First Labour Experience

I'm noting this down for our family's history books. Each labour story is different, so this is unique to the birth of Oliver Teo, our firstborn. 

We went to ACJ Clinic on 14 April 2022, 9am, to induce labour. After monitoring the foetal heartbeat and my uterine contractions for about 15 min, Dr Candice inserted a pill into my vagina (up to the cervix area), which would stimulate the uterus to contract. The pill takes about 3h to fully dissolve, after which it will still take some time for the effect to kick in. Hence, after we left the clinic, we went for a walk at Gardens by the Bay and Flower Dome (it was a weekday and we have free parking for 2h so why not). Lunch was curry rice and my favourite soursop drink at Old Airport Road, and thereafter, we went to Lickers for ice cream! My only requirement for the day was to eat ice cream, since I'm not supposed to consume anything cold during confinement. We ordered 2 scoops (milo, oolong lavender) and a waffle - Lickers is really good, I'm definitely going back for more! After ice cream, it was about 2+pm so we headed home to wait it out, since the contractions (if any) were supposed to come from 3pm onwards. There was nothing. I was all prepared to check-in to the hospital after midnight for another round of induction. Then at around 5pm, when I was singing to Disney covers on YouTube (check out Mild Nawin, she's good!), I started to feel more tightening around my belly area. The interesting thing was that I didn't feel it throughout the uterus - just at the lower abdomen pelvic area. Dr Candice said that I should feel it throughout the entire womb, so I thought it was just fake contractions as usual. At around 5.30pm, I figured we should go for dinner just in case it was the real thing. I also started to time the discomforts - second one came 18 min after the first, third one came 15 min after. On the way to dinner, the pain level started to increase (again, it was mostly at the lower abdomen) and this time, the intervals were once every 5 min and they lasted for 1 min or so at times. We reached, but didn't manage to get dinner and just u-turned back to go home. The pain started to worsen even more on the journey back and since it was peak hour, traffic was slow. We got home at around 6.10pm and I went to shower/pack the last bits for the hospital stay. I also got Tee Wei to shower because I knew we were in for a long night. Traffic to Mt Alvernia was slightly jammed up but thankfully cleared later on. We reached A&E at 6.35pm. Tee Wei dropped me off and went to park the car (opposite at Westlake Ave because it's free haha).

They gave me a wheelchair to sit on and wheeled me into the delivery suite, where the nurse asked a bunch of questions that I don't remember but I basically passed her all the relevant documents and let her sort it out. I was asked to change into the gown and lie down. I was then passed some forms to sign, the epidural agreement form, and I was texting Dr Candice to get instructions. The nurse then shot some fluid up my butt which was meant to help me completely clear my bowels. That worked perfectly - I had a mix of stomachache and cramping from the labour, and spent a considerable amount of time on the toilet bowl because it seemed to be never-ending. Once that was out of the way, I awaited the arrival of the anaesthetist in pain. I had no idea why the contractions were so frequent and lasted so long each time, especially since I was only 2cm dilated. The dilation rate is 1cm/hour so when I heard it, I was thinking "Oh my goodness, so I have another 8 more hours to go???" Well, the anaesthetist came at around 8.30-9pm and inserted the magic which lessened the pain considerably (take note, not totally). She said that the aim is to get my pain level from 8-9 to a 4. There was definitely still pain throughout the entire time but it was manageable. At least I didn't need to grimace or grip the bed. Dr Candice broke my water bag after that so that it would help with the baby's descent. We sort of stayed in that limbo state till about 11pm for them to check my dilation status again - I was only 3cm dilated. That meant it took more than 1 hour to dilate that 1cm. I was mortified. Did that mean for me, the dilation rate is 1cm/2 hours? My labour time would be doubled?? I had been lying down in bed, immobile, for a few hours by then and I was hungry, thirsty, uncomfortable and bored. Dr Candice gave me oxytocin to induce more contractions so that the process would speed up. At around 1am, I suddenly felt that the pain increased tremendously and I had no idea why. I was already on the maximum dose of epidural and my legs were numb. It was that same lower abdomen pain. We called the nurse in and she explained that the pain is probably due to the baby descending and pushing against my pelvic region. My dilation was still only at 4cm. Epidural couldn't take that pain away since it's due to pressure and not the contractions. She taught me to breathe in order to control the pain, rather than to let the pain control me. That really helped and I was very thankful. Well, she also gave me a one-off dose of 15ml to curb the pain for the time being. The pain subsided enough for me to sleep for about 2h. At around 3+am, the pain increased again, so I got them to check on the dilation again and this time, I was at 7-8cm. There is light at the end of the tunnel! The next timing to check was at 5am, but at around 4.50am, the pain started to last for 30s-1min each time and they came every 2-3 min or so. The nurse checked and said I was pretty much ready to start pushing. YAY!

They started to get me into position. I couldn't feel my legs at that point so I couldn't move them on my own. My epidural had finished and I opted to not have any more so that the effects could gradually wear out because I couldn't feel my muscles and I wasn't sure how I was going to activate them to push. The instructions I received were to take a deep breath, sit up slightly like doing a crunch and hold my breath for 10 counts while exerting force as though I was pooping. I tried that and the nurse told me that I was exerting too much force on my face rather than concentrating it on the pushing action. (Well, I was asked to hold my breath!!) So the subsequent times, I exhaled as if I was doing a workout instead and focused all my energy on the core. Apparently my technique was right even though I couldn't really feel much! Nice, this is why all females should do core exercises before they get pregnant. For each round of pushing, I just imagined I was doing 3 x crunch holds for 10s each. Sometimes, when the contractions were longer, we went up to 4x. The nurse saw me do 5x and told me not to over-exert so that when the last push came, I had the energy to keep going. I think I did it about 5-6 times before the baby's head crowned, which was when Dr Candice stepped in. During the last round of pushing, I just kept going for about 6x because half the head was out and then, in a blink of an eye, Dr Candice pulled him completely out and said "time of birth - 6.05am. Daddy, you can take a picture of the time." Tee Wei was standing next to me and went "huh? what picture?" So I said "the clock behind". I had been staring at that clock the whole 12h so I was very familiar with it by then. Next thing - "Daddy cut the umbilical cord." Another "huh? I cut?" came from Tee Wei. Haha I think he was completely lost because he was overwhelmed. After that, they took the baby, aspirated the fluid from his lungs, and he cried for a bit but settled down nicely when they wrapped him and placed him in the bassinet. Many things happened concurrently then. 

The nurses and Tee Wei were busy with Oliver - measuring his weight, length and head circumference - then cleaning him up and wrapping him. Dr Candice was busy with me - delivering the placenta out next (it came out and I didn't feel a thing, I also didn't need to push apparently), then stitching me up. For some odd reason, the stitching took extremely long (almost an hour) and I didn't quite understand why. It turns out that when Oliver was pushing out, there were many micro tears in my vagina and Dr Candice was trying to stitch them, but because they were too small, they bled more when she stitched. In the end, she gave up and stuffed a whole roll of gauze inside to stop the bleeding, then stitched up the episiotomy cut she made. I needed to have that entire pad inside for a day. They left us in there for awhile, and then gave Oliver to us for some skin to skin contact and also to try breastfeeding if possible. I had to sit up for that - which was when the nausea started to set in. I wanted to throw up and the nurse said no, the baby is in my arms (well duh I know that but I still had to throw up) so they passed me some tray and I threw up 2 trays worth of gastric juice and water since I didn't eat anything. My throat was hoarse after that. After awhile, they transferred me to the normal ward and took Oliver to the nursery to shower him. 

Tee Wei and I both cried when we saw Oliver for the first time. He was so alert, so calm and peaceful. His eyes were wide opened and he was looking at us. He is a perfect little gift from God and he's joined our little family! It's an incredible feeling. 

Waiting for Oliver

My maternity leave started on 4 April 2022, even though my estimated due date is 15 April 2022 (Good Friday). That gives me a good 2-week wait, during which Oliver could choose to make his appearance in the world at any time. I am not a patient person by nature, and when it's something I'm excited about, the wait gets worse. 

The discomfort increases as each day goes by. The aches get worse. My boredom at home also increases exponentially. I keep looking out for signs of labour - contractions, bleeding, water bag breaking. I've had multiple false pains - stuff like stomachaches, weird tightening feelings, diarrhoea - but they all go away after a short while. I've been clocking my 10k steps per day, getting my squats and exercises in, doing all sorts of household chores to try and encourage the boy make his descent into my pelvic region. He seems way too comfortable in my belly, though it is proving to be quite a squeeze as he gets bigger and moves around more. 

My Dear Boy Oliver,

Mummy is trying her best to wait patiently for you to be ready so that you can make your grand entrance into this world. Daddy and Mummy have gotten your room and cot ready. We've also stocked up on all sorts of books and toys for you to play with when you're out. We are emotionally and mentally prepared to parent you and bring you up so that you will be well taken care of, and also to nurture you in your faith so that you will walk closely with the Lord. We've been reading the bible to you every night for months now, and we will continue to do the same once you're physically with us! Don't be afraid of this world, because we will protect you and keep you safe (for now), till you feel that you're ready to explore it on your own. God will give us the wisdom to know how to best include you in our little family. You're our firstborn, and we will definitely make many mistakes along the way. But know that we love you very much and we always want the best for you! We are very excited for you to join us soon, and we hope that you are equally excited to meet us too :) It's our prayer that you grow in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man, just like Jesus did. 

Love, Mummy

COVID Home Recovery: A pregnant woman's tale

Cough, flu loss of taste and smell - this was the order by which the symptoms arrived. It started with a dry cough and itchy throat that I didn't think too much of. I drank more water, ate lozenges, but the cough didn't go away. By the fourth day I had this symptom, I took my ART test and well, it ended up showing a positive mark. Damn. 

At this point in time, I was 18 weeks pregnant and am currently still under 35 years old. I had also been fully vaccinated with Moderna. Hence, I qualified for home recovery (thank God, I really didn't want to have to go to some community care facility). At first, the symptoms were mild. On the first day, my cough sort of went away, but I started to have this blocked nose instead. Sleeping at night was difficult with a blocked nose (but it's not worse than the usual type of blocked nose). However, that's when the most dreaded symptom set in. I realised that I couldn't smell or taste anything. It wasn't just the ordinary reduced senses that people get when they have flu. There was nothing. I had a really strong diffuser in the house but I couldn't smell it at all. Even if there was smoke from a cigarette or incense, I couldn't detect it either. When food was being cooked (even when it was beef), it was odourless to me. With my sense of taste, I could still taste when something is sweet, salty, sour or bitter. However, I couldn't tell the sweetness of an apple or the sweetness of a grape apart. They both just tasted the same to me. For someone with a normally keen sense of smell and taste, this was horrifying. I felt crippled when I cooked, and it felt dangerous to me. For someone pregnant, I had to watch my diet closely because I shouldn't be eating fruits that are spoiled, and I should not inhale any secondhand smoke from my neighbours when my windows are opened. But I couldn't detect any of these. Most people lose their appetite when they can't taste or smell something. Honestly, so did I. I mean, it didn't quite matter what I was eating since I couldn't taste it right? However, being pregnant also meant that I had to ensure that I had sufficient nutrition so that my baby could continue to grow and develop properly. Rather than bother about taste, I cared more about the nutritional value of the food I was eating. 

I am very thankful for the vaccination. Without that, I'm not sure how severe the symptoms would have been. I did not get fever or body aches throughout the entire time, and I could see visible improvements to my condition on a daily basis. My oxygen saturation still hovered between 98-99% using the pulse oximeter given by the government. I only had to take one zyrtec throughout the entire week. It took me exactly 7 days before my ART showed up as negative, and since I'm vaccinated, I'm also deemed as non-infectious by the 10th day. While my sense of taste and smell are still reduced (at least I got them back though!) and I still have remnant bits of mucus left to clear, I can pretty much go about my normal life without much of an issue. I also have no problems breathing or speaking. I read about the statistics of pregnant women requiring oxygen or ICU because they weren't vaccinated and I'm thankful that I'm not one of them. I'm also really thankful that though I wasn't able to self-isolate from my husband, he did not contract COVID at all (he remained well and ART negative all the way). 

The moral of the story is this: get vaccinated, and then COVID will not be much of an issue. 

Also, trust God. Prior to getting COVID, I thought about it and completely freaked out because I was afraid of how it would affect me and the baby. But when I actually contracted it, prayer really helped me set my mind on God and trust Him, and inexplicable peace came upon me throughout the entire week. 

Kurashiki Bikan: Historical town in Okayama

We selected Kurashiki as our "stopover" between Hiroshima and the Kansai region, mainly because it is a historic city, and we liked how it's just a small town. Kurashiki only requires a half-day trip, so you don't have to stay the night. We stayed with an Airbnb host in the Kurashiki City itself - it was quite difficult to get to, so the host will pick you up from a nearby station. But we loved it because of the homely feel, ability to make new Japanese friends and also the traditional home-cooked breakfast spread the next day! 

Kurashiki Bikan is basically a place where you can just chill and walk around to explore the area. There are many small shops around and a canal flowing through the little town. It is like the "Venice of Japan", as some people call it. The architecture there is from the Edo period, when it used to be warehouses since it was an important rice distribution town. Today, the facade of the warehouses has been preserved but they have transformed into little shops, cafes, restaurants, art galleries etc. 

How to get there: 

Take the Shinkansen to Okayama Station and then take the local train to Kurashiki. From there, Kurashiki Bikan is a short walk away. 

Things to do:

1. Take a gondola ride along the canal

If you really want a taste of Venice in Japan, you can take the gondola ride, which brings you around the area through the canal. We weren't so interested in paying for a boat ride as we preferred to walk on foot!

2. Visit Ohara Art Museum

This is a western fine art museum, which seems pretty out-of-character for a historical town, but it apparently houses an impressive art collection, so if you're into art you might wanna check it out!

3. Chill at Ivy Square

This is a pretty cool European-style square that has a small cafe, fountains etc for people to chill. They also have some souvenir shops. We enjoyed a peach ice cream and muscat wine here! Apparently it used to be a cotton mill. 

6. Take pretty pictures along the street

5. Kojima Jeans Street

I really wanted to go to this street as it's the birthplace of denim in Japan, but alas, it didn't quite fit into our schedule and wasn't really on the way. But if you have time, please go and check it out! It looked pretty cool from what I saw on the internet. 

I think Kurashiki Bikan is basically slightly off-the-path sort of place. There are way less tourists here as it's not a big or famous location, which is why we chose it. It's good to spend the afternoon there just walking around and has a very European yet historically Japan feel to it, so the vibes are very unique! 

Things to do in Hiroshima: Travel Itinerary

This is an extremely overdue post because I went in October 2019 and here we are, more than a year later. Well, since we all can't travel due to COVID-19, let's just do throwbacks of our past travels. After watching the Rugby World Cup (NZ vs Canada) in Oita stadium and touring some parts of the Kyushu region, we went on to Hiroshima. So, here are some of the sights that you can expect to see in Hiroshima, including the one thing they are famous for - atomic bomb memorial. 

1. Shukukeien 

Entrance fee: 260 yen 

It's a nice and quaint little garden that is not too expensive compared to the others, so I thought this was rather worth going to! It's a very good Japanese garden experience, for those who have not been, especially since all these gardens were made in various periods of Japan. I can't identify the differences in the architecture because I'm not familiar with Japanese history but for those who are interested, you'll probably be a lot clearer than I was! I spent most of my time taking photos and admiring nature. 

2. Hiroshima Castle

You need to pay an entrance fee to enter but we didn't want to because we weren't so interested in seeing the inside of the castle, more of just the area around the entrance, which is free. But this is one of the touristy sites you can go to in Hiroshima! 

3. Atomic Bomb Site and Peace Memorial Park

This is what Hiroshima is known for. After studying about it in the history books, I was rather excited to see this in person! It's quite amazing, for the city hall to be bombed directly by the atomic bomb, but still have most of its exterior infrastructure attached (though they did reinforce it to prevent it from crumbling further). I think it's good for them to have created a peace memorial park to let everyone remember the events that happened and that it should not have to reach this sort of stage again. I thought the whole park was well done!

4. Day trip to Miyajima 

Hiroshima is also a good base to do a day trip to Miyajima because you need to take a ferry from Miyajimaguchi, which is within Hiroshima. Check the ferry timings before hand to plan your trip better! Miyajima is really small and you only need a few hours there. We did a hike to Mt Misen - went up by the Momiji Dani route, which is 2.5km and went down by the Daishoin route, which is 3km. The Momiji Dani route contains more stairs, which I find easier to go up by as it's more dangerous to climb down the stone steps, especially if it's damp. The Daishoin route is more gentle and you can see more of the scenery rather than the forest. So doing it this way gets you the best of both worlds. 

There is only one walking street, which is the Old Town walking street, full of touristy restaurants. We chose one of the okonomiyaki restaurants, which wasn't too bad but nothing spectacular. The walking street has other souvenirs and stuff that you can buy. They sell a lot of momiji cakes (which are some small cakes in the shape of an autumn leaf). They also sell some oysters there which were really good!!! I would totally recommend it. 

5. Cycling in Shimanami Kaido

We also used Hiroshima as the base to travel to Shimanami Kaido. This is a cycling route that starts from JR Onomichi station and ends at Imabari station. From Hiroshima, we took the JR Shinkansen to Mihara and changed to the local train to reach Onomichi station. 

There are many bike rentals in Onomichi but you have to reach early, otherwise all the bicycles would have already been rented out. We wanted the electric ones but they were all gone. We ended up paying 1100 yen per bicycle for the whole day, which I felt was pretty worth it. You need to pay a 1100 yen deposit, which you will get back if you return the bicycle in a good shape.

From Onomichi, after renting the bicycle, you'll take the ferry to Mukaishima island and start from there. The ferry costs 100 yen per person and 10 yen for the bicycle. There is no other way to get there. By the time we rented the bicycles and took the ferry, we started our ride at 1040. 

There are multiple islands connected by overhead bridges that you can cycle through on cycling lanes. Going up the overhead bridges can be quite a climb if you're not an experienced cyclist, so feel free to get down and push your bikes up! The islands have small restaurants along the way so you can stop by any one of them to eat. We stopped at Innoshima and had yakisoba and gyu niku udon for lunch! It was a really random restaurant but their prices were cheap and the quality was good! So hit up the locals for recommendations. 

On Ikuchijima island, there is dolce gelato ice cream and a Setoda lemon cake specialty shop so you should try to hit that! I loved the ice cream and the Setoda lemon shop is a very good stopover to get souvenirs specific to the Setoda region. 

If you're cycling for a few days or you want to complete the whole thing, there are some services to bring your luggage across and you can slowly ride the whole thing over a few days and stay over at the different islands. We opted to do it in as a day trip, so we u-turned at the end of Ikuchijima island. We are also seasoned road cyclists going at our leisure pace of about 20km/h. We headed back to Mukaishima to take the ferry back to Onomichi and reached back at around 6pm. 

You can check out this website for more detailed information about cycling through the whole Shimanami Kaido.

Food Recommendations

1. Bakudan

I really loved this spicy sauce tsukemen and would highly recommend everyone to try it! It's very near Don Quijote (the only one in Hiroshima). It's also not super expensive! The spicy sauce definitely gives a kick and the flavours are all on point. 

2. Goemon (second floor of the ASSE departmental store at Hiroshima station)

I loved the flavours of this okonomiyaki because they are slightly different from the usual okonomiyaki. They will add spices and their sauce is not overly salty or sweet, it's just flavourful, which I really enjoyed. I would highly recommend their okonomiyaki! 

3. Yakitori restaurant (15-5 Noboricho, Naka ward, Hiroshima, 730-0016)

We went to this restaurant to eat simply because we wanted to watch the Rugby World Cup and they were showing it on their TV screen! That said, this was a pretty good find. It's a small restaurant but with really good food. Yakitori is generally more expensive but each stick is not that expensive compared to other places.

Staying injury-free while running

When I started my running journey 4 years ago, I didn't think much about sustaining injuries - after all, I'm young and it's just simple running, right...? Wrong. I soon learnt that even running short distances can injure a person if it isn't done properly. Here are some lessons I've learnt based on my experiences!

1. Always do a proper warm up and cool down.

It's important to warm up your muscles and get your heart rate up before the run so that they don't get a shock when you first start running, which may cause undue stress on both your muscles and heart. Also, after your run, you should properly stretch your muscles to ensure that the lactic acid doesn't build up in your muscles. It also helps to gradually lower your heart rate after a workout.

This is the warm up I usually do before a run! It's simple and warms up the legs slightly. 

My cool down stretches will cover most of the muscle groups involved in running:

- calf stretches (lunge position against a wall) 

- ITB stretches (Cross your legs while standing and bend your body down towards the opposite side from the direction you crossed. Eg, if you cross your right leg over your left, then you bend towards your left) 

- thigh stretches (lift one leg up towards your butt and use your hand to hold it there) 

- glute stretches (in a sitting position, open your legs to stretch your inner thigh. Then, cross one ankle onto the other thigh, and bend your torso downwards. Repeat for the other leg.) 

2. Watch your posture when running 

When I run in the parks or park connectors, I see a lot of people having different running postures that will result in injury in the long run, pun intended. Watch YouTube videos to see the correct posture you should adopt - hands should be loosely held at 90 degrees, near your body. Torso should be kept straight, yet not stiff. It helps if your core is strong enough to maintain your posture. For your legs, landing on your midfoot is best and most efficient running posture to prevent impact on your knees. Try to keep your feet pointed forward rather than outwards/inwards (I've been seeing a lot of this!) If you're unable to sustain a good running posture, you should consider doing some exercises for core strength, calf raises, squats and lunges.

For strength training exercises, I recommend blogilates and global triathlon network. They have very good exercises to strengthen various muscle groups! 

3. Wear a good pair of shoes suitable for your feet

It is extremely important to wear a pair of good shoes! Not all expensive shoes are good for everyone. You need to try and see which type of shoes are suitable for you. For example, I have really bad bunions and wide feet. Because of that, I need shoes that have a wide top, as well as good support so as not to strain the ligaments in my feet since they are already strained due to my bunion. I tried a pair of shoes that had better cushioning (hence, softer) but it ended up giving me a lot of pain in my foot and toes. I ended up reverting back to Asics, which I feel gives me the best support and gel cushioning, even though they are heavier.

Just 3 simple ways to get you started on being injury free while you run! Hope this helps (:

Note: any reference to any brand/youtuber is based on my personal experience and I did not receive any form of reward in any way. 

Living through a time of uncertainty: The COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19.

This is probably the most talked about term in 2020 both locally in Singapore and on the global platform. Not a day goes by without a news report on something related to this virus that has been plaguing the world. I first heard about it when I was in Taiwan at the beginning of January 2020, but didn't think much of it because it was only contained in China. I thought it was just another one of those viruses that will go away quickly. (Also, the news was in Mandarin so most of it just flew past by mind without being processed.) Little did I know that it quickly made its way to Singapore and blew up in our faces when Chinese New Year came and everyone gathered as per usual. I must commend Singapore for their efforts in containing the first wave of virus migration. We managed to get our numbers down quickly through contact tracing and even had several days when there were no cases at all. I thought that was the end of COVID-19. However, South Korea, Italy and Iran had sudden huge spikes in their numbers just about that time. Since we hadn't placed any travel bans, many Singaporeans who travelled to these countries started to get affected too, and the spread increased. Not only that, because these countries also rely heavily on tourism, the rest of Asia and Europe started to be greatly affected. Then, the global lockdowns started happening, and many things went downhill from there. Let me write about how that directly affects me, and my reflections through it all.

Our wedding has been planned for 5 April 2020 for quite awhile now. It was supposed to be The Summerhouse, and we were supposed to have an evening garden wedding, followed by a dinner under the moonlight in their restaurant. We wanted something more rustic and cozy, so we stuck to about 130 guests. When COVID-19 first started, I thought it wouldn't last till April, or even if it did, it would be at the tail end of the epidemic (as it was called earlier this year). Having lived through SARS, I was predicting about a 4-5 month duration. But the global numbers started to jump and travel advisories started to come up. Just as a precaution, we did a travel declaration form 6 weeks prior to the event to ensure that our guests weren't travelling. We had to make painful decisions to cut people who were travelling to affected countries.

Then, new situations started to arise. 3 weeks prior to our wedding, we found out that Australia had placed a 14-day quarantine on all travellers entering Australia. As our honeymoon destination was Tasmania, we were forced to cancel the entire trip - we got refunds from our car rental, Airbnb (that required multiple requests and dealings with very unfriendly case managers), and SIA. We are very thankful that in the end, we managed to get lots of help from these organisations who either refunded us in cash or through coupons that we can use again when we book with them. So, though we were disappointed and it took awhile for us to get over it, we were thankful that at least we didn't have any money losses.

Alas, 2.5 weeks prior to the wedding, another new advisory came. Events were supposed to have less than 250 guests (no problem), but the guests had to be seated 1m apart from one another. Now, that was a problem because our venue was supposed to be cozy and hence, didn't have sufficient space to hold 130 guests 1m apart. We had to re-work the seating arrangement with our wedding venue coordinator and thankfully, we were also able to compromise till we were all happy with it. It was a bummer for us, because some of our guests started to become uncomfortable in attending gatherings and hence, decided to pull out of our wedding. We thought we were good to go, because it was just 2 more weeks to our wedding, right? What more could happen?

Well, the very next day after we re-worked the seating arrangement, a new advisory came. Gatherings need to be 10 people or less. We were "advised to avoid" holding weddings/parties. Honestly, when this first came, I panicked. Was it compulsory? Could I then ignore the advisory since the words used were only "advised to avoid"? However, after much discussion as a couple and with family and friends, we made the most painful decision to postpone our wedding celebration and have a simple solemnisation instead. And, as we had to keep to 10 people, we couldn't officially have my future brother-in-law as a part of our solemnisation. My heart ached and I cried buckets those few days. I was furious with the situation and felt helpless because I couldn't do anything about it. However, we were still very thankful that our venue allowed us to postpone our booking with them up till 1 year. So, we had to send a message to all our guests that we would be cancelling our wedding ceremony for now. We still have no idea when it can actually happen.

I've only described the events that happened and my preliminary feelings when we received one advisory after another. My story is only one of the many describing how COVID-19 has affected our lives. I look at the restaurants, shopping centres, taxi drivers, travel attractions, airlines, the tourism industry, and many other people, whose lives have been greatly disrupted due to this virus. I felt extremely sad when I saw more than 10 taxi drivers queuing up at an empty taxi stand, when I saw an empty Putien on a Saturday evening, when I saw how places that were once filled with people empty out. So many businesses are affected. I can't imagine the overhead costs they have to still fork out even though their stores remain empty. From 7 April to 4 May, Singapore is closing all non-essential businesses. People can no longer dine in but are forced to do takeaways and eat at home instead. This would affect them even more. Perhaps the bigger organisations would take a hit but still be able to bounce back because they would have sufficient revenue generated previously to support them through this period. I think of the local businesses, the small ones who run just one store and have lives depending on the revenue from that store. A month without business might make a difference between survival and the loss of their income. True, the government is trying their best to support them, but it will never be enough. When I think about them, I feel sad.

But I want to give a reason for why I can still say that I rejoice despite my disappointments, why I remain hopeful even when the situation seems hopeless. That is because I have a relationship with God. In the bible, in the book of Genesis, humans completely screwed up - we were so wicked that our thoughts were wicked continually. Honestly, I feel that this is the same now. The origin of this virus is because of some human screw-up. The spread of the virus is because humans cherish their freedom to go out even when they are unwell and therefore, infect others. In Genesis, it also talks about humans trying to build their own tower that reached the heavens. We depend a lot of on our self-sufficiency, and we forget that we are very much limited. We can't even control what happens in the next minute, but we want to be in control of our lives and our situations. But God didn't give up on us. Throughout the entire Bible, we see the whole pattern of humans rejecting God, screwing up, and then God stepping in to show mercy and grace to save them from that situation. This is all because of love. 1 John 4 says that God is love, and verse 10 writes that "In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." Of course, we humans won't love God, we keep rejecting Him, and we keep thinking we're so damn great and we don't need God. We survive fine without Him. Yet, while we rejected God, God sent Christ to die for us, so that we don't have to pay for the penalty of our wrongdoings. See, God is holy. He can't stand wrongdoings. (I mean, can you? Even parents hate it when their kids disobey them.) So, our wrongdoings need to be punished somehow. But God loves us so much that He doesn't want us to bear the punishment. So, He sacrificed His Son instead. Jesus is perfect, without sin, and therefore, the perfect candidate for that. Jesus is God, but He came down to earth in a human form, so that he can identify and empathise with us. Yet, because He is perfect, He can take the punishment on our behalf - He died on the cross. But the story doesn't end there, if not His death would have been useless. Since He is perfect, death has no hold on Him. He overcame death and resurrected 3 days later. And that, is the crux of the whole story. And if you just believe in Jesus and what He has done for you, you can also have a relationship with God! Believing in the God who created the world, who is sovereign, who is in control of EVERYTHING is honestly very liberating. I still worry, I still get disappointed when things don't go my way, because I am human. But I am able to pray, to commit all these worries to God and to tell Him "You know God, all these bad things are happening, but I know that You are still in control and that You love us and that Your plans are somehow the best for us, even though I don't understand why at this moment." I see the little things that I can be thankful for - that I got back my money from the trip, that I don't have to pay a cancellation fee for the wedding, that I am able to still go ahead with the solemnisation. These are little blessings that I have seen. I continue to pray for God's mercies upon us as the world battles this virus. I pray for God to remember us just as how he remembered Noah and subsided the flood over the whole earth. I pray that God will have mercy even though we deserve all these consequences of our wrongdoings and selfishness.

Our wedding is tomorrow. As we say our vows, "in sickness and in health", "for richer, for poorer" mean so much more. We start our marriage in uncertain times, but that will only make us trust God more. Only He is capable of seeing us through.

Rugby World Cup 2019 in Kyushu: Beppu, Oita, Fukuoka

We went to the Kyushu region in October 2019 to soak in the Rugby World Cup fever, and also because we decided to ballot for the New Zealand v Canada game, which was held in Oita Stadium.

This time, we stopped over at 3 cities: Beppu, Oita and Fukuoka. We got the 5 day Northern Kyushu Japan rail pass, which was 10k yen per person. We bought ours from Changi Recommends!

Beppu

Travelling to Beppu from Fukuoka airport:
1. Take bus 2 to Hakata Shinkansen station (260 yen per pax, 500 yen for 2 pax). Tickets can be purchased from the airport tourist information counter, and the ticket will only be placed into the fare box at the end of the trip, NOT at the start!

2. Take the Shinkansen from Hakata to Beppu: You can check and compare the different types of trains. The information boards are pretty clear on which type of Shinkansen it is and whether it stops at Beppu and how long it takes.

For some reason, most things in Beppu were closed the day we arrived, which was rather strange. So, we actually took the train into Oita, which is the next biggest city, to check out the Rugby fanzone area. The fan zones are cool because they have these HUGE screens that allow you to watch the matches live! We ended up watching Scotland v Samoa for awhile.

One of the many huge posters around in Oita!

Funai Castle Ruins

Mt Kuju hiking
This was the highlight of my Beppu trip. I read that the autumn foliage at Mt Kuju is super pretty!

Travelling to Mt Kuju: This was expensive, but it was the only way if you don't drive. Take bus 2 (Kyushu odan bus) from beppu ekimae honmachi stop, which is right outside the train station. It costs 2500 yen per person and takes about 2h to reach the Makinoto pass, which is the start point for the hike. You should reserve beforehand, but otherwise you can just go on the bus and see if there are vacancies. We were fortunate and we had vacancies! Do take note that the road is a bit winding, so if you have motion sickness do bring something to munch on.

We started hiking at around 1040 and finished at around 1450! But we were considered a bit faster than average. Most people take about 5-6 hours to complete, so you need to see your fitness level and how fast you usually take to hike! Because there are different bus timings that you need to meet. We took the 1534 bus out of the Makinoto pass and stopped at Yufuin (it's cheaper that way). We had dinner in yufuin before returning back to Beppu via train, since we had the pass. Note that most things in Yufuin close by 6pm.

Difficulty of Mt Kuju hike: moderate. A normal fitness level would allow you to climb up to the summit. However, a better shoe would help you more than just normal sneakers, because there were many portions where we were treading over rocky terrain. It will be a nice day workout! Also, there was no autumn foliage when we were there ):

Starting out nice and easy - with ice cream and steamed bun!

 One of the typical rocky passes we had to go through

This might be challenging for people who aren't used to it

Always love it when the path opens up!

Multiple signs to go to different summits

No autumn foliage, but still a pretty sight!

View from the Summit

More views from the summit!

Oita 

Rugby World Cup day in Oita: take a train in early because there will be a huge crowd of people doing so! The trains were packed.

We also did an early check in at the hotel and ate an early dinner at Ikinari steak (it's a very good steak chain in Japan!) 

To get to the stadium: There are shuttle buses provided, but the queue was insane so be prepared to wait! We still managed to reach the stadium 1 hour+ earlier than the start time. So, don't ever take the cab because the shuttle buses are free and the cabs had an insane queue too. 

The atmosphere at the stadium was SO GOOD. We thoroughly enjoyed the game even though it was a thrashing match oops. At the end of the match, there was also a long queue for the shuttle bus back and there was a jam at the stop point because everyone was getting down the buses.

Plenty of photo ops throughout Oita

At the stadium!

The tickets are so pretty!

Fukuoka

This isn't our first time in Fukuoka, so we skipped quite a bit of some touristy things and went for things that we really wanted to do.

Marinoa City Outlet: This is quite a large outlet mall with cool Japanese brands (not just the super branded stuff) like Ikka, Earth etc.

Canal City Hakata: We just passed by this, mainly for the food. There are also other shopping malls near Hakata station that are not too bad!

Walking trail: Hakata - Tenjin - Ohori park - Tenjin - Hakata

Ohori park is highly recommended! It's such a nice place for a walk/run.

Stopping for an ice cream break! Japan's soft serves are SO GOOD.

Ohori Park

Managed to catch the sunset there!

That sums up the Kyushu portion of our trip!