Dear Diary,
I’ve consciously let you rest a while this last year. Most of my life between your pages has been my ruminations on travel, with a short detour through my attempt at sustainability and its intersection with travel and home. Needless to say, there has been nothing on these fronts in this once-in-a-lifetime (I hope) pandemic phase. Also, thanks to Project Om which welcomed our newest little sustainable traveller (again, I hope) into the family, any little energy I might have for whatever little travel-at-home and individual-action-sustainability evaporated into the thin pandemic air. I know I’ll pick up the threads at some point, I just don’t know when.
I don’t have any smart analysis on travel and where we go from here. I’ll let the eloquent Cameron Hewitt talk about a new normal in Europe, and my guess is that this will be mirrored in most parts of the world soon.
In this phase, I’ve also learnt that individual action in the home is an intersection of myriad factors. The concept of convenience, time and energy are different for everyone, and those of the decision makers rule how the house lives. I handed over grocery shopping to my better half this last year, and enough said about plastic and packaging. My nemesis? Diapers and wet wipes. Gah, convenience.
We now move continents. I’ve loved living in Singapore (my journey chronicled here) and I’m grateful for all that it has offered and taught me. Although it doesn’t love me back enough (long story). It has been an interesting study in east meets west, and this land of eternal summer had me wrapped around its little finger. The one thing I’ll miss most, predictably, is the excellent public transport.
At any normal time, as it has in the past, such a move would have excited me to the endless possibilities of wandering around a new place we’d call home. Not so much now. With restricted travel and with all that I now know about the US and how its sustainability chain works (or does not), with the current covid situation there and an unvaccinated baby with us, I see before me an uphill road to bring these two dear vectors back into my life. Stick with me if you will, and we will discover this together.
The bright spot? I have two of the best boys in the world with me.
Until next time, here are sights from our temporary digs during our last week in Singapore.
Nomadic Wanderlust 