I’m finally on my return flights back home! Well, I have to take 2 flights home since I am flying back from San Francisco. I am so done with flying for the year. I think I took the most number of flights in this year as compared to other years. By the end of this trip, I would have taken 11 flights. Now I am on my 10th flight for this year. Well, I had my personal trip in Seoul back in May 2023. Then a business trip in October 2023 in Seoul followed by another business trip and personal trips in November and December 2023.

I also spent the most money this year as well. 2024 will be a year of major change in my life – hopefully positive changes.

I didn’t blog when I flew from PHX to LAX but I am blogging now while flying from LAX to SFO. Technically this is supposed to be part 4 of my flight series…

I don’t think I will be going back to LA if I ever get another chance to fly to US. I will probably go to New York the next time – hopefully next year? I might have to transit in Europe/Dubai if I were to fly directly from New York to go back to Singapore.

I will need to start saving money for it though since New York is more expensive. Well, let’s see if there is an opportunity for me to fly to US again. Quite tiring tor fly long distance but I think I am getting used to flying to US. I know what I need to do for my flights. I now know a standard flight routine which I am quite comfortable with it. That’s after having 9 flights in 6 weeks this time round. That’s an average of 1.5 flights every week. Lol. Visiting 6 different airports in 6 weeks – an average of 1 unique airport per week. I’m definitely spending quite a bit of money these days. Lol.

Moving on to the next flight across the Pacific Ocean, I did manage to sleep a bit – maybe less than 2 hrs? I’m glad that I brought my CISSP practice test papers digitally too. It’s kind of a better use of time to study instead of watching shows, I guess? Well, I failed my previous CISSP exam and have to retake it. I really should study harder and spend much more time for it in my second attempt. Each exam attempt is not cheap… Well, things I have to do to stay employable lololol.

There were more turbulence in my second flight and it is making my stomach feeling a bit weird. Argh, it is still quite a long way to go.

I started watching Divorce Lawyer Shin on Netflix as well.

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. Well, for me, when life gives you lemon, I make lemon juice. At least it has vitamin C to combat illness and keep you healthy right?

Well, the next few weeks or maybe even months will be tough. Praying for good news and smooth recovery ahead.

I am glad that I have support from my friends and it is in times like this, I value the close friendships I have. I’m just trying to be as optimistic as I can now.

Anyway, I have to fly to US next week for work and also extending 1 week for personal vacation time in US. The positive side is that I won’t be alone most of the time so if anything happens to me, I will be taken care of. 🙂

I’m also pushing myself to the limits and entering the uncomfortable zone at work. I was chatting with one of my work mentors and he felt that I am going in the right direction. He told me to make sure that the conversation keeps flowing when you are talking to senior leadership. Prepare some stuff to present or talk about just to keep the conversation going. Do some research on the person you are going to talk to helps too. I’m going to try all these methods when I am in US next week. Hoping to push my career to the next level while balancing all other aspects of my life.

Sometimes I am quite amazed by my resilience. I wonder when I will meet someone who truly appreciate who I am and all the awesome aspects of myself haha. As well as not take me for granted after some time.

“Sometimes u jus hav to trust the planning u already did and jus go along.”

Something that one of my close friends told me yesterday after knowing all the shot I am going through right now. Yes, it’s shitty. I just have to remind myself to have more faith in myself.

I’m blogging this on my phone as I am flying from South Korea to Singapore. For some reason, I am always very motivated to blog when I am on the plane. Maybe it is a quiet time since I am not connected to WiFi and I can’t do much while on flights. Maybe I am feeling more insightful when I am up in the skies? Lololol.

Well, it is more boring in the current flight because my Netflix is not logged in before I fly so I cannot access my downloaded videos. Somehow Netflix thinks I am downloading videos on multiple devices and refused to let me download more videos so I have to login to log out all devices. I did log back in again but somehow it log me out again. Gah. I have to reach out to Netflix to sort out the issues when I am back in Singapore.

I realised I am the biggest critic to myself. I should learn to appreciate my own achievements. I have achieved much more than what I started out with. Just because there are people who doesn’t see my true value or appreciate my efforts/hard work does not mean I should not see my true value. I am gaining more self-awareness and learn to gauge people around me. I’m also learning to trust my gut/intuition more. It’s also important to celebrate small wins in life. 🙂

Anyway, it has been a fruitful trip as I was able to top up my skincare items along with getting my personal colour test and new hairstyle. I was able to get new makeup based on the results of my best colour match as well as 1 new outfit for Chinese New Year too. 🙂 I got a new cardigan for me to wear in US too! Whee!

I got more sunscreen from Olive Young too. Trying to save money by buying cheaper sunscreen instead of Kiehls sunscreen. Haha.

I did splurge on hand cream though. I went to Tamburins and got more hand and body cream for myself. I even got myself a new bottle of perfume from my favourite scent – Berga Sandal.

I even managed to get my new accessories which I didn’t get in my previous trip then got tempted when I am in Singapore. Sadly the first faux pearl necklace I got broke before I managed to wear it. I still managed to get replacement for it at another place too. I also managed to get a nice pair of clover earrings – yeah the fake Alhambra earrings lol. I probably won’t wear it with my real Alhambra jewellery haha. It’s in the colour that matches my best personal colours too.

The lady at the personal colour test told me that my current spectacles doesn’t suit me. I will look better with silver or transparent spectacles. Or even black. These are the colours I never considered until the personal colour test.

So I went to Gentle Monster and got a black frame with silver spectacles hehe. Still thinking if I want to make it into sunglasses or just normal spectacles. I’m definitely working hard to glow up after my break up. I have to put in extra effort to make sure that I am taking care of myself better. I think my goal for remaining months of 2023 and 2024 is to sleep more. I need to get my health in better condition. This year has been pretty tough for my health and I hope next year will be better. Eunice mentioned that this year is expected to be tough for us and whoa, she is right at least for me.

I definitely achieved way more than I initially expected in this trip, on top of learning new stuff for work. Good job, Sakura! *patting myself on my back* Hahaha.

Anyway, I’m listening to the audio book – 5 levels of leadership on Audible now. It’s a book recommended by one of my career mentors. I’m thinking if I want to buy the physical copy of the book. Not sure if I want to build a mini library of physical books in future. That is going to be on top of my library of music books. Space is a serious consideration though. Hmm…