Author archive
7 January 2022
Above: A train of SpaceX Starlink satellites. (Image credit: Marco Langbroek via SatTrackBlog) Leaving MIQ Today is my day of freedom! I was discharged from Managed Isolation & Quarantine (MIQ) at 1530. That’s 1h10 later than expected due to my delayed flight arrival 10 days ago. I consider myself very lucky to have managed to […]
2 January 2022
Above: Our daily (or twice-daily) walks are in the carpark and this adjoining courtyard. Increasing strictness of MIQ Today, I’m halfway through my 10 day Managed Isolation & Quarantine (MIQ) stay at Sudima Hotel Christchurch Airport. There have been some differences since my first MIQ stay over a year ago in 2020. New Zealand has […]
28 December 2021
Departing for Christchurch We boarded our replacement A350-900 around 0030, an hour later than its original departure time. Being Singapore, the ground staff started giving the boarding announcement inviting first the Business Class passengers, then high-status frequent flyers etc. Strictly per the manual. Then the senior staff member turned up and told all 27 passengers […]
27 December 2021
Leaving my hometown Having witnessed (but not personally endured) horror queues for domestic bag drop at airports a couple of times in recent weeks, I arrived at Kuching International Airport a little under 3h before my 1420 departure to Kuala Lumpur where I would self-connect to Singapore and then Christchurch. The AirAsia bagdrop area had […]
21 December 2021
Above: Putrajaya, the administrative capital of Malaysia. My flight to Kuching leaves at 1405. There are so many reasons to go to the airport early: Christmas rush, possible flooding along the way, reduced bus and train schedules due to the pandemic. I checked out from my hotel around 0900 and had a rather spicy thosai […]
20 December 2021
Killing the morning I was worried how I’d fill the day today. I only “have” to meet some Yemeni friends for dinner and go to the Petronas Twin Towers to see their Christmas décor. With the unexpected personal crisis that surfaced last night, I spent most of the morning in the room working through it. […]
19 December 2021
Breakfast in Melaka I didn’t need breakfast after last night’s filling dinner. But I went along for a coffee then got seduced by the pork congee. Text continues after this gallery. Eating in Seremban We set off around 1000 from Melaka headed for Seremban. Thomas had arranged to meet up with Janet, an […]
18 December 2021
We walked around the corner to a local coffee shop for breakfast around 0900. I had toast with kaya and butter while Thomas added soft-boiled eggs. Melaka’s old city wasn’t far away by foot. But due to a mis-navigation, we took a longer route which was fine as we checked out our proposed brunch venue […]
17 December 2021
Above: Never go wading through an ankle-deep flood as you may fall into deep open drains. I didn’t sleep that deeply through the night. Rather unusual for me. I set the alarm for 0600 for a 0700 transfer to the airport. As I was checking out at 0645, the transport had already arrived. We picked […]
16 December 2021
Above: The jetty at Uncle Chang’s. It was my last dive day this trip, starting with a 0445 wake-up again. I hadn’t bought anything for a quick brekkie and took a couple of biscuits with my coffee. I reported to Scuba Gen before 0600 and got picked up by boat, this time, around 0620. I […]