Life in a Shophouse with a Horse called Hugo

I came to Singapore from Adelaide in late July 2021. On the morning I said goodbye to my family in Adelaide, both Adelaide and Singapore were still open but by the time I landed around eight hours later, both communities were back into lockdown.

My Stay-Home Notice (SHN) period here passed fairly smoothly. I spent a lot of time trying to make out what lay beyond my windows and talking to family back at home who were sharing the lockdown with me. The quarantine period is indeed an unusual transition from one life to another and I had perhaps too much time to contemplate the change I had just made.

However, I managed to keep myself busy with simple pastimes like reading, watching movies, cheering on the Olympics, riding the exercise bike and, of course, working. I decided then that the important thing was to create a sort of a routine, to ensure variety in my day and to allow myself to admit that my transition was a challenge.

Once free from SHN, I moved to my new home. Now this is where the horse comes into the story. Currently, I live in a studio apartment in a co-living shophouse with common living spaces. I chose this arrangement because I knew that living on my own and working from home could potentially be quite isolating. So I looked around for a space that came with a sense of community. Luckily, I found my beautiful shophouse. And it came with a horse!

This horse has no name, so I have decided to call him Hugo.

I feel it is really important to have a sense of place and this is exactly what I’ve found here. I often just wander around neighbouring Little India which is full of colour, activity and vibrant signs of life and community. All this is incredibly important during these times when life feels like it’s on pause and it is easy to feel isolated. Simply walking these streets, seeing activity and getting a feel for the resilience of communities living with the altered reality that is the pandemic (soon, let’s hope, post pandemic) world. An added bonus for me is a dog park opposite which comes with a lot of noise and touches of chaos. I have also found a nearby gym which I go to every day.

When I reflect on the challenges of working from home back in Australia and here, I feel routine is important. I make sure that I exercise every morning, take time to get out for a walk in the middle of the day and plan different things to do every day.

In the early days, I failed miserably at this and ended up doing nothing but going for a long run every morning, working all day/evening and then sleeping! At least back home I had my family to drag me off that treadmill and remind me what was important. There was a always a risk that coming here to Singapore on my own, I would ignore all the lessons from home.

Now, I make sure that I break up the day, and change locations when I work. I’m fortunate here to have a number of different places I can sit and work. When the SEC office opened in August and we were able to go into work, I enjoyed finally meeting people face-to-face, instead of just talking to people inside of the square screen of my laptop.

Did I mention community is incredibly important to me? I really enjoy getting out, walking and exploring. Sharing time with actual people in whatever form or group size that we can is also important. After all, in SEC we are all from different corners of the world and have amazing stories to share.

Unfortunately I don’t have stories of self-improvement – yet. I’m going to art classes, so perhaps something may come from all this creativity. I also keep in close contact with my family at home. They help to recharge my personal battery each day. We all look forward to a time when I can share Singapore, my shophouse and, of course Hugo, with them.