Back to living in style for a minute, Jonathan had booked us a private plane charter through Harbour Air. This is definitely the best way to fly.

We were flying Vancouver Airport to Maple Bay. We got to control our departure time, limit our exposure to Covid to just the pilot and deck hand, and only check in 30 minutes before. Because we were so many people, it didn't cost much more than the 5 flights from Vancouver to Victoria airport and the large private shuttle (or 2) up island we would have needed with all our luggage. With a private charter, we also did not have a luggage limit to deal with. It took Harbour Air awhile to weigh all our luggage. They even weighed our carry-ons. 615 lbs in total.

We got to watch a few sea planes take off before it was our turn. The kids were pretty impressed with this runway. We took a photo with our pilot and climbed aboard. The pilot said he was bring a Dock Hand to help with the luggage in Maple Bay.

The pilot walked us through the Safety Procedures Card. MsI grabbed her card and wouldn't put it down. She saw those 4 circles of the plane going up and then coming back down and she kept her finger on the state she felt we were in at the time for the entire flight. Good thing it was only 20 minutes dock to dock.

We had limo service for our last ride to our new home in Cowichan Bay. There were not a lot of large vehicle choices on this side. The kids thought the lights inside the limo were amazing. MsI now tells us, "I miss our BIG car. I want a car with lights inside." She's mad that there are no car rides in Quarantine.

I told you we're used to being a spectacle, but again people had to stop and stare at us in Maple Bay, wondering what was going on. It took quite a while for the pilot, the dock hand, the driver and Jonathan to ferry the 15+ pieces of luggage out of the plane and up the dock. There are no luggage carts in Maple Bay. The dock hand used a rusty wheel barrow for our carry-on luggage. There wasn't much room to spare in the limo with all our luggage.

Arriving in Maple Bay, it felt like we had come full circle.  Maple Bay Marina was one of the first overnight locations Jonathan and I traveled to on his sailboat. Back then we thought we were on a pretty big adventure, just taking the sailboat a few days up Vancouver Island.

Our time in Singapore had certainly been an adventure. We hadn't circled the globe, but we had our eyes opened to an entirely different side of the world. Sitting out the pandemic in a foreign location really highlighted the contrast between East and West.

We were excited to be home, but also sad that about the things we hadn't gotten to do in South East Asia due to Covid limiting everyone's plans. We are unsure when we'll get back to Singapore to visit which is hard for the kids to understand; they have given everyone we met in Singapore strict instructions to come visit us in Canada.

We're both relieved to be safe at home and also a bit wary wondering what life in Canada is going to be like. Whatever it is we're sure it's still going to be quite the adventure.

The Vancouver Airport was mostly deserted; just like the 2 other airports we'd seen in the last 24 hours.

Customs took us a while, but that was just because we were repatriating. There were only a few people in line, probably just from our flight. We had to wait a few minutes extra at the gate for our stroller to be brought up and so we were at the end of our flight group. We also had to step aside to fill out the forms.

Filling out forms for 5 people after not really sleeping for 48 hours is hard. Also our situation didn't really fit in some of the yes/no boxes. We left some blank and when we were ready we walked right up to customs with only one person in front of us.

Customs was friendly and helpful. Our luggage was revolving around the belt waiting for us when we got to the luggage carousel. Just one other family was picking up their luggage at the same time as us. We got our 3 luggage carts and headed towards where we would declare all our household goods. That took a while. We had our inventory of shipped goods, a rough list of what was in our carry-ons. We started trying to add it all up, but they stopped us and said we didn't have to pay duty on any of it so just to ball park it - When we pick up our Shipping Container we will have to pay duty on new goods in it.

After declaring our goods, we were shuttled into the Covid Test line - no way to miss it; it's all part of the exit path.

We had warned MsE that this was coming, but she was not impressed with the idea - Remember it had taken 4 adults to do her Covid test in Singapore. No surprise to me it took 4 adults here too. What was a surprise is that Life Labs had no plan in place for resistant children in the Airport. The lab tech had no clue what to do. I won't bore you with the details; the Covid test experience is a few posts back if you want to read it.

After the covid tests were done, we were handed our self-tests to do on day 8 and were immediately at the exit of the Airport. There a man without a mask was directing people out of the building. We asked for the Quarantine Shuttle to the Hilton Airport Hotel and he directed us to take a taxi. We didn't believe him, our quarantine leaflet specifically said we must use the hotel shuttle. We called the hotel directly, but they also told us to take a taxi. We said we would need two and they said not to worry, they would reimburse us for the taxis at the front desk. That's not what we were worried about. These Quarantine Hotels are supposed to have shuttles to protect the rest of the public from us potential Covid carriers.

I'd also like to point out that we didn't even get an official Quarantine order - nothing with our names or passport numbers or dates or anything. Just a general leaflet.

Jonathan took one old Taxi Van and I took another. The driver griped about my number of luggage (I had less than 1/2 the luggage), and made me help him load the suitcases into the back, while the 4 year old and 6 year stood on the side of the street.

After Grab Premium services in Singapore, where I just leave my stroller beside the door and only have to click my seat belt, not even touch the door handle, I was feeling a little frustrated.

At the hotel, they didn't have a room ready for us, despite our flight getting in 2 hours later than anticipated and we had to wait in the general lobby with people coming and going for about 30 minutes. We were here for a government mandated 3-day Quarantine. I looked at them in horror, when they said, "You are free to use the facilities, including the pool, once your Covid tests come back negative." Yeah, we would not be using the pool with the other people who just got their 2nd of 3 Covid tests, and could still be carrying Covid. There was also a large sign saying we could leave the hotel for exercise and to ask the desk for directions to near by walking trails.

We told the Desk about our food allergies and they said we'd have to talk to the chef. They were supposed to be providing us 3 meals a day. Gluten-free meals were reasonably plentiful and highlighted on the menu, which was mostly burgers. But there was almost nothing dairy-free. They offered my kids lettuce wrapped burgers as the dairy free options. We were told that they would deduct any meals we ordered in from our hefty bill, so we did that a number of times. The chef did give us a call in our room and offered a number of ways to accommodate us. The food that we did eat there was very good, but I was surprised that they hadn't prepared in anyway for us when all this information was requested in our reservation.

When they showed us to to our room, I realized that there were only 2 double beds. We were 5 people. We were supposed to be in a suite with a pull out couch for 2. We intentionally chose the Hilton Airport because they were one of the few places that had proper beds for 5.

Instead of the pull out couch, they had put us in a suite where they had replaced seating for 3 or 4 (a couch and a armchair) with seating of 2 small arm chairs with only an end table between them. When I said they needed to give us the room, we had booked, they said all the rooms cost the same. I went back to the Front Desk and demanded the other room. They did move us and all our luggage, and I accepted the 2nd room.

At least, they asked if we had touched anything to which I replied that sadly we had. The kids had run immediately to the bedroom to pick a bed, so they needed to re-clean our room before they could give it to anyone else. Everything was so dusty, that I questioned if and when it had been cleaned and ran around with anti-bacterial wipes constantly wiping surfaces for our time there. There were no "security seals", "I've been cleaned stickers" or even a "handout" saying our rooms had been sanitized. I've been in many cleaner rooms, way before anyone heard of Covid.

When we settled in we saw that the couch was so worn out that it left a hole when even the kids sat on it. We actually added the bedroom pillows to be able to sit on the seats, but at least we had a coffee table for the kids to eat 3 meals a day over. MsC slept on the "love seat," because I couldn't figure out how to pull it out and there were no instructions for it in the room. It was probably just too heavy for me to pull out. The next night I asked for a cot for MsC and but night the kids didn't sleep until 3 am, because they were rested and hadn't adjusted to the dramatic time change.

When meals arrived, they didn't just drop them and run away, to make it contact-less. Instead they put them on a cart, knocked on the door and stood holding the cart - no more than 3 feet from me as I gathered up the bags of food.

I put a mask beside the door and made sure to put it on before I opened the door every time. I can't imagine that everyone thinks to or even remembers to do that. At this point, I was a lot more afraid of getting Covid in the Hilton than I was on an Airplane.

I told Jonathan that without a doubt, that if we caught Covid, we would have got it in this hotel. When our 2nd Covid tests came back negative early on day 2, we immediately asked to move our last flight up a day to save us about 28 hours in this "Quarantine" hotel.

Upon check out the hotel deducted $200 for uneaten meal for us and did not check to see if we had actually gotten negative Covid test results.

It's really just the honour system folks.

The kids slept in their travelling clothes. They got up without much of a problem at about 2:30 am to go check in for our flight. They just had to put their shoes on and walk.

We pushed our our loaded luggage carts our of the Yotel and got lost in the mall trying to find an entrance to the Airport. The Cleaner helped us out with directions. We had to leave Jewel Mall and actually cross the street; the Mall entrance to the Airport downstairs was blocked off due to Covid.

The Security and the Airport staff were surprised to see us so early. But it took us a full 45 minutes to check us in, so it's a good thing we did arrive that hour early. Before we were done, a line was already forming behind us.

First was showing our Airline Tickets and Passports. Next displaying the Negative Covid Tests for 5 people. MsE's was still wrong. I had to call the Doctor's Anywhere 24 hour phone line to have MsE's Covid Certificate redone as her passport number was wrong. It was corrected within 10 minutes. Then their was the "AriveCAN" to show which included our Quarantine Plan for Canada. Even though everything was entered in the ArriveCAN app, we had to individually show our reservation for the Canada Quarentine Hotel. Jonathan showed everything electronically and had it all filed electronically in a very organized way; I still think it would have been faster to have paper copies for everything.

Then we had the weighing of the suitcases - yes, we know there are 3 overweight, no need to re-sort them. They didn't complain about our stroller, which I wanted to gate check. Technically, it should have been considered one of MsI's 2 pieces of luggage. If that had happened, I was prepared to garbage the stroller, right there. We would have been charged at least $200 for an 11th piece of luggage. They weren't really worried about being over weight though; the planes were no where near 50% seating.

After our luggage was off down the conveyor belt, we had to wait a few minutes for ticketing to actually open.

Next we went through a quick metal detector towards our gate. We were hoping to get breakfast or at least a little snack, but nothing was open. There was a Do not Return Entrance right before ours. They told us there was a 711 back where we had come from that was open. We popped in there and bought drinks; then crossed into the Do Not Return section.

The girls explored their swag (ANA airlines note paper, stickers, and pens) and their carry-on bags and drank their drinks. In Singapore, they scan the Carry-ons right as you enter your gate waiting area, but then you can't leave and their's no bathroom Gate-side, so you hang our outside your gate until near your boarding time.

Security opened up and not long after told us they would be loading the plane shortly. So, even with all that spare time, we still had to do "run" through the airport to use the bathroom one last time.

Everyone was settled on the plane soon. Despite having no more than 5 1/2 hours sleep, I think only MsI and I napped on the first plane ride. MsC said she had a little cry as the plane left Singapore.

Mostly the kids watched TV/movies on the plane, but they did some of the activities I included in their carry-ons. They had new felts and colouring/activity books. I don't think MsC read at all, even though she insisted on bringing at least 2 novels. The big girls also played their Nintendo Switches and on the 2nd plane ride they finally slept for a bit. MsE was the only person who complained about being bored.

Thankfully, I had packed us all lunch boxes full of snacks. We didn't have time to eat out in the Narita airport, because they dragged us all over kingdom-come to check us into our transfer flight, where they re-confirmed our Covid tests and our Canada Quarantine Plan. Poor MsI was so tired and she kept having to run to keep up with the group of us being led through the airport by the airline personnel.

They they finally let us loose in the almost deserted airport without much time till our next flight. It was afternoon, and most of the stores and food options were closed.

We boarded the Narita, Japan to Vancouver flight a little early and I was excited that our arrival time in Canada might be a little sooner then expected, only to see a flash of lightening.

We ended up sitting on the tarmac for 2 extra hours in heavy rain and lightening, waiting for the storm to pass so we could take off. It's actually the most patient I've ever felt waiting for a plane to leave; it must have been something to do with how tired we were and the fact that these flights were so long anyhow: 7 hours to Narita and then 10 hours to Vancouver. The heavy rain also made it feel a bit like you were in flight and they kept the engine running and just refueled right before we took off.

At one point MsE looked at me and asked me how much longer the flight was. She looked so shocked when I said we hadn't taken off yet. MsI fell asleep the moment the plane started to move and was sound asleep before the plane even left the ground.

That's when we found out that there were no allergy friendly meals aboard for us, even though we'd had them on our first flight and so there should have been no problem. The flight crew scrounged around and found us a few things we could eat, but mostly the kids scavenged from their lunch boxes. I was extra glad that I had asked our Helper to make us homemade rice crispie squares for our flights. We also did a good amount of sleeping on this 2nd flight.

The stewardess told us to spread out as much as we wanted on our Narita, Japan to Vancouver, Canada plane ride. She said there were only 50 passengers on it. I think our Singapore to Narita flight likely had about 50 passengers also. We were not as spaced as I would have liked on the Singapore departing flight. There was someone in the center section near us who kept pulling her mask down to talk across the aisle to her husband and the row directly behind us had people in it.

The entire centre section of the plane was kept empty on the Vancouver flight. The Stewardesses came through and reminded people to put their masks back on after eating. I felt more comfortable on the Vancouver flight, even though we were probably more at risk of Covid, because Japan's Covid cases were higher than Singapore's, but we had all passed our 72 hour Covid tests.

From our Airport Hotel to our Quarantine Hotel in Canada we double masked: A paper surgical mask on first and then a new cloth mask over top as an outer layer. It worked very well. The cloth mask over the top makes the surgical mask fit much closer. We changed masks every few hours and/or after eating. I noticed that the outer mask didn't get damp and also that if you were sleeping and not talking the inner one really didn't need to be changed as often either.

MsI's face is so small her masks went all the way up and covered her eyes while still staying down well over her chin while she was sleeping on the plane. This happens to her in Grabs too. I think she likes it. I had sleep masks for MsC and I. I felt pretty concealed with my masks and my sleep mask on.

Each of us had our 2 sets of masks in a large ziploc bag with each person's name on it in their carry-on; inside that was another ziploc that labelled "To Wash" for used ones. We didn't separate the 2 masks, just dumped them in the Wash bags and sanitized our hands. I tended to put the kids dirty masks in with mine, so I had a very full Wash bag when we were through. I was worried the kids might not cooperate with wearing masks for almost 24 hours non-stop. I had back up face shields to offer them, but everyone was totally fine with their masks.

I washed 26 cloth masks when we arrived at our new house, so we probably each used 5 cloth masks in about 24 hours. I know we used quite a few more surgical masks than cloth ones.

They had sat in the bag a number of days before I got to them. I poured boiling water over the cloth ones with some laundry soap and then washed them when the water was cool enough. I rinsed the soap from them and then poured another kettle of boiling hot water over them and left them to soak again, then I dried them in the sun. I imagine they're clean now.  

Our last night in Singapore was at Yotel at Changi Airport. We picked it so we could get an extra hour or so of sleep in before our 6 am flight departed.

Firstly, we couldn't fit all our luggage in our room. We left our luggage in the Lobby and went down to the actual Airport to try to see if we could check our luggage in early for our flight - like you would be able to in normal times.

Nope, due to Covid, you could only enter the airport close to your flight and you couldn't leave the airport after that. We would have to cram all the luggage into our room.

The Airport also told us that we should arrive 3 hours early for departure, because of how many people we had in our travelling party and all our luggage. I was a little skeptical, but we figured we'd better follow their advice.

We grabbed early dinner in the mall, eating our favorite foods in the Food Court. MsI, MsC and Jonathan celebrated finding Xiao Long Bao (Soup Dumplings). MsI found hotdogs baked inside buns at a Bakery Stand. I found soup. The group size allowed for Dining Out was still 2 people so we had to sit 2 - 2 - 1 with a table or a gap in between each of our groups. Luckily it wasn't busy so we were able to get tables in a row.

The girls asked for water. I handed MsC a $10 bill and MsE and her disappeared to find a drink stall. I said to Jonathan, "Well that's the last time we get to let our kids disappear in a mall." I don't think we'll be doing that in Canada, but it's pretty standard in Singapore.  

MsE innovated how to drink with a mask on so she could walk through the mall. See the angled straw out the side. She was very proud of herself.

Back at the hotel, I figured if I could get all our airport carry-ons packed and the clothes to wear on the plane laid out, that we could get into the beds and I could fit the suitcases in our room. First, I needed to find MsC underwear, because somehow our Singapore suitcase didn't have enough. As I was digging through suitcases and seeing if I could get another one under the weight limit by re-shifting, it seemed to keep getting hotter in our room. We turned the aircon up more and it still got hotter. Right as we were about to try to put the kids to bed, we realized that it wasn't working and Jonathan called the Front Desk.  

The hotel was very helpful, but they said it could be a while before a technician would arrive, so would we rather be placed in a different room. We really needed to get to bed so we agreed.

We were in a family suite (a bunk bed and double bed, not sure how we originally thought we were going to fit a cot in there), but there weren't any available. They gave us 2 more double rooms to sleep in and told us just to keep our luggage in the Family Suite, because it was never going to fit in our new rooms.

Before we left our "Luggage Room," we loaded most of our suitcases onto our 3 luggage carts and then wheeled them backwards into the room to help us get on our way faster in the morning. I left a suitcase open on the bed with space for the kids blankies and our pajamas.

Jonathan and MsC took one room and the rest of us took the other. I tried to sleep, but seriously didn't sleep "all" night. I got up at 2 am, got dressed, stole the kids blankies and stuffies off them in their sleep, ran to the other room and packed our last things and put everything on the luggage cart ready for our 2:45 exit.

Our room included complementary breakfast for 2 in the Tiffin Room. They call this a semi-buffet in Singapore. You order from the menu as much and as many times as you want, and they plate it from the kitchen to eliminate the Covid risk of a bunch of food out in buffet style.

We could have paid for everyone else to join us, but our Helper suggested that we go down for a quiet breakfast just the two of us. It was our last meal without the kids for who knows how long.

When the kids woke up, our Helper made them breakfast in the room. There was fruit and bread and granola bars and lots of snacks with us. I was preparing for the chance that our flight in less than 24 hours wouldn't have food we could/would eat.

Breakfast had just opened when we arrived at the Tiffin Room, so we were some of the first people seated.

They helped us out with gluten free and also dairy free options. I could have gotten gluten free pancakes, but they were also bringing us a gluten free/dairy free bread basket, so instead I ordered sausages, bacon and baked beans - a very British breakfast. We also got a fruit plate. I really enjoyed my large pot of tea.

The Tiffin Room is beautiful, like everywhere else in the hotel. Tiffin refers to the stacked Tiffin carriers on display, which originated in India and are commonly used throughout Asia as a food carrier or lunch box.  At night The Tiffin Room serves Indian food, which is what we did for our 12th wedding anniversary dinner.

Jonathan got the Raffles Omelette, seasoned with coriander leaf and masala spices. After breakfast we needed to check out of the hotel.

The day to say goodbye came too soon, as it always does.

We started with our goodbyes to our Helper, then the Raffles Hotel, then our condo, the kids' best friends, and ended with our drive out of town to the Airport.

Jonathan left the hotel first along with some of our luggage. He was off to meet with with our rental agent for a quick walk through of our condo, before they met with our landlords and their agent to do the inspection and key hand off.

When us girls were all packed up and ready to go. I called the Butler and did an "In-Room Check Out" via the phone. That was easy - no children running around the Lobby.

I'm glad they ran through the bill with me. Someone had billed 2 drinks from the pool to our room, although it was quickly removed from our bill. I imagine our pool reservation times showed that we weren't at the pool when the charges were made.

Bell Services arrived to collect our bags. I had them take one cart of luggage for our Helper and to keep the rest separate for the rest of us. They said not to rush, so us girls said goodbye to our Helper in the suite and let her go off first. Us girls all shed some tears. Although, I'm not sure MsI understands that we won't see our Helper again, or if we do it won't be for a very very long time. She's really been part of our family and a friend to each of us. We didn't expect to be saying goodbye to her so soon.

After I was sure we wouldn't run into our Helper in the Lobby and upset the girls again, we left too. The girls first wanted some photos of themselves in their favorite hotel.

We had to wait a few minutes for our Grab to arrive. We were a little bored until a Wedding Party came out to get their photos done. I shuttled us out of the way to ensure we weren't in their wedding photos. MsE was super thrilled about the Wedding Party and insisted that I get the Bride's picture too.

After our luggage was loaded into the Grab and everyone was belted in, I realized I was now solely in charge of our children and our luggage and called Jonathan to ask what I should do with it - the luggage. We had intended to just park the luggage beside the pool with us while we swam with our neighbour friends, however, it was raining.

We settled on bringing it all up the Lift to our condo for Jonathan and our agent to bring down with our other 8 pieces of luggage when they left. The kids did a 1-minute run through our condo saying goodbye to all the empty rooms; and then we were off with a pinata, an umbrella, and a bit of plan.

The pinata was from MsE's birthday last August. She loved her party pinata so much that she couldn't smash it, so it's been played with for the last 11 months. She had a plan to ask for a new one for her next birthday and then smash the year old one at her next party - she's a long term planner. Sadly pinata wasn't going to fit in a suitcase, so she decided it's time had come.

We arrived at MsE's best friend Rosy's and stole the 2 sisters for a pinata smash in the basement Lobby. In hindsight, maybe I should have chosen the ground floor, but I was trying to keep us out of the rain. The girls all got in a few turns and quickly decimated the unicorn and the umbrella, snatched the candy, and we returned the excited girls back up the Lift - Everyone was screaming "Goodbye!!!" It was a very exciting and cheerful goodbye. I'm glad we just went for it!

After that we went to MsC's best friend, Kickie's house. I got to share a cup of Chai Tea with her parents, who are good friends of ours, while the girls played in the room. When Jonathan messaged that all our luggage was now with him in our Basement Lobby, it was time to say our hardest goodbye. MsI crawled under the desk in Kickie's room and said she wan't going. I told her she'd have to go sleep without Mom if she stayed and lived at Kickie's house and she looked like she wasn't sure what do do. I didn't even think to get a picture while we were visiting - I was too busy saying goodbye too.

We'd already trashed our umbrella so we decided that running through the rain would be faster and funner than going the very long way through the basement car park. I thought we were being careful, but MsI and slipped hard holding hands just as MsC was telling us to be careful of a particular patch of walkway. I scrapped up my hands, but we were mostly saved by a stuffie that Kickie had just given to MsE, whom had made me stuff it in my shirt to keep it dry.

After that we found Jonathan in the basement Lobby with our luggage and called a very big vehicle to take us to the Airport Hotel.

Our driver was helpful loading, but basically kicked us out with our luggage at the Changi Jewel Mall with no idea how to actually get to the hotel. We found ourselves some airport luggage carts which Jonathan and I loaded up 3 completely, while MsC held the other girls hands.

When we tried to check in to the mall there was some distress over how luggage carts were not allowed in the mall, but they could see we clearly needed the luggage carts. I think they thought we were Arrivals to Singapore and so should have been in Quarantine or In Transit Quarantine, which freaked them out also. A Mall Escort and they allowed us to check in to the mall. MsE pushed MsI's stroller while MsC, Jonathan and I pushed the luggage carts. We're used to being a bit of a spectacle, but everyone stopped and stared as our luggage train went by. We just barely fit into the Lift (elevator) to get to the Hotel.

Before we left Singapore we squeezed in MsI's 4th birthday celebrations.

I had dinosaur themed decorations bought before MsI informed me that it would be a Paw Patrol Party. Luckily Paw Patrol has a dino toy set, so this was easily corrected.

Auntie made us chocolate muffins for breakfast. We donned our dinosaur masks and had a roaring good time.

MsI insisted that presents came next, so we squeezed in a few presents before MsC and I had to run off to her Pediatric Neurologist's appointment. We needed to to get a letter about her treatment to give to the doctors in Canada.  This is something we did with our Neurologist for Jonathan and I also.

After MsC's appointment, came our special treat - Daddy had scheduled a trip for all us girls to the Nail Salon. We a good go of trying to use up all of our pre-paid Pedicure Package, but we still have a few on credit that we should to give away.

We had the whole side of the salon to ourselves and a team of ladies waiting to help us when we arrived. MsI climbed up in a big chair, but then needed me to sit beside her. She really got into it when they gave her the nail polish choices. She chose Gold for her finger and Silver for her toes. She told the ladies all about how Gold was her favorite colour and they giggled away at her. MsE let them cut her nails, paint them and even used Nail Dryer.

MsE was no so sure about this place. When she'd watched the girls she decided that should would get colour on her toes as long as they agreed not to trim her nails and that she didn't have to sit in a big chair. Auntie held MsE's hand. In the end MsE said, "This is the best day ever," so I think she approved. MsC said, she remembered going this with Grandma.

Walking back from our Pedicure, MsI declared that it was ice cream time so, and we had to walk past Baskin Robbins. Those are strawberry and lime dairy free sorbet, and chocolate waffle cone for MsE who can eat dairy.

After dinner MsI got her chocolate Paw Patrol Dinosaur cake, and then she opened the rest of her presents. She's been asking to open presents ever since.

Part of staying at the Raffles Hotel was to celebrate our 12th wedding anniversary, so we planned to visit one of the hotel's fancy restaurants.

We weren't sure where we were going to eat, because I am terrible at making reservations, but we were going to enjoy our last evening out without the kids.

The restaurants are on the Left side of the hotel, so we exited the Lobby and moved through the more public area. We found this lovely courtyard, but it had just finished raining so we stayed under the covered walkways.

We chose the Tiffin Room, which serves India food for lunch and dinner. We were so impressed. I've been out for India food with my friend Aasma a couple of times in Singapore, but Jonathan had only eaten Indian food via Delivery or a Hawker Stall.

The Tiffin Room was fine dining. It can be hard to get dairy free Indian food, but the chef helped Jonathan out with recommendations that he could customize to be dairy free.

We both decided to order a glass of wine, which we never do. Jonathan got red; I got white. We took the Sommelier's advice who had come to the table to walk us through the options based on our meal selections, although we didn't take his most expensive recommendation.

For appetizers we started with Popadam flat breads, we had the deep fried and pan fried options with 3 sauces: a chutney, a mint one and something more like a chutney. Then we tried a fried corn cake dish. We even eat all the beetroot salad that came with it.  

For the main course we had Lamb Rogan Josh with white rice - the cinnamon really popped out in this dish. We considered ordering a few main dishes to share, but we both wanted this dish all to ourselves. It didn't disappoint. Actually the food tasted completely amazing.

I loved that patio at the Raffles Hotel. It was a bit of a contrast to the tiny one at our condo that I usually drank my morning Kopi on.

After our swim the Butler brought our Welcome drinks. Singapore Slings for the Jonathan and I. The others got Mango juice, except for MsE who requested Orange Juice. We all made ourselves right at home and had our afternoon snack on the patio.

The patio over looked an interior courtyard of the hotel. It was a very peaceful afternoon. MsE didn't finish juice. We put it a bit too close to the freezer in the bar fridge. She ended up with a slushie the next day which she was thrilled to drink on the patio the next day.

In contrast, the next day we watched Singapore Air Force's doing fly bys. Their fighter jets were out doing close maneuvers to practice for the aerial part of the upcoming Singapore Independence Day celebrations. The jets were swerving around so close to the buildings just past us. I can't remember if it was 5 or 7 jets. MsI was shouting "Too Loud!! Too Loud!!" and covering her ears, but I loved it.

We did Lunch out there on day. I brought back Subway and Pho Take-Away after packing the rest of the luggage.  

My favorite time was probably the evening. It's cooler, plus you could see all the city lights. I ate dinner out there with the kids.

We were each allowed two checked-in luggage and one carry-on each on the planes. I had a lot of packing and sorting to do.

We decided we would maximize our allowance. That meant 10 full sized pieces of checked luggage and 5 carry-ons. We had 1 suitcase, 1 duffel bag and 3 kids carry-ons and 2 backpacks in the house. We ordered 5 suitcases at $60 each online, which arrived a few days later. I didn't really think we were actually going to need 10. At that point, we had 7. I thought that would be fine.

When the existing bags were getting full, we picked up 2 more of the same suitcases at the Harbourfront Mall next door and walked home carrying them. No we had 9 suitcases - Plenty, right?

Potentially 15 pieces of luggage sounded like a bit of a nightmare with 4 locations to take them too. How do you even fit those in a car? Your options are basically 2 vans or limo service.

I decided to pack by location. The carry-ons would stay with us everywhere, with our activities, books, most important things, but the rest would be segregated. I did 2 luggage for "Singapore," which held 3 days, plus a spare of nice hot weather clothes, our swimwear and towels, our airport clothes, the kids little pillows and blankies, and MsC's roller blades and helmet, because she was still scheduled "skating" lessons. Then there was 1 suitcase for the "Quarantine Hotel" which held activities, more books, our Canada clothes, etc.

One of the Singapore bags, got a new label of "Quarantine Hotel" when we left the Raffles Hotel, because it had toys, bathroom stuff, little pillows and blankies in it.  Now we had 1 luggage that said "Singapore" and 2 luggage for the "Quarantine Hotel" in Vancouver.

The remaining 7 bags were labelled "Canada Home / Harbour Air." We were hoping Harbour Air would store the extra 7 bags for the 4 days before we took our Harbour Air flight to the island. In the end we just took them with us to the Hotel, it seemed too complicated to figure out getting them to Harbour Air at the time. I just shoved them in the closet and didn't open them, so it was well worth the sorting.

Jonathan bought a handheld luggage scale and I weighed every suitcase and shifted things around until they were just under the maximum weight of 23 Kg. I usually had to weigh them 3 times till I got them at weight. We still ended up with 3 bags that were overweight no matter how many times I tried to resort them.

The night we went to the hotel, I looked around the "packing room" and realized that we were not going to fit what remained in the 1 suitcase and 1 duffle bag remaining , even if I gave away a lot more clothes. I had to choose between loosing our pool reservation at the Raffles Hotel or going out to buy another suitcase to finish packing.

I chose to go to Raffles and left my packing problem for the next morning. The biggest problem was I needed the condo entirely empty for our Cleaning Crew who were coming the next morning at 9:30 am. The mall wouldn't be open yet to buy more luggage before the Cleaners arrived. I thought maybe I could run out after our carefully scheduled afternoon pool time and Covid tests, but before Jonathan and I went our for our anniversary dinner.

I ran out of time, and so I dumped out one of the suitcases that with us at the Hotel and took it back to the house empty with me the next morning.

I woke up really early and couldn't get back to sleep thinking about all the work that needed to be done before the cleaners arrived. At 4:30 am I got up, snuck our of our hotel room with the empty suitcase, and called a Grab. I got to the condo at 5:00 am. It's a good thing I did, because there was more to do than I had realized. That photo at the top is just what my packing room looked like when I arrived.

I needed to:

• Separate all desk from the bookshelf so that I could be picked up by a buyer at 9 am.
• Take the Give Away items to the basement. This ended up being 3 trips, because the pile got bigger.
• I discovered that the 2 bathrooms hadn't been packed, so I had to sort through them into take, garbage, and give away.
• Throw out the Garbage.
• I needed to pack the 3 suitcases and I was pretty sure it still wasn't going to fit. It didn't! When I thought I'd done it, I realized that I had missed MsE's clothes - She almost went to Canada with barely any clothes. Instead I had to re-sort some suitcases and give away other clothes to fit most of MsE's clothes in.

I gave away bags and bags of clothes, unopened bathroom supplies and my hair flat-iron, carry-on sized luggage that we couldn't use, and so many clothes hangers. I even sorted though MsC's home school work for the year to remove duplicates and only keep essentials. I had the kids year's schoolwork examples in our Airplane bags, because I still need to write report cards for this last term.

I had everything done with about 20 minutes to spare. After the condo was packed, the Bookshelf/Desk handed off, and the Cleaners had been let in, I popped into our friends house to give them some tools, which had not fit in the luggage, and drank a much needed cup of tea. It was now 11:30 am, so I went to the now open Mall and bought the last suitcase so I could re-pack the items on the floor of the Raffles Hotel.

Final total of all that luggage (carry-on and checked): 615 lbs.

Reservations are required to use any of the amenities at hotels in Singapore due to Covid restrictions. We just wanted to use the pool.

I booked our pool times in advance online right after our hotel reservation was made. I was momentarily concerned, because the reservation system said you could only make 1 reservation and your group could be a maximum of 5 people (5 being the max group size in Singapore at the time). We were a party of 6, but all from one household which means we are allowed out together but we're supposed to stick to smaller groups. I decided to just do 2 reservations to fit us all in at the same time.  It worked and I just added a note. The hotel called us to assure us that our double reservations for 6 people were fine.

Reservation times were quite sparse. I did get one 90 minute reservation booked for each. On our arrival day, I was able to get 3 pm, which I thought would give us lots of time after check in. We were cutting it close though and only had 45 minutes in the pool. It was enough though.

We did our digital check in for Covid tracing, walked past the bar where they confirmed our reservation with our last name, and assigned us seating. Our comfy lounge chairs were stocked with fluffy towels and each spot had a sun umbrella.

As we put on our sunscreen, the waiter appeared with complementary bottles of cold water which he placed on our side tables.

MsE jumped in the water and said "Yuck!" It was a salt water pool. It took the kids a bit of getting used to, but the rest of us loved it. The water was so soft and we felt extra buoyant.

We were the only kids in the pool. It was all adults lounging by the pool, reading books, drinking, and snacking. One woman drinking a pot of tea in the afternoon heat. I saw the waiter walk out with a bottle of champagne on ice for one couple. Thursday was pretty quiet at the pool, but Friday all lounge chairs were full. On the Friday we even saw one other child in the pool.

MsI was feeling tired and asked to go back to our room, so I asked our Helper to take the kids back to the room a few minutes early. Jonathan and I got a few minutes in the pool by ourselves. When we got back to the room, our Helper had gotten all the kids dressed and laid out the bathing suits on the patio to dry. I'm really going to miss that kind of help when we're in Canada.  

On our second day, we had a 1:30 pm reservation, which is a super hot time to be in the pool, but we had fun in the midday sun.  It was a good time to be in the pool. Out of the pool, we got hot pretty fast and jumped back in the pool to cool off.

Jonathan did his last day of work from the one of the bedrooms in our suite, but when the courier showed up early to pick up his work laptop, he got to join us in the pool - a pretty nice way to celebrate the end of work.  

The white columned area in the photo above was the poolside bar. A number of people dressed very nicely were sitting up there at the shady tables under the fans, others were up there in bathing suits taking the the pool view and ordering a drink.

Jonathan and I noticed that everyone in the pool area was Caucasian. That's a really odd scenario in Singapore. We're used to being the only pale faces in any crowd, especially with no tourists currently being allowed entry to Singapore because of Covid.

For our check out day only 8:30 am was available at the pool.  I thought I might find time to drink a cup of tea beside the pool, but Jonathan and I opted for a quiet complementary breakfast in the Tiffin Room while our Helper watched the sleeping children instead.

We decided to splurge on the Raffles Hotel before leaving Singapore and were in the lap of luxury for 2 nights.

2 days before we were scheduled to transfer to a hotel in Singapore, we still hadn't booked a hotel room. I really wanted a "holiday" hotel for our last days in Singapore. Jonathan was okay with just a "budget" hotel room.

At the last minute our Helper's (maid's) transfer couldn't get sorted and so we got to bring her with us to the hotel. This meant we absolutely needed 2 hotel rooms or a suite.

We' figured we'd probably never get the chance to do it again and Covid did save us our whole "travel budget." We'd originally planned to visit 5 countries in 2020, but that obviously never happened.

Originally built as a private home in 1930, later it was used as a boarding house, but by 1887 it converted into the Raffles Hotel, catering to high-end clientele. We were in awe of our surroundings and the extreme level of service the whole time we were there.

When the hotel found out these were our last nights in Singapore, they upgraded us to one of the four "Grand Hotel Suites." We had the Cathay Suite.  

Our suite was 2 King bedrooms with a "Parlour" between. Jonathan and I got one side. MsI and MsE the other. MsC and our Helper slept in the Parlour. We had 3 doors, which made answering the door or billing dinner to the room a little more complicated.

We had 3 bathrooms and a kitchenette. One side of the kitchenette had the fridge and sink; the other side had the microwave/convection oven.  Each bedroom had a separate enclosed dressing room, before the very large bathroom. Yes, the girls did use that deep bathtub.  

We had needed to take 2 Grabs to get to the hotel and that was with pared down luggage: just our carry-on bags and 2 suitcases with our Singapore necessities. Our luggage arrived via Bell Services quickly, whom told us that our Butler would arrive shortly to show us the suite's features.

Each of our 3 rooms had fruit plates when we arrived. China plates, linen napkins and silverware where set out for our snack. The parlour also had cookies and chocolates which MsE and Mommy split.

We thought the rooms were opulent, but I was totally in awe of the patio. I ran the length of the 3 rooms, with 4 distinct seating areas, and overlooked one of the interior courtyards. I could have spent my whole stay our there; I love those white arches. The deep veranda stayed reasonably cool too.

The Butler asked if we would like our Welcome drinks now, but I asked if we could have them later as we were late for our "Pool Reservation." She told us just to dial 2 when we were ready.

After our shipping container left, it was time to start clearing out our house. Everything left in the house that wouldn't fit into a suitcase, had to go.  

We have a condo community facebook group page. That's where I started listing things for sale. Cheap small things moved really fast on there. I sold the Art Cart including the art supplies for $40. It sold within 10 minutes and there was a queue for it. Shelving or storage of any sort was very popular.

I also posted kids things for sale in our neighbourhood mom's group Facebook group too. I felt bad for taking over the Facebook group. I posted additional items ever few days. There were at least 3 of us expat families, emptying our houses via the condo Facebook group, over the same few weeks.

I wanted to limit our exposure to Covid, so I only had people come to the house to buy items or to pick up large donations. Helpers (the maids) were quick to rush to the house to pick up bags of free clothes, which are easy for them to ship overseas to their families, particularly in the Philippines. It's like a serious race for them. I also moved everything I could to our lobby which is separated from the house by a solid door

I gave our own Helper all our linens and the kitchen stuff like the dishes, pots and pans, baking gear, cutlery, dry foods. She said she will send some to her family and keep some for herself for when she finishes building her house. She also took some of the kids clothes and shoes to ship to her nieces.

Over a number of weeks, I left free items at our bulk garbage area under our condo block. I posted the picture of the free stuff on the condo page and the items were picked over fast.

As I became more desperate, I learned more way to move things along including how to use Carousell. I listed about 12 items on that website and got lots of messages, but only sold the Massage Chair, Multi-Function Printer/Scanner, 50 gallon Fish Tank, King Size Bed Fram, and the Helper (Maid's) Bed on there.

I also tried listing some of our things on Facebook Marketplace.

I also got a contact for donating the last of our furniture through someone on Carousell, but even though I had told them the exact date and how much stuff it looked like we would have, that pick up fell through a few days before, when I reached out to reconfirm the pick up.

I listed our only 2-year old, formerly $2000 Ikea couch for $700, reducing it every few weeks. In the end I found out about some donation pages on Facebook and gave the couch away for free on "Blessing Items for Low Income Families". It was picked up just 2 hours after I posted it and with one night to spare in our deadline.

The new tenant for our condo contacted me directly and bought our King size mattress and shoe bench off us.

Here's a list of what I sold over 5 weeks:

• 32 inch TV $75
• 8-cube shelf (3 of them) and a 4 cube shelf $200
• 6-cube shelf, 2-cube shelf, and 8-cube shelf (2 of them) $140
• Toy bin storage cabinet (1st) $60
• Toy bin storage cabinet (2nd) $50
• 2 nightstands $40
• King size mattress: $100
• Shoe Bench $25
• King size bed frame $50
• Printer/Scanner $100
• 8 matching picture frames (sold as a group) $20
• 6 matching picture frames (sold as a group) $15
• Loft bed with built in desk, shelving and wardrobe $200
• Bunk bed (#1), 2 mattresses, jungle bed canopy and carpet $150
• Bunk bed (#2) and one slightly stained mattress $25
• Desk and chair $20
• DIY Massage Chair (back and foot as separate pieces) $250
• Helper Bed and mattress $50
• Travel Vest (they're used as carseats for age 3 and up) $50
• Swim Tunnel Toys $40
• Art Cart, including supplies $50
• Under bed storage bins (2) with lids $25
• Under bed storage bins (and the other 2) with lids $25
• 50 gallon fish tank and accessories $150
• 2 Ikea bookshelves $30
• 2 outdoor folding chairs and a small tray table $10
• 16 cube bookshelf and optional desk $50

Grand Total: $2000 or basically the "new" price of the couch I gave away. Everything was 6 months to 2 years old and almost all of it in Like-New condition. We did know this was going to happen though, that's why we'd mostly stuck to Ikea furniture purchases - although we really thought we were there for one to two more years until not long ago.

Most people paid by PayNow which is an app, for bank transfers via your phone number. That was super handy. People are so trusting in Singapore; many paid before they even had our address. A few people paid cash - one even had the nerve to ask me for the $5 change when I gave them our bunk bed for $25.

Our table and 6 chairs I gave to one of the movers who loaded our shipping container.

I donated the double stroller through a church group, and paid the $15 delivery free to have it delivered to a mom in need.

The morning of our inspection and key hand off I met with 2 guys to give them out super heavy 16 cube shelving with optional desk. They paid $50, but really they saved me having to pay for disposal. It was only after they left that I considered that maybe I shouldn't have met two men alone in my apartment early in the morning - although we do have condo security that I could have paged if I'd felt uncomfortable. For all the other hand-off there had been all 6 of us at home.

The only thing I absolutely could not get rid of was the Glider Recliner. Everyone who considered it, which were not many, it said it was too big for their home. It was! We should never have brought it to Singapore - just like Jonathan said from the beginning. In the end we paid the Gardener $30 to help Jonathan carry it out to the condo's back Garbage area.

The other glitch I ran into is I kept selling beds too soon. I needed to keep the beds until the morning we went to the hotel. People kept asking for them sooner and couldn't understand our scenario - that we were leaving the country; we weren't replacing these beds with new ones.

I got the most money for MsC's bed so when they insisted on movers picking it up one night too early, I said O.K. and MsC agreed to sleep on the couch for one night. We decided to take it apart a day early, so MsC got to sleep on her mattress on the floor for one night; the next night she was supposed to sleep on the couch.

But then I had a horrible time getting rid of the couch. When someone offered to take the couch with only a few hours notice the night before our move to the hotel, I was so excited to have solved the couch problem, I enthusiastically said yes. Jonathan and I were out buying more suitcases when the couch movers arrived and "stole" MsC's bed for the night. We arrived back a few minutes later to everyone looking distressed and sitting on the floor wondering where MsC was going to sleep.

We ended up taking the last bunk bed apart, putting 2 single mattresses in MsC's room - Jonathan and MsC slept there for the last night. The Littles and Mommy slept in the King size bed together. The next morning was a steady stream of families and movers picking up beds, and the last few pieces of furniture.

I refused to give up the chairs and table I used for my morning coffee on the patio until our last morning. Someone came running over when I listed the set for $10.

Actually there was a lot of confusion with so many people coming to pick up things on the same day. Mostly it was movers who didn't really know what they were there to pick up - they would say they were there for a bed and we would be like, "Which one??" In the middle of the furniture confusion, the cleaners showed up to pick up our curtains for cleaning and due to the language barrier, I took me a while to figure out what they were there to do with a ladder. It was also interesting trying to keep track of whether people had paid in advance or not. I had a list on the door, that I kept referring to (item, name, cost, paid/not, pick up time).

By the time pick-ups were over that morning, we only had the glider recliner and the black 16 cube shelving with attached desk left to get rid of.

But I still had to finish packing suitcases.  

Our shipping container arrived on July 6. We had 2 hours to load it.

Luckily Covid restrictions had lifted a bit and the drivers were now allowed to load the container for us. We asked them what we could do to help and they said nothing. The kids were out with our Helper playing, so we did some packing for the airplane.  

We used Seven Seas Shipping and it was way cheaper than a lot of places. They do these small containers that get packed into the large shipping container with other bins to save on costs. We got their largest container and we need to pick it up at the Vancouver Port ourselves.

The movers fit so much more in the container than we could have ourselves. They came and asked me at the end if there was anything else I wanted to go, because they still had room. We cramed the fake Christmas tree and all 3 of the kids scooters in at the last second.

Looks pretty full to me.

What was in the shipping container?

Mostly books, with some personal memorabilia, photo albums, kids toys, a safe, my new tea chest cabinet, the 2 rugs, the guitar, and my china. I'm pretty sure there's tea and coffee in there. I believe there were 47 boxes in total.

Shipping is expected to take 60 to 80 days, so Crate we shall see you in September.

The Covid tests went good and bad.

Singapore does the invasive ones that through your nose to the back of your throat. It sounds worse than it is. That one left me with a weird scratchy feeling at the top of my throat for about 24 hours. If your doing that one bring a water bottle or a hard candy to suck on after the test.

MsI didn't have to get a test to enter Canada because she was under 5. To enter Singapore, it's under 7. The rest of us needed a test.

Jonathan and I had no problem doing it. You just tip your head all the way back leaning your head against the wall and are told to breathe through your mouth as they do the test. That's actually the weirdest part - it feels unnatural to breathe through your mouth with you head tipped so far back. MsC was a pro, and looked like she'd done this test before. She said she just really wanted "to see Granny".

MsE was thoroughly creeped out. She could hardly watch. It took her at least 5 minutes to get to the chair when it was her turn. When she finally did get there, the doctor just touched her first nostril and she was out of that chair like a shot.

After that, I ended up having to lie down on the examination table and hold her head and arms while the nurse held her legs, but at least it was over fast. MsE said, "I'm never doing that again." But at least the doctor knew what she was doing (Doctor's Anywhere, Anson Clinic.

Sorry, MsE just 2 more Covid tests to go.

Less than 18 hours later we had our negative results by email. They had been promised within 24 hours, but we'd been told to give ourselves 30 hours just to be on the safe side. I verified everyone's details on their negative certificates only to discover that MsE's birthday was entered wrong on her certificate.

The email said to call the clinic where the tests had been administered if there were any errors, so I called only to discover that the clinic was closed Saturdays and Sundays. It was Saturday morning and we were flying out Sunday. I was momentarily distressed over the idea of having MsE potentially re-do her Covid test at a new clinic. There would have probably been enough time to get the results in although it would have been very tight. Luckily, we had used a "Doctor's Anywhere" Clinic, and I was able to find a 24 hour phone number for them.

Just a quick phone call and few minutes later, I had an updated certificate for MsE in my email.

When we checked in at the airport, the desk pointed out that MsE's certificate was wrong. Oops, sorry, we must have given you the one with the wrong birthday...just a second while we find it.

But no, actually it was her passport that was wrong. I had been so worried about getting her birthday corrected, that I had forgotten to verify her passport number.

At least I already had the 24 hour number in my phone, because 3:30 am at the airport check in counter is a lousy time to try to find anything. The clinic was able to quickly update MsE's certificate again. I asked the clinic to stay on the line with us until the airline was able to check that the certificate was entirely correct. Then we were finally able to check in our luggage and proceed with our travels.

When we reached Canada, we were surprised to find that they're doing a different Covid test. They just rub the inside of you cheek with a swab and then the very front part of each nostril. The swab only goes in about 1 cm. We pre-booked our test for arrival, which is in theory faster, but we still had to wait in line.

I think the pre-booking just registered our passport information, but we still had to verify it while standing too close to the family at the next desk beside us. The test happens after you've cleared customs, and picked up your luggage. You can't get lost, it just snakes you along through the airport. After verifying our info at the desk, we were sent along with our luggage carts to have our samples taken. One last line and they sent MsC and Jonathan with their too luggage carts down to the other end to get their tests together. I ended up at seat one with MsI, MsE, a stroller and a luggage cart. As soon as Jonathan was gone I knew I was going to have a problem.

Number one, how was I supposed to watch MsI while MsE and me got our tests? I just had to hope she stood there. She sort of did. It was MsE who ran off. The nurse kept trying to get MsE to watch me get my test to show her it was no big deal, and so she probably did my test 3 times, how long it took didn't reasure MsE at all.

Actually, I'm pretty sure everything the nurse did made things worse. After chasing MsE down a few times and hoping that MsI was somewhere around me, I had MsE in the chair on my lap, but she wouldn't open her mouth. The nurse kept asking her nicely and we kept trying to explain that it wasn't like the test in Singapore. We'd already been here at least 5 minutes, still no sign of Jonathan.

I told the nurse I was going to have to hold MsE, and she was going to have to just do the test. That's when I realized they had no plan for kids who refused the test in the Airport. Nothing! No plan. This nurse had no idea what to do.

There was no where to even lie MsE down. I considered putting her on the filthy floor, but I didn't think this nurse was going to know what to do if I did and I didn't want to lie on the floor myself. The booths are open, so we were already being started at by all the people in line and each person who had to walk down to their spot. By now MsE was screaming ,as I was holding her tightly on my lap to keep her from running away, and the nurse looked shocked and slightly terrified.

Then I realized that we couldn't even start until I got MsE's mouth open. I have no idea why she didn't bite my fingers, but I am certain my other 2 kids would have bit me if I had put 2 fingers in their mouth in the same situation. At this point another 2 nurses came around the corner and held MsE's arms and legs down - MsE was still on my lap. The Nurse finally swabs her mouth and then says, "There you go not so bad," MsE replies, "Are we done?" No sorry, just 2 nasal swab to go. Even the other nurse looked at the person administering the test and said, "That is not how you do this!," angrily. Anyhow, way too much incompetence, but then we got to leave the airport.

Day 8, we get to give MsE the same test in quarantine. It has to happen, otherwise MsE gets 14 days more quarantine added on to her quarantine.

It's taken 4 adults to give MsE each of these tests, but we're supposed to do it with only 2 of us. MsC offered to help, but I'm certain that's not a good idea. We're hoping that without the added pressure of the medical personnel and less time pressure, maybe MsE will do the test to herself, because 22 days of quarantine would really be a long time.