Currently Hoping to Cut Those 2 Kilos

That, was one of the choice phrases uttered (during dinner at this zen vegetarian restaurant) on my recently concluded trip to Taipei:



This brings the number of times I've visited the city in the span of 1 calendar year to THREE: Nov 07 - Dec 07 with Weeds, May 08 with the Tear, Dar and Bear, and Dec 08 with Elva. Apparently, that's a lot of times. Well I can't say I've gotten sick of the city. Okay, so towards the last few days of this trip, I was kinda wondering what to do and I did think that I would have achieved more if we had gone to another city instead of staying in Taipei alone. But Elva hadn't been to Taipei before and seemed to really enjoy being in the city, plus I was kinda lazy to pack and uproot to another place and then travel back to Taipei for the flight back, so I was quite glad to just stay put.

Of course, the next time I come to Taipei (and there will be a next time because I still have a fortune in my 悠游卡), I will need to find a nicer hotel because Handsome Hotel is just too damn dusty! Even though its location is SUPER, I got the sniffles after a few days of inhaling that microbial air. I had to shift our stuff to another room cos they were renovating halfway during our stay so more fumes and dust. Also, the toilet damn gross. No shower curtain DAS MEAN eternally wet floor + damp.

Hmmm... so what did we get up to this trip?

There was FUNKY. As usual, touchdown Friday evening, check in hotel, eat dinner and then get ready for the deluge of Chinese pop song dance remixes + cute Taiwanese guys. Repeat the process on Saturday night. This time, it was even better because:

1) I knew more songs so it was more fun
2) There was this tall and chunky draglet with a bob whom Elva called 舞孃, and who made quite a spectacle on the dance floor with her semi-coordinated moves and energetic stomping. 舞孃 became a minor celebrity for us and we chirped with glee each time we saw her sitting in the 西門紅樓 cluster of bars with her little friends.
3) There was that cheek reddening episode of being asked by a wingman to slow dance with his friend during Saturday night's 慢舞 segment. And the subsequent sequence of events that made me realise that on Saturday nights, EVERYONE in Taipei comes out to play. Everyone.
4) As a result of #3, I got to make a new friend who showed me around the more obscure corners of Taipei (like the famous grubby beef noodle corner stall) and who gave me a bit more insight into what it is like to be a real Taiwanese.

Anyway.

I finally went to 淡水 to check out what the big deal was. Well true to the advice, it was pretty spectacular at dusk:


 



Well this little girl had a morbid toy dangling on her bike. This bewildered skinned chicken is fairly popular around the city. I've seen it sold at shops.

Anyway.

Also finally went up 陽明山. I think we were a bit unprepared for it (we probably needed a car) and we underestimated the effort needed to climb/trek up the mountain. Plus it was getting foggy and dark, so we made it sort of till the foot of one of the many insurmountable hills, called it quits and walked back the way we came.



The insurmountable hill.

Me trying to look rugged and accomplished. :P

Of course, there was the nuts energy that was in 西門町 and the place has changed somewhat since I last visited in May. There are these stalls by the side of the 紅樓 and there thoroughfare has been somewhat remodelled. This time, there were a lot more buskers like Elva's new husband Ah Wei (on the right):



And the more talented Vela:


Anyway, thanks to Vela, I'm now repeating this song over and over again.  In my head, on my laptop, on my camera. And by the way, she sang it much much better than that insipid 林依晨 did.

Okay, so according to Elva, the buskers were really good, so he looked forward ALL WEEK from Sunday till Friday (when they reappeared) to watch them ALL through the cold (ok not really) Taipei night. In all honesty, Vela is really good. But Ah Wei had an embarrassingly limited repertoire and a very big mouth, but Elva like leh.

Alright! This post is getting tooooooo long. Part 2 will follow.

Attended the Sandy Lam concert last night with Yeti, Weeds and LYL... I'm not too sure why I agreed in the first place, seeing as I only know 6 of her songs. But I decided it would be quite funny to go and watch live someone whose songs we all try to sing in KTV. And it was really an experience! For one, despite the rumours that her ticket sales were TERRIBLE, the place was damn packed lah! And it was packed with not just the aunties and uncles of SG... but practically half the island's LAG population was there (present company DEFINITELY EXCLUDED) and they were all geared up to partay.

The concert itself was OK... nothing too flashy. In fact, it was a bit boring for me at times, especially since I didn't know most of the songs she sang. But the best part of the night (for me) was when the above segment came up. The visual spectacle and the arrangement (she a capella herself) was pretty fantastic.

And I discovered that Yeti is sandylam_fangirl_no1!!! OMG he knew all the songs she sang.

And apparently Elva was there in the audience too...

The other day while Weeds and Yeti were in their gym, they had an amusing conversation where they likened each of us to a piece of dimsum. I'm not really sure what brought that conversation about, but apparently it took place in the men's changing room or something.

According to them (actually only Weeds because I don't gym at Planet), "Yeti is some oversteamed har gau who has obviously spent too much time in the steamer (gym steam room), steaming away all day, thinking the longer he steams, the more delicious he will become. But actually the truth is that the longer he steams, the more 烂 and disgusting he becomes, like those LAGs who sit in the steam room all day but never work out":



Couldn't find any ugly har gau pics online though...

Naturally, the conversation meandered to include me (I was across the road at Cali Bugis and we were going to meet that very evening). Anyway, according to them, I am a steamed scallop dumpling with crab roe. Because it's "expensive" and refined and... "expensive". Like a true 太后:



I think I have sarcastic friends.

Of course, Weeds tried to defy categorisation so Yeti labelled him a char siew bau because his complexion is "like a char siew bau, split opened and cracked". I thought maybe Weeds could be a crab stick, but that was too low brow even for him. He finally settled on being a lor bak kou... because you know, it's remarkably true to life in that it's got a crispy, burnt surface glistening with oil!!!



*dab dab with blotter*

My friends are hilarious!!!!

Am back on Singapore soil at last... it was another gross trip filled with sleaze and the inane ramblings of the washed out fuck. I guess the plus point was that I got to see it snow in the middle of the Mongolian spring. 



Who would have thought that the first time I saw snow would be under such unromantic circumstances. Like, in Mongolia with people I don't even really know or like. I always thought it'd be with some cute guy and we'd be like, on holiday and the snow would be pure white, not sorta sparse and grey. Bleah.

Who would have thought that I'd be spending every precious private moment on the sofa in the corridor of the 5th floor (because the wireless didn't work on my floor, the 6th), with my PSP, typing away to someone, trying desperately to cleanse myself of that horrible stench. That odour of het-male posturing which clung to me all day. The grotesque sleaze I had to put up with in the name of work I tried to erase by doing all sorts of gay things in my spare time. Had to use my PSP because I couldn't even surf on the laptop cos it belonged to the company. One of the managers brought his iBook along with him... apparently he always does. I'm going to start doing that for all future trips. That sense of isolation is really dragging my spirits down, and from what I can see, there will only be more trips in the future. I think I better get myself a hardcase laptop bag!

Not much to say about the trip... same old same old. Except I had a day to myself so I finally went to see Sukhbaatar Square and UB on my own.



The weather was actually very good and the skies were all clear... so an inexplicable flight delay for the delegation caused me to stay back 1 extra day, and as a result, my luggage got stuck in Beijing while I flew back to Singapore. Stupid.

Aaanyway, Yeti says I'm not persistent enough... OKAY I will be persistent from now on! And on a slightly cheerier note, here I am at the wholesale market posing with a pallet (well...) of chiong ice mountain, courtesy of our local partner and his entrepreneurial spirit!



Have to say that the water tasted.... JUST LIKE THE ORIGINAL!

Hmmm hmmm... it's going to be CNY again. Well, for once in 2 years, I'm actually employed! Somehow for 2006 and 2007, I've spent the festive season bumming around. Yet it kinda feels good to be working because actually, no one really makes a very big effort at their job at the 'mo, so it's all very relak at the moment. Although, I've been spending my time doing very menial stuff totally outside my job scope...which worries me. The funnest part of my job right now is booking CNY lunch for my dept. Ermm...yeah.

Anyway, as always, with CNY approaching, the same old dread resurfaces. I absolutely hate visiting relatives!!! It's so meaningless and stupid. I have less to say to those "cousins" of mine than I do to my colleagues. Since the death of the old crusties, we've been doing less visiting compared to previous years and I'm seriously considering 避年 this year because I've got a long break from work and I can't bear the thought of having to entertain stupid questions about my life situation from "concerned relatives" again.

Cos you know, a $2 ang pow doesn't quite cover the emotional stress they cause me.

But being the festive season, we should end off on a suitably upbeat note ( and since the peony is the most cheena flower I know):



花開富貴，心想事成！

So last Saturday (well and Thursday, to be exact), my dear friend Dondon got PWNED by his wife (more specifically, by the MIL). So begins the perilous lifelong journey that is marriage for one of my 2 friends from the 29th (the other being Shoop).

Well thanks to the fact that we've somehow managed to become good friends in the 11 years since JC, Dondon made me one of his brothers and made me the MC for his wedding dinner. Some more I was the chinese MC!!!! OMG. Anyway, even though it wasn't really an easy job being a brother (wake up at 5 am to drive his entourage around at my own cost) nor a CHINESE MC, it felt quite good to know that Dondon saw me as a good enough friend to give this kinda responsibility to.

Although, he was so relak throughout the 2 days that I wonder if he was really getting married. Our full dress rehearsal for the entry dance was conducted in the most absentminded way, in the morning drizzle, smack in the middle of a heavy vehicle carpark. It went something like this:

Dondon: Okay listen ah. Here you all come in, here you all unroll carpet, here you all dance and then like that lor. Ok? Okay ah. Let's go!

Brothers: ????!!!! Don damn confident ah!

We didn't even do any real dancing. And... we missed ALL the cues during the actual thing, so I guess Dondon's confidence was kinda misplaced.

But anyways, it was a great experience and it was even greater seeing the astonishment on the faces of the flocculated remnants of the 29th when they realised that Shoop and Bernard hadn't been untraceable all these 11 years as they thought. Just out of contact WITH THEM. I think it baffled them that Shoop would fly back just for Dondon's wedding ('you mean you came back for this?'). And how rude is that to diss the wedding AT the wedding itself?!



There we are, courtesy of Shoop. Here's Shoop in a dress (!!!), me out of MC mode and Dondon the proud groom, beaming away.

Sometimes I wonder if one day, I should ever hold a bash of this sort with my like HUSBAND, would Dondon really be there to be my brother?? As he was making that solemn vow on stage during his wedding speech, his wife turned and gave me this knowing look and I winked back.  I recall Dondon telling me that he told her that I like boys and asking me if it was OK for him to have told. I was like "Tell already then ask me?! DON!!!!"... well, that's typical Don for you.

But anyways. I think it might be really funny to have a mixed bunch of brothers and sisters for my wedding entourage. Who says girls can't be included? I've always found that a bit unfair and restrictive, considering that most of my friends are either girls or gay boys. I think Dondon is my only good straight male friend!! Oh no!!

I woke up on Saturday to find this sms:

"Hi. I'm transiting in Changi. Fly Shanghai at 0730. How was your new year? Got to go now. See ya."

It was sent sometime around 0630? Like I would be awake at that time? Like I would even reply to something like that?? (I did though: 'have a safe flight').

I mean, why does he bother still? I'd rather not be reminded, really. The last legs were really awful and... my last image of him was him dressed up as a squirrel???? UGH. Did I say I am glad to have ended it? Now we can both move on with our lives and he can finally work in China like he always wanted.

My only regret is waiting so long to end it (okay lah, and doing it on his birthday too. That was BAD of me!).

Well, I hope we both find what we want from here on out.

*disclaimer*

It is a TRAGEDY, and I don't mean to trivialise it in anyway. She was a great woman and very glamorous too! But somehow, this conversation actually happened on Thursday:

*end disclaimer*

Me: OH NO! Benazir Bhutto 死了!

Weeds: Oh yah lor. 

Me: 真惨！！ 哪里可以这样！

Weeds: It's not nice being assassinated. 

<pause>

Me: Nope.

Weeds: Hhnnor.

AND......... SCENE！

I took the daemon test... and apparently my daemon is a FOX! I always wished it would be a falcon of some sort (but secretly knew it would, in all probability, be a peacock).



Aiyah... fox better than iguana lah. But the name so toot! Theomilla is like some sorta auntie's name. I wanted to name my own animal spirit... I guess I ought to watch The Golden Compass soon.