It's the time of the year again to reflect and recap on the past year. Oh 2024, what a year it has been. We can certainly conclude that 2024 was a year of loss as we both lost our dads this year. =( However, there were still some good things that happened this year which we are grateful for. 2024 marked the 10th year since I moved to the US on 22 Nov 2014. Hubby also celebrated his 40th this year.
Family
2024 was not a good year for our family with two funerals within a year. Unfortunately, my dad passed at the end of January after battling sickness for the past 5 years. Grateful that hubby and I was able to make it back to Malaysia for the funeral and to say our final goodbyes to Daddy. Unfortunately, hubby also lost his dad at the end of November. It's never easy to say goodbye, but we find solace in the memories we shared and grateful for the times we got to spend with them.
Losing our dads were good reminders for us to cherish our loved ones, and to make an effort to spend time and make memories with our loved ones while we can. I am thankful that I was able to travel back to Malaysia 3 times this year, which was the most within a year since I moved to the US.
Thankful that our dads had the chance to meet in 2015, especially considering how much they share in common. Both of them were born in July 1955 and were both engineers.
Travel
Started off the year with the last-minute trip back to Malaysia for dad's funeral, which was also hubby's first trip back to Malaysia post-Covid. I traveled home to Malaysia again in May, then met up with hubby in Europe to visit 4 new countries (Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia), and checked off my 50th country in Estonia. Also checked off another bucket list with an amazing safari trip in Kenya to celebrate hubby's 40th birthday.
Summary of my travels for 2024 (work+leisure):
Number of hotel nights - 47 nights (Marriott-41; Hilton-1; IHG-2; Others-3)
Number of hotels - 17 hotels (Marriott-11; Hilton-1; IHG-2; Others-3)
Number of airlines - 13 airlines (American, United, SIA, Airasia, MAS, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Qatar, Air India, Vistara, British Airways, AirKenya Express, Ethiopian Airlines)
Work
Thankful that work allowed me to take time off to travel back to Malaysia during busy season, and for all the co-workers who helped to pick up my work. Switched to a new team this year and took up an additional role as the pod lead. Grateful that my new team has been good and supportive. Lost a few good team members this year, which was disappointing but such is the corporate world. I'm glad to be given the opportunity to travel to India again for 3 weeks. Hubby also completed a huge work milestone this year. =)
Health
Thankful that we were both able to stay healthy, physically and mentally, throughout the year and especially during our travels. I know I need to do better exercising and sleeping more so that's something to improve in the new year.
Finance
2024 was another great year for the stock market, which accelerated another big milestone in our wealth building journey. We finally pulled the trigger to purchase a new Toyota RAV4 this year, which we got for a pretty good price ($31K) and opted to finance it for 3 years .
There's been a lot of ups and downs in 2024, but there are still a lot that we are grateful for. Work & life have been well-balanced, and we are constantly reminded that life is good. :) Look forward to a better and smoother 2025 as we continue to make more memories. Happy New Year 2025!
It's been awhile since my last quarterly update in March 2024, but I haven't been slacking. I've completed 20 blog posts our Antarctica, Malaysia, and Baltic trips in between. Finally caught up on all my trip backlogs, so it's time for a photo dump of what we've been up to from Apr - Aug 2024.
31 Mar 2024 (Sun): Celebrated SIL's belated birthday at MIL's new house.
13 Apr 2024 (Sat): Thanks LIsa & Dennis for inviting us over to their house for a meal and joined us for a mahjong game. Thanks to Aunt Sheila for the peace lily condolence plant, and also thanks to Maureen & Mike for the condolence card. We really appreciate them!
20 Apr 2024 (Sat): Celebrated Cooper's 3rd birthday before I flew back to Malaysia.
3 June 2024 (Mon): Met up with uncle Curtis and family at his place for dinner. Thanks for having us!
15 June 2024 (Sat): Went to 88 Buffet with FIL
22 June 2024 (Sat): Celebrated MIL's birthday with the family at Bravo's.
4 July 2024 (Thurs): Celebrated July 4th at Guntersville Lake with friends and family
27 July 2024 (Sat): Celebrated Ah Ma's 94th birthday virtually with the family.
11, 16, 17 Aug 2024: ThanksMIL and Cooper for coming to celebrate our birthdays (hubby's 40th). Happy Birthday to hubby, myself, and twin bro!
Happy 40th Birthday to dearest hubby! You are aging like a fine wine. 😘
I am so blessed to have such a hardworking, loving, and supportive partner in life! I am grateful for all that you do for us and you deserve all the credit for being the best husband I could ask for.
While I always share photos and videos of our vacations, those are just a small part of our lives. Life is much more about the day-to-day little things and boring routines that we tend to overlook or take for granted. That is why I decided to capture these videos as a reminder to be thankful that I have found a good person to share my life and grow in love with. I love you! <3
10 May 2024 (Fri): Hubby saw this amazing aurora in Alabama while I was back in Malaysia!
20 July 2024 (Sat): Our 15 year old GE fridge decided to stop 'chilling' so we shopped for a new one. I still remember when the old fridge was delivered to this same house 15 years ago...we were still bf/gf at that time, hubby just bought this house and was in the process of moving in, and it was my last week in Huntsville before flying back to Malaysia after spending 9 months in the US. How time flies!
22 July 2024 (Mon): Bought this Frigidaire 20-cu ft Top-Freezer Refrigerator from Lowes for $800. We decided to get something simple with less chance of breaking, and opted for a stainless steel one.
8 Aug 2024 (Thurs): Final part of our exterior home improvement project...stained our fence for $900.
21 Mar 2024 (Thurs): Our little Mazda made it to 150,000 miles and is still looking nice and going strong!
3 July 2024 (Wed): My driver's license was expiring so I went to the Decatur DMV again (last time was in 2020) to get a Star ID license this time.
I know self praise is no praise but I am filled with gratitude whenever I receive notes like this from my team members to express their gratitude. Good employees aren't easy to come by and I have been very fortunate to work with people who are willing to put in the hard work, seize every learning opportunity, and take the time and effort to express their gratitude. I don't do anything special to 'inspire' anyone (I'm just doing my job), but to know that what I deem normal can mean so much to someone made me realize how much the power of positive influence can empower and inspire others to become the best versions of themselves. I'm keeping these notes because there are the things I'd like to remember about my career one day when I look back in the future.
And always, my weekly meal prep photo collection...
June 2 & 9 (Sun): Yellow rice with baked chicken, tomyum soup with mussels and vegggies, salad, ham and meatball pasta, stir-fry veggies.
June 16 & 23 (Sun): Yellow rice with baked chicken, porridge with pork tenderloin, stir-fry veggies, bbq sauce chicken with rice, salad, potato salad.
June 30 & Jul 7 (Sun): Beef and veggie stir fry, pasta with pork tenderloin, salad, beef soup with rice, baked chicken with rolls, stir-fry veggies.
Jul 14 & 20 (Sun): Pasta with beef in BBQ sauce, stir-fry veggies, baked chicken, salad.
Jul 28 & Aug 4 (Sun): Porridge with pork tenderloin and veggies, baked chicken, salad, tomyum noodle soup with meatball and veggies, baked chicken with mash potatoes.
Aug 11 & 18 (Sun): Potato salad, meatballs, soup with pork tenderloin and veggies, egg sandwich, baked chicken, herbal soup with pork tenderloin, stir-fry veggies.
We had originally planned to visit Poland back in 2022 as part of our Finland trip, but had to change our plans due to covid restrictions. With the geopolitical situation in that part of the world, we decided to go ahead and visit Poland and the Baltic countries this year when they are still relatively safe and stable, and also to check off few more countries in Europe on our bucket list.
We arrived Riga bus station 15 minutes before our 9am bus from Riga to Tallinn.
We booked our Lux Express bus tickets from Riga to Tallinn online on Feb 28 (about 3 months before), and was able to get it at a good price of EUR 9.90 ($10.50) per person.
Our 4hr 15min journey from Riga to Tallinn was a smooth one. After traveling 3 times on Lux Express on this trip, we would strongly recommend this bus. It's comfortable and the free wifi was great!
We arrived Tallinn on time at 1.30pm and the fitness training continues with a 10 minutes walk to the hotel. Hello Estonia...country #50!!!
Arrived Ibis Tallinn Center at 1.40pm but our room wasn't ready yet so we dropped off our backpacks at the hotel's luggage storage.
We booked this hotel for $73.60 and was able to offset it with the $50 hotel credit that comes with our Chase Sapphire Preferred cc + 1850 Chase Ultimate Rewards points. The room was comfortable.
Walked 20 minutes to Tallinn Old Town. Viru Gate feels like the grand entrance into the Old Town.
St. Catherine's Passage - This small little alley is one of the 'instagram worthy' spots in Tallinn and we got lucky nobody was around. :)
Random buildings in Tallinn Old Town. Like all other Baltic countries we visited in the last few days, the support for Ukraine is also strong in Estonia. In case anyone thought we intentionally looked for the Russian embassies in both Latvia and Estonia, no we didn't. We just stumbled upon them as we were walking around and couldn't help noticing all these.
Tallinn Town Hall...another 'same same but different' old town square vibe.
St. Olaf's Church. To be honest we were pretty 'churched-out' at this point.
Tallinn is a quite a nice town. It was definitely more touristy and crowded than the Vilnius and Riga.
Alexander Nevsky Cathedral - This cathedral opened in 1900 during the Czarist Empire and is home to Tallinn's largest bell. The impressive exterior showcases Russian Revival architecture with its onion-shaped dome.
St. Mary's Cathedral...we were also 'cathedral-ed out' at this point.
Panoramic view over Tallinn Old Town at Kohtuotsa Viewing Platform.
Toompea Castle dates all the way back to the 9th century and is currently used by Estonia's Parliament.
Old Town of Tallinn has managed to wholly preserve its structure of medieval origin. Hubby loves medieval stuffs so we had to check out the Olde Hansa Medieval Restaurant in Tallinn.
Everything is medieval themed in this restaurant
The restaurant had 3 storeys and the interior was all medieval...even the toilet was medieval...lol!
We went around 4pm for early dinner so the restaurant was pretty empty.
Medieval menu
We ordered the honey beer and cinnamon beer and they came in a medieval beer mug. The food was pretty good and the total cost for our meal was EUR 94.60 ($103).
Wrapped up our sightseeing of Tallinn at 5.30pm and it was time to head back to the hotel.
31 May 2024 (Fri): Tallinn - Helsinki - London - Charlotte - Huntsville
Early start for the day. Checked out of the hotel at 4am and got an Uber to Tallinn airport. It was a quick 5 minutes ride to the airport and the Uber ride cost EUR 6.61 ($7.17).
Tallinn airport is pretty small and we were able to use the Finnair Priority check-in lane so we were done checking in at 4.15am with plenty of time to spare before our 6am flight. Bye bye 10kg backpacks...see ya in the US!
Time to begin our 25-hour journey from Tallinn - Helsinki - London - Charlotte - Huntsville. Booked these flights with 30,000 AA miles + $79.40 per person.
Got access to the Airport Business Lounge in Tallinn airport with my Oneworld Emerald status.
Had our breakfast at the lounge.
Flight #1 - 30 minutes from Tallinn - Helsinki at 6am. Our flight from Tallinn (Estonia) to Helsink (Finland) was one of Europe's shortest international flighs, and definitely the shortest flight I've ever flown. I took a timelapse of our entire flight from takeoff to landing, and held my phone against the window for 24 minutes of the entire flight duration.
Arrived Helsinki airport at 6.25am with a 1.5 hours layover. Had to go through border control here as we were leaving Schengen. Thankfully there were no lines and we cleared border control within 20 minutes after arrival.
We had enough time to make a quick visit to the Finnair Business Lounge.
Enough time for a bubble at 7am. We already had breakfast in Tallinn so we weren't hungry yet.
Then it was time to board flight #2...8am flight to London on Finnair. A surprising perk of Oneworld Emerald status is the ability to choose Premium Economy seat on this 3-hour Finnair flight from Helsinki to London for free. Nothing fancy (and only water or blueberry juice) but the seats were definitely more comfortable than economy.
Arrived London Heathrow airport 30 minutes ahead of schedule at 8.40am. There is a 2-hour time difference between London and Helsinki.
We had 6.5 hours to wait in Heathrow airport and that means it's time for lounge-hopping.
First stop was the Qantas Business Lounge.
The main reason we came to this lounge was for the ala carte brunch that started at 9.30am. We ordered the Salt and pepper squid with green chili dipping sauce and aioli, Salad of buckwheat noodles with poached chicken, chinese broccoli, cucumber, sesame seeds and soy mirin dressing.
After a quick 30 minutes stop at the Qantas lounge, it was time to move on to the main lounge that I wanted to visit here...Cathay Pacific Business Class and First Class Lounge, which is supposedly the best Oneworld lounge in Heathrow.
First stop in the lounge was the dining room in the First Class lounge. Breakfast #4 for me at 10am. Definitely enjoying all the Asian food while I can.
The First Class lounge was pretty busy in the morning so we decided to check out the Cathay Pacific Business Class lounge next door and hang out there for awhile.
Breakfast #5 at 10.45am...Char Siu Pork Bun & Mison Chicken and Mushroom soup.
Went back to the First Class lounge at 12.15pm and it was finally empty.
It was time for lunch. Don't judge how much I've eaten within the past 6 hours...I was just trying to enjoy all the Asian food while I can.
Of course gotta get a shower before the 8.5 hours flight back to the US.
After lounging for 5 hours, it was time to continue our journey home on flight #3 from London to Charlotte on American Airlines. Seat selection was a success with a row of 3 for the 2 of us. Could have tried to get a row of 4 in the middle but decided not to risk it since this flight was pretty full.
Got about 6 hours of sleep on this flight.
Arrived Charlotte airport at 7pm and got through immigration pretty quickly (thank goodness for Global Entry) but had to wait quite awhile for our backpacks coz I forgot to ask the airline staff at Tallinn airport to tag hubby's backpack with the priority tag as well.
It was already 8.15pm by the time we were through security and had 2 hours to wait before our final leg. We were able to visit this AA lounge as we were arriving from an international flight.
Complimentary Business Class upgrade for our 1.5 hour flight from Charlotte to Huntsville to wrap up our 25-hours of travel.
