I had my first Chinese New Year at my new house and it is really peaceful. No drama especially now I have a hiding spot (literally a house) to hide from all the unwanted drama. The downside? A shitload of housework and spring cleaning to do all by myself. I was considering hiring a part time helper with that but I ended up doing it all by myself.

My floor is also relatively quiet until the weekend when I have 2 neighbours having CNY parties on the same day. Luckily for me, it is on the other side of the lift so I am quite far away from it. 1 of my neighbours told me he had 35 guests, probably all his relatives, so he booked 2 function rooms for them. The other neighbour seems to be a smaller party and I think they booked the rooftop BBQ pit.

I’m finally flying back home after 1 month (30 days) in US. I went to 4 different states this time round.

I started my journey in Chicago, followed by New York City, San Francisco, Berkeley, Scottsdale, Tempe and Sedona. That’s like 7 cities in 4 states (Illinois, New York, California and Arizona). I am in east coast, west coast, midwest and southwest of US and experienced 2 different temperature ranges of winters. Definitely quite an experience and I think I brought enough clothing too. In fact, there are some jackets I ended up not wearing at all. There’s also 1 jeans that I didn’t wear at all because it was already quite big. I basically reduce size in my waist within the first week. Lol… I needed to buy 1 more belt soon if this continues. Sigh. 

I came back with 46kg of luggage. I already finished the full bottle of First Care serum and also threw it away too. I ate all the snacks and took out everything that I don’t need to brung back to Singapore and I am still exceeding the weight limit for both luggages. Luckily I am flying back so they seem ok to let me hit around 46kg. Otherwise I think it is 45 or 45.5kg for combined weight limit… well, I came with 39.6kg so I definitely shopped a bit. Haha. I even had to wear my boots to make space and reduce weight for one of my luggage and I still can burst the weight limit. It’s pretty uncomfortable to travel long hours with boots but it is what it is…

I don’t think I want to do this again – flying to 2 places with such a wide range of temperatures. I basically have to cater from -15 degree celsius (Chicago) all the way to 25 degree celsius (Scottsdale). It’s crazy but I have a feeling that when I get the opportunity again, I will do it once again. LOL. But at least now I have 2 new Canada Goose jackets that can handle such wide range without too much layering (aka no need to bring so many clothes anymore). Shrugs. 

Now I hope my house is ok because the internet connectivity went down when I am in San Francisco, which is like the midway of my entire trip. So I cannot see the CCTV for the last 2 weeks which sucks big time. I also cannot start my robot vacuum to clean my house just before I reach home. Lol. 

I fell sick yesterday. I spent most of the day sleeping and now I’m not feeling that sleepy to sleep. I will be back to work tomorrow though so I do need to sleep earlier. I think I have been lacking sleep due to the amount of housework and my new job responsibilities.

Well, I got promoted to MTS2, or rather Career Ladder 7 (the new terminology) after close to 5 years. That also helps to reduce some of the financial burden I have since a job promotion means more salary. Haha.

I need to prioritise my sleep more and stay healthy. Being sick while staying alone is especially lonely. In fact, staying alone is already quite lonely. Oh well. Today I realised the single lady owner of another unit in my floor is renting out 1 of her bedrooms to another female tenant. I’m surprised that she can somehow manage to store all her stuff in 1 bedroom when I am struggling with 2 bedrooms and to store all my stuff. Lololol. Well, she has 2 toilets for her house since she got the bigger unit while I have only 1 toilet. At least I can still sustain for now. Hopefully I can sustain without the need to rent out any of my rooms because I am really struggling with space.

One of my neighbours who is staying in a 4 bedder in the same condo project as me is renting out 1 of their bedrooms to a male tenant. They are a family of 4 and they are also renting out a room. I realised the ability to not need to rent out is a good spot to have. Privacy is really a privilege.

Wow, I have been so busy that I haven’t blog for so long! I have been busy moving house and setting up my house and I think I have somewhat set up a rough routine for myself at my new place. I haven’t finish moving all my stuff over though but my clothes are like halfway here. Most of my accessories are moved over so that means I can really dress up when I am staying here instead of just using the same few accessories. Haha.

I have been cooking a lot more for myself and sometimes I lose motivation in cooking but my stomach will tells me otherwise. My fridge is full of food and my huge snacks cabinet is overflowing too. I’m not hungry when I am home for sure hahaha. Unfortunately for me, I think my skin is not used to the dishwashing soap so it gets dry quickly. 🙁 I’m thinking if I should get a dishwasher but I have ran out of countertop space after my air fryer is here.

I have to admit that my home is quite cosy and I do like staying at home. I have designed multiple nua spots (spots where I just go there and do nothing or surf the phone) and it is working out so well. I can see a good view of fireworks during NDP rehearsal days from my balcony and bedroom. My bedrooms are nice and cooling as I have one of the top brand solar films from Japan on my windows. Didn’t go for it for balcony door so living room is pretty hot.

The past month (April/May) has been pretty crazy. I’m like crazily busy as I am going back nearly on a daily basis to check out the renovations. My ID also somehow schedule something almost daily. Someone or something is will always be in my house somehow on a daily basis so it is either the ID contractors or I have to go back and bring my items into my unit. With the theft cases in my block, I don’t really dare to take risk in leaving my items outside my house.

I have been trying to bring some stuff to my new house on a daily basis so it is a lot of carrying to do. Just imagine me bringing multiple huge bags and take bus to my house on a daily basis. Haha. 🙂 I don’t know when I will finish carrying everything. However, I also don’t really dare to move all at a go because I still need to declutter and make sure no termites follow me to my new place. I have a lot of carpentry in my house so I really cannot take the risk…

The next few weeks will probably be intensive in packing, moving, unpacking and sorting. I’m feeling quite tired and sometimes I lose sleep at night because I was worried that I forgot something or didn’t consider some aspects. I also don’t want to end up buying stuff that I ended up not using because house stuff is not cheap and can take up quite a bit of space.

I got a DJI Osmo Pocket 3 to document the entire home journey too. Haha.