fuchsia fragments

Not my kind of weekend and not to mention that the tickets for a less than 48 hours trip was so expensive! It's school holidays and I couldn't even pick the airline I wanted to fly! Still no need to fly AirAsia though... phew... actually, I would probably just not have bothered going. Only reason I went for cause I have a friend doing the Asia tour before going home.

So KL: the dirtier, cheaper, nastier version of Singapore. 

No, really. I said it to my colleague last week and he wholeheartedly agreed. Why so many people want to travel there is beyond me (us).

What did we do? Oh, not much cause no one planned anything and someone complained about the heat a lot.

So we walked in the middle of the day when it was the hottest (around 39 degrees) for almost an hour to get to this durian place (I don't eat durian, but I guess you could say it wasn't totally a waste because I managed to pick up one or two souvenirs for people). Here's the photographic proof:


Apparently there's a lot of varieties - sweet, bitter, expensive, cheaper. It's not durian season by the way and they literally sold nothing but durians (and coconuts which I wasn't going to try since I dunno where that knife has been. It had like rust growing on it. I think I'd rather dehydrate). OMG is it supposed to be an attraction?

We also went to a famous Nasi Lemak place - The Village Restaurant or something - which was an uber outside of the city centre. It was okay but again, super busy, super hot. Worth a try. And it's a good thing uber is cheap because their public transport system doesn't work so well.

Nasi Lemak followed by durian followed by rain so we went back to the hotel and the adjoining shopping centre. Went to Jalan Alor for dinner and drinks and I'm glad I suggested it cause it could have turned out to be a sorry evening. The street is always fun and the food we had was decent: stingray, satay, coconuts, fried noodles, coconut ice cream... yummo.

Back to hotel to sleep... a lot...

Sunday... pretty wasteful day. Morning in Chinatown which was nice to see all the food vendors. Wish i tried to Cheong Fun and Congee. But did get to try the egg tarts and soy bean milk which was bang on. We had lunch or brunch at the Old Town Cafe. Very old school inside and had some good Malay chinese dishses. Then it was back to the mall to waste the rest of the afternoon until my flight. Yeah, why did I spend over $300 for plane tickets when I could have done the same thing in SG? *feeling cynical*

Think the air con / hot weather / air con temperature fluctuation finally caught up to me and I was hit pretty hard for a few days with a cold that really knocked me out. Was home from Monday afternoon until Thursday and although I knew I'd be fine, my colleagues were genuinely concerned with a few of them offering to drop by with food, medication and company. Didn't expect that!

So a couple of them did come by on Wednesday evening and took me out to dinner (knowing that I don't cook here). It was nice but they were pretty mean and said I looked like crap :( Embodying the 'tell it like it is' mindset...

Got asked some funny questions like 'do I have a buddy here?' (someone who will check up on me if i go AWOL). Do I know where the doctor is? What's the emergency number?.... slightly aghast to admit that I don't know!

Got a busy busy week coming up and having to prepare for it feels like going back to uni again. I have been studiously reviewing case studies and writing notes... it is so tiring! Today was also the first full Sunday I spent at all without going anywhere, not even a walk along the river.

Tapping out at 98... what an innings. Thank you for our flat nose and our black hair. For keeping the family together.

Till your dying breath, you lived by what you said. I am so happy that you are now resting in a place free of pain and in peace.

We love you so so much grandma.

Back in Sydney again for a few weeks due to my grandma's health declining (mostly due to old age). It's caused a lot of stress in the family and it really has been a roller coaster these past few weeks. In many ways, it's brought the family together (yum cha, dinners, sharing photos) but it also reminds me that sometimes, it's not all happy days and fun memories.

But I can definitely say that old childhood years were some of the greatest. I look up to so many of my cozzies like big bros and since we use to live so close to each other. Plus had to stick together since we were one of the few asian families in the ghetto... hehehe.

The heat is so Sydney and so different to SG! Love it and hate it at the same time... think I am using air con here more than I do in my apartment. Overnight temperatures at a low of 28 degrees is not normal!

Been trying to catch up with friends and here I will openly admit that I am being selective. I've run into some randomly and caught out to peeps in the extended group (haha, oops). I've tried to meet up with others but had to postpone due to hospital visits but I do want to see peeps.

Working from Sydney on SG hours also doesn't help (basically means I stick around online for around 12 hours) but I don't take for granted the flexibility offered by my company. Love catching up on the stuff that goes around Sydney.

In the whirlwind that is December, it has been a crazy month of working, trying to bake and organizing a very short trip home for the holidays.

It started with what to get everyone in the office for Christmas (next year, I will be more prepared and get things when I am back in Australia!). I managed to make a few gingerbread houses and some gingerbread trees for everyone as well as safe bets of nuts and hand cream! Think it went down well...

Then there was the last minute decision to fly home for 6 days whilst supporting SEA at the same time! So short, so tiring but so worth it. There is truly no place like home with crazy family gatherings that seem to grow in size every time.

And every time that I come home, there is usually a flurry of the same announcements. When I was home from Japan, it was wedding invitations and this time, it was the "I'm having a baby" announcements. So far, know of 4 babies due in July and 1 coming in April... how exciting!

Then, as it is still a PH in Sydney today (not that I get Australian PH anymore), I came back to work to a whole bunch of gifts and warm wishes on my desk. Certainly makes coming back to work a lot easier! And got some pretty cool stuff (and lots of food).

I've been in Singapore for just shy of 4 weeks now and it's been a relatively easy transition so far. My colleagues (and friends) have been pretty supportive from offering to help me move in, go shopping with me, go out for lunch and set up bank accounts etc.

Setting up a bank account here without a new place is a bit of a nightmare and a catch-22. I need a bank account to be able to put down a security deposit and bond but I can't set up a bank account without an address! And to top it off, had issues with my name since all my Australian bank accounts had first name + last name but passport and EP had first name + middle name + last name.

Work hiccups included not being able to download my emails (which turned out to be stored locally on my old laptop). Luckily I was able to get my laptop written off in oz and have it sent here or I might have cried... that's over 3 years worth of emails! Plus my laptop was so much better than the one they gave me here... haha.

I found a place within the first 3 weeks of arriving which was awesome. In the area I was looking in, within my budget and reasonably sized. I was so excited to go to IKEA on Friday evening to get things for my new place!!! Another thing I'm grateful for: my jetsetting parents for spending a few days here and doing all the heavy lifting and transporting all my stuff (and I managed to bring a LOT) to the new apartment while I went to work. Seriously would have taken me all weekend without them.

Bought some appliances today and most things are cheaper here but the sales people really try to push you towards one direction to the point it gets annoying!