Having slept through most of my flight home from Singapore, I was sure that I had overcome the 18-hour jet lag when I returned to work Tuesday morning. But after a week of imaging monkeys at the Primate Center, complex surgeries in the OR, and overbooked clinics on Wednesday and Friday, I was back in a state of exhaustion. On Saturday, I managed to stay awake through all the resident and fellow research presentations, and enjoyed a funny faculty roast at graduation. But after waking up to disappointing chicken rice for breakfast on Father’s day, I crashed on the couch for the rest of the afternoon. This flipped my schedule back to Singapore time, and made for another discombobulating week, with a healthy dose of tryptophan from more chicken rice that sent me to food coma early each night. I was lucid enough to set up new dual 34″ curved ultra-wide monitors, which now allow me to tile 6 windows across the desktop, but little real estate left on my actual desk. By the end of the week, Melody was already packed for our trip to Greece, while my new spinner was still empty. Fortunately, my in laws are arriving early tomorrow to take care of Westley, so I’ll be able to squeeze in some last minute packing.

I was fortunate to be accepted into the Macula Society this year which held its annual meeting in Singapore for its 40th anniversary. Although Melody could not join me, I was excited to experience the city’s unique blend of cultures and cuisines, with many similarities to Hong Kong from British colonial influence. I departed Monday afternoon and slept through 12 of the 15-hour flight from SFO thanks to my recent sleep deprivation. Since my room was not yet ready, I found an ATM and some laksa at a nearby food court for breakfast, then made my way to the Jurong Bird Park. After a morning of avian photography and high-flying bird shows, I checked into the hotel, then lunched at Chatterbox for their famed chicken rice before attending the meeting’s first session. Our lavish welcome dinner took place at the hotel’s Line buffet, which left me uncomfortably stuffed before bedtime. Next day, I felt like a kid in a candy store at Food Republic, but only had room for chicken rice and tea rice. I walked off my lunch with a visit to the Raffles Hotel and Merlion Park, navigating the vast underground malls and sipping milk tea until I reached Chinatown. Here, I checked out the Thian Hock Keng and Buddha Tooth Relic temples, took an audioguide tour at the Chinatown Heritage Center, and shopped for Chinese imports at Yue Hwa. The long day left me less social at the New Member reception, but I redeemed myself at dinner with my mentors by breaking out the Cantonese and ordering a spread of seafood ranging from giant prawns to chili crab. On Friday, I awoke in time to receive my travel grant, then went to sample the world’s cheapest Michelin-starred meal at Liao Fan Hawker Chan. From there, I hopped on the clean, efficient subway to the Gardens by the Bay, where I endured the summer heat to peruse the impressive horticultural display before joining the evening gala in the Flower Dome. My basic science talk was relegated to the last morning of the conference, but I was happy with the positive feedback. With the meeting’s conclusion, we celebrated our fellow’s award over dim sum, then headed to the Singapore Zoo. Despite the intermittent rain, we appreciated the unique fauna like giant fruit bats and pygmy hippos. Having purchased tickets in advance, I stayed to visit the Night Safari also, completing my comprehensive yet exhausting wildlife tour. I spent my last day back in the city to round out my culinary adventures, starting with kaya toast and soft-boiled eggs with milk tea for breakfast in Kampong Glam. From the Sultan Mosque, I made my way to Tai Hwa Pork Noodle for my second Michelin-starred hawker meal. The two-hour wait got me behind schedule, so I skipped my laksa stop for delicious, aromatic bak kut teh. I returned to the hotel to pack my stash of Prima Taste packets from the Mustafa Center, then joined my friend Yvette for a light dinner followed by drinks at Ce La Vi atop the Marina Bay Sands. Our view of the city from above on this last night was breathtaking, and I was left with fond memories of this jewel of a city.

With summer weather approaching and many personnel changes in lab, I decided to host a lab BBQ at my house to let people hang out outside of work. Having learned from hosting a BBQ with the retina folks last year, we didn’t bother with homemade skewers or quiche, sticking instead with burgers, hot dogs, and prepared salads from Costco, along with some curried wings which were a hit. We assigned drinks and desserts to guests, which led to a glut of extra sweets that fortunately the undergrads were more than willing to take home. Sadly, Westley broke out in a heat rash and did not cope well with all the new faces. He managed to warm up a bit when we invited our in-laws afterwards to tackle the leftovers. My call week for the Memorial Day weekend was quite busy, but we did manage to enjoy some dim sum with the fellows, having missed Chinese New Year earlier this year. We also stopped by Planet Granite and Medimer to browse marble remnants, and took advantage of online holiday deals for more compact luggages for work travel. Having pulled several late nights to catch up with clinical duties and manuscript preparation, I ran on little sleep and ended up losing my wallet last week. Between getting my credit cards and wallets replaced, and squeezing in a DMV visit for a new license, I felt ill prepared for this whirlwind weekend of our department’s Napa symposium and the iOCT Summit in Cleveland. After Friday morning clinic, I drove to Napa for some oysters and chowder, only to suffer from food poisoning that kept me from enjoying dinner and left me dehydrated on my red-eye to Cleveland. I arrived at the Cole Eye Institute at the crack of dawn Sunday, and relied on coffee to keep me awake through North Coast Retina in the morning and my talk in the afternoon. With little time to catch up with friends, I flew back to SFO that evening, briefly dining on delicious beer-battered cod with rosemary fries at Bar Symon at CLE. I had trouble keeping my eyes open on the drive back to Napa for my quick overnight Airbnb stay before my Sunday morning talk to the department. Exhausted, I was relieved to return home for lunch with my family and my friend Yao, before having to pack again for a trip to Singapore tomorrow. While it feels nice to be popular at times, I just don’t think I’m cut out for the jetset life.