Calling It Home

A simpler & stronger life abroad. One day at a time.

[pumpkinandlychee]

January 13 th

Today I went to the cinema with my mommy.

We watch Spy X family code White, It was so fun.my mommy also said it was interesting . Turns out ,in Japan

Cinemas we have to watch until the credits are finished.😂



[pumpkinandlychee]

I tried changing Anya forger to AI. So I drew.

[pumpkinandlychee]

First Year Abroad

28 Nov 2020 - 28 Nov 2021

Trying to put down our first year experience of living in Japan in words, is as difficult as trying to get Shahrin to cook us a basic meal for our Anniversary. Heh. Or perhaps equally as difficult as being in our late 30s and trying to memorise and make sense of kanji. But is worth the try.

Now excuse me while I try to figure out what and how to phrase it. Soon, I promise.

[pumpkinandlychee]

Here We Go, Japan!

28.11.2020

After an 8 month delay. We were supposed to be in Japan last March, but with the raging pandemic and border closures, all we could do was wait. It was a numbing wait to say the least. 8 months. And about 16 calls to the Japanese Embassy to ask “is the border open yet?” only to get a “sorry, not yet” over and over.

Fast forward - tons of paperwork, tests and super long hours of waiting later, we finally reached Narita to start our 14-day quarantine here. They say good things are worth the wait. I say damn straight it is!

Here’s to our new adventure, kids. Goodbye, Malaysia. For now.

[pumpkinandlychee]

Japan. October, 2019.

Pure happiness at Tokyo Disneyland - Tokyo DisneySea despite the rain and the massive crowd. Nothing can stop these two from having a blast of good time.

[pumpkinandlychee]

Time flies even when you are NOT having fun.

So November came and then before you know it, it’s already year 2020. By January, my dearest beloved Tokmun had been hospitalized twice and despite the smiles and the laughs in between, was still unable to keep any food or drinks down.

By February, Tokmun still was herself. Lucid and bright. Alert. A fighter. Fought her illness with whatever she had left. She left us forever on a Wednesday evening. 12.02.2020. I felt broken. I held her hands when she took her last breath, Safa by my side, Saif napping in the next room. Tokmun went so fast, “easy” as people put it and she had her glow on her face. Beautiful. This turns out to be the day that has a permanent etch on my mind. Sure, we had amazing amazing days together, laughed ourselves silly, shared stories and gossips... beautiful memories of her - but it’s how she wrapped her final days are the ones that will change me forever.

Al Fatihah. Ina sayang Tokmun. We all love you.

22.04.1936 - 12.02.2020

[pumpkinandlychee]

Exciting October

So life has (suddenly) been very excitingly overwhelming recently. 

1. I launched ORCA READS - an online book store featuring children’s books by local authors, with the possibility of carrying foreign authors in the future, and unique or collectible stationery! Massive leap for me as Amy & I put ORCAkids on a year-hold.

2. We are picking up Keiko book again. This book makes me smile silly every single time. 

3. We amped up our “What Do You Say, My Dear” book we originally wrote for Safa’s 2nd birthday and made the illustrations alive and cool - and we even had it printed and bonded for that professional magazinish bookish look.

4. We are working on one of our life’s passions; to write and publish our own books. Ideas! Ideas! 

5. We are heading to Japan this weekend.

[pumpkinandlychee]

Kehlsteinhaus, Germany. 26 September 2018.

I swear to God when I was scrolling through the photos of our Europe trip last year, I had so much to write down. Now zilch. Maybe eins or zwei things I have  off the top of my head now that I want to share, but Saif just woke up from his second nap. So, BRB. 

I hope I’ll be back in less than 6 months! 

[pumpkinandlychee]

BE AT IT

“Unpause! And BE AT IT again.” 

One of the constant things I tell myself.

[pumpkinandlychee]

Prince Court Medical Center (PCMC) : Checking-In/Out and In-Betweens

When I delivered Safa back in 2012, I was still working in IBM and got to reap the benefit of having my maternity partially covered by the insurance. In terms of admission, it was not a planned one as we rushed ourselves to the ER (after I had bad bouts of vomiting and diarrhea) and was wheeled up to the labor room, just to find that I was already 4cm dilated, at 35w6d.

5 years later, with Saif, things are different. I am no longer working and the hospital bills are entirely covered by Le Esposo. Admission wise, I had an elective cesarean so we had a date and time on when we should come and check in. 

So, this post is mainly to share some tips we learned from our latest experience at the hospital, especially if you are Self Paying.

THE CHECK-IN

Depends on your scheduled operation, go to the Admission and Discharge counter, along with:

Admission Letter from your doctor

Patient’s ID

Credit card, bank draft OR cash 

A deposit will be collected upon admission, based on the estimated costs your attending doctor put on your Admission Letter (also depending on the type of case and room requested). Once settled, a porter will show you to your room where you will be welcomed by nurses at the ward, and get you prepped for the Operating Theater (or labor). 

Shahrin filling in some forms eg. consent form, patient’s medical history etc while I was getting my blood drawn and dressed for the operation.

THE IN-BETWEEN(S)

Since you are already spending a substantial amount of dough for the professional services fee (ie obstetrician, anesthesiologist, pediatrician etc), for every surgical appliances used in the OT, for boarding and also for medications, why not save some cash by packing these items with you for your hospital stay:

For mommy:

Large disposable/ mesh panties

Maternity pads

Large wet wipes

For baby:

Diapers

Baby wipes

Baby oil

Do tell the ward nurses up front that you would like to use your own stuff. You can easily save around RM200 if not more. Why not, right? 

Parking

You will receive an in-patient label at the Admission counter, which is to be presented to the Parking Management Office at level B2 along with your parking ticket, and pay a flat rate of RM10/ day throughout your hospitalization. Normal rates can be found here.

Alternatively, there is a parking bay right across the hospital for RM5/ day. It is a walking distance, not to worry. 

Food 

Other than what you can find in the hospital itself, our go-to place to get cheap food nearby is at Ampang Point; Cozy Corner, McDonalds, KFC to name a few. Or you can go to Kg Baru for variety of “goreng-goreng” options, TAPAK, or worst case, the most convenient option of all - Foodpanda or delivery. Easy peasy!

Do read this pamphlet for more information on visiting hours and other general guide.

THE CHECK-OUT

The process of discharging is much faster if you are Self-Paying, for sure!

Payment

If you are footing the bill yourself, you can make payment either via:

Cash 

Credit card

Bank draft

Initially we wanted to use our debit card since we do not possessed any credit cards anymore since last year, in effort to be more financially independent. Heh. Problem with your debit card is (ours is Maybank Visa Debit), the maximum daily purchase limit is RM5,000, and RM10,000 if you have a fancy card like the Mastercard Platinum Debit. Which is insufficient. Lucky for us, Shahrin has a supplementary card (for desperately emergency cases) and suffice to say, the limit is as high as the sky. Credit to MIL for having good credit scores!

Personal cheques are NOT accepted though, we checked.

Discharge Process

Ward nurses will prepare a Discharge Slip for you once the bill is ready.

Head over to Admission and Discharge counter to make payment.

Receive release notice stamped on the Discharge Slip.

Retrieve your medication from the pharmacy.

Hand over the Discharge Slip to the ward nurses.

Pack up your bags and go home!

Side note, do fill in the survey forms (one for PCMC in general, one for the obgyn ward and the other for nursery) provided prior to discharging. Put in few good words and feedback, or name your favourite nurse and such, you know, it could go a long way in making someone’s day.

[pumpkinandlychee]

Never Gone

Two years and one new baby later, here we are again. 

Hello! 

Shahrin convinced me that I should start writing again, be it to pen down my occasional rambles, write reviews, share DIY ideas or simply to record our journey in all things parenting.

So here’s to a fresh start. 

One of the topics Shahrin and I argued about before I start writing again is, if blogging is still relevant. I mean, who blogs nowadays anyway? Who would actually still read blogs with the ever presence of more entertaining channels like Instagram where all you do is scroll down and drool over saliva-worthy food photos, double tap, scroll some more, convince yourself that the girl’s skin is not as flawless - that is just make up, still double tap, continue scrolling... yeah, you get the idea. Or there is Twitter, where you can find your daily dose of head slapping, finger twitching entertainment - Donald J. Trump.

So is it still relevant? We concluded, YES, blogging is still in. For various purposes such as to ramp up online businesses, gain subscribers, promote professional services, share recipes online, write celebrity gossips et cetera. For us, we just want to enjoy writing and hopefully one day, be able to share this with our kids, or maybe have them as guest-writers! 

To more posts to come. Continuously. Consistently. One can hope.

[pumpkinandlychee]

Cupcakes break! She had her first marshmallows too. Inspired by her “s’mores camping trip.”

[pumpkinandlychee]

Almost a Van Gogh? Class 01/48

[pumpkinandlychee]

[pumpkinandlychee]

Midnight Inaugural Post

Mainly to document my structured albeit random rambles on all things domestic. Family affairs, toddler fun (or mess), homeschooling dreams and mini DIY projects.

All in the spirit of AMELIORATING what can be ameliorated!

I have not written anything for more than two sentences since the day I turn “domestic”, I already have a bald patch on my head from hair-pulling, struggling to pen down my purpose of blogging.