It feels a little surreal. That I'm finally leaving on a trip which I decided upon impulse just 40 days ago. Not that I have any regrets, if anything there is that growing sense of quiet anticipation towards the days ahead. Suffice to say, I doubt my outlook towards travelling in general and as a solo traveller in particular would remain the same after this trip.
So in 30 mins, I'm off to Switzerland that scenic land of snow, cheese, chocolates and watches (as the cousin repeatedly pointed out). I still have that ever-present nagging feeling of having forgotten something (I believe i forgot the frequent flyermiles card but there you have it), am wondering why the luggage seems to weigh a ton and have yet to come up with a complete itinerary. But half the fun is planning and improvising on the go isn't it? (For impulsive nuts like me hur hur)
With temperatures ranging from 0 C to -10 C in the cities and a horrific -15 C to -20 C at the mountains (Junfrau and Schilthorn), I'm mildly worried about freezing over. I love the cold, I've always detested the sweltering strength sapping heat of summer. But that said and done, being mind numbingly cold where the chill (and wind shudders) cuts to the bones isn't much fun either. I'll just have to see how much punishment I can take in Jungfrau, assuming I don't freeze first that is.
Food won't be a problem. Short of spicy, grotesquely exotic and swimming-in-oil food, I'm fine with trying almost all kinds of cuisines. Continental food in particular poses no problems at all, I could probably survive a year without the usual rice-noodle asian staple kind of food. Sure i might miss it from time to time but I won't die without it. Which is more than I can say for some family members (who used to pack belachan before 9/11..) and friends.
So I have no doubt I'll be enjoying the food though I'm equally sure the copious amounts of cream, cheese and meat will be deposited along the girth. Which probably does give me a reason to club in Zurich doesn't it? grins.
It's amusing how frenzied the Mother was. Do you have this? Do you have that? Where are they meeting you? (because she still assumes Annie and Kate are coming along) She'll probably enter into cardiac arrest if she knows the truth. The Sister tried to surreptitiously slip a devotional prayer book into my knapsack which I quickly disposed of. She even gave a little peck on the cheek which was a surprise.
Kinda makes you feel like one of those soldiers off to war the way they reacted even though I'm off for holls. Ah well, maybe I won't come back in one piece but hey I jolly well intend to have a good time damnit.
Time flies when you least expect it to, which is almost always when you are having fun. The last 5 days have been a whirlwind of frenzied activity, wining, dining, clubbing, chatting and a shit load of shopping.
It seems almost surreal that in 2 days I'll be jetting off to Switzerland (yay!), the prospect of travelling alone to so far away a place exciting yet not without a tinge of apprehension. And I haven't packed zilch to start with, in fact it was only today that I just printed out the maps with directions to get to the different hotels. Yes, so I remain woefully unprepared but I shall psych myself up sometime in the very near future. Now if only I could get someone to pack for me, bah.
The weekend was tiring but eventful, clubbing on consecutive nights till the wee hours of the morning was exhausting though it did afford an excellent workout on the dancefloor. It would have been a mind numbing three nights in a row if not for that wonderful Brain Fuck conversation with D. that went on for 7 hours straight to dawn.
It's always highly refreshing and totally captivating to be able to find another person whom one can converse so freely with. Where conversation flows naturally and seamlessly and neither party has the willpower or desire to end the conversation. And all without the banal de rigeur 'age/stats/race intro?' crap. A brain fuck indeed.
We met just yesterday and even if he wasn't physically attractive, short and stocky (hahaha he'll kill me), he was a huge intellectual turn on. Conversation as usual was entertaining and totally uninhibited, well after a few persistent probes from yours truly. ^^ If nothing, at least we've found a friend cliche though it may sound.
Orchard was packed as usual... All the last minute christmas shopping hasn't been helping at all. Everytime I shop for presents I usually end up getting stuff for myself. Which is good as therapy but bad for the wallet. You know what they say though, it's the festive season and the sales are quite remarkable so I'm just doing my bit to stimulate the economy.
The one buy I'm really pleased with are the boots from Raoul. God knows how damn difficult it is to buy classy boots that can actually be worn to work in Singapore. I've always had a thing for boots, it's not because of the heels but more its sleek sexiness and the inexplicable feeling of empowerment and liberation when one wears them.
And if you dare suggest that the feeling of empowerment can be put down to the added few inches obtained from the heels, I'll squish your superficial balls. Under the heels of my boots of course. *Maniacal laughter* But yes I can fathom why certain females are fixated over stilettos, the higher the better, even though walking becomes a delicate balancing act and their feet probably hurt like hell. Heels and pain seem to go hand in hand.
That said and done, boots only go well with certain outfits and must be matched judiciously. There can always be too much of a good thing. It's all about knowing when to draw the line. Such as wearing boots with berms. Which is just plain wrong in case you can't visualise it for yourself.
Orchard road seems to be teeming with buskers these days, some of which aren't even local. I have to admit some of whom are actually entertaining if not because they are highly peculiar. Like that hippie Japanese band which sat cross legged and chanted hallelujah along to trance inducing music while strumming/ blowing on various instruments. For a moment I thought I was in the 70s'. And one of the guys even looked like Captain Jack Sparrow.... you judge for yourself.
There are songs and there are infectious hits that get stuck in your head, your body moving and render the call of the dancefloor irresistable. Katy Perry's Hot n Cold is one of them, bitchy, infectious and damn danceable. In fact, it's pretty hard not to dance to it. Time to sweat it out on the dancefloor at Play again...
Cause you're hot then you're cold. You're yes then you're no. You're in then you're out. You're up then you're down. You're wrong when it's right. It's black and it's white. We fight we break up. We kiss we make up...
Hot n Cold by Katy Perry
You change your mind Like a girl changes clothes Yeah, you PMS like a bitch I would know
And you always think Always speak cryptically I should know That you're no good for me
'Cause you're hot then you're cold You're yes then you're no You're in and you're out You're up and you're down You're wrong when it's right It's black and it's white We fight, we break up We kiss, we make up
You, you don't really wanna stay, no You, but you don't really wanna go, oh
'Cause you're hot then you're cold You're yes then you're no You're in and you're out You're up and you're down
We used to be just like twins, so in sync The same energy now's a dead battery Used to laugh 'bout nothing Now you're plain boring I should know That you're not gonna change
'Cause you're hot then you're cold You're yes then you're no You're in and you're out You're up and you're down You're wrong when it's right It's black and it's white We fight, we break up We kiss, we make up
You, you don't really wanna stay, no You, but you don't really wanna go, oh
You're hot then you're cold You're yes then you're no You're in and you're out You're up and you're down
Someone call the doctor Got a case of a love bipolar Stuck on a rollercoaster Can't get off this ride
You change your mind Like a girl changes clothes
'Cause you're hot then you're cold You're yes then you're no You're in and you're out You're up and you're down You're wrong when it's right It's black and it's white We fight, we break up We kiss, we make up
'Cause you're hot then you're cold You're yes then you're no You're in and you're out You're up and you're down You're wrong when it's right It's black and it's white We fight, we break up We kiss, we make up
You, you don't really wanna stay, no You, but you don't really wanna go, oh
You're hot then you're cold You're yes then you're no You're in and you're out You're up and you're down
You'll have to forgive me if I keep talking about weekends or my seeming infatuation with them (which I am not denying, and any sane working individual would tell you the same) but considering the fact that the rest of the week is (generally) spent on work which you wouldn't want to talk about (save to rant and rave) you can understand my preoccupation with the Weekend. Yes, the sad life of a grunt in the global economy. But hey job security in a recession helps.
This weekend was (generally) another high and woefully short. Catched up on much needed rest, finished all 32 weepy episodes of the Korean period drama 'The Legend' starring that guy from Winter Sonata. You gotta hand it to the Korean actors (and actresses..blah), they're damn good at tearing up suddenly, eyes brimming with tears at some poignant memory, plus they still look damn good after crying, tear streaked faces and all.
It's infectious. I even cried when some main character kicked the bucket. hur hur. I mean it's amazing how long 2 guys can stare at each other, one with a spear thrust through his heart, tears in their eyes replete with loud pants. It would almost be some homoerotic scene if not for the context and the setting. And yes I timed it, it was 3 mins 20 seconds replete with weepy, melodramatic music playing in the background. Amazing, eh?
So anyway, I'd forgotten that hypnotic effect these dramas and serials exert; it takes a monumental effort to stop oneself from popping in one disc after the other, just to see what happens later damnit. It is a rather cheap addiction given the price/entertainment time ratio albeit an unhealthy one. But most addictions aren't healthy anyway so who gives a flying fuck.
The Weekend wasn't all sloth and sleep. I met a very charming guy and I must say I was pleasantly surprised. It's not often that one is able to talk to a gay gay albeit a total stranger for hours on end without broaching the usual subject about sex. Though we did eventually talk about that of course. And you know what they all say, all talk no action is highly unsatisfactory. So of course must follow up la.
Revisited Play after months, music is still generally the same, house from 11ish to midnight, more popular current hits from one to three and the top 40s , late 90s hits from 3 to 4am. The crowd keeps looking younger or maybe i'm just getting older (not that I'm complaining). Though I swear some of the boys there aren't even 18 yet. Like the teen on crack, arms flailing about in all directions as he danced/spasmed to some invisible beat on the stage. Which provided some entertainment.
Though I was annoyed by the drunk shortie who kept popping up between the date and I to 'dirty dance' or to put it more accurately, grope wantonly. I mean sure he was young and probably high but he had halitosis and had the audacity to tweak my nipples that little punk. Which earned him a hard shove in the opposite direction.
Sunday was the time for last minute Christmas shopping for the Christmas dinner with the usual bunch of colleagues at work. The date agreed to come along. We'd agreed on the 'one expensive present instead of a bunch of cheapo presents' arrangement which meant we were assigned to buy for a particular individual, which suits me just fine. Shopping was a 15 minute blitz and I'm rather pleased with the pressies (again..haha).
Stuffed ourselves silly and caught The Day the world stood still at Lido. Bit of an anti-climax IMO, too much like the Day after Tommorow, you know that post-apocalyptic kind of scenario. It's all that pre-occupation with the one big Day, doubt we'll be seeing the end of it anytime soon. He liked it though so that was good.
And just like that the weekend's gone. Vaporous and transient. And you wonder why I'm so fixated on weekends.
I leave you with Suberidai , the ending song from Katekyoshi Hitman Reborn. The song is pretty normal, standard emo-ish fare. It's interesting because of the singer's voice. It's the kind you either love, hate or the type that slowly grows on you. You can't really stay neutral on it.
If I had to describe it on a knee-jerk reaction, I'd probably describe it as the kind of tone you get when you get a baritone to sing and slowly but surely squeeze his balls. And no I assure you S&M is not my cup of tea. But yes, it's the kind of voice that grows on you. Listen and decide for yourself.
Suberidai by Mori Tsubasa
The dancing, fluttering happiness The trembling warmth
No matter how I struggled I couldn’t catch it, like always No matter how hard I sketched I couldn’t draw it, like always
Yesterday, I understood that We can’t meet each other again I understood that I took two pieces of tissue home with me
The dancing, fluttering happiness The trembling warmth “Someday, I promise to make you happy” The voice that day was just my imagination
By knowing separation, it seems that we can become strong It’s fine even if we can’t become stronger than thisI t changed yesterday The bad things changed yesterday Just as you said, I’m a bad person
The fluttering hand that was pressed against my hair tenderly The sparkling ring that was removed from your finger You laughed a little fakely, didn’t you?I saw it from further than usual I didn’t say anything
The slide you saw When your teary eyes averted my gaze in the park I can’t remember if it was a giraffe or an elephant Even though I remember thinking“I want to protect you”
The dancing, fluttering happiness The trembling warmth “Someday, I promise to make you happy” The voice that day was just my imagination
I probably drank, shopped and smoked more this entire long weekend than the whole of last month. Which makes for a very decadent and expensive weekend.
Most of the boozing and smoking happened on Friday when I met up with the usual gang from Army. After dining and the customary reds and sheesha at Pot pourri (the rest had beer..yawn), the Ah Beng declared that he needed to dance in a proper club with the customary hard liqueur and mixers or he would die of boredom. Which we figured he probably already was anyway.
I firmly rejected his suggestion of Kabuki (again) and was amenable to Powerhouse at St James' Power Station, techno night though it was, given my familiarity with that place on a different night of the week. ^^ The queue at Powerhouse was horrendous by the time we arrived at 11pm so the Beng cajoled us into Dragonfly, that cantopop club beside Powerhouse.
I was expecting the worst. Mental images of some cabaret costumed show where dancers prance about the stage belting out Cantonese songs and expecting the crowd to get happy and tipsy to the process. I was pleasantly surprised. Sure enough there was still the cabaret themed live shows which came on at two separate intervals at midnight and sometime at 2? in the morning.
But other than that, the music was great. You know the kind of Top 40 hits, replete with the popular chart toppers from the late 90s that I seriously haven't heard for years. I mean I haven't heard J Lo's Let's Get Loud in a club since the 2003 New Year eve bash at the now defunct Whynot. Perhaps, the more astute or cynical amongst you might point out, I'm really more 'beng' than I care to admit. If loving to groove to Top 40 hits and music with more lyrics than beats instead of the usual House and the generally disseminated songs is an indicator of 'bengness' then I am unabashedly 'Beng'. Well in that aspect at least, I totally fail for the KTV, hokkien vulgarity sprouting bit.
We plowed through 3 bottles of Chivas amongst the 4 of us and grooved till the lights came on at 5am. The night also afforded entertainment of some sort. 2 gay guys in a huge arty farty group near us got drunk and bitchy which ended up in a real fight with glasses zinging to and fro. A short stumpy lady in a frilly dress (whom the Beng aptly terms as PuiChai - or literally translated as Fat Vegetable) rushed up to me and grabbed my waist and went "DaJia! Ta men zaidajia!" I had to spend a good minute extricating myself from her persistent embrace.
As a colleague adroitly pointed out, I seem to have the propensity to attract the wrong sort of attention, namely unwanted, unsolicited physical contact with unattractive (and I'm talking unattractive in the objective sense) women. Which often makes me wonder if I'm subconsciously emitting the wrong kind of signals or worse still fat-women-come-hug-me pheromones. Whatever it is, it's a disappointment everytime I'm appreciating a cutie and get accosted by a puichai. Shrugs, can't have it all I guess.
Shopping was initially driven by necessity( a few winter pieces for the swiss trip) but quickly hijacked by the wholly impulsive urge for retail therapy and the totally unwarranted inclination for gratification. So what started as a simple 'Ok I need a coat' blitzkrieg mission rapidly degenerated into a no-holds barred rampage and I ended up with 4 bags of clothes. 75% of which weren't for the swiss trip. And no, I wasn't doing my Christmas shopping. CS asked the same question (after another impulsive decision to activate them for some late night RA3 gaming) and shot me a dirty look when I answered in the negative.
You know what they say about retail therapy. It's all fine and dandy, inducing a Prozac-esque high till the bill comes. Then you hit rock bottom and it's time for other forms of therapy. Which is why I've resolutely refused to look at this month's credit card's statement. Till I need to clear the credit limit for the Swiss trip of course. Well, all in good time.
In the meantime, I'll be looking forward to the next two weeks where the Family will be on vacation and I'll have the entire bloody house to myself. Not to mention the attendant peace and zen-like serenity. Time to invite a few friends over for dinner or perhaps even the occasional fling for certain nocturnal activities. B L I S S.
The Triumvirate seldom has the time to meet for a proper unhurried meal and a chit chat session these days. But when we do meet, we usually go all the way.
Tea at Royal Copenhagen, an extremely satisfying dinner at Kuriya, chilling out and drinks at Potpourri. We (or annie in particular) probably traumatised the staff at Kuriya with the random bursts of laughter and the spirited conversation which often induced an inordinate amount of eye-rolling or further convulsing bouts of laughing fits.
Kuriya's (at Lido) standard remained impeccable if a little pricey. Kate and I ordered the Nabemono hotpots while Annie went for the humongous Kuriya set dinner which she wasn't able to finish anyway. Tucking into my favourite side dish of baked tofu with mentaiko (spicy cod roe) and cheese, I declared with enforced gaiety "Mm, dick cheese!" whereupon Annie dissolved into another bout of hysterical giggles and Kate turned a strange shade of green and snapped, "Can you stop that! Just the thought of it makes me want to hurl. God, I can almost smell it." Scrounging up her face, she made muffled retching sounds. Which probably worried the very attentive waitress who came along to check if everything was alright.
Drinks sometime thereafter, was at Potpourri, the same gem of a place where Ming celebrated her big 40 as it was nearby and the ambiance was perfect. Quiet but comfortable. I ordered my usual reds, which incidentally is far better than a lot of the reds at a number of watering holes, some of which are way too acidic- almost like vinegar and a sheesha. Annie had a long island tea and Kate, her San Pellogrino.
I must say I'm thoroughly impressed with the sheesha at Potpourri's, an hour later and it was still smoking away unlike the miserable one at that arab street cafe which died out after 15 mins. In fact the harder I sucked, the more bubble-gummy smoke I was rewarded with. (Kinda makes you wish it applied to something else doesn't it?) By the time we left about 80 mins later, it was still going strong, Annie was lobster pink, making funny comments and I was wistfully bemoaning the fact that tomorrow was Wednesday and not Saturday.
All in all, thoroughly enjoyable as usual, though I must say that all this wining and dining is burning a hole in my wallet. Sob.
I don't regret turning up for Suzie's / Ming's splendid bash. True to her roots, the event was well planned and choreographed right till the very last minute, and loads of fun to boot. True enough the initial meeting was a little awkward. Ming was smaller than expected (but larger than life haha) and as the rest of the blogging gang (Wildgoose and SinLady) hadn't shown up yet, Ming introed me to her banking colleagues who had known her for more than 16+ years.
Which was all very nice and swell but we mostly talked shop and when they queried as to the kind of the blog I maintained (cuz Ming mentioned that she knew me via blogging) (was it a cuisine kind of blog?), I just mentioned that it was a personal lifestyle kind of blog and left it at that. They were nice people, married with families. I just didn't think with all the talk about 'are you attached yet? hey you should be what!' that they were quite ready for the 'Actually I'm gay' kind of statement. Which was why I was scanning the crowd for vague signs of Sinlady and Wildgoose as Ming said they would be arriving soon.
The only hint I had was SinLady's hair which I had a vague impression of from the various photos posted on her blog. :) Sure enough, I spotted a refined woman with the same hairdo and a suspected cutesy kind of Wildgoose sometime later, so I made my way and introduced myself while hazarding a guess as to their identities after dinner and a couple of glasses of happy juice.
Which thankfully turned out to be the correct decision. I'm glad I risked the gamble, we had a hearty conversation and a great time thereafter. I wish I could produce/take better pictures, alas photography has never been one of my stronger points. Nevertheless we had a blast of a time, celebrating Ming's birthday and just enjoying each other's company, plus I managed to get Daniel's opinion about pole dancing haha.
Ming's Mum, a former Cantonese opera star performing with great gusto, my horrible photography skills does her no justice :P
Picture of Ming wowing the crowd with her pole-tastic skills. As usual my photography skill sucks but hey you notice that feral gleam in Ming's eyes? haha.
Stephie and Sinlady (J) performing their sexy exotic Egyptian dance on stage :)
From Left to Right: SinLady (J), Mysterious lady ^^, Ming the Birthday Girl, yours truly and Wild Goose (PY).
