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 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’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 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.