January

Hello Internet friends,

What a terrible start to a new year. Singapore leaders were slow to react to the Wuhan coronavirus threat and it was only on 1st Feb (yesterday!) that our borders were closed to travellers (regardless of nationality) who have travelled to China in the past 14 days. Currently we have 18 people infected with the Wuhan coronavirus. 16 were travellers from Wuhan and 2 were Singaporeans who were evacuated from Wuhan. You know what that means? No community spread in Singapore. Hopefully, that doesn't change. Also, most importantly, none of the infected has died in Singapore. <touch wood>

The Wuhan coronavirus couldn't have come at a worse time. We had our Chinese New Year celebrations from 24th January to 26th January. The first infected case was announced on January 23rd. By January 25th, 4 cases were confirmed. And you know what we did? We carried on with our tradition of visiting relatives and all that. And do you know how Singaporean Chinese greet each other during Chinese New Year? With a handshake. Yes, we all went around shaking each other's hands like nobody's business. Why couldn't we have been a people who bow or nod or wave or even curtsy? I'm pretty okay with curtsy. If the Wuhan coronavirus had been in the community, can you imagine how swiftly it will spread?

Today I went to collect the 4 free masks the government has given us. The government is pushing for healthy people not to wear masks and only those who are sick should wear them. I think that's sensible as you can't possibly have enough masks to wear everyday. My kids and I carry a mask in our bags for emergency use. My son asked for a hand sanitizer so hubs and I went out for 2 days to search for one but of course we were too late. Everywhere we went, surgical masks and hand sanitizers are sold out. So I gave my son an alcohol based wet wipe instead. My daughter for whatever reasons has a hand sanitizer. Honestly, this is an item I would never think of buying before Wuhan coronavirus arrived. I usually wash my hands with soap and water.

Everywhere in Singapore, people carry on with life. Schools remain open, businesses have not shut and apart from more (healthy) people wearing masks and fewer people in shopping malls and food courts, it's pretty much like paradise. For me, I'm determined not to panic and give in to paranoia. I have faith in the government and you know we went through SARS before so I believe we will survive. We just don't know how long it'll take. The one thing I've changed though is I try to ride the escalator without touching the handrail. Ha ha, not sure if it even helps but I think I'm more likely to break my leg!

Despite all these, I've been rather productive in January. I've just not sat down to blog about my finished items because it feels rather strange to write about these ordinary things when each day the death tally from the Wuhan coronavirus in China increases.

Here's a quick look at what I've worked on:

I'm so proud of this polka dot skirt I made. It fitted me perfectly. I wore it on the first day of Chinese New Year. Don't worry, I did not wear the pink slippers out. One day I'll write a post about the making of the skirt, mostly so I'll remember the little details if I should make another one. I also made another Cleo skirt. No photo yet. Yup, it seems I can't stop making Cleo Skirts.

I completed another lace scarf. I have mixed feelings about it. Maybe I'll get my girl to model it one day.

I was going to rip out this sweater I had started but I ended up continuing. I've completed the back and am nearly done with the front.

I wanted to abandon this lace scarf but couldn't bear to rip it out. So I continued knitting. I have trouble discarding months of knitting.

Lastly, I started on this Begin Shawl from the Easy Lace Knits book by Anniken Allis. It's not as easy as it looks and I'm struggling a bit. Hope I don't give up!

See ya.