten food and drink. Sorry about that.
I doubt any of you know what food I was eating. I think I’ll be pleasantly surprised if you can tell me even one of the things that were on my table.
“Vegetable” in Hindi is called “sabzi” and that’s what we eat on most days for lunch and dinner. Yesterday we ate “bhindi” which is okra or ladyfinger to all you English speakers, and eggplant (Indian style of course). We also had a very special drink (the last time we made that at home was 4th of never-ary. Yes, I quote Will Smith). We call this drink “chaas” and I have no English name for it. We make it by adding a bit of water and spices to curd. And by “we” I mean my mom. Did I mention she’s an incredible cook?
After lunch, I just lazed around for a bit. I didn’t have anything specific to do (everything seems pointless these days anyway). Since my mom, my brother and I don’t have much to do these days, we sit in our balcony and enjoy the view. On most days, even if it is raining or just a cloudy, the view is breathtaking.
(finally realizes that she eats a lot)
Later that day, my mum and dad got together and whipped up some incredible looking food for us. (disclaimer: yes I am Indian. No, I do not eat curry for breakfast, lunch and dinner. No one does that.)
Dinner is a very informal event at our house. Usually, my mom shouts at everyone from the kitchen asking someone to help her because she always has to do it in her own and she’s sick of all of us yada yada yada. We would go, apologise profusely and she would finally cave. Then we’d all lay the table and have dinner while simultaneously discussing each other’s days. (not much of that these days).
After dinner, we had game night. Game night and movie nights are extremely fun. The picture above depicts what we call our “game cupboard” innovative, I know. Yesterday, we ended up playing Taboo.
And boy, are we competitive.
We ended up fighting so much because of our differing opinions on the rules (of course the rule book itself was lost). It wasn’t pretty.
And that was pretty much my entire day. I know it wasn’t much, but I hope you guys enjoyed reading about it!! Please stay safe and remember to wash your hands!
Sending so much love xo!!
A meraki 