Limbo

Limbo is a rough place to be. We don’t know if we’re coming or going or maybe even staying. There is so little with this move that is currently within our control that we may have jumped the gun on the few things that are in our control. For example, as previously mentioned, we’ve rehomed the pets. We also chose a school for the girls (more on that for a later post) and supposedly they will be starting there in about three weeks. They’re also still enrolled in their school in the U.S. so I’m pretty much assuming they’ll be ready for college by next fall with two school’s worth of work.

Meanwhile, as the kids are enjoying what’s left of the summer, I’m itching to start purging the house of all the odds and ends (read: toys) we’ve acquired since our previous move a mere 18 months ago. I’m definitely eyeballing the kids’ odds and ends (read: toys) and their massive amount of stuffed animals as the first causalities of said purge. I’m also itching to get rid of a few pieces of furniture that I swore would have broken by now but by some strange, IKEA voodoo they have managed to stay intact.

Don’t even get me started on our vehicles. We have been in desperate need of a new car but when we learned we would be moving we quickly put that on a 3-year hold because we figured another few months in the vehicles wouldn’t be so bad. The problem is, between our two cars we barely have one fully functioning vehicle to safely move our family around. Our minivan is 17 years old with over 200,000 miles on it. One of the sliding doors doesn’t work, it’s rusty, and the bumper is zip-tied on after a recent run-in with a barrier. Our SUV is about 14 years old and has had no less than five lights on the dashboard for the last few months because the ABS was going out. Most recently it just flat-out did not start in what I suspect was a moment of AI awakening by putting its foot down so we didn’t kill ourselves. Needless to say, we fixed the problem but it was painful to drop $1,000 on a car we’re going to get rid of.

Even if our cars were in great shape we would not be taking them with us to Singapore. A big part of that is the cost of not only importing a car but also owning a car on the island. Plus, we’ve been told the mass transit system is one of the best in the world so we’re really banking on not being lied to (check out this site for more information about getting around in Singapore). An even bigger reason for not bringing a car to Singapore is because of the many requirements a car must meet in order to have it imported and our cars fail miserably. Such requirements as: Cars must not be more than 7 years old and must be right-hand driving. There is also a slew of requirements regarding emissions, fuel economy, etc. and honestly, they’re just really trying to prevent people like us from bringing in their zip-tied bumper mini vans on the island and I can’t say I blame them.

For more information on bringing a car into Singapore check out this website from the Singapore Land Transport Authority: https://onemotoring.lta.gov.sg/content/onemotoring/home/buying/upfront-vehicle-costs/import-a-vehicle.html