Social Distancing

I don't think everyone had gotten the message about social distancing in Singapore based on the amount of people in the pool we could see from our condo the first night, but we're doing it.

We're taking the new Social Distancing directive seriously in our house.

Singapore's added a $10,000 fine you can be slapped with if you don't abide by the 3 ft spacing requirement in public spaces like queues. No more than 10 people can gather in groups, but schools and workplaces are to remain open. Places where people linger close together like bars and cinemas have been closed, but places where social spacing can occur through crowd control can remain open - theme parks, public parks, stores, restaurants, and museums. So Singapore's measures are more than they were, but still could get much tighter if they need to.

I think Singapore will have the virus well under control again. But, in the mean time many of our friends' household have had international travel recently. We are more kids outside during the day in our complex than before. This is because one school was closed due to a parent testing positive to COVID19; others are home on stay at home notices, or say they are now homeschooling - MsC likes to hear that last part.

Our outside spaces aren't feeling as quiet and sheltered as they once did.

I explained social distancing to the kids. 3 feet is required here, so we've told them if they could touch hands with anyone's outstretched arm, then they are too close. MsC practiced saying,

"We're Social Distancing. Let's stand arms length apart."

They're already well versed in COVID 19. Unfortunately, MsC has quite a bit of anxiety about the virus, because kids have passed quite a bit of misinformation around the playground over the last couple months. It's hard to convince my 7 year old that I'm have more accurate info than her friends.

Jonathan was already working from home and the kids don't go out to school, so going out really is mostly for fun for us. We were already getting most of our groceries from online orders with a weekly trip to the store to get the things unavailable online.

Over the last week ordering through Amazon Prime has been very spotty. Amazon only gives delivery slots for the current and next day, and those have been full unless I remember to book first thing in the morning. When my order arrives about 25% doesn't arrive due to unavailability. That means from the time I select it to the time I finalize the order those items sold out. There's no notice to tell me what's missing either so it means that I start making dinner only to realize I never received carrots or chicken. I haven't been able to get rice or toilet paper on Amazon Prime in at least a few weeks. The grocery store is well stocked though, with giant central display tables of toilet paper.

I still need to get us outside, but we're used to playing on the complex' playgrounds and our kids seem to know everyone they pass. We decided to try the pool at 10 am - a time where there's seldom anyone in the pool on a weekday.

We were the only ones in the pool. We washed our hands well when we returned home because of lawn chairs, hand rails and the lift, but the actual pool has little risk of passing anything to us. A friend went by on her scooter and the kids jumped out to chat. I reminded them about 5 times to keep arms distance away until the jumped back in the pool.