Chronicles of 2020
By Lim Yan Ning • 7 minute readDocumenting my milestones in 2020
2020 has come to an end — a significant year to me because many milestones in life took place.
I decided to pen down the year’s significant encounters so I can remember how crazy it has been for me even after several years down the road.
January
Celebrated CNY, began to hear about COVID-19 cases but thought it wouldn’t hit us. Had our casual wedding photoshoot with the help of friends and started planning for our wedding in Jun and honeymoon which we targeted Sept
February
A colleague on my office floor went under quarantine as his sibling was tested positive. From then on, I started working from home before everyone else did. I started to feel that COVID-19 was getting serious
March
Didn’t have to wear mask and didn’t expect it’ll be the last month this year where we could walk around freely unmasked. Started to familiarise with terms like social distancing and safe entry. Glad that we could do our gown wedding photoshoot. Also, we managed to go Yangon for holiday. On the last day of our trip, we saw the news that SG would be imposing 14-day SHN for those returning from other countries starting 2 days later. Extremely thankful we avoided that
April
Most hectic month of the year with lots of uncertainties because the government announced that circuit breaker (CB) would begin from 7 April 2020. Prior to CB, we quickly looked for jewellery shop which had local factory so that we could get our wedding bands before their shop closure. Luckily we managed to find one which could help us customise our ring size and get our rings done by 5 Apr.
We were also in search of a place to stay in early Apr. One week of madness viewing many units so that we could finalise on one before the start of CB, where no property viewings were allowed. On 5 Apr night, I found online a unit that fit my criteria, and 6 Apr we went to view the unit. On the day itself, we managed to negotiate a good price and signed the OTP at 11 pm — one day before CB! Everything within 24 hours!
Upon signing, we had to figure out which law firm was allowed to operate, rush the banker to help issue letter of offer for mortgage despite their manpower significantly reduced so that we could meet two weeks’ OTP exercise deadline, and figure out how to do everything online. At the same time, not allowed to meet my fiancé during CB became a huge challenge in completing all the tasks. Thankfully, we got our bank’s Letter of Offer right on the last day of OTP deadline with a super good mortgage rate, and I managed to exercise it with a barely working conveyancing law firm.
Right after, we started searching for ID and contractors for renovation. Met a few IDs online and decided to stick with ID instead of contractors (best decision ever). Signed up with a reputable ID firm and managed to get steep discount for reno as it was signed during CB.
The COVID-19 cases continued to remain high, and there’s no sign of government relaxing the measures. That’s when Tun and I decided to postpone our physical wedding to December 2020, and prepare to hold solemnisation in a small setting in June.
It remained as an uncertainty whether hotels would be allowed to open in June, so we decided to plan for a safer alternative and came across a yacht service. On 5 Apr (you can imagine how crazy that day was coupled with house and ring), we went to see the yacht and decided to sign up with them as contingency plan.
May
Throughout the CB period, I managed to do workout with friends and eat healthy food prepared by my mum everyday. Never knew going to supermarket could be something we looked so forward to, as it’s the only outdoor activity we could do without much scrutiny.
Phase 1 started, where solemnisation was allowed to take place with 10 pax max. Inspired by a couple who had their online solemnisation via Zoom with 300+ attendees, we decided to cancel our physical wedding in Dec’20 and converted our solemnisation into a zoom setting inviting 200+ friends and family members. Tun and I were so happy and we continued with our planning and sending invites to friends/families. I joined chat groups which discussed about holding solemnisation during phase 1. The news from Registry of Marriage (ROM) kept changing and talking to different ROM officers led to different replies.
June
It wasn’t until two weeks before our wedding that ROM finally got back to us following multiple emails and calls — with bad news. They told us that we wouldn’t be allowed to hold the solemnisation on the yacht during phase one! We got a shock and was about to announce to everyone that our solemnisation will be postponed, as our minds were set on holding at yacht already. We gave ourselves another three days to see if the government would announce phase 2.
Our prayers worked – thank you Buddha. On the 3rd day, which was 15 Jun, the government announced 19 Jun onwards to be phase 2. We were so glad that everything started falling into place, and we could carry on with our wedding plan. We checked with ROM to confirm if we could hold it on a yacht. It took them a week to get back on approval, that was 5 days before our wedding date. We held on to our broadcast messages to wedding attendees, only to happily release them after ROM’s confirmation.
Throughout this entire period, we were lucky we didn’t have to change the venue stated on the marriage cert, which could potentially be a showstopper for our wedding to hold on the planned date.
Our wedding day 27 Jun came – surprisingly it turned out to be very fun and memorable– something I constantly reminded myself for this once-in-a-lifetime event. My family helped with the yacht decorations, we conducted our physical wedding with 10 pax on board and screened via zoom with the help of my BWM friends. We even had breakout sessions for phototaking and tried all sorts of interesting stuff like online guestbook!
On 26 Jun night, a day before our wedding, we also collected our house key (and rolled pineapple)! Amazed that we could get our house transaction done without any delay during CB and Phase 1!
July
This was the period where we fully understood how important dormitory workers are to us. Due to the rising cases at dorms, they were all quarantined and not allowed to work. Our renovation had no choice but to delay a few times even though the work was very minimal. Our built-in furniture was made in Msia and had logistics issues bringing over. Luckily, the ID firm came up with quick turnaround and we managed to start our renovation works in end Jul (3 weeks delay considered not bad).
August
Our renovation completed, and it far exceeded our expectation! That was when we realised how important ID firm is in ensuring quality despite shortage of manpower. We were so thankful that we chose a big firm, as many firms went bust and others had to increase renovation cost to cover the higher wages of local contractors. We managed to maintain ours at the rate discussed during CB (phew!)
September
Madness of moving house started. We waited for Lunar 7th month to be over, and took 3 weekends to move our stuff into our new place. We also shopped for plants, where I started picking up the hobby of gardening.
Special thanks to our colleagues and friends who sent over useful furniture/electrical appliances as housewarming/wedding gifts. We also had friends who came over and helped piecing up some accessories. And we finally settled in late Sept!
October
Got used to living without my parents and with my hubby after a few months. That’s when both Tun and I realised similar habits are important, and good to align all differences prior to marriage to reach an agreement.
I’m glad we did that earlier this year, such that our stay together has been really enjoyable. And Tun being a great cook, handyman and funny + loving husband certainly played a crucial part!
November
Lots of gatherings at home and working from home helped me improve my cooking skills tremendously. Gotta start doing regular work-outs to shake off the calories from the parties
December
More gatherings during the festive month! And my Dharma class completed our second round of Lamrim!
Reflection
This year has changed the way we think about working environment, social interactions, weddings, banking processes etc. Glad that digitalisation enabled us not to lose touch with one another, and keep things going. It's also a year where everyone took a step back and reflect on what matters most in life, especially during lockdown period. Glad to have spent more time with my family.
2020 would definitely be remembered with much fondness because so many of my life milestones took place! Let’s hope that 2021 will be a better year, where we can go out unmasked, attend social gatherings normally, and get to travel around again!
