New Year, Same Me.

Happy New Year 2018!

And here we are. The year that is 2018. It is the second week into the new year and so far, all I've been up to these days is lay on the bed. And I don't even feel bad (for now). I felt like 2017 went by so quickly that even right now, I'm struggling to think of what my personal highlights were for the year. But I can definitely say, closing the year in Michigan with family was the perfect way to wrap the year up for me.

How the trip happened is kinda worth sharing.

It all happened right after I had a confirmation date on when I'll be leaving my job with the bank. Right after I had my discussion with our HR department, I started feeling somewhat depressed that I'll soon be jobless and had to start from square one again with job hunting, interviews, first impressions, etc. My mind went straight into panic mode on spending my December with resumes and scouting around for job opportunities. And if all goes well, hopefully I'll be able to get something lined up in 2018.

My workplace is no more. 

But that thought itself just got me even more depressed. I mean, sure, I definitely needed a job eventually but why not just take some time off and enjoy the holiday season. Calla did mention to me before that if it's possible, we should go somewhere for Christmas since Brunei is constantly in a grinch mode during the month of December.

So with that, I decided to scout around for possibilities on where we should go for our Christmas holiday. After talking to my colleagues at the office, one of their suggestions was to try South Korea since it'll be winter and the Christmas spirit is alive there. But I thought it might be a little too stressful for both of us considering we've never been there before and communication might be a bit tough. I gave that a pass. Another colleague suggested somewhere near like KK but we've done that almost every year. So another pass for me.

After a few more brainstorming ideas, I thought the perfect way to spend Christmas with the  requirement of at least cold weather and a Christmassy feel, is definitely her hometown. White Christmas. √. Family. √. Plus, who doesn't like to be home for the holidays? But having booked numerous tickets to Michigan before, I expected the price tickets to be somewhat ridiculous considering it would be over the holiday period so I was prepared to scratch this off my list. A quick search on Cheaptickets revealed otherwise. Normally a flight ticket back to Michigan would cost me around BND $2000 - BND $2500 but strangely, this time it was showing me that it's about BND $1200. And over the Christmas period. Shocking, I know!

Naturally, I got a bit too excited but was hesitant to book it right away without consulting with Calla. So I decided to play around on the website and pretended that we were going home for the holidays. Not sure about you guys but, I've got this strange habit whenever I do any online purchases. I tend to fill up everything...only to exit the window before clicking on the purchase button and I was planning on doing the same thing with this. Except this time, I've got fooled by the website saying that 'For VISA cardholders, you will need to enter your VISA verified password to purchase.' I thought to myself,

"Ok, I'll click this and then have a good think about this, close the window and sleep over it to see if it's feasible."

So I clicked and was expecting a VISA verification window to pop up but instead, I was greeted with a;

"Thank you for your purchase. Here's your confirmation code." 

Needless to say, I had a minor freak out at the office and said out loud to all my colleagues that I think I just bought 2 tickets to Michigan. Everyone jumped out of their seats, took a look at my screen and started freaking out as well. Given that Calla had no knowledge of this, of course, I just felt like it would also be the perfect Christmas present to surprise her with.

So yes, it was an accidental purchase but probably the best one I've made. Of course, given the last drama encountered with confusing my dates, this time I've got everyone to checked to see if my dates were fine. And to be honest, I only started getting excited about the trip when we boarded the plane as throughout the entire time, I was just holding my breath hoping there wouldn't be another mess up. During our transit in KK, my mind started wondering if there could also be a possibility that I might have been scammed as our flight leaving KK wasn't showing up on the departure screen. And when it did, it was showing that our flight was scheduled to Seoul/Incheon instead of Shanghai/Pudong.

Flight 868 to Seoul / Incheon. Wait, not again?

So you can imagine how nervous I was but as soon as we got to the counter, we got confirmation that the flight is indeed scheduled to Shanghai and the screen was probably not updated correctly. What a troll! Right after our bags were checked in and as we boarded our plane, it was an instant holiday mode on for me. And the video below summarises our 36+ hours journey into 1 minute.

So there you go. The wrap up of my 2017. As far as 2018 goes, I am currently unemployed and just chilling hence the title; new year, same me. No goals or resolutions have been set but for starter, a shower would do me good right now. I hope it's been a great start of the year for all of you.