Goodbye Singapore

As they say, sometimes you appreciate things more once they’re gone – or going. We talk to KRISTIN KEEN, who has spent a wonderful ten years in Singapore and is about to leave. She shares her thoughts and recommendations with us.

- KRISTIN KEEN

Tell us a little about you and your family. I’m American, born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana. My husband Jason was an expat in Hong Kong until he was 15. His British father grew up in Shanghai and his mum is Australian. Our three children, George (6), Sophie (3) and Annabelle (11 months), are third-generation born in Asia. They were all born in Singapore, at Mount Elizabeth Hospital Orchard.

We moved here in 2010 from Chicago, though Jason had previously lived here for a few years prior to our move together.

Where did you first live when you came to Singapore and why?

We started out in Robertson Quay as a couple with no kids. It’s a great place to get grounded and be right in the middle of things. We loved being on the river and all that it had to offer from a dining and entertainment perspective. We were there when Kith Café only had its one tiny location there!

We visited Singapore a few years before moving here – just for fun – and I remember walking past a massive construction site for a condo with hanging plants and the largest pool I’d ever seen. So, when my husband came out to find us a home, I remember telling him, “I want to live in that condo (Rivergate) on the river – the one that was being constructed when we were last there.” And we did!

Any other moves before you ended up here?

We’ve actually moved a lot. Once I found out I was pregnant with our first, I really wanted to move out of condo living and get our feet back on the ground. So, we headed to Bukit Timah and made two housing mistakes before landing where we are now. One was an old terraced house; once we moved in, we learnt very quickly that it had all sorts of problems. It was a nightmare and we ended up getting out of our lease – something you rarely hear of here, but it was that bad!