Life For Rent

So while people dispersed from the pinkdot event, mahjong, steamboat dinner at Bugis and this lil place was what and where we were up to. Tucked away on Haji Lane I have to say the street is a lot noiser than it was. But anyway double J (Jay was having a running tap via his nose) Jayme, Keong, Rach, Ceddy and myself. Playing uno. We decided to change rules here and there to make the game more fun and I think Jay held out well despite him feeling quite sick. Now my tap has begun to run, some 1 week later. I am trying to fight it….
PS – I think ceddy’s pink shirt is.. quite hot. Hot pink! No he didn’t come from the pinkdot event I think. He came from the NDP rehearsal!

It so appears that is how Jay looks like when he plays Mahjong too. Jayme on the other hand continued to be 'tekan' by Ceddy's cards over and over again. Poor girl.. but it's ok we still love u.

The multi million dollar smile after a sabo attempt on him backfired. This, in mahjong terms, is what I call a 13 demon (13 yao) win. HUAT AH!!!

Ceddy... deeeeeep in thought. Quite cute hor. But where is his bling bling????

Now I know why I couldn't game this set despite being on uno for quite a bit!!!! My 7 char siew! Oh.. char siew is what I call a red card...

The prince and the princess. 'Nan de' got chance to take foto. Too bad this foto also cannot be used for the passport. Damn char siew wall!

And of course, the lovely couple! Rach was the one taking most of the photos as she wasn’t playing. I have to say, somehow, this place doesn’t feel like the way it used to. I think the drink I had (some soursup drink) was not my thing. The cushions had quite a fair bit of dust (my nose told me so) and overall, not my kinda thing. I also don’t know why I asked JJ to go. Of late I keep making quite silly decisions…
Anyone has holy water? I think I need a bath in it… I promise I will drink every drop up thereafter!
Coming up, Kome Japanese buffet lunch (lunch treat from someone who made a killing on the stock market..), trying not to get sick.. and my next post with my infamous  2 words!

For Tony Romas fans…. click, print, eat.

Coming up tomorrow, a movie outing kindly sponsered by the bank I’m stationed at so all of us are gonna watch it together. I hope the will be good!

Moving on, I am STILL getting queries on how to design this webpage and fix that comp. While I am technically sound enough to clear up viral infections and all like a doctor, I will not do it on a usual basis! What do I do at work? Heck I don’t fix comps. I handle risk managment, I do audits, I ensure compliance, I monitor the network infrastructure with my team and I lead the security operations within the team amongst other things. My specialisation is in information security. So you will see, the words ‘webpage’ and ‘fix computers’ are not found anywhere. So pls stop asking me which comp is best and how do I fix a blinking screen. USE THE DAMN SEARCH ENGINES cause if you ask me that is what I will do too.

Moving on, recruiters and headhunters are still hot on my heels in linkedin where I have my professional profile. I have rejected most of them but the one I saw today seems to be good enough for me to submit my CV to see how things go. Come to think of it I badly need to revamp my entire CV. My expertise lies in the financial services industry (FSI, ie banks for example, for the uninitiated) and sorry to say I am not likely to accept a position in a local bank.  So I was given this description that of an AVP in a bank’s security risk department. I don’t know which bank but I highly suspect it is one that is a few floors below where I work… hmm

I am listening to a database security webinar, within the domain of data leakage prevention. Yes I am multitask..

Cheerios for now! Pictures from the weekend coming up!

- To reduce the strong taste of onions in a salad, dice them and put in refrigerator overnight.
- Baby oil will remove paint from your skin, and you’ll do double duty by not only removing the paint; you’ll also soften your skin.

Let me know if it works for you!

I noticed a lot of female bus drivers of late. Quite interesting actually cause I find them better drivers somewhat. Lil lady, big bus.  I suppose size don’t matter? But on the whole I have never had a problem with a female driver.

My colleague took her TP test this morning and passed it on her first attempt too. Who said females can’t drive?

Besides my mom.

While mahjong sessions were ongoing, 1000 people gathered at Hong Lim Park, 16th May 2009.

A sea of pink as people from all walks of life, young and old took part to show their support for the right to love, regardless of sexual orientation.

Led by pinkdot ambassadors Neo Swee Lin, DJ Rosalyn  Lee and Timothy Nga, what struck me the most about this event and the birth of pinkdot.sg, is that many of the organizers are actually straight-heterosexuals. Regardless of cause or intention, to have people from the other side of the fence to stand up and speak up for the other, is truly heartening.

Pinkdot was mooted by people who felt that love has no boundaries and everyone has the right to love, free from fear and prejudice. While I have long given up any hope of seemingly close family truly understanding the meaning of freedom to love,  I am very glad that there are people out there who still believe that everyone has a right to love.  Pinkdot believes everyone regardless of sexual orientation has the right to express their love just like anyone else.

Everyone can have differing opinions on sexuality.  I am sick and tired of the multiple sagas where people from both camps fight hard and furious, one defending their right to exist while the other seemingly fighting for the other to be eliminated. Doesn’t it sound like mutants VS humans in X-Men?People will know my favorite’s Mystique. Other than having the power to shapeshift, it was one line the character said that made it all clear to me. When nightcrawler asked her since she could shape shift into anything she wants to, why not shapeshift into a beautiful person instead of being that naked blue appearance Mystique has. She simply replied “because we shouldn’t have to”.

Why do people have to appear what people would prefer to see them as? How many people within my family truly knows me. How many facades do we need to build? Question is, why should we have to?

So the good people at Pinkdot challenged everything that has been said and done. To me, love is not selective. Humans are. There were a few times, in the past, that I would have done certain things to certain people, so that they can experience what it means and how it feels like to love someone, yet be denied of that right to love. The straights, can only imagine how it feels like, other than the few who happened to fall in love with a gay person.

To live and let live. If everyone is more tolerant of differences among race, religion and in this case, sexuality, everyone reaps the benefits of a cohesive work force, with an equally fulfilling family behind each and everyone of them. If both camps tear each other apart, I am pretty certain neither will hold anything back and you can be sure the pink community globally is gonna get involved as well and it will turn very ugly in a war where there will definitely not be any winners. Only losers, and blood on the streets. I think few straights actually realise,  the numbers are not as small as they think.

So yes, I don’t see why LGBTs  should be treated as mutants, running from one corner to the next. Leading secret lives. Hiding their true self from everyone else. The caveat I see to the whole thing is, I am not sure many people understand love in its native form. Do I know love? Maybe not. You see, humans do a fantastic job at deciding what’s right and what’s wrong. This is not unique to the topic about love, and sexuality.

If you do agree that love has no boundaries, and that everyone has the right to love regardless of sexual orientation, please visit Pinkdog.sg. You will find links to their blog and facebook in there.

I wasn’t there this year, but I thank the organizers for putting what they believe in, into action. If it happens next year, I’d like to visit, along with my close friends if they are able to.

My personal pledge to the campaign isn’t about love to be honest, but it is to support the organizers who tirelessly volunteer and dedicate their time to pinkdot.sg, something which I am very thankful for.  The event at Hong Lim park was a starter. Hopefully we will see more pinks next year!

Thanks Rosalyn, Swee Lin and Timothy, along with everyone else working tirelessly behind the scenes and were not mentioned. You, are not forgotten.

Ceddy had a sweet craving and wanted to check out Nook while Jay was very busy watching Shuang Tian Zi Zun and getting sick and Rach was pretty much out of action too. So it was just me and Ceddy and we did have a good time pretty much! Nook’s a cafe that’s off the beaten track (off Hume Ave) and I love the quietness of the area that’s void of the hustle and bustle of places like Railway Mall and what not. Weather was cool and the general feel was as if we were in another country. The owner of Nook is a spanish wine distributor as well and their range is pretty impressive! I came across the dessert wine we had the last time round and we will definitely go back to try it again when we have more people around. Nook opens 10am-11pm thereabouts depending if there are still customers around at closing time and is closed on Mondays apparently.

Darn I should have seen the Visa sticker on the door. URGH. Too little too late. Anyway here’s the entrance of Nook. Courtesy of pictures taken by Ceddy. The indoor area wasn’t captured but we have very nice tables and large chairs to plunk our butts down for a nice chit chat session. I like the idea that it isn’t too many cushions and carpets around which will most likely irritate my nose. I was up early this morning cause I had to be at the office and there was this dust mite allergy show on TV on how people who had asthma and reacted strongly against dust mites made changes to their surroundings to bring down the frequency of attacks. I am inspired… but that’s for another blog post.

Check out the sewing machine table. Now that’s an idea. And I love wooden tables and everything bout wood. In fact when I have my place hopefully my utensils will all be wooden. Plates, forks and spoons (knives not possible?) cause the sound of metal against metal really irritates me. Ladles have to be wooden and while the pots and all can’t be, everything else hopefully will be. I hate cafes which have this clearing area and staff dump and throw glass plates and metal utensils everywhere creating a din that irks the hell out of me. Maybe metal and me don’t go well together…

I can’t remember the name of this dessert now but it has a real moist chocolaty taste that I like. It was a little more moist this time round and appeared more of a moouse than how I remember it as. I do not have a sweet tooth and chocolate isn’t generally anywhere at the top of my list but this one is quite a nice aphrodisiac!

The thin chocolate crepes  came with whipped cream and it was light and pretty alright but nothing really big to shout out it seems. What we had also which isn’t in the pictures is almond coffee. The almond was a little too strong for me personally and it would have been better to have it warm but we asked for ice. The server was a little confused cause I think this is the first time someone asked for it ice and she didn’t know how to charge (from what we heard from the boss later when we spoke to him)! So cute… she hails from London we hear while they have a spanish chef and they do nice tapas apparently. All spanish and all. Something I might just try…

This is probably Ceddy’s fav. A brownie feel to it with little scoops of ice cream around it. Kinda dry though I think. I like it moist. Maybe ceddy likes it a little warm and dry. I don’t like stuff that crumbs around in my mouth. But overall it was nice and sweet. Ceddy was sweeter… picking me up and dropping me off even though it is out of the way. So cute!

And of course the week before, Ceddy would have just recovered and like me when I recovered after a 2 week illness, we were waiting to feast on the whole ocean! Rach wanted to claim her sashimi treat, while Jay and Jayme wanted their little fix too. But overall I think the company matters a lot more than just food and I am glad everyone had fun. We had 6 people and it was enough to order a lot more things!

For example… shishamo. But before you critisize us on the portions we ordered, this is the only shishamo order we placed for the night. And I.. was the one who finished most of it. For some reasons the rest just ate one or two. grr

Rach is a salmon queen, while I am a tuna and mekajiki king along with ceddy. So we ordered a salmon sashimi specially for her. Now take a look. This is for 10 people! Of course we helped her along with it but just imagine if this was just salmon, can you imagine the size of the mixed sashimi that we had? It was too darn big to be on camera! Literally!

We had our tempuras, our sushi, the butter mushrooms, chicken, beef and the ice cream was ooo la la! I talked bout this japanese ice cream and they swung into it during the main course (just to sample).. I think by the end of the night they had like what, 6 or 8 scoops each??? I didn’t even have time or the space to order my soba! LOL

It was nice and fun and I am glad everyone had a feast and enjoyed it too. I certainly did.

I am gonna head out to JJ’s (Jay and Jayme) place soon. Rach and the bf will be there too. I know she wants to play mahjong la… LOL! Ceddy will join us later and we will probably head down to this little cafe at Arab Street for drinks later. I wanna bring JJ to take a look at the concept of this cafe too. Have a good weekend everyone!

LOS ANGELES – TRANSFORMERS star Megan Fox says she’s bisexual, said reports on Thursday.
However the actress, who is engaged to Beverly Hills 90210 actor Brian Austin Green, says she wouldn’t sleep with other bisexual women.

“I think people are born bisexual and they make subconscious choices based on the pressures of society,” she told Esquire magazine.

“I have no question in my mind about being bisexual.

“But I’m also a hypocrite. I would never date a girl who was bisexual, because that means they also sleep with men, and men are so dirty that I’d never want to sleep with a girl who had slept with a man.” — AP

–

I am thinking… will she date a bisexual guy who has slept with other bisexual ladies, like her? In her above line, she has also implied she is dirty. Well done.

After a whole morning of meetings and firefighting, it is time for lunch. On my way down in the lift, I saw someone who was wearing a similar shirt to one of my favs, the black stripped shirt from Library @ Tangs. I am just thankful I was not wearing the same one today!

One question and I would like to seek the opinion of my readers here. Referring to the terms – “I am seeing someone”, “I am dating someone” and “I am with someone”.

Are there any difference between the 3, or 2 out of the 3? If so, what is the difference in your opinion?

Was listening to the morning express on Class 95, and here I go with 2 words once again!

Frigid, and exude.

They aren’t very difficult words and are fairly common I reckon but here goes anyway-

Glenn was talking about women who didn’t have the most flattering figure, often appear frigid in their tubes. He went on to say that men in general, find ladies who exude an aura of confidence in how they look, very attractive. There are others who appear frigid despite trying to appear confident cause that’s the whole trouble. Fake confidence, and it shows.

Frigid in this case, refers to being stiff.

Exude, can imply an emission of sweat from pores. As rach would say I exude a fishy smell!

Or it can be to projection or radiate, as in to exude cheerfulness.

Home work done. Pang kang!