Sick in Paradise and how it impacted our Move

We finalized the house rental around the end of June and then us girls all got a horrible flu. Jonathan went to work, so it skipped him, and I tried to keep the girls out of our bedroom because 2 sick parents is not fun. The girls vomited, and we all had horribly high fevers. We were bringing food back from the breakfast buffet, so that we wouldn’t pass the flu along to everyone in the hotel. Mostly I needed the take-away coffee, and the kids were mostly eating fruit and toast.

Jon finally took my temperature after a few days and I had a fever of 104. I didn’t see the girls go quite that high. The chills had me thinking I was freezing to death. Us girls spent days on the couch wrapped in duvets and blankies, and wearing sweatshirts with our thick Canada socks on - all while it was about 35 C outside. We had aircon on, but I kept turning it down. Jonathan turned it back up every time he came in the door.

Jonathan asked around work whether this was a normal illness. It sounded like what was making the rounds. Right when I was trying to figure out about doctors, the fevers broke and we got better fast. Being sick delayed our furniture shopping though. This was a problem, because our temporary housing was up and we didn’t have beds for the new place.

The day before we moved in, Jonathan went to IKEA after work and bought us mattresses and sheets. He stuffed them into a GoGo Van, and set them up at the new place. Thankfully no one seemed to be sick on moving day. The mattresses and our suitcases were all we had the day we moved in. Our air shipment arrived with our bedding, kitchen stuff and books a day or 2 later. Our bed frames from IKEA appeared a few days after that.

Moving in with only beds, we spent a lot of time outside, or sitting on a blanket in the living room. We read books on Mom and Dad's bed. Eventually we settled on what size couch to buy and figured out how to actually order the table even though the chairs seemed to be out of stock. We've got those now, and our sea shipment has just arrived.

We did find some lovely places to eat around the complex though. I'm almost sad we have a table in the house now. My granny passed along her wooden tray to me. In Canada it was mostly for display and sometimes tea time on the deck, but it has been a lifesaver in Singapore. It is so sturdy I can carry dinner for 5, plus plates and cutlery on it down the lift to the covered barbecue pavilions - good rain or shine.