I flew back to Singapore from South Korea yesterday and it was quite an adventure. Lol, my life is always an adventure especially when in airports lol. 🙂 What is a sagittarius life without adventure, right? Haha.

So here it goes…

(1) It started with my taxi ride to the airport. I just approached by the traffic officer to find out about my taxi cost and if I am overcharged. I have to share where I took the taxi from, how much is it, show my receipt, my payment method, if I have given any tips and how I book the cab. Well, I was very fortunate to stay in a pretty good hotel who got Bell Service to help me with luggage from my hotel room to the cab. First time going back to Singapore from Seoul that is so fuss free and not physically tiring at all.

(2) Then I went to Asiana Airlines counter to drop my baggage. As usual, it is the automated system and I have to go to another place for bag drop after printing out my boarding pass. Then the staff said it is overweight and kept asking me to pay. When I asked how much is it, she said 65,000 won (or is it 60,000 won?). Anyway, I asked how much overweight is my luggage and she showed me is 28kg. Gosh. It is within the baggage limit since I booked through SIA. I am well under the limit of 30kg so I told the staff. Then she directed me to a separate counter to register. I waited and there is another staff who helped me. Again, she asked me to pay which I told her I am well under the limit. She scanned my details and found out that is true. *shrugs* Anyway, she helped me with the baggage tag and forgot to pass me my boarding pass until I asked for it. Then she realised it was dropped on the floor. Aiyo… Luckily I wasn’t very sleepy at that time lol.

I didn’t buy much in this trip as I am very aware of the importance to keeping to budget. I still ended up exceeding a bit so that leaves less money for US. I was sharing with my friend that if I somehow managed to keep to the budget set for Seoul and US, I can reward myself with something! Then she was like… I thought you needed to save money? Okay, fine. Maybe I will reward myself with a nice home item instead. Lol.

(3) Then I was packing my winter jacket into the hand carry and realised I was seated opposite a group of friends where 1 lady is carrying a fake mini constance bag from Hermes. Lol… I almost brought that bag for my travels. Lol. Luckily I have already packed my Hermes mini evelyne bag into my backpack so it was not awkward.

(4) I went to do my tax refund and gosh, only my Hermes receipt is shown jn the system. Quite bullshit to be honest. My other 3 receipts from Sulwhasoo, Osulloc and SPAO were rejected. I went to the counter and asked and they said they needed to see the items before they can provide the customs stamp. Alamak. Those items are mostly in my checkin luggage which I have already checked in. I was pissed at myself since it’s quite a lot of money. Oh well, what can I do? Might as well forgive myself and feel better that it could have been greater loss of money if I buy even more skincare products lol. So I complained to some of my friends to vent out my frustrations.

(5) I got a cute cinnamonroll water bottle with vitamin C water and I wanted to drink when on the taxi ride to airport. I ended up forgetting to drink and have to throw it away. At least I managed to take out the cute cinnamonroll character head and let the customs lady throw it away. I also forgot to take out my laptop and ipad when going through customs check so they had to take more time to check my backpack. Lol.

(6) At this point it is close to 5pm and I haven’t had my lunch yet. I was supposed to eat before clearing customs which I obviously forgot. I do have snacks so it is not that bad. Luckily there is a food court after customs so I managed to go there and eat. I didn’t manage have soondubu (soft tofu stew) when I was in Seoul. Then I saw there is soondubu at the food court and was delighted! Unfortunately it was sold out so I still didn’t get to have it. I just ordered pork cutlet since I don’t eat beef and don’t want octopus.

(7) Linking back to (4), I went to tax refund counter after I have my late lunch. I just gave all the tax refund forms and the lady somehow managed to scan all of them for me and I managed to get my refund. The form stated only credit card and alipay for the refund but I was able to get cash refund in the end. 😀 Yay. So I didn’t lose my money haha. I opt for USD since I have to fly to US 2 weeks later. Turns out to be “losing” a bit of value since I could have gotten more in KRW. At that point I didn’t think I will be paying in KRW for any purchases at duty free stores. I ended up going to Gentle Monster and got a new spectacles. Price is listed in USD but they only accept KRW. Sigh. Oh well, at least I will still be using USD 2 weeks later anyway.

(8) I went into Hermes, Chanel, LV stores and walked out empty handed. Haha. Actually I found stuff I liked at LV and maybe Chanel too but I was able to have self discipline and not spend on them. I’m so proud of myself. I’m a changed lady haha. Well, my close friends will know what caused the change since I have been harping on it almost everyday. Lol. Unfortunately I forgot to get my lip balm refill from Hermes even though I went there. I guess I have to either get it from Singapore or Japan or San Francisco.

(9) I found my gate about 15mins before boarding time then saw Angel-in-us coffee next to my gate. Somehow I decided I should get matcha latte (since I can claim…) 5 mins before official boarding time. People already started queuing at the counter. I went to queue to buy matcha latte instead of the gate lol. I still make it in time and the gate hasn’t open by the time I joined the queue for the gate. Mind you, I was carrying a backpack, a huge tote bag as carryon luggage, 1 paper bag of snacks from GS25, including my cinnamonroll cartoon character in it and a cup of iced matcha latte. Really #likeaboss at that point. Lol. The gym workouts have helped for sure lololol.

That concluded my adventures of flying back to Singapore from Incheon airport. Which trip do I not have adventures? Lol. Not sure if I am attracted to adventures or adventures are attracted to me at this point. Hahaha. I’m proud of myself to be able to handle all these in a calm and positive manner by myself for sure. Definitely a Sagittarius! Hahahaha.

I’m blessed to get middle seat empty as my flight to ICN had a relatively plump Korean guy sitting next to me and he was sleeping and falling on me throughout the flight. I got quite irritated and just push back his head then he woke up to look at me and I gave my most #badgirl look while watching my korean drama on my ipad. Lol. He never do it again anymore.

It is the time of the year where I plan my year end trips. Well, I took 7 flights last Dec and I told myself never do it again within a month. Guess what. I think I am on track to breaking that record this year. Haha.

Last year I took the following flights.

1. Singapore (SIN) to Japan (NRT)
2. Japan (NRT) to US (SFO)
3. US (SFO) to US (PHX)
4. US (PHX) to US (LAX)
5. US (LAX) to US (SFO)
6. US (SFO) to Japan (NRT)
7. Japan (NRT) to Singapore (SIN)

This year I am on track to add 2 more to the list as I managed to get budget to fly for a conference as well as an invite to the conference. It’s a free conference but you need to be invited for it. I guess all these years of hard work in my career has helped. In fact, I think my career is getting better since I can fully focus on supporting just my career alone instead of supporting my career and my ex’s career. My colleague was saying that my love life is horrible but my career is jetting upwards – which I agree. Haha.

I’m quite excited to be able to wear my new winter jacket this time and being in one of my favourite cities again. Haha. I also started shopping for business attire since it is recommended for the conference. I might be bringing my favourite bag for the trip too. Oh so exciting! 

However, at the same time I am not sure how well my body can tolerate the stress of travelling. It’s close to 10 flights in a month after all.

Well, I got to keep hustling! Taking exams and expanding my networks. 🙂