With S off on a two-week business trip to Australia on Monday night and my dad arriving on Sunday morning, my mum and I are home alone for most of the week. As I joined S on his last trip to Australia, I can now visualise most of it clearly, which creates a nice, comfortable connection. His days are packed with work meetings and events, but also calm pockets of wandering around and enjoying the crisp, cool, sunny, beautiful winter weather and meeting friends for meals, drinks and Bondi Farmers Market chilling. I get snapshots of the iconic view from the road above Icebergs, his cool converted-church-Airbnb in South Melbourne and leafy avenues in Brissie. I miss him, but I know he’s having a good time – and I’m so happy I get to spend some time alone with my mum. We sleep as much as we can, and drink as much ginger and lemongrass tea as we can. We eat all meals together, mostly brought to us by UberEATS or fetched from Tiann’s around the corner, and often with a few spoonfuls of vegan cacao ice-cream for dessert at night while watching Netflix or reading next to each other on the sofa. When I’m working, mostly from the sofa with my leg piled high on cushions, she is reading novels and solving crosswords, making the house look and feel nice, nurturing the plants (talking to them, cutting off their dead leaves, stroking their healthy leaves, watering them), bringing me water and coffee, available for spontaneous chats and hugs and generally just radiating a nice, calm, happy energy. A few times, she goes grocery shopping and exploring the small specialty boutiques and galleries of Tiong Bahru, having found her way around the area. One of the days, the founders / managers of my barre studio come to Tiong Bahru to meet me for coffee at Plain Vanilla. Smiles, hugs and excited catch up. So good to see them and hear all about their new initiatives and events in and around the studio – and to have an opportunity to show them how much I miss it; that the 9 months of intensive training at the studio before my accident meant so much for my body’s ability to deal with it; that I’m using as much of what I learned as possible in my rehab exercises. They miss me too, it seems – they brought me a small gift, one of their signature yoga mat sprays made with essential oils, and they make me feel like I’m still part of their community, encouraging me to come back when possible, as if I needed that encouragement. Once I’ve fully recovered, they’re gonna arrange a teachers training weekend in Bali, which I’ll definitely join. When they leave the cafe, my mum picks me up as if I were a little girl. I feel quite little this week. On Friday evening I get a fever (exhaustion, virus, inflammation?) and sleep all of the next day. When my dad arrives, I’m okay again, and the three of us go for a walk around Keppel Bay and tapas at FOC Sentosa, chatting, laughing, enjoying each other’s company and Singapore; so nice to have him here as well.
Camilla's highlights 