Pepper & a whole lot of spice.

Friends who feel I'm very risque usually haven't met my other friends or T. and S. in particular. These are friends who wouldn't think twice bout cracking jokes about various parts of the human anatomy or discussing sex and personal grooming over coffee as nonchalantly as if you were discussing the weather. Their logic being it's part of what we do and who we are and since sex is good and we like it, why shouldn't we talk about it anymore than straight men rave about football and boobs? Logic which I can hardly fault and actually agree with haha. Though it'd be considerably more moderated on my end which might ensue in exchanges like:

Random Risque Friend : " Eh, why so serious?"
me: "Am I? I can't always be talking about sex can I?"
Friend: "Why not? You love it, what's not to like talking about it?"
me: "Perhaps because I haven't been getting any lately?"
Friend: "Get moving la. Waiting for prince charming is it?"
me: "Crazy"

So yes, though it may be hard for some to believe, I am tame in comparison to some of my other friends. But I digress. An outing with the risque duo is always noisy, raunchy and never dull. We'd gotten acquainted (at different times) through the usual smorgasbord of internet chat rooms and gay forums back in the hedonistic days of our youth. Though they might dispute the latter, if only because they're just as hedonistic now as they were then. Lol.

As the years went by (god sounding like an old foggy now), we met up a lot less, each leading our separate lives with T. being based in HK these days and S. always flitting across the globe on one of his numerous assignments. We still take the time to arrange meet ups when everyone is in town and available, few and far between though those occasions may be. For you know what they say, boyfriends change like the season but good friends are forever. Though I suspect that's only because apart from the fact that one would be more inclined to overlook certain characteristics in a friend that may be unacceptable in a partner, you're nearly never around good friends enough to get sick of them or otherwise haha.

So it was when we finally arranged to meet on Saturday at Olio Dome, the 'warm' welcome was an indicator of the sort of heart-warming rubbish I've always associated and come to expect from the risque duo.

T: " My goodness, so thin now! Starving yourself to feed the hungry in Africa is it?"
me: "Just because you're fat doesn't mean I'm thin eh. haha."
T: "Wah still as bitchy as ever"
S: "Ya how can anyhow say people starve? Probably too much sex la, he looks positively radiant."
me: " Sex your head la, just came from facial."
T: " Why everytime just facial only? Do the whole works man."

You get the idea. Dinner at Olio Dome was an animated affair with the usual banter and loud expostulations that probably traumatised the family at the table behind us. We even got a lesson on auto-ejaculation (and mild indigestion from choking on my lamb shank) when T whipped out his Iphone and proceeded to show us a bizarre Xtube video of some buff hairless (read - boyzilian) gym ape spasming violently while grunting away before cumming without any stimulation whatsoever to his dick.

I've heard of auto-erotic asphyxiation and bottoms ejaculating while being screwed by particularly skilled tops but auto ejaculation through no stimulation other than vibrating like a human dildo to the beat of your grunts was something entirely new and bizarre. "Perhaps he has a dildo stuck right up his ass," S mused. "Must be a bloody monster of a dildo to make him vibrate like that." I replied. "See that's why I tell you it's always better to be a top. At least you always get off in them." T interjected. "Ya and I pity your bottoms, they wouldn't even know you're in them" came S's rejoinder. Which predictably evicted a spirited tirade from T before it was cut short by a rather disturbed looking waitress who came to clear our plates.

Life would be so dull without friends with whom one can interact freely and unabashedly. Which is why I always take a dim view of uptight peeps who can't laugh at themselves but have no qualms laughing at others. Worse still are those who revel in perpetual negativity or self pity and rely on that very warped outlook to justify their shortcomings. But with friends of the former (positive) variety, one never tires being with them. And despite the frequency (or lack thereof) of meet ups, the camaraderie remains. I'll look forward to the next time we meet, whenever that may be.

Horological Craze.

Ever since I stumbled upon Citizen's Calibre 8700 Model 8000-54L while surfing the net last Saturday, I've been more than a little obsessed with watches and finding out what makes em tick. Which is quite inexplicable because for the longest time ever, my attitude towards timepieces has always been if it keeps decent time and looks good, I couldn't care less what went on behind the dial of a watch let alone the subtle differences between the various movements for automatic watches.

Citizen Bl8000-54l Eco-drive.

And in the span of a week, I probably know more about watches than I ever did these past 27 years, thanks to the hours spent trawling the net and googling for specifications & terminologies. Not that I'm an expert at any rate mind you but at least now I can tell the difference from an automatic and a kinetic and the higher the bps (beats per second) of a movement, the more accurately the watch keeps time.

Perhaps the thing that really kept me going was the realization that apart from keeping time (which boring digital watches can do), carefully crafted time pieces could be works of art too. That and a new found appreciation for analogue watches with various functions like perpetual calendars & minute repeaters as well as the unsurpassed beauty of mechanical watches. The wonder one obtains from peering into a mechanical watch and seeing the little gears tick.

While it did seem ironic (initially at least) to be whiling away the hours reading up about watches that keep impeccable time, I wouldn't say it was a waste of time. Got the aforesaid Citizen watch from Amazon (should have checked ebay first pity..), finally got round to setting up my ebay account, ebayed dad's present and sussed out some great deals for the next couple of watches I intend to get. As to which I intend to get first, it's a toss up between the Seiko Premier Automatic SPB001 and the Seiko Premier Kinetic Direct Drive SRH009P1. It'll probably be the former. Even though the most accurate and high end automatic movement will never be as accurate as a quartz, there is a beauty in a carefully crafted automatic that no quartz, exquisite or otherwise can ever replicate.

Now just take a look at that baby. That'd be worth all the lunches sacrificed for it haha.


Front of Seiko Premier Automatic SBP001


Sapphire Crystal back with engraved rotor & gold balance wheel.

Life's a funny thing.

It probably runs in the family. This unpleasant peculiarity of getting together with a loved one, getting so passionately involved in the relationship, making plans, then breaking up at different stages of the relationship. My cousin was the latest victim to follow in the Sister's and my footsteps though it is hardly something to be proud of.

Truth be told, we'd always figured that he'd be the first to get married in the family and beget precocious offspring for my granny who's certainly not getting any younger. For frankly speaking, he was the most 'marriageable' one amongst the lot of us.

The eldest cousin, an affable man who vaguely reminds me of Jabba the Hutt with his ample girth, the faint odour of stale cigarette smoke wreathed about him and his slow...pause..impregnated speech doesn't look like he'll be getting attached soon. The Sister is well The Sister, short of an immaculate conception or a missionary arriving to sweep her off her feet (and not into a certain position mind you), I don't see any progress on that end. There's yours truly and hell would sooner freeze over before I'll have sex with a woman, let alone end up married to one. Then there's the youngest, still in poly, presumably single and ironically the Cousin who'd now probably marry first but whom for now marriage remains a distant prospect.

But I digress. We were pleasantly surprised (my granny especially so) when we found out that this cousin had a girlfriend. There are guys who wear their hearts on their sleeves, guys who would not hesitate to express their feelings and there are others who keep it under lock and key, guarding their hearts with the zeal of a carmelite nun. The cousin was the latter. An extremely private person by nature (like some friends I know haha), the cousin loathed disclosing more than was absolutely necessary about his private life. In fact, his mother only knew he was attached (and had been for a year) when he brought the girl back to the house and asked if she could stay over for a couple of days. Though then again, I can fully comprehend why, the less a mother knows, the better.

She became a regular fixture at family gatherings and soon it transpired that they were engaged (again information was not exactly forthcoming - the facebook stalker of an auntie reported the change in status), he got her a blinding rock that evoked the de rigeur ooohs & ahhhs from her friends and they did all the couple-ly stuff. Like getting a HDB flat, not coupling. I'm pretty sure they didn't wait to get engaged to engage in the latter.

They were by and far as things went, a handsome, loving and compatible couple. Him thoughtful and caring, her radiant and attentive. But who can tell what goes on behind closed doors in a couple's private life, the smiles that belie the insurmountable obstacles faced? None but the parties themselves. For it is in your darkest hour that you are most desolate, is it not? And it was in this same vein that we realised (via the same FB stalking auntie) that things had changed: the change of status, the removal of a friend, the seeming gaiety of a man out to live freely and immerse himself totally in his work.

The lawyer in me can't help but wonder idly about the reasons for the breakup of a relationship so close to that frightful institution of marriage as it were. The reasons for that irretrievable breakdown in the relationship. But I check myself. The reasons so persuasive and compelling for the breakup, at the breakup, are often immaterial when all's said and done. For just like a starving man does not need to be told the reason why he starves, so too it is of little use to revisit the reasons, mentally rehash them one by one after the relationship's gone.

You learn to pick up the pieces and move on. For that's what life is about isn't it? Making what you will of it and moving on. Because if you stay still and stagnate, time passes you by, people pass you by and before you know it, you're stranded, embittered and cantankerous with nothing to show for your pathetic life.

So you move on, even if it hurts because to hurt is to know that you live. Even if it doesn't make the pain any more bearable. I suspect my cousin's faring quite well.. on the face of things at least.

As a friend said while we mused over certain recent events, Life's a funny thing. Indeed. I'm still trying to laugh.