pucksmischief

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Going from one home to another.

After a week and a half at Home, in Singapore, the city and country of my birth, I’m on yet another plane to go home. I hesitate to call this a vacation because I’m literally going from one home to another but this break was much needed. But as I’m heading back, I can feel the stress that had melted away during this short time away climbing back.

Sigh. 18 hours.

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Doors

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Singapore to Melaka

There are several ways to get to Melaka. You can drive but that would involve having to pay the Causeway toll fee and gas. It cam get expensive but as my mom pointed out, gas in Malaysia is cheaper than Singapore so I guess you can make up for it. Pros: flexibility cons: waiting time to go through customs can get tricky

The second way is to go by coach. There are several found at the Queen St bus…

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Time to move on

Time to move on

About 2 weeks ago, the director of my department came into my office, in the middle of the day to talk to me. At the end of the discussion, it became clear to the both of us that it was time for me to move on. I kid you not when I say that I basically went through the 5 stages of griefin a span of 5 mins (because you know…WHOLE afternoon of patients…certainly can’t blow THEM off), and then went…

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Portrait of a cat

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How having pink eye is making me think twice about my health

How having pink eye is making me think twice about my health

The inevitable has happened. I have pink eye. Pink eye, or rather, viral conjunctivitis sucks. But as a contact lens wearer, I’m also really worried about a corneal ulcer. Which, this might very well turn out to be. Due to the fact that I have a high deductible insurance, I have yet to establish care here in the US. Which means I can’t really walk into any clinic and have them check if there is a…

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home sweet home?

Its been 6 months since I moved to the South Bay area and things are finally settling down into a rhythm.

The transition hasn’t been easy. The original plan was that I was going to continue working on my research project long distance. But I found it too difficult to keep the momentum going and to keep juggling and catching all the different pieces just got too much so I handed in my…

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I decided to walk on the same as an additional challenge to my regular morning walk. I did not realise how difficult it could be! I gave up after 15 mins.  But not before getting a snap of the pier.

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So beautiful but so impractical

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The pier

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Food court finds Last week was tough. We were both exhausted and we had hardly spent anytime together. But finally we were able to schedule some time together so we went out for dinner.

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Weekend.

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Foggy morning I took this photo a few days ago and the beau wants me to print it out.  Any idea how I can get it done cheaply?

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2017 has been a year of change and learning to roll with the punches. Here's hoping 2018 will be a bit less exciting.

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Adjusting to life as a housewife

So turns out being a stay at home wife really isn’t easy. For one thing, I’ve completely lost my independence. At this point, I’m kicking myself for agreeing to go on no-paid-leave. I’m also regretting not taking more active control of my money while I still had an active income. Don’t get me wrong. My husband isn’t being a tight-wad or anything. But he’s a car salesman. And car sales are not…

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Big move

So …. yeah. I finally did it. Made the big move to California to be with the be a. It’s been nerve wrecking and intense. Fodder for multiple entries. But my attention span has been rather limited especially with the thousand worries I’ve been carrying. But that’s ok. It’s a personal blog which means I write. When I want to. When I can. Right? Anyway with all the money worries we’ve been facing…

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On Saturday afternoon, while sitting on the bus to Johor Bahru, I wondered out loud if it was possible to go on a day trip to Melaka.

Turns out we can.

Except because we left Singapore in the mid-afternoon, our day trip was going to involve spending a night in Melaka. Which, really, isn’t a big deal.

So how did we do it? Simple. First, take a train to Bugis station and get on the express bus to Johor Bahru. There are many options but we chose the yellow express bus on Queen Street. When you buy a ticket to Johor Bahru, you are actually buying a ticket to Larkin bus terminal. Which, we later found out, is not the terminal at the Malaysian Immigration.

After you have cleared immigration, most people would turn right to go to the City Sq mall. Walk straight until the end where there are escalators and on Platform B, there will be buses taking you to Larkin Bus Terminal. Its located about 15 mins away from Johor Bahru center.

After alighting from the bus, walk to where the ticket counters are (you will pass by a few clothing stores, and some hawker stores). We basically got tickets for the bus that was leaving in 5 mins and hustled on over after forking over RM 20.90 per person.

Once we were on the bus, it was smooth sailing all the way (no restroom break, no jam!) and arrived in Melaka at 5.30pm. At this point, I was panicking a bit because we didn’t pack anything other than our passports and some cash. There was no change of clothes, no PLAN on where to stay for the night. After arriving at Melaka Sentral, we hopped on a taxi to Jonker St for RM20. Luckily, there was free wifi around the area where the church was. I whipped out the expedia app and swipped on the Holiday Inn because I desperately needed access to a computer for work purposes. It was a bit more expensive than I hoped and there were certainly cheaper options. But well. A business center was something that could not be compromised on. After that, we walked along Jonker street looking for food. I started off with some gula melaka iced latte at this hipster coffee joint belting out some old jazz classics.

The coffee is super sweet but so refreshing on such a hot humid day. After the drink, we wandered around Jonker Walk, buying random kueh from the various food stores, and tried on a few cheongsams. I almost bought a

I almost bought a kua but realised that my figure would probably change by the time I’m ready for my traditional wedding ceremony. And then we realised that we really needed to buy something to wear the next day. I was already wearing my green elephant pants so we bought 2 t-shirts from a store for the next day. Then we headed to Mahkota where there was a Uniqlo for the other neccessities.

We checked into the hotel and took a quick shower before heading out to Jonker walk again for the night market.

There were lots of quick accessories and more clothing stores. And a lot more food. We got more street food and a coconut jelly. I briefly considered getting a Henna but didn’t think my workplace would appreciate such impulsive behavior.

By the time we finished the walk, I was exhausted, and it was 9.30pm. So we headed back to the hotel where I proceeded to check my email. BIG mistake. I finished up my assigned tasks before heading back to the room to sleep for a few hours.

The next morning, we feasted on the buffet breakfast at the hotel before heading out again.  We climbed up Bukit St. Paul. Only the outer shell of the church remains.

After the brisk climb, we headed back to Jonker walk for a second breakfast. We found a chendol place that served quadruple duty as a currency, gem museum and tribute to Mao. They also had some nonya laksa. The chendol and laksa were both very good.

After getting our second wind, we proceeded to walk around the area again. We found one of the oldest mosque in Melaka, an old kwan im temple and more food stores.

But we were completely stuffed. So we settled for some curacao coffee instead.

After that, we headed back to the hotel, took another quick shower and checked out. Got a taxi back to Melaka Sentral and took another bus back to JB where we stopped for a quick dinner. Unfortunately, we were part of the unfortunate crowd that got stuck in JB immigration around 5pm. Took about 2 hours to clear immigration, another hour to finally board a bus back across the causeway. Luckily, clearing Singapore immigration was much quicker (30 mins) and we caught the first causeway link out of Woodlands. We then took a train from Kranji back home. The journey from JB to Simei took 5 hours. Maybe we should stayed another night in Melaka?

Daytrip to Melaka On Saturday afternoon, while sitting on the bus to Johor Bahru, I wondered out loud if it was possible to go on a day trip to Melaka.