Categories: Friendship, Korean related, Overseas, Personal life, Rants, Really worried, Travel
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.
Categories: Friendship, House, Insights, Overseas, Personal life, Travel, Work
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.
Categories: Friendship, House, New stuff, Personal life, Shopping, Work
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.
I finally finished blogging about my Hong Kong trip this year (2024). It’s a short 5-day trip but I ended up blogging 7 parts because there are just way too many photos that I want to share.
Here are the 7 parts of my trip summarised. 🙂
Hong Kong 2024 travelogue part 1: Sneaker Streets, city life in Hong Kong and public transit
Hong Kong 2024 travelogue part 2: Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront
Hong Kong 2024 travelogue part 3: Victoria Peak
Hong Kong 2024 travelogue part 4: Tai Kwun
Hong Kong 2024 travelogue part 5: Cordis hotel at Mongkok
Hong Kong 2024 travelogue part 6: Hong Kong University
Hong Kong 2024 travelogue part 7: Food highlights
Categories: Food, Friendship, Overseas, Personal life, Pictures, Travel, With my NEX
I have to say the highlight of this Hong Kong trip is the food. Not sure if it is a sightseeing trip or a food trip hahaha.
We went to Jenny’s Bakery because Lay Lian and Xiao Wei both want to get snacks back to Singapore. Jenny’s Bakery is located in a very ulu place and I spotted some interesting sights along the way too.
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