I had my wisdom tooth surgery back in 19 Aug 2026. I removed 2 of my wisdom teeth on the left side. Actually I needed to remove 1 on the lower left because I am considering doing Invisalign. However, I am not brave enough to go through the surgery while fully awake so I decided to opt for sedation. Since I will be asleep and removing the lower wisdom tooth will mean the upper one will continue to grow downwards and might hurt the gum below, I decided to just remove the top one too.

Now it ended up that my molar tooth next to the bottom lower wisdom tooth is still shaky and could be due to the new hole left by my wisdom tooth. It’s also more sensitive and food keeps getting stuck at the hole. Sigh, it’s been 5 weeks and I can see the hole is getting smaller. I need to eat more calcium and maybe protein to encourage the bone and gum to grow back. I really hope it will recover soon and be more stable (less shaky). I think the wisdom tooth kept pushing the molar tooth so it ended up shaky… Then I also have a biting/grinding issue so that may have made it worse.

Anyway, I got a soft night guard and I started wearing it last night. Wah end up it was a bit hard to remove and my front tooth felt the ache. Luckily it recovered in less than an hour. At least it is protecting my lower tooth… Imm not so sure if I can handle Invisalign given thst it is thinner but harder.

I hope my teeth can all get better soon. That’s enough health/teeth issues I have for the year. I’m also forcing myself to eat spinach even though I don’t like it and hardly eat it previously. But it’s one of the vegetables that has high calcium so I guess I have to learn to live with it…

I started growing daisies after I discovered it from the Cold Storage grocery store Raffles City shopping mall. It has finally rebloom and it looks so pretty!

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Daisy is my third favourite flower which is after cherry blossoms and tulips. I also have Japanese Maple tree, roses, orchids and small bonsai trees in my garden too. Haha. I’m becoming a plant mama this year. 😀

I decided to go for full grown plants instead of growing from seeds after my chinese pine seedling wilted after spending 3 weeks with my neighbour, Kelvin. Lol… I also had quite a few plants died under my care, including the replacement plant he got for me that died after a month. Lol! It has finally stabilised and most of my plants are striving now.

I still wished he told me when the seedling wilted even though I still got 1 more week before coming back home. But oh well, at least he is willing to take care of it when I am away for so long. Considered to be quite kind liao… I should not complain lol…

I realised what I need in life. It’s not a break or a vacation. I also don’t need an all-expenses shopping trip spree. What I truly need is a reset day. A day of doing nothing and just rest. Maybe I can use half a day staying at home doing admin stuff and the other half to chill at home. And I need to plan for it every week. It needs to be intentional and I need to learn how to protect that time and peace. I have the space now so I just need to make time for it. It’s not a housework day but a day I can truly rest – be it sleeping or just chilling at home doing what I love that can help me recharge mentally and emotionally. Traveling doesn’t help in recharging. In fact, it is physically draining. Red eye flights are the worst. Long flights are the next worst. 

I’m on my flight from Seoul back to Singapore. This is my first solo trip by myself to Seoul. Originally I am supposed to go with Geck Keat but she abandoned me at the last minute. She did come to Seoul in the last 5 days of my trip but we mostly travel by ourselves. Lol.

I tried dubai chocolate for the first time and I chipped one of my tooth. It was such a traumatic event that I almost went into panic attack. Luckily I was able to calm myself down and my brain got my feet working to walk to the hotel reception and asked for recommendations for an English speaking dentist nearby. I googled and it says I should brush my teeth and also get it checked out to prevent any further damage. Apparently people lost their tooth eating dubai chocolate because it is either too hard or too high sugar content so it melted the tooth enamel immediately. I had 2 dubai chocolate and it became like this. I almost wanted to chage my flight and fly back to Singapore ASAP to see my usual dentist for treatment but luckily the korean dentist I visited said it is not an emergency. I can either do treatment in Seoul or go back to Singapore to do it. I decided to go back Singapore to do it in case of future complications. After this traumatic event, I didn’t go back to my favourite place for sesame latte since that was where I bought the dubai chocolate from. I also went on auto pilot mode to buy the skincare stuff in my checklist and didn’t enjoy the trip as much as earlier on. 

I also fell sick and got runny nose the next day and got worried because it triggered my sinus infection which means flying on plane will be tricky with the air pressure differences. Luckily I got the nasal spray and anti-histamine medicine with me. I also got really bad acid reflux too and managed to find medication from my emergency medicine kit. I brought a thermometer so I managed to measure my temperature which fortunately turns out that I am not having fever.

All these happened on my fourth day of trip onwards which coincided with the day Geck Keat landed in Seoul. Lol. 

I’m avoiding high sugary or even sugary desserts until I get my tooth treated. I think I either have to do crowning or filling. I have never done any of them and it is really depressing for me. 😥 I really feel like crying and I wish all these were a nightmare I can wake up from. 🙁 The fortunate part is that it is not painful for now and I didn’t have increased tooth sensitivity.

South Korea, in particular Seoul, has always been my favourite city in the world but after this tooth accident, I don’t know how to feel about it anymore. In addition, I realised everything that I used to enjoy – shopping at Lotte Mart or underground shopping malls, I ended up not doing any of them. I do enjoy the department store shopping though. I think I have changed since my last trip in Seoul back in 2023… 

I managed to go to Van Cleef and Arpels on my last full day and glad to bring home my mini frivole necklace in yellow gold and diamond. :happy: I was debating over the vintage alhambra earrings or frivole throughout the trip. I was thinking of saving money and not get anything from VCA especially after I spent over S$5000 on my home speaker recently (which I should blog about it soon). I still managed to bring home something small in the end. I nearly messed up as I need a reservation to enter VCA. I was declined at the doorstep at Lotte Myeongdong branch and I walked to Shinsegae branch and managed to convince them to let me in after I say exactly what I want to get and they have stocks for it. I got the last piece of mini frivole necklace in the end. The funniest part is my UOB credit card got declined as I have overspent the limit. LOL. Now I wonder what limit I set and just how much did I spent in this trip. I had to use another credit card from Citibank to pay for it. Thank goodness I have backups…

I probably will do more solo travels in future as it is very difficult to find people to travel with anyway. I am also appreciative of the fact that I am a Krisflyer Elite Silver member so I get fast track baggage drop at airports and also one of the earlier groups to board too. This is especially important to “chope”/reserve cabin space for my cabin luggage/bags. I love that I have extra luggage allowance of 40kg instead of the usual 25/30kg. The default is 25kg but my flight class is on the higher economy end (thanks to miles) and I get extra 10kg (thanks to Elite Silver tier). I think I definitely hit more than 30kg. I tried to weigh my luggage at the hotel and my big pink checkin luggage is at least 30kg. I still have my red hand carry luggage which I also checkin this time round. Luckily no need to pay for extra baggage since I am well within 40kg. Haha. I think I buy at least 6 months supply and some items are 1 year supply for my skincare this time round. Oops. The cost savings are huge for Sulwhasoo. I’m basically paying about 40% of the price I pay in Singapore. That’s like 60% discount and that’s also before tax refund too…

I also got myself a few hair crawl clips, a few tshirts (2 from Marithe, 1 from Mardi, 1 from SPAO), 1 hoodie sweater from Alo Yoga, 1 leggings from Alo Yoga, 1 pyjamas set from SPAO. I usually buy new clothes during CNY but this time it is raining new clothes for me. Haha, I will need to declutter to make space liao.

Do I regret going for the trip? Yes because my tooth got damaged. Other than that, it was a good trip. I wish I can turn back time and not get 2 dubai chocolate. In fact, I might as well don’t eat any sweets at all. Now I am scared of anything dubai chocolate, dubai or chocolate.

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 bring 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.