Eating, Running & Living in Singapore
Eating Food, Glorious Food
It is no surprise that I find myself obsessed with food – after all, I am a Singaporean. We are a people who hold animated conversations about food while we are eating, who would comb the island far & wide chasing the promise of great food!
I find myself faced with the daily challenge of cooking for four people with very different palates. Being mostly vegetarian, it is interesting feeding Carnivorous Husband & Daughters.
Running out & about Singapore

Loving Husband & I joke that we run so that we can continue to eat the things we enjoy. The reality is that our metabolisms are not what they used to be and so we help it along any way we can. That said, we do enjoy being out there and hitting the pavement, albeit very slowly in my case. I also enjoy running for the Me-time it affords.
Living the Reflective Life
The Instagram & WordPress communities have transformed my thinking about my approach to food, running & to a larger extent, life. I have become more reflective and purposeful in the things I choose to do each day. I choose to leave a pile of laundry so that I can colour with Younger Daughter. I choose to heat up leftovers instead of cooking a complicated meal so that I play music with Older Daughter. I choose to give up a lazy evening watching a movie so that Loving Husband & I can run together. It’s all about purposeful choices.

In the attempt to give back a little of what these communities have given me, I have committed to this blog so that I may share what I have gained and hopefully, to encourage someone else on their journey.
Come along for the ride?
Peace, joy, love
Ju-Lyn
Yay! To purposeful choices… on on!
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Having read your posts, I am inspired to recover the time and energy I have squandered by making purposely choices to achieve what matters most to me, thank you!
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Thank You, for reading, and for the positive feedback! I look forward to following your journey.
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Thank you Ju-Lyn Tan for visiting & following Jaipurthrumylens! 🙂
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Thanks so much for following ZimmerBitch. I’m looking forward to sharing more of your thoughts and journey.
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Your interest in running makes me want to recommend reading Haruki Murakami’s What I Think About When I Think About Running. If you decide to give it a try, let me know what you think. 🙂
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Thanks for the book recommendation! Will try to get the book!
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Thank you for the like on my post. You have a lovely blog here and I look forward to following.
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Hey Ju-Lyn,
I just nominated you for the Blogger Recognition Award 🙂
You can check it out here: https://lateralligatorblog.wordpress.com/2016/08/25/blogger-recognition-award/
Looking forward to reading your post!
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Thank you for reading my blog & for the nomination, Prathima! I feel very gratified and touched!
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My pleasure Ju-Lyn! Can’t wait to read your post 🙂
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Hi Ju-Lyn Tan
Thanks for the follow! How have you been and how’s your blog doing?
I created a blogger tips group to connect with all my long last WordPress blogger friends, and to help all of us to learn from each other. I would love for you to share your knowledge in the group and connect with other bloggers. Here’s the link:
Blogger Tips Group
Finally, here’s a blog I thought you may find interesting:
The Ripple Effect of Blogging
Best regards,
Greta
Founder of Healthy Living
http://www.healthyliving894.com
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Susie sent me. Love your blog, so varied and interesting. Never been in Singapore, although it is on my wish list. Following you now.
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Welcome Cheryl! Thank you for reading and for the affirmation!
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Hello Ju-lyn, you’ve got an interesting blog here. I’m happy to be following you now.
– Amor
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Thanks Amor! So glad to have found you too!
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Ju-Lyn, this is a lovely about page and I enjoyed learning about you and your purpose for this blog. You sound like a wonderfully close loving family – I agree that being with each other is much more important than some cleaning or laundry. Those moments of drawing with your child are too precious to miss. Haha! I smiled in amusement at how you also have to cook various dishes at meal-times…I’m vegetarian, my husband is not and my son is in-between and fussier overall!! Makes for lots of pots and pans! The photo of your mother’s Popiah Feast looks delicious!! 😀
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Thanks so much for reading, Annika, and for taking the time to respond.
I am glad to find someone else who has to do varied cooking in a single meal – sometimes I feel a bit embarrassed telling others this.
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Ditto…I bet if more of us spoke out we’d find out how normal and usual this is!
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I really like the line ” I have become more reflective and purposeful in the things I choose to do each day”. I believe that we are the sum of all the choices we make, and knowing that, why wouldn’t we want to make the choices that add value to our life. Clearly you share that philosophy 💕
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Absolutely! So wonderful to find a kindred spirit!
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Thank you for commenting on my blog Ju-Lyn! Happy to have found yours!
Deb
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Good for you for being mostly vegetarian. Are there a lot of vegetarian restaurants in Singapore? We found some in Hong Kong when we visited there a decade ago.
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Thanks for stopping by, Steve.
The number of vegetarian restaurants is increasing. Most places will also serve a vegetarian option.
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By the way, what led you to choose the pseudonym Purple Pumpernickel?
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When I was growing up, I watched a Warner’s Bros Looney Tunes cartoon called The Scarlet Pumpernickel, which was a play on the The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy.
I was very taken by his name because I thought it was so funny, so when I started blogging, I was inspired to use Purple (instead of Scarlet) as a nod to Purple Prose, along with the funny sounding Pumpernickel.
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Thanks for your thorough explanation. I found a description of the cartoon:
http://looneytunes.wikia.com/wiki/The_Scarlet_Pumpernickel
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Hi Ju-Lyn,
Thank you for this introduction to your life. I can now picture you and your beautiful family as I read your posts.
Nancy
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Thank you so much for the affirmation, Nancy! Appreciate your taking the time to read and respond!
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Awesome, I have found a neighbor! I love visiting Singapore (one of the more redeeming factors about living in Batam in my opinion) and I never fail to go to Makan Sutra 🙂 This is a beautiful blog 🙂
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How fun: we are indeed neighbours! Thank you for taking the time to read and respond to my posts!
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What a fantastic presentation of yourself your family and your life. I love the bit about heating up the leftovers and separate the laundry into colors!!!
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Thanks so much, Viveka! for taking the time to read and respond!
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I absolutely LOVE your philosophy on food, running, and life. So much of what you say about letting things that don’t really matter go, to focus on the things that do matter, is what the Life Bus embodies. My post about my Bus driving into the ditch is exactly on this subject. For a while I let the things that shouldn’t matter as much, matter more than the things that should. Thankfully I was able to alter that behavior for the most part. Cheers to you and your family and to living life to the fullest.
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Julyn, I really like your idea of purposeful choices. Stuff gets done or not, but it’s our relationships with the people we love that make our lives worth while.
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Thank you for your affirming remarks, Sharon. Absolutely! it’s all about relationships!
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This is a lovely introduction of yourself, Ju-Lyn: what you enjoy, what you strive for, what is important to you. Very nice.
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Thanks Janet!
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You have a wonderful blog. Thank you for visiting ours. Have a great week.
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Thank you for your affirmation & kind words. And for taking the time to look at my site.
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Hi! I found you via Su’s monthly photo challenge. I’m an American expat living in Thailand so we are practically neighbors! We, too, also exercise so we can eat ALL the food. Hahahaha.
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So nice to meet you Lani! Where in Thailand are you? We love love love Bangkok for the gracious people & stupendous food!
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Wonderful. I can’t say that I’ve been to your neck of the woods, the higher prices have so far put me off, but Singapore is on the list!
We are in central Thailand, Rayong. Before this we were in the North, where my family lives.
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Lovely! I have only been to Bangkok, Phuket, and Chiangmai & Chiangrai.
I hear you – we have lived in Singapore for ages and we think it is very expensive!
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You have the right idea to balance food with exercise.
With age one has to cut out red meat, fat and sugar.
Because our body cannot keep up the pace of youth.
Singapore is a great place to live.
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Absolutely! It’s all about adjusting to the changes …
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I laughed when I read this. I adore Singapore – the colour & the food…especially the food. Did I mention the food?
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Hi Jo – so sorry this response is so late! Not sure how I missed your comment. When were you last in Singapore? And yes, The Food.
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So pleased to have come across your blog as I love everything about Singapore!
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Thanks so much for popping in to visit! Glad to meet you!
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A lovely “About” page, Ju-lyn. Good for your for running and staying healthy. And I’m totally in agreement about great food. If I lived in Singapore, I’d have to run everywhere to keep off the pounds. LOL. What I enjoyed most about your personal comments is your commitment to making mindful choices about how your spend your minutes. Wishing you peace and love and wonderful fun with your family. ❤
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Thank you so much for visiting and for taking the time to understand where I am at. I appreciate so much the connection you have extended.
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😀 My pleasure.
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Love the concept of “purposeful choices”. Definitely the right way to approach your life 👌🏻
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