“It Comes in Three’s……..”
It comes in three’s is something my mother always says and she was right.
Over the course of 18 months, Three. BIG. Things. Happened.
We, as a family unit were going along very happily, or so we thought. We were living the dream. We had moved to Singapore late December 2009 from Melbourne. I can tell you living in Australia and living in Singapore could not be more different experiences. My friend John has always said he has never seen anyone adapt to living in a different country so swiftly and happily. It was true, I absolutely LOVED Singapore, and still do.
There’s a line from a Tom Petty song, Wildflowers, it says,
“You belong somewhere you feel free”
and Singapore offered that freedom.
In short, I was married in 1995, welcomed our first child Jemima in October 1996, moved to Sydney from Adelaide in December 1997, had our second child Jacob in April of 1998, was diagnosed with PND in 1999, moved from Sydney to Melbourne in July 2000, welcomed Remy in December 2001, welcomed Orlando in 2004, renovated in 2008, moved to Singapore in December of 2009. In between all that suffered three miscarriages.
We have been busy.
As any working mother knows, it’s hard to keep things afloat. Working, cooking, cleaning, looking after kids, sport, Dr’s, social engagements the list goes on and on. My husband was keen to give living in Asia a go. Being the intrepid traveller I am I said sure, but the move had to happen swiftly. Jemima would be going into year 8 and I didn’t want to move her after that. So again, things happened swiftly and before long we were living on the Little Red Dot. The tropical, stormy, humid island that is Singapore.
As I said, I couldn’t love it more.
I love change and in fact thrive on it. I get a bit restless if things stay the same for too long. I think that’s one of the reasons Singapore suits me. My friendship group, amongst other things changes every 6 months. Far from being a hardship, I think it works in my favour. I have met some of the most interesting people and forged some of the strongest friendships, ones that will be with me for life.
I love people.
I love meeting new people.
They bring such joy in to my being. I love hearing their stories and expats seem to have this same thirst, so most people you meet are here because they too are adventurous and courageous and open to meeting new and interesting people and having new and interesting experiences. The locals too are interesting, quite quirky and just having the opportunity to explore a different culture is exciting and awesome fun!
….and the travel! Oh the travel. Where hadn’t we been?
Over the 7 years we have been to Cambodia, Vietnam, Beijing, Hong Kong, Burma, India, The Maldives, Spain, France, Italy, The UK, Sri Lanka amongst other places. We have travelled, explored and had the time of our lives and all with four children in tow. I felt like the luckiest girl alive. Not to mention the fact I now had a live-in helper who would take care of all the cooking, cleaning and ironing!!! It was a complete dream come true.
So when did it all go so drastically wrong?
I say that because at the time, that is how I viewed it.
- November 2012 – Our daughter Jemima would be diagnosed with severe depression.
- May 2013 – Enter ‘X’. Stage right!
- January 2014 – My husband would lose his job he had worked at for 20 years.