It was amazing that I had already spent almost a month in Oxford with my son. So much planning and apprehension about the trip during these COVID19 times is coming to an end.
We landed in the UK with S’pore just being exempted from quarantine 2 hours before, got into Keble College to settle him down, then to my first apartment in London Road, Headington. Then I rented a car to drive around and doing father-son bonding day trips and meals together. As he started his week zero term, I moved to my 2nd apartment in the city itself. Then term proper (Week 1) started for him last week as he was caught up with meeting his peers and apply for internships.
It was a relatively quiet last week for me in Oxford as I ran out of things to do. I settled into a routine of forcing myself to take an early morning walk around the parks even though the sun only rising after 7.30 and that the temperature has dropped to 6 degrees Celsius most mornings. Then as the sun warms up in the afternoon, I will go for a long run which turned out very lovely as I was discovering the many canal routes around Oxford and seeing rowers in their long boats practising.
I was aiming for as much outdoor time as possible as I knew I would have to be confined in my room when I returned to S’pore to start my 14 days quarantine, which was inevitable.
Had a final Sunday roast with Justin at the Red Lion before having a video call with the family. Visited the remaining Oxford attractions that are opened, like the Oxford Castle which was used as a prison for hundreds of years till 1996 and the Oxford Botanic Gardens.
I also managed to have my first introductory calls with the 2 new mentees assigned to me this year for the NUSS Mentorship program. This will be the 3rd year I will be participating. Both candidates are very different, one overly confident while the other was the opposite. It will be an interesting year ahead as I hope to value add to them by sharing my past work experience and help them prepare for their future career paths.
The dreaded 2nd part of my 6 weeks journey was about to start. I had to make preparations for limited freedom for the next 2 weeks spent in a room doing the compulsory quarantine session in a hotel I would be assigned to. I had to make the best of my opportunity to be outdoors in Oxford and jogged as much as my body can take. I did an average of at least 8 km per day, running to new areas for the first time, exploring the suburbs of Oxford like Iffley and Rose Hill.
Finally, on Friday morning, I checked out of the apartment at 630 am to catch the bus to Heathrow. I managed to buy a decent bottle of Scottish Whisky at the airport. It will be for me to drink slowly over the next 2 weeks in my room. It was an uneventful 13 hours flight which only had just 50+ passengers where only 10 disembarked in S’pore while the rest had connecting flights and were only transiting through.
The immigration process and the collection of luggage were efficient and soon we were ushered into the buses for our trip to the assigned hotel for quarantine. I immediately asked them for the name and was pleasantly surprised that it was Shangri-La. The apprehension was also building as all of us on the bus didn’t know what to expect as it was the first time for all of us in these COVID19 times.
There was some paperwork we had to do once we reached the hotel as we were individually briefed on what to expect during our 2 weeks stay here. We had to pay $2k for the privilege of being confined here with a room and 3 meals provided a day. Today is Day 2 and I will only be able to check out on Day 15 after noontime. The card key only allowed for a one time access into the room to prevent us from leaving it for the next 14 days. We had to go a COVID19 swap test on Day 11, which is the only time we will be allowed outside the room.
The main saving grace was that we were not totally locked out of the world like a prison cell. We still had amenities like hotel room service with a 30% discount and can order food and things from outside services to be delivered to us. Incoming is OK but outgoing is not as a bubble was created to contain all of us in case someone contracted COVID19 while overseas. I had a few occasional claustrophobia anxieties setting in as I try to get used to working within a confined space for a period of time.
Based on my Circuit Breaker Lockdown experience, I quickly try to set down a schedule of things to do to keep my mind occupied. I had also prepared reading materials like eBooks borrowed from NLB and magazines to read. The TV and being connected to Youtube and the web via my laptop, iPad and phone should help pass the time.
On the first morning of Day 2, I decided to order room service to get a Nasi Lemak for breakfast. To exercise, I commit to doing 400 crunches before every meal. I also ordered 2 bottles of wine online 🙂
Meanwhile, it is 18 days to the US elections and Trump is still going into self-destruction mode. More GOP members are starting to distance themselves from him as a self-preservation instinct. Can’t see what else he can do besides starting a war now. The final presidential debate will happen the end of this week. Time flies as we move into the final stretch of a not so pleasant 2020.
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