BUT YOU LIVE ON A TROPICAL ISLAND

21 March 2021 | One of my favourite comments lately from a co-worker when I was complaining about COVID and being stuck on the island of Singapore was, “but you live on a tropical island.”

I think when most people think of tropical island, they think of beaches, sand, tropical drinks, and laying around relaxing on a beach chair under the sun. So, yes, Singapore has lots of those things and while they may have been fun and exotic in the first week of living in Singapore, let’s get something straight. Working in the same climate on the same island with very little variability in weather (read, a lot of heat and humidity) is not a vacation. I am not on a beach drinking fruity tropical drinks with little umbrellas. We have beach chairs at our apartment complex but I’m lucky if I sit in one of those once a week and when I do, it might be for 15 minutes because the sun is so intense that no one wants to sit there for hours on end. So, yes, it’s a tropical island. And yes, it’s beautiful. But it’s not a vacation. And frankly, I would take the variability and beauty of any other climate over Singapore. I love it here and it’s a beautiful country but when you’ve spent most of your life with all of the elements and all of the seasons, being on a tropical island 24/7/365 is not a vacation. The end.