I’m getting back aches, shoulder aches and butt aches after 1 session of personal training with my new trainer, Ahrah, yesterday. She looks really pretty with big eyes and quite slim. After the first few workouts, I suspect she only have muscles and no fats in her body because her workouts are really tough. 😐 It’s quite tough and I’m glad that at least I am doing it with my friend, Rui Yun. Haha.

Haze is back in Singapore yesterday and I went to get N95 masks. I started wearing it after my gym session since I have to walk from Bugis to South Beach for my next appointment.

I hope I can pass my CISSP exam on the first try this month. It’s funny how my friends are like “you got another exam again?” when I told them about it. Alex is like I have lost track how many exams you are taking. Well, it certainly feels more like a student than a full time employee. Lololol. I certainly hope I can pass this time since I didn’t really get much time to study for it. Lots of personal stuff popping out and I still have to settle some admin work next week. Fingers crossed for no new issues popping up and that everything will go smoothly!

It is the time of the year where I plan my year end trips. Well, I took 7 flights last Dec and I told myself never do it again within a month. Guess what. I think I am on track to breaking that record this year. Haha.

Last year I took the following flights.

1. Singapore (SIN) to Japan (NRT)
2. Japan (NRT) to US (SFO)
3. US (SFO) to US (PHX)
4. US (PHX) to US (LAX)
5. US (LAX) to US (SFO)
6. US (SFO) to Japan (NRT)
7. Japan (NRT) to Singapore (SIN)

This year I am on track to add 2 more to the list as I managed to get budget to fly for a conference as well as an invite to the conference. It’s a free conference but you need to be invited for it. I guess all these years of hard work in my career has helped. In fact, I think my career is getting better since I can fully focus on supporting just my career alone instead of supporting my career and my ex’s career. My colleague was saying that my love life is horrible but my career is jetting upwards – which I agree. Haha.

I’m quite excited to be able to wear my new winter jacket this time and being in one of my favourite cities again. Haha. I also started shopping for business attire since it is recommended for the conference. I might be bringing my favourite bag for the trip too. Oh so exciting! 

However, at the same time I am not sure how well my body can tolerate the stress of travelling. It’s close to 10 flights in a month after all.

Well, I got to keep hustling! Taking exams and expanding my networks. 🙂 

I have always wanted to take a SANS course since my first job. However, it’s really expensive (I think 10k USD) for both the exam and the course. I wasn’t able to get my previous companies to support me in it until my current company. I’m very fortunate that my current company is sponsoring my course and exam this time round.

I took my first ever SANS course back in March 2023 and is pleased to announce that I passed the GCFA (GIAC Certified Forensic Analyst) exam today.

I’m also honoured to receive 2 SANS coins during the SANS course/event too.

This was a very difficult exam as I know several folks who failed on their first attempt. I worked extremely hard for it and very lucky to pass on my first try. My prep journey was tough and I have 5 revisions of my indexing for the materials. Open book exams are always very difficult. 🙁

As I am not a Windows user for many years, I had to take extra time and effort to get used to the Windows terms for the course. I basically started studying since the end of the course and went full steam in the last few weeks before the exam. Took some days off from work to study as well.

This certification also marks the first certification that I hope to attain in 2023. *Cough cough CISSP*

Onwards to the next one!

My life has been really tough recently. I don’t think I am at place to blog much about it, other than the publicly known information like how I got 2 confirmed exams to prepare for, 1 to 2 upcoming ones as well and maybe a violin exam at the end of this year or early next year. Oh, and the usual work stress but never ends since the geopolitical situation is not improving currently. When there are wars, there will be more cyber attacks. That’s just a fact of life for my industry. I heard from some of my ex-colleagues who are also facing immense amount of stress recently given the ever increasing cost of living in Singapore. It’s getting really tough not to layoff people even though we need the manpower to address the huge amount of workload. Oh well.

I may blog more about my personal life issues when things are more settled. In the meantime, I wish everyone is doing well now. 🙂