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.

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 got promoted to MTS2/T26 this year. It’s been a really long and tough journey but yes, I did it. Then my manager gave me a new tool to manage the next day. LOL. The workload immediately increased so I guess the bar is now higher and I am competing with other T26 now. Have to learn how to work with difficult people and avoid drama even more.

This is actually my second promotion in my life so far. My first promotion was back in Autodesk in 2016, then subsequently it is just changing of domains and jobs.

Difficult journey but at least I am paid more? Haha. Definitely helps when my expenses (cough mortgage cough) are going up.

I’m also going for my first business trip for this year in a few months’ time and maybe I can catch the cherry blossoms in Japan for a few hrs?

Gambatte, Sakura! Time to work towards the next promotion hahaha.

It’s my first day of work in 2025 and I am starting the work day right by waking up earlier than usual, reaching office earlier than usual and wearing brand new clothes (new top and jeans which I got from my US trip). Not to forget my new shoes from Sunny Steps and with my new perfume from Chanel (Les Exclusifs de Chanel Comete). Hehe. May this year be a great year and I hope I can get promoted this year. Fingers crossed!