I’m now on my 7th flight for this trip and is in the middle of the journey to make my way back to Singapore. It has been a short but hectic trip for the past 8.5 days in US. I was in  Dallas for the first 5 days 4 nights for the Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS) conference. I didn’t manage to attend most of the sessions since I still have work meetings to attend, as well as socialising with my colleagues. My manager and my director drove over 3hrs just to meet me so I had breakfast, lunch and dinner with them over the 2 days they were here. I also helped out in the career fair and met several graduating students who were looking for a job in my company. 

Then I flew to Chicago and met up with Gulabi for 4 days 3 nights for my personal vacation. It was my first time going to both Dallas and Chicago. They are very different from All other states/cities that I have visited. Grapevine (a place in Dallaswhere I was mostly in) feels almost like Scottsdale but more green than brown. There are more greenery than desert sand. Chicago, on the other hand, was a pleasant city full of city vibes. It is similar to Singapore in terms of the road structures and public transportation. New York City is the closest match to Singapore except for dirty streets and public transportation. Chicago is much cleaner than New York. Chicago is a city of midwestern vibes which is a different change from what I am used to. I am used to the California vibes.

This time I didn’t manage to go to San Francisco. I have been going there for every trip to US except for this trip. Well, it is also my shortest trip ever with only 9 days 8 nights in US in total. Just look at the sacrifices I made for my new home. Lololol. It will be too much of a stretch to to extend further given that I have pre-renovation work to do before my renovation can start. I tried to clear as much as I can just before the trip and also clear quite a bit while in US. Every morning spent on catching up on vendor updates and every evening is spent on making deposits for booking the various contractors’ services. Just imagine how crazy it will be if I don’t have an ID. Lol.

Every time I come to US, I will gained a deeper appreciation of Singapore and how lucky I am to be based in Singapore. It’s a bubble living in Singapore and coming to US so often is giving me frequent reminders of how lucky I am.

This is a delayed post as I am only posting much later after my flight.

I am blogging now while on my second flight. Just like the first flight, my seat got changed again this time round. This time they announced my name and seat number. They didn’t manage to pronounce my name correctly but I roughly can gauge from my seat number so I went up to the counter as per their instructions.

Turned out that I needed to switch seats because my allocated seat was a bit wet. I got moved to the seat opposite row of mine which is also an aisle seat. When I reached my new seat, I didn’t see any wetness in my original seat. I was dissatisfied cause I noticed there was no one next to me in my original seat. Turned out that my new seat has an empty seat next to me and my neighbouring passenger in the same row while my original seat will have someone next to me. Haha, it all turned out well in the end.

I woke up halfway while I was sleeping then I couldn’t go back to sleep again. Suddenly I had this realisation how this trip, or rather these flights, is like a breather for me in the middle of the house chaos. I have been running nonstop due to renovations and work and have not been giving myself sufficient rest. Maybe this trip is sent to me from the universe or God(s) as an opportunity to rest. Well, I can’t be disturbed or cannot continue my house stuff while I am right above the ocean with no internet connectivity for 12.5 hrs. All I can do is to rest or sleep. No wonder busy people fly business class as this is an opportunity for them to really properly rest. Well, my company don’t send me on business class so here I am on Premium Economy. Not too shabby haha.

When I landed in Haneda airport, I was shocked that I have to take a bus from Terminal 2 to Terminal 3 to get to my next connecting flight. Mind you, I am going to Dallas which is like 20ish degree celsius. No I am in Tokyo and have to step out of the terminal to take a bus to the other terminal. It was 5 degree celsius so it’s really cold. Luckily I got my cashmere jacket and my Hermes cashmere scarf in my hand carry luggage so I took them out in the toilet snd wore them. Unfortunately, that meant I missed the bus with other transiting passengers so I ended up waiting 15 mins more for the next bus and I have to take it alone. 

Luckily I wore my cashmere jacket along with my old fleece jacket and scarf during the ride because the bus had to wait for 4 mins before it starts driving off. The cold also seeped into the bus without any heater so it was almost freezing for me even with the clothes. 

It was a 15-min ride with the last part mostly in tunnel. It felt like those zombie movie whereby any zombie might jump out and attack the bus. It doesn’t help that I am the only passenger on the bus.

On a brighter note, my new Lojel Cubo luggage is small enough to fit into the bus seat and is very convenient to access my items like laptop and even non-laptop items in the main compartment. Definitely well designed luggage for the price tag (after discount)!

It has been a hectic month with so much admin and physical manual labour for my house. Along with my day job and the major projects that I am running this year, it is basically close to “all hell break loose” moment these days. Well, at least the major defects are fixed now and my house didn’t have water seepage issues during the rainy season in the past few days. In fact, it is not super cold in my unit which I guess is a fortunate thing?

I still manage to meet my friends for dinner every week so my social self care is still there. Unfortunately, I am not getting much exercise other than my weekly personal training session. Time to really refocus my efforts back on my self care and make time to keep myself healthy.

I managed to get a new hand carry luggage from Lojel at 30% discount yesterday. 🙂 They have 10% discount for regular colours and 30% for white, yellow and red colours. Well, the red colour actually looks nice to me so I just decided to get that. 10 year warranty for Lojel and the ease of access for laptops for the hand carry luggage is a plus for sure. When my Echolac luggage warranty is over this October and when the zip spoilt again, I will probably buy another Echolac or Lojel luggage. I’m sticking to luggage with warranty for their parts going forward.

There’s this trend on social media that I saw in Instagram whereby people shared about an imaginary date with a younger version of themselves. I think I will try it out here haha.

I met my younger self for coffee this morning.

She was 30 mins late and was feeling very apologetic with many excuses. I was 1 hr late and walk in like a boss. Okay lah, got apologise but not as apologetic as my younger self and definitely no excuses because I just suck at time management and it has gotten worse. Hahaha.

She ordered iced milo with ice (with sugar) as it is a guilty pleasure for her and the drink is not cheap so she don’t drink it often. I ordered earl grey black tea latte without ice and without sugar because I drink it daily and should at least cut down on my sugar intake if I am drinking it daily.

She told me that she is very worried about not able to get into an overseas university on scholarship for her bachelor degree so she cannot escape the horrible environment at home. She is also worried about unable to pay for her university fees and have to go out to work after A levels. I told her that she ended up having both bachelor and master degrees from NUS. Not getting scholarship to study overseas is fine because she was able to survive through the horrible environment and came out stronger. It is still tough and is getting more difficult but the end is nearing. She doesn’t need to worry about the finances as much as she thought because things will always work out fine because of her tenacity attitude.

She told me that she don’t know if she is ever you find love or learn to love others since she was not loved. I told her that she found love and got betrayed/scammed and recovered. She came up stronger and went on to achieve more in other aspects of her life. She knows how to love others unconditionally by nature.

She told me that she is worried about having to stay with her parents forever. I told her that we are opening door 2 days later to our forever home. I already got the keys and I am inviting her to stay with me. It’s much bigger than expected and it is a private property so she definitely overachieved for her age and background.

She told me she is worried about finances. I told her she might need to only because she is always a spender. Just continue to save before you spend and you will be fine. Trust your instincts. I think at that point, she thought I was going to give her good news and comfort her more but some things never change as we are both brutally honest even as the time passed by.