By EchoLive.ie
Tell us about your roots in Cork, Elaine, and about where you currently live:
I grew up in Crosshaven, an idyllic harbour village overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, and, like all Corkonians, I’m acutely aware of my profound good fortune for this particular accident of birth.
My walk to school as a child brought me along the river and passed the house my grandfather was born in, so we’ve been there a while, couched in family and family history.
My childhood memories are impossibly nostalgic for half-wild summer holidays, as Crosser would have to be, smelling of seaweed and salty air on walks around the bays with Grandad Long, who came down most Sunday afternoons from Gurranabraher in the far away city in Granny’s bright red mini.
I remember the sounds of his melodic Cobh accent regaling me with daft stories or riddles, or the music from the merries, or more often a foghorn.
I also recall the tasting of sandy orange ‘icelols’ on Fountainstown Strand if the big cousins were home from England, or going out to White Bay if dad took the boat out.
If places shape you, Crosshaven certainly did shape me – it remains a very special place, but people shaped me too, being one of ten siblings.
Of course, logically there must have been other seasons as well as summer, I suppose I spent them in school up the hill, beyond the church, endlessly studying or playing all the sports possible.
By the time I got to secondary school, I had swapped the beach and the outdoors for the gym hall, with a little club in Togher that became my second home and my second family – Cork Gymnastics and Sports Acrobatics club – and my highly cherished ticket to the wider world, but that’s another story.
By shuddering contrast, I live in Singapore today, a mesmerising young city of six million- mostly immigrants, where my red hair draws mistrusting stares and my accent is hilariously misunderstood.
Singapore turns 60 years old this August, with much jubilation. There are three official languages here: Malay, English, and Mandarin Chinese.
It’s a tiny island land mass about the size of County Waterford, not quite as good at hurling, though improving!
When, and why, did you move there?
Me, my husband Frank and son, also Frank, relocated to Singapore in summer, 2019, due to my husband’s work. At the outset, we expected it would be a two-year adventure and treated the experience as an extended holiday.
My driver for the move was to see as much of south-east Asia as possible in the limited time we had.
As these things always go, it turned out to be much more limited, as covid-19 stunted my ambition.
How is life in your new home?
Back in 2019, the first order of business was a school for my son. He went from 6th class in a rural primary school, with around 200 kids where he knew everyone, to a huge, slick, international school campus with about 3,500 kids from pre-K to Grade 12.
It was an overwhelming amount of change to take on.
Luckily, the school had strong mentorship for new pupils (thank-you, Mr Wright) and the Mr O’s were fantastic.
The Mr O’s were a group of three Irish teachers whose full names were impossible to manage for the expat tongue. My son found a familiar accent a huge blessing at school, even if he was given more work!
What has been the biggest challenge? And how have you tackled it?
The first six months of our move, we were settling in and getting set up. We took a couple of short weekend trips to the nearest Indonesian island of Bintan and the school trip was to Yogyakarta that year.
The first Christmas we went home to Cork, to tackle the homesickness a little bit, and see the grandparents.
Lunar New Year in late January early February is a big holiday in Singapore, so we took the time off in Taipei, Taiwan.
We were starting to plan the travels for 2020 when the world came to a standstill. The pandemic was a challenge for everyone, but being locked down so far from home was especially stressful. The rules in Singapore are infamously inflexible, so my biggest fear was that my son would be isolated from us, in hospital, if he got sick.
However, controls were so good here that almost no-one got sick, everyone wore masks, socially distanced, scanned the track-and-trace QR codes everywhere, and eventually got the vaccine according to age profile.
Home schooling only lasted about a month or so, because of the successful social restrictions, but even home schooling was quite easy, given the pre-existing high-tech environment of the classrooms in most international schools.
At the worst, the swimming pool closed and I could only go for one run a day, eggs and rice were somewhat rationed, but I didn’t run out of toilet paper or sliced bread.
Things were just starting to get back to normal when we got the news that our Asian adventure was over, it was time to move again, to the U.S this time. That was 2021, we hadn’t been home since Christmas, 2019, and, after a lot of debate, we went head over heart, and flew direct to New York, so as not to risk getting stuck in a layover city or in Ireland, and not being allowed into the U.S if we tested positive for covid-19.
The rules in Singapore at the time were still at the stage of: you could meet one person from outside your family group at a time, so goodbye parties were impossible. We left a desolate, dark Changi airport quietly.
Our next chapter was to be based out of northern Pennsylvania, in a small town called Danville where covid was completely over and forgotten about. We were the only ones wearing masks! It was the U.S of Biden, but a lot of Trump flags were still flying in PA.
It’s hard to describe the warmth of the welcome the Danville community gave us, a tsunami of goodwill, from neighbours, school, work, and daily on the street.
It was a huge adjustment again, but a very positive two years, with life-long friendships and another new perspective.
How might you spend your weekends?
Unlike in Singapore, we had little choice but to buy cars straight away in the U.S. We spent our weekends exploring the state parks and eventually did some epic road trips.
Some highlights were being close to New York, catching up with long-lost relations, attending the 5th Avenue Paddy’s Day parade, and Riverdance, only outshone by seeing Katie Taylor beat Amanda Serrano at Madison Square Garden.
We drove to Lake Erie to the north, Gettysburg and Washington DC to the south. We flew to Chicago, New Orleans, or Miami for a long weekend and took the opportunity to see the Grand Canyon and the big national parks in Utah by RV for summer holidays.
Before we left the U.S in 2023, we drove to Charleston, Savannah, to Graceland and Nashville, trying to tick as many boxes as possible.
Tell us a bit about the culture of where you live?
I am now back living in Singapore, and the culture both here and tin he U.S seems to me to revolve mainly around food.
My favourite discovery was the walking tacos at Friday night high school (American) football. We were weekly attendees, not least because the Danville Ironmen win every week!
In Singapore, food culture is also central to every activity and every activity happens at the Hawker Center.
Among the culture shocks, was my first run- in with the large brawny arms of the law, in PA. Don’t worry, I was let off with a warning.
Like something straight out of Chips, the cop at my door told me to park my car in the opposite direction. My car, parked at the kerb outside the house, was pointing in the wrong direction and someone had reported it. To be fair, I’m quite sure I shocked them more than they shocked me!
That’s the biggest difference between Ireland and anywhere I’ve lived so far, we allow more space between the lines.
Tell us about your line of work/career?
I technically retired once we started moving continents every second year. My current role involves packing and unpacking boxes and suitcases, arranging new leases and utilities, setting up banking and schooling, but mostly holiday planning now that the pandemic is over and I have a second shot in Singapore.
What has been your most memorable moment in your new location so far?
Attending graduation last month. I was especially proud of my son entertaining the crowd with a piece of music during the graduation ceremony.
What are you looking forward to in the coming months?
I’m counting the days to the next family reunion, in July, celebrating dad’s 80th birthday, as close as possible to the top of Carrauntoohil.
But first, a few days at home in my mum’s kitchen, eating only proper sausages, Clonakilty black pudding, and Brennan’s bread, listening to all the news, and setting the world to rights, which answers the last question about my perfect day in Cork, as well as what I miss about Cork. It’s family.