.

As the school holidays are in full swing or about to start with most schools, there seems to be a lot of mix feelings going around the expat community.

On one hand how lucky we are to be living mostly normally, apart of course of the mask wearing and still restriction on group meeting but at least we are not on lockdown! On the other hand some frustration about not being allowed to leave the island… 700 square kilometers is rather small…. but do we actually really see what we have in front of our eyes?

I have been reading this book On looking: 11 walks with expert eyes.

The author takes walks with different people and see the city, more like her block in New York City through different eyes: namely her toddler (quite cute!), a geologist (I got experience with that 😉), a typeface architect/graphic, an artist, a field naturalist, a wild life scientist (yep even in New York there are some interesting things to learn from him), a urban sociologist, a doctor (fascinating!), a blind person, a sound engineer and her dog.

We don’t take the time to really look at our surroundings. I, for one, open my eyes and look more at the city and the surroundings the first couple of years after I arrive and then it becomes familiar and I’m less mesmerized by it but I need to slow down and rediscovered it. From time to time I do it but then I forget and I need to make a conscious decision to do it more often because i will move from Singapore by June 2022 and I need to take in as much as I can while I still can.

Finally it’s a blessing we are moving very 3 to 4 years so I’m forced to open my eyes.