Our Time to Leave
I was looking at my MBS reward points card yesterday while sipping my last tea of this season at TWG, and I realised how young I looked/was when we moved to Singapore in 2014 – and how eight years have gone by in the blink of an eye … except maybe the last two years, which seemed to last an eternity!
We came to Singapore when Lee Kuan Yew was still alive; he was our neighbour for a brief period at Oxley Road. We then moved to Tanjong Pagar, where we watched everyone come out and pay respects to him when he passed. The now NTUC FairPrice at VivoCity was a Giant supermarket where, almost like Mustafa, you could get everything you needed. At 100AM mall there was a Cedele – I was so upset the day it closed down! Across the street, at ICON, there was a Sakae Sushi, which also died. But what remains standing is our all-time favourite coffee and baristas at Nylon, hidden somewhere it took us a while to find.
Like everything in life, though, it all comes to an end at some point. And after seeing most of our friends moving back to Europe and avid for new adventures, we have decided the time has come for us to bid farewell to the little red dot too.
The most stressful part has been selling and giving up stuff, and then packing our most precious possessions into a box. We travel light and we only take what’s absolutely necessary; even if we wanted to take more, it wouldn’t have been possible, as the major moving companies I contacted said they were fully booked for months ahead.
And then it’s on to the bucket list of things we want to do before we leave – those things you always think you will have time to do at some point and then never end up doing. (I’m looking at you, Night Safari!) And all the things that are now too late to do, like learning how to play Mah Jong; next time around maybe?
I am grateful for the opportunity we had to live here, to experience Chinese New Year, National Day and all the trips one could do before the pandemic – back when booking same-day flights to Bali was easily done and affordable. I will definitely miss the greenery and the efficient public transport system – I cannot say the same about the humidity, the haze and the crazy rent increases!
I’m sure we will return on stopovers every now and then and enjoy a few days walking around our favourite spots and catching up with the friends that are still here. But, for now, a new life with four seasons and new adventures awaits us!
Adios, Singapore. May you continue to be a wonderful base in Southeast Asia for our fellow expats as you were for us.