Whee! It’s my birthday again. I know I should be a bit sad that I am older by a year now but nevertheless I am still quite excited. I finally can unbox my birthday gift that I got for myself in January this year.

I got myself a Van Cleef and Arpels 5 motif bracelet in hammered yellow gold this year. Yes, it is quite a splurge and I paid full deposit in January thinking that I will have to wait for a year to receive it. It ended up coming in a week. The power of paying full deposit instead of just waitlisting it. Also helps to have a helpful SA who is willing to take in full deposit when the time window opens. Well, I must thank my SA for letting me know that the window has opened so I can pay full deposit for it. Otherwise, I highly doubt I can get the bracelet till now. Hammered gold pieces are not made in huge quantities as compared to the crystal/gemstones versions…

I managed to fly back to Singapore a few days earlier before my birthday. Unfortunately I ended up falling very sick. That’s after my bloody accident in US. I managed to avoid wound infection while in US but didn’t manage to escape flu bug when I am in Singapore. Gahhh. Luckily I managed to get better by my birthday and was able to drag myself out of the house to buy my own birthday cake – an important tradition for myself haha. I treated myself a cup of Koi black tea latte too. After 2.5 weeks of having horrible and super expensive bubble tea in US, I certainly welcome having one of my favourite bubble tea in Singapore.

This year has been transformative for me as I hit several major milestones in life. I will leave the details in another blog post in future as I reflect in 2023.

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…

It’s the weekend and I went out today. My bandage came off yesterday and I have to go look for a replacement in case my current bandage (supposed to be backup bandage) comes off. I wasn’t able to find the exact same type but I found something similar but may not work as well. I went to 3 different shopping malls and Raffles Hospital pharmacy to find but wasn’t able to find it. Sigh. Hopefully the new one doesn’t cause skin issues. Oh well. 🙁

I’m actually quite sad about my surgery scar when I saw it yesterday. Oh well. I don’t think I can avoid it. Meh. Bleh. Sigh. 🙁

I also went for my first ever tarot reading too. It’s quite expensive – $70 for 30-min session. I wanted to go for the 20-min session but it ended up 25 mins long so I was charged the 30-min session. Oh well. I don’t think I will go back to the same person again. I don’t think I can click with her. She basically spent 5 mins to explain tarot reading to me and that was included in the session. Meh.

Well, at least I got more certainty in life from it? Lol.

I decided to treat myself better and change my fashion style/sense a bit. I ended up going for the same type of earrings I used to go before I was in a relationship. I guess some preferences just do not change eh? I got 2 pairs of earrings from ssoftly.kr pop up store today. Can’t wait to wear them out. 😀 Hehe.

I find myself much weaker after my surgery. I can’t walk as much without my armpit/lymph node starting to ache. 🙁 I don’t think I can go out for so long in future… until I fully healed.