View from balconies

My apartment comes with two balconies. A bigger balcony at the main living area, and another smaller one attached to the master bedroom.

The bigger balcony

View of the balcony @ living room, from the small balcony @ master bedroom

Small balcony @ master bedroom

Both balconies have unblocked view of Geylang River Park Connector.

The view from the balconies can be quite charming and rejuvenating at times.

Greenery abound

People exercising along the park connector

Trees and shrubs @ ground level

Flower @ ground floor

Spotted Dove resting on the railing of balcony

Tale of two balconies (upstair/downstair)

Distant trees when it rains

Distant building

Distant building near Marina Bay area

Soothing view when it rains

                                                  Trees directly in front of the large balcony

Plants courtesy of my wife

Beautiful sunset

Tree right outside the main balcony

Sunset

As you can see, the view from the balconies is pleasing to the eye, and soothing to the mind. The only minus point is that there can be quite a lot of mosquitoes flying around during rainy season. Fortunately, this can only be a hindrance at night (hence, does not interfere with lazing around in the balcony in the afternoon).

Tested positive for COVID

Started experiencing some throat discomfort 4 days ago, after returning from work. Then feeling some body discomfort a few hours later. With COVID being "endemic" in recent months (particularly with the highly contagious Omicron strain being the dominant strain), I subject myself to ART (antigen rapid test) test at home -> it returned negative. 

Even with negative ART result, I decided to inform my colleagues that I would be taking 3 days medical leave, just in case it was COVID in evolution. 

And true enough, I started to develop some cough, and felt tired the next day. Self administered ART test showed faint positive line as shown below (indicative of COVID infection).

I went to a community quick test centre located at Old Airport Rd Hawker Centre to have an official documentation - but it turned out to be Negative!

The next day, I felt even more fatigued and exhausted, with blocked nose and cough. Went for another round of ART test at a medical clinic @ Geylang Bahru (another branch for community quick test centre) - and this time, it returned as POSITIVE.

Fortunately, apart from being tired (slept throughout the day when finally tested positive officially), and some throat discomfort and blocked nose/cough, the infection has been rather mild so far. 

Hopefully, can exit self isolation at home after 3 days!

Being COVID positive seems to be the "in" thing of the days - many people (celebrity and laymen included) have flashed photo of positive ART test results in their various social-media channel, declaring that they have "arrived".

Hopefully, the current infection remains mild for vaccinated individuals!

caught in the rain ... again

Went for routine evening walking exercises. This has been my routine over the past year. Despite this, my abdominal girth keeps on expanding over the past few months, especially after Lunar New Year in early Feb. 

The sky was overcast. I didn't think that it would rain. But after walking for about 1km, it started to rain heavily. Managed to take cover at a "bus stop"-like shelter along the exercise path; there were three other persons there at that time. 

Brave soul jogging in the rain!

Waited for over half hour... there was no sign that the rain would stop anytime. Eventually, I had to brave the rain (when it was less heavy) and walk home. Totally drenched when I reached home, as expected. 

Addendum:

This is the shelter that I took refuge from the rain

Chained 困锁

 

 

屋外下着倾盆大雨，瞥见楼下的人行道，有一辆脚踏车被栓锁在路边的铁栏杆上， 受尽风吹雨打，似乎被人遗弃了。

想来脚踏车主人的原意，只是把它停摆在屋外，方便使用，为了预防脚踏车被人偷窃，才把它栓起来。可万没想到，在烈日的狂晒与大雨的猛淋摧残下，原本"健壮“ 的体格，会慢慢的生锈腐败。

幸好，过了几天，那辆脚踏车已被移走。今天又是个下雨天，已经没有它的踪影。

忽然联想起近日在中国闹得如火如荼，被铁链锁住颈项的八母案，感叹人心险恶，实在可悲！

Old photo

 

My uncle shared the above photo in a recent group chat on Whatsapp.

Three generations of family members were in the photo, namely my maternal grandparents, my parents and maternal aunt/uncle (and their spouses) and my siblings and cousins.

My maternal grandparents, my father, 5th 姑丈，六姨 have passed on. My peers are now in their 40s-50s.

As the saying goes... we were so young then! The photo rekindles some fond memories of the old days. The younger lots were look so innocent then!