The work desk

Heard on TV (earlier in July :p), something about how many people were not equipped to work from home when the pandemic hit. 

I cannot understand. The underlying statement here is that these were people who could work from home, but what was happening before the pandemic? They worked long hours in office? They worked on their bed? They had no need to bring work home??

I remember I was surprised when I heard from a colleague that she worked on her bed whenever she requested to work from home to take care of her sick cat. (That was before the pandemic. Later, due to pandemic WFH, she bought a desk.)

Really, I thought everyone would have a desk for work. I mean, if you're working, you have the means right? And a desk can be very small to suit small spaces - like those in schools. 

I grew up hearing about 书房 study on TV but not having one. What a wonderful idea that is, a room of books and for studying!

In my early schooling years, I would sit on the floor in front of the coffee table in the living room to do my homework. (Don't know why coffee tables were such a thing - we never had one in three homes.) Later, I shifted to the dining table, double the size of the coffee table. 

I also used to read one whole week of accumulated newspapers at the dining table from P5, while the rest were watching TV at night. That stopped only when we stopped getting free newspapers. I never like reading them anyway :p (But now I read the digital version.)

The dining table was probably where I spent a lot of time studying. Homework in the afternoon, packed away for dinner, homework in the night, revision. 

I remember studying for exams at the dining table in secondary school. Somehow I have this image of me poring over a geography textbook in the kitchen under the glaring fluorescent light, everywhere else dark. Oh how I hated geography, haha!

Then there were those endless maths tutorials in JC, each question taking up to 30min to solve. The dining table was full by then - the one-page tutorial with references to 10-year series (TYS) books, the TYS books, other homework, the foolscap pad I was using, stationery etc.

In university, each bedsit came with a desk. Mostly proper desks - I had a small desk supplemented by a dressing table (!) in my first year.

During the summer back in Singapore, I would sit on a stool next to the telephone table (seriously) in order to use the internet - it was still dialup for me!

When I first started work, I seldom brought work home coz we were using desktops. At most brought papers home to read. But soon enough, I got a laptop. Where do I work? I can't remember - probably the dining table again, or the sofa since it was just one item. But when the need to send/receive emails arose, I worked next to the phone again!

I vividly remember one night, sitting on the floor with the laptop on the stool coz too hot, logging on to send papers off for a meeting. And shortly, I received an SMS from a colleague telling me something was off with a paper. We carried on like it was nothing strange doing this at 2 am *.*

It wasn't until after the upgrading that (1) we finally got broadband and (2) I had a proper desk! That was life-changing man... That desk was also my dressing table and bedside table rolled into one.

When we got married and moved to our own home, we had one desk to share. I don't remember why when both of us tended to work a lot at home after hours! Eventually, after the MBA, Sito worked more overseas so I took over the one desk almost completely. He used the desk sometimes but else it was the bed for him.

Then when we moved to Bukit Panjang, again, we had one desk! That was clearly MINE! Though I recently saw a photo of Sito using it too :p It wasn't until the pandemic that we bought a second desk as Sito had to work full-time from home too.

And now, we have a 2m desk with a drawer cabinet dividing it into two parts, one for each of us :) He spends more time at the desk. The boys spend time here too, even though they have their own desk already. They like to crowd together. I often find all four of them here. 

In the picture below, Kai was working on sthg on his own with his brothers on the floor, getting a respite from the heat outside. Thanks for saving on aircon bills? :p But this means no space for me, grrr...

Recently, Kai was studying a lot in his room to prepare for PSLE (last day today, yay!). I'm so glad he has the space which I didn't have as a child. Later in December, we will also shift Yu's bed out of Yang's room so that they get their own space as well - Yang would be in P5 next year, need to study more without the monkey monkeying around...