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for part2 of melancholic gal

Home sweet home....at last!

Bye bye to Israel forever! I'm finally back home in SG for good! Can't stop saying," it's good to be back..." for the past few days since I've been back. Btw, Turkish airline sucks! Wonder how the heck they got voted best airline in Europe for 2010 and 2011? They lost one of my luggages and guess where it finally turned up after 4-5 days later? In Mumbai, India! How the heck did it get to india?? I got a feeling that it must have gotten mixed up in Istanbul where we were in transit. Luckily, there weren't any important stuffs inside that luggage and its the luggage that went missing instead of my dog. Poochi is doing fine and is 'serving time' in the quarantine center. Oh well, now it's his turn to be the jailbird.

The last few days before the move was hellish....dun even felt like thinking back about it. Just wana erase those 2 years away from my memory. Right now, I'm enjoying life in SG, busy eating (put on a few kg), appreciating the conveniences of lives in SG which i used to take for granted, spending time with my families and simply enjoying being in my own cozy house. Thus, this concludes my blog for melancholic gal in Israel, which is my first ever blog. Maybe I might start another blog about life back in SG, I dunoe...right now, I'm just taking life one step at a time. The past is history, the future is a mystery but the present(gift) is right now. So, right now the present is also known as a gift and I'm enjoying the present and not worrying about the future for at least till after Xmas. Bye!

 

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Sukkot 2012

Yesterday was the start of Sukkot, a 7 days biblical holidays observed by Jews, also known as Feast of Booths or Feast of Tabernacles. During this day, Jews are supposed to make a pilgrimage to the Temple of Jerusalem and also built Sukkah (booths or tents like structures made from leaves or twigs) in remembrance of the fragil dwellings that the Israelites lived in during the 40 years of travel in the desert after Exodus from slavery in Egypt. They are supposed to eat and sleep inside these booths during Sukkot.

Above is a picture a booth or tent-like structure taken from the balcony in my neighborhood. It feels like camping to me....hehee....

Anyway, I was back from SG yesterday. It was good to be back home and the four days flew past very quickly. Managed to eat my good old chwee kway, Nyonya rice dumplings, Thai express, gong cha (for the first time), fish porridge, soya bean pudding etc...arghhh....so much to eat but only one stomach. Surprisingly, we din gain much weight becoz we've been 'LS' (diarrhoea) the past few days maybe not used to the food back home.

Our last food eaten in SG at changi Airport T1, soya bean milk with grass jelly and Mr & Mrs Happy donuts from Dunkin Donuts.

10 more days to go in Israel before I go back home in SG for good!

 

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Counting down....2 more days to go!

2 more days to my first home trip since coming here to Israel about 2 years ago. Time sure flies....

Already making a list of must eat food, like the Lao ban duo hua from old airport road, Hokkien mee, you tau foo, Nyonya rice dumplings, chili crabs, etc...food that can't be found anywhere else in this world except in SG, which i finally come to understand why this tiny island is also known as Uniquely Singapore. Mouth salivating just thinking about these food, *drool*....I am so badly missing the food man!

Most of all, I miss my cozy little home at Compassvale Link. There is no place on earth sweeter than your OWN house after all. I am starting to miss those little conveniences ( which I used to take for granted), like the 24 hrs NTUC, kopitiam, a clinic, MRT etc etc...all so conveniently located at my house downstairs. Heard that a fast food restaurant, Wendy's had also opened while we were away. Wonderful!

Yah...I am very looking forward to going back....it's time....enough already.....I'm tired....at the end of the day, I just wana go home.

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I discover Instagram....

 

Think I must be the last 'sua ku' person on earth to discover what is Instagram. I'm glad I bother to take the time to find out what it is coz its really fun! Happily playing with my pics now.... :)

 

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Rosh Hashanah 2012

Today, after sundown is the start of Rosh Hashanah which is the Jewish holiday. Its a 2 days holiday here. I think everywhere is closed, so there's nowhere to go anyway. JW and the newbies ( who came to replace Ah Teck and WZ ) were in Barcelona/Rome now. Since we already went there this year, we din join them for the trip. I can't remember what I did last year during this time but this will be my last Rosh Hashanah in Israel. Yeah......looking forward to coming back home! Due to some changes in hubby's overseas posting policy, he and I are now entitled to 4 home trips back to SG starting this month. This is like good news at such bad timing right....especially when we are going back officially next month. Arghhh!!! Plus, spouse's hardship allowance has increased to almost double starting now. Arrrghhhhhhhhhh!!!

Anyway, we decided to take one of the free trips back next week, stayed in SG for 4 days and then flew back here on 1 Nov to finish up the packing. The packing up is SUCH a hassle.....and nightmare. This is my third time packing up boxes for shipment to another country. I'm very tired of moving house. Its very stressful but luckily for the first time, hubby has time to help me with the packing. I'm glad he finally realized what a back-breaking task it is.

Noticed that people here eat dinner very late, about 9-10pm, which was when I heard a lot of clinking of glasses, chattering etc coming from my neighbors. Weather is becoming more cooler now and we dun need to switch on the air con at night anymore. Hopefully, it wont be so noisy tonight so at least I can get some sleep.

2.15am- woah sianz.....some looney bins singing and shouting near my house. These people here really dun sleep at night wan....

 

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Amsterdam

Stayed at this Doubletree by Hilton Amsterdam Central Station hotel during our 3D2N stay in Amsterdam. Very nice and clean place with Starbucks just downstairs. It's also very convenient as it is within walking distance to the cruise terminal and central station.

First stop after checking in, Van Gogh Museum. But before that, I went to dam square to get my shopping fix at H&M, Zara and MNG. Its slightly more expensive compared to Barcelona, especially MNG. Barcelona is still the best and cheapest place to shop in Europe, since my fave brands like Zara, MNG, Pull & Bear and Camper all comes from Spain. I dunoe whether H&M will be cheaper in Sweden but I highly doubt so since things in Scandinavian countries are all very exp.

Guess I quite enjoyed Van Gogh Museum. It's WAY much better than the Picasso museum I went to in Spain coz I din yawn till I cried. I like Van Gogh's art much better than other artist, maybe it's becoz of his vibrant thick strokes of painting. Somehow, it just look much more appealing to me. Hubby enjoyed it very much of course, since he loved going to museums. Sadly, no photography allowed inside the museum.

Taking at break at the cafe.

After the museum, we walked along the canals.

By the way, you must be very careful crossing the road in Amsterdam, coz u need to look out for buses, trams, cars and most of all, cyclists. There were SO many cyclists on the road, it seemed that everyone in Amsterdam owned a bike. Touring the city by bike is also a BAD idea unless you are an expert cyclist. I had seen many people falling off from their bike and some tourists who are so fed up that they ended up walking with the bike...

Next day at Zaanse Schans, a pretty little place at the outskirts of the city.

It's a must to see some windmills in Holland,

milk a cow,

Wear a wooden clog shoes..

Pet a sheep ( poor thing wearing such thick woolley coat in this burning hot weather without a shade of tree. Guess they forgot to shave him)

And eat this very expensive pancake (€12)

Basically, it's a very nice touristy place. Would have enjoyed it more of the weather wasn't so hot.

The following day and also our last day in Amsterdam, we went to the Rijkmuseum and took a canal cruise after that. The above picture is a very popular spot near the museum. It's like a MUST to take a picture with it if you go to Amsterdam. We managed to get this shot with hardly any people coz its very early in the morning.

Noticed that a lot of paintings in the museum had portraits of men wearing these white fluffy flying saucer thing around their neck. Could it be a Dutch fashion thing in those days?? Anyway, the museum was quite boring to me. Noticed that most Dutch paintings were quite dark in nature.

One of the most famous painting, the Milkmaid. Think this was my fave among all the paintings in the museum coz it looked pleasing to my eyes.

Kinda regret taking the canal cruise coz the weather is too freaking hot that day! Felt like I'm trapped inside this oven for an hour, that I almost puked. There's no aircon as its open top and no fans.....Btw, the river water was dark and murky with plastic bottles and litters floating around. Surprisingly, there were no bad odors.

In a nutshell, Amsterdam is a vibrant and touristy city yet a scenic and very multi-national place. Its not as dangerous as i thought. No, I din try any of the space cakes but I did went to the famous red light district and was amazed by how good looking the prostitutes were. It was such a touristy and crowded place that it felt more like a theme park rather than a red light district. Also, there were no such thing as a free public toilet. Even in a shopping mall, inside a fast food restaurant, you need to pay €0.50 to use a toilet. Guess its very common in Europe but i still think its ridiculous to pay even €0.50 to use the toilet inside KFC which we dined in. Think the only toilets that were free to use were the ones inside the museum (since we already paid for the entrance tickets) and those in the airport. However, you will be amazed that it's actually possible to take the public transport for free, especially for metro trains coz the gantry gates were always wide opened or no gates at all and nobody checks for our tickets. It's like, we bought the tickets for our train back to the airport 2 days before at the train station. 2 days later, we towed our lugguages, walked into the station, up the platform, boarded the train, get off the train at the airport while the tickets were still inside our bag untouched all the while. I guess ALOT of people din pay but we just pay coz we dun wish to get into any troubles....

 

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