Morning Routine – Changes

It’s been nearly a year since I last wrote about morning routines. A year ago – when Ling was still pregnant with Hannah – I’d be up at 0430 every morning, and we’d both be out of the house at 0625.

For the last 7 months now, Ling has been a stay-at-home mum for Hannah. As the sole user of the car on most days, I’ve been able to leave home for work later (though the 0430 morning wake-up times have largely remained unchanged) at about 0730. But as of this Monday morning two days ago, we’re back to leaving together for work at 0645.

How’s that? Well, Ling has gone back to work and specifically as an adjunct teacher at a Secondary school in Sengkang, and Hannah now spends about 7 hours every day at infant care in Punggol. When Ling’s done with her day at about 2pm-ish, she’ll swing from school to Punggol and pick Hannah up.

Traveling between the three locations – Infant Care in Punggol, Ling’s school in Sengkang and my own work place in Tampines – each morning though is taking some use to. Morning traffic in Sengkang at 0700 to 0730 is utter madness, especially along roads where schools are situated at. All the illegal vehicle stoppages, pedestrians dashing across roads, traffic lights every 50 metres, buses trying to get into and out of bus stop bays. All this while from June last year till Monday I’ve been getting to work via the old Tampines Road which sees fairly light vehicular use. And now, it’s like a descent into chaos.

Oh well. Ling is already thinking of possibly changing the infant care center given its awkward location, though the alternatives available aren’t really of any good at the moment. We’ll see.