January to March
Started a new job scope with new team
2nd Aunt passed away
Nagano snowboarding, Tokyo and Disneysea, Molecular bar with Neab
Birthday lunch with Mac, bought a Lanvin polo for myself, celebrated with Jap ppl
Got really pissed off with work
Back to PD for less than 24hours, then second trip to Japan with food poisoning
Really good snowboarding at Iwate, Appi Kogen with Kat
Bangkok last minute trip
Got selected for an internal interview
April to June
Got the rejection for the internal job transfer and the disappointment
Cousin's wedding
End of Jap class
Danang and Hoi An with Ryan, surprisingly good trip
Avengers: Infinity War
London and Paris with Neab, Marquie and Godfrey and Taylor Swift. My first trip to Europe
July to September
Became broke after the trip so didn't do much
All the stupid drinking incidents, clubbing with Kat
Organised Joint Event, drinking at CEO's house
Got really pissed with the manager
Grandmother passed away in Port Dickson, went back to meet all the family. It was fun and I had a good one week break
September to December
Clubbing with Kat
Cindy's wedding
Went for several interview and got accepted into one, then threw my resignation letter.
Best feeling ever.
Shanghai with Shikai, Jingzhou & Enshi with Sugar Mummy, and back to Shanghai with Tao
The nightly video conferences
Hosted CEO forum in the company
Reservist week, very relaxed and I still got Silver for IPPT
Stan Lee passed away
Bought a few stuff during 11.11 sale
Offical last day and treats from the colleagues
Nanjing with Muey and Shanghai with Tao
Feeling very uncertain about things
Started my new job, love my team and my new company
Started helping Becky to sell book to earn more money
Christmas at LJ's church and batptism
Ended the year with a good drink and show at home.
2018
Financial
This year's income was mostly spent on travelling. I definitely overspent travelling. I have been travelling almost EVERY month. Japan twice, Bangkok, Vietnam, London, Paris, Malaysia, Shanghai twice. Every time I travel, I also tend to overspend. I bought the most number of luxury goods and bottles of gin this year.
As usually, I've been tracking my spending so this year only managed to save 39.5% of my total cash, excluding CPF. It was supposed to be much lower but I managed to profit from my sale of company shares when I resigned. My target was to be same as last year 40% but it's the travelling and gin collecting that caused the drop, but it's fine, if I rounded up it would be 40%. I also had passive income from helping Becky sell all those books, and get all those vouchers, rebates and stuff. Also, I'm addicted to buying stuff online like Carousell they are so cheap lol.
I need to raise my target savings next year because I'm getting more but I need to save up for more things.
Physical
I've been going to the gym consistently this whole year, except when I'm overseas or when I'm sick but I think I've reached a plateau so I have to change my gym routine this year. I need to get bigger and get rid of the fat layer, but I'm still proud of my arms though. It's time to switch up the weights and add more cardio into my routine. Honestly, there's not much change from last year.
Towards the end of the year I started growing my facial hair and to my surprise a lot of people asked me to keep it coz it looks nice and it is starting to grow on me. I think I'll change my look in the coming year. My SK2 is finishing so I'm switching to my VC100 essence lotion which I discovered in Tokyo earlier this year, but once I stopped Sk2 I realised my skin became less bright. I might go back to SK2.
Diet wise, definitely not watching a lot, I've been drinking bubble tea almost every other weekend. Not much craving for ice cream though. My gin collection is ever expanding and I think I have 20 bottles now in my gin shelf and lots of fevertree tonic. I now have a small snack corner.
Overall
This was the strangest year I remembered. There are so many unexpected things that happened, things that didn't go smoothly but something good will come out of it. I don't know if it's due to my luck or whatever, but they all resonate with my life principle: Equivalent trade. When something goes bad, something good will come out.
Some examples:
I was really not working well with this lady teammate but she got transferred out in a few weeks.
On the way to the airport I realised I left all my valuables at home but my sister was at home and she brought it to the airport.
I didn't got to London for work but I went there for a better holiday.
I didn't get the job transfer but I got a better job in another company.
2 of my family members passed away, but none was unexpected and 2 of my cousins got married. The circle of life.
Friendship wise, Neab has become one of my closest friends I met him so many times this year although we live in different countries. Meeting up with Kelvin for our weekly seafood restaurant lunch (fish soup) and Lipton café coffee, discounted Ben and Jerry's, and many of my ex-colleagues became good friends. In the bars, Edward and Ben, Jarren was shocked LOL. I didn't meet my regular friends a lot this year esp choir peeps, made a lot of hippie friends in Shanghai. I think I need more regular friends haha. Oh and I have a Sugar Mummy now LOL.
My tagline of 2018: Rainbow Adventure
That's the colour of my emotions. My previous company's colour is red and my emotions are red most of the time when I talk to my ex-manager. The rainbow comes after the rain, I am now really glad in my new team and company. Most of the dramatics always happen towards the end of the year and always in December, I don't know why - after Shanghai events, job changing etc. I think that made me unstable a little bit. The nightly Thai-SHH-SG video conferences made me confused but I think I've learnt to take things lightly.
I really enjoyed all my travels this year, the London and Paris trip really made the year really memorable, and I'm starting to like Shanghai again. I felt like I've accomplished so much in a year.
I'm really grateful for so many wonderful things in 2018.
2019
I think 2019 is going to be exciting with so many things planned. My Japan-BKK birthday trip in the line, next is probably Guangzhou and Shanghai, and probably London. I really look forward to learning and doing more things in my new company, and my new salary haha.
Onwards! Excelsior!
