I have been spying my plants while I am away from home from my cctv and wow, one of my jiaho candy (taiwanese orchid variant; white and orange) has bloom. One of the first mini dendrobium orchids in my flower garden has also rebloom. New stem and stalk and 2 of the flowers have rebloom. I am seeing the second stem from the same plant too. I also spotted a new rose bud from my pink rose plant. That’s like round 4 of blooms for the plant now. I’m glad that my plants are doing well with my automatic watering setup this time round and they seems to be growing well. I think I also spotted my third dendrobium orchid might have started to growing the flower stem after growing so well in its new plant stem. In fact the new stem is like thicker than the original one when I first purchased it. It just keeps growing taller and I got worried because I do not have the space for it to grow vertically. I also need to repot it and that means I need to buy charcoal.

I have 10 pots of plants now. My chinese pine wilted and I couldn’t save it so I got a new replacement – emperor plum bonsai. I got a scare when the flowers started to wilt after 2 days at my balcony but luckily it is still doing ok as I went to check with the seller and she taught me how to check the dryness and the need to water more frequently. Like everyday instead of twice a week. The bonsai is from Japan.

I also have 6 orchids now – 5 are dendrobium variants (1 pinkish purple, 2 purple, 1 whiteish with purple, 1 white with orange) and 1 of it is a mixed dendrobium with phalaenopsis (striped purple). 4 are the normal/typical dendrobium you can find in Singapore while 2 of them are special Taiwanese variants.

I also have a Japanese maple mini tree which I had hoped it to be reddish-orange leaves but it turns out mostly green leaves to my dismay. 

Lastly I have 2 rose plants – bright orange and bright pink roses – both are typical in Singapore.

So yes, I have 2 Japanese, 2 Taiwanese and 6 Singaporean plants in my little flower garden. Technically my fengshui master told me to get flowering plants for that spot in my house. I went ahead and now I ended up with 9 flowering plants and 1 non-flowering plants. I’m a plant mama now haha. Cannot travel for too long away anymore. No more 1 month trips as I doubt my automatic watering system have so much water supply for it. Not very safe to have a huge water tank lest I end up breeding mosquitoes. I think I can only do at most 2 weeks away now… 

Orchids and roses are not my favourite flowers but based on my research, they can survive well in direct sunlight which is what my balcony is having throughout the year. Pretty good for drying clothes though. Oh and using charcoal as the “soil base” seems good because insects can’t really hide in the charcoal. It serves as a good deterrent too. Roses are pretty but it keeps attracting insects and for some reason, I always spot mushrooms sprouting on my pink rose pot. I have to keep removing it. Oh well.

So while I am away, my jiaho candy orchid bloom after having the bud since I purchased, my red rose grew with flower bud, my mini purple orchid grew more buds and bloom. Then I also discovered my striped purple orchids also grew new stem with new flower buds. Even my new emperor plum bonsai got new blooms and leaves too. However, my Japanese maple is not doing that well. I have shifted its position so hope it can do well soon.

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.