How can it be?

That I have nothing to write about?

Is my life really that boring? (yes...and no)

The last two weeks have been really quiet for me, and I liked it...Some of you facebookers may have noticed that I have signed onto Facebook, but have yet to work it out yet. I reckon the amount of time spent trying to work it out is not worth the effort, I should have invested my two hours blogging something special for you guys here.....

Well, all is not lost yet, about 2 weekends ago, I was invited by my god fairy cousin to a dress up party. Dunno why, I always get invited to dress up parties, maybe people know that I love dressing up.

So I went with the notion that it was gonna be a dress up party typical of what I've been through in Aussieland. Boy, was I wrong! I am so out of touch with the party scene here, its not funny. You guys would probably know that I usually go all out when it comes to parties like that. The theme was "Jungle Fever".

So what did I go as?

Tiger Airways' Mascot "Doctor Jungle"

I thought, "Hmm...how clever, Jungle = Tiger and Fever = Doctor"

No so....not many people got the concept. They just thought I was being funny (as opposed to clever)

I was one of the 2 people who actually went all out to dress up. The other dressed up as a bird.

But I tell ya, the perks of being the centre of attention are endless. They include

• stalking by non professional paparazzi
• having girls ask me for free medical checkups the whole night (I swore I could have picked up a few girls that night, but you guys know I not like that...)
• being interrupted while I'm deep in conversation with my friends at least 10 times,
• getting my head stroked at least 50 times
• almost scoring a free bottle of champagne for best dressed (the bloody bird got it)
• being invited to the VIP lounge of another club for free drinks by the owner of the bar I was partying at.

So was it worth the stares, being pointed at and generally looking ridiculous in conservative Singapore where looks matter more than anything else?

YES!

I was drinking out of test tubes, which is very apt given that I'm a doctor!

The gang that got the exclusive invite

What a load of cheese.....

Although the party was meant to be only for beautiful and fake people, security can be momentarily slack and some people can slip through the tight checks (ok, ok, I've just bitch slapped myself for that comment)

For the record, the decadent lifestyle I led for that night took me three whole days to recover. must be gettin old(er).

Revisiting My Youth.....

I was in a cleaning mood today and I was looking through my old CD collection I have not touched for the last 10 years, and boy I had really different musical tastes back then.

Wanting to appear cool and alternative, I never touched any top 40 music, choosing to go for the more obscure bands and one hit wonders, and I absolutely loved bands with female lead singers like The Cardigans, Garbage and The Cranberries....guess I relate to a woman being the centre of attention.

Well I'm not really in a mood to be blogging now at 12am, so I'll just post a sample selection of the music I used to dig, just to highlight to you how eclectic I was back then....alas, now all I listen to are Madonna, Kylie, Pink, Rhianna.....but hey, what's wrong with that eh?

Just remember to stop the music player at the top left hand corner when you are playing these ok?

What I brought back from Aussieland

The Australian Flu, thats what.....had to stay home today due to my fever and incessant coughing...

But in exchange for that, I've had 4 extremely fulfilling days exploring the sights of Perth and living the life of a local.

Arrived at about 11pm on Thursday night so didn't get to do much except have an orientation around Matt's place. I like his place, spacious and specifically built for parties. I can only imagine when we have a full on party there one day.....

So on Friday, I decided to do a makeover for his place, because nice as it was, it was lacking in a few homely touches. Now normally, I'm quite good with working within a budget, but in this case, because I was in a new city, there were a lot of ideas which were unrealised because I didn't know where to get the materials. That aside, I still managed to get a few bits and pieces to leave my territorial markings around the house.

Matt planned for Friday to be a rather hectic evening, where we would start off the proceedings with our usual Friday night drinks. You'd never realise how much you miss those standard end of the week sessions we used to have living in Sydney until you start doing it again. Sure, we've tried having drinks via the webcam, but nothing beats being physically there to be able to clink a glass. And yes, Matt did give up his daily session of Home and Away to have the balcony session with me.....whoa lucky me!

Next its off to a secret restaurant location which I am unable to reveal because we are selfish beings and have decided to make it our restaurant, so no one will ever know its name or location. You'd probably be able to see from the photos that it is a riverside restaurant which serves fantastic Italian food and affordable wine. Yup, thats all the clues you're gonna get....

Fantastic views

I had the pasta pescatora (seafood pasta with wine wine sauce). Matt had the prawn and beef skewers (the best grilled beef I've had in ages) and we shared the Fritto Misto (fried seafood selection)

I really couldn't wait for this photo to be over...that was the 2nd bottle of wine (after you add up the equivalent of 1 bottle we had at home for the balcony sessions.)

It was a truly wonderful night!

After dinner, we were off to The Court Hotel for some music festival style clubbing. You should be able to tell from the video why I think it is festival styled (i.e. unstable stage, open air dancing arena, 1 mirror ball and about 300 excited punters plus BRILLIANT music). This was where we ordered 2 more bottles of wine, was bloody cheap for a night out, we paid $35 for the concert and then $27 for grog each. You could have easily spent that in an hour clubbing in Singapore.

We decided that 4 bottles of wine in 1 night was enough drinking for the entire weekend so we decided to don some sexy gear and get active. So we hired some bikes and went on a two hour riding trip around the river. Was really fun and reminded me of our trip to Paris where we did a cycling trip around the city....

Ok, anyone noticed this blog entry is so boring? I've just read it again and it almost made me fall asleep. It doesn't convey the excitement and fun I've had for my trip there.

Why?

Because its difficult.

Its difficult to live apart after living together for 5 years.

Its difficult to leave a place I've very quickly grown attached to.

Its difficult to go from extreme fun to extreme boredom in a space of 5 days.

During the course of our chats, we were wondering how much more of this we can take, the emotional roller coaster of having to part after a few days of fun together, of smiling one minute and then nearly bursting into tears the next, of not being able to be there for each other physically after a bad day at work (there are limitations to webcam hugging), of the physical (Matt) and emotional (Grandmaster) loneliness. After staying a few days at his place, I can see why Matt sometimes gets really bored and frustrated there. I don't know if I would handle it as well as him if I were living alone for the first time.

However, the good thing is that we are willing to talk about it rather than bottle it up. Come and think of it, we are not really trapped. No children, no mortgage, not much debt so we can change the situation around very quickly if we needed to. But the question is do we want to? Is there a reason why we are apart, so we can grow closer? Is this period apart helping us to move closer to our dreams? Am I back in Singapore to tie up loose ends so we can move forward?

Many unanswered questions, but I have complete faith we will ride through this and come out of it stronger than ever.

On my last day, I spent the morning and afternoon preparing large batch of meals and freezing them so Matt can enjoy a home cooked meal whenever he wants instead of doing takeaways all the time. Just doing that made me emotional again, as I remembered the countless fun meals we had in front of the TV. I wished I could cook enough meals to last him for 2 years, but we all know that is not possible. I just want to make it easier for him during this difficult transitional period and hopefully some of my frozen pastas and fried rice will do the trick......

Not an easy blog entry at all.

Chewing The Fat

A bit tired so a short post ok?

Last night, I decided to run into my town centre (equivalent to a suburban Westfield) to exchange some Aussie dollars to revive Australia's flagging economy. Along the way, I was also summoned by my mum to help her get some rice (yes, you know that staple that Asians tend to eat a lot of?) from NTUC (Singapore's answer to Coles). As I was strolling quietly along the aisles, I was stopped short by a sight so powerful, the bag of rice I was holding dropped onto the polished floor with a loud "thud"!

Only $2.80!!!

Half hour later, the final piece!!!!

Are you kidding? I could never have finished a whole pack on me own! I only had 2 pieces and I was rather sick of it. That's not to say I won't finish the pack in due time......

Speaking of eating, my company recently sponsored for a voluntary health check for all employees, which was really good value cos you only pay $13 for a full body checkup. I am happy to report that my health is in good order, cholesterol, blood lipids, blood sugar etc all normal.

However, there were certain parts in the report that didn't read so well.


"You have a higher risk of getting diabetes because :"

"YOU ARE OBESE"

"You have an increased risk of getting coronary heart disease and a heart attack because :"

"YOU ARE OBESE"

"You have an increased risk of stroke because (you guessed it!) :"

"YOU ARE OBESE"

According to the report, my ideal body weight should be in the range of 49.2 to 60.8kg (pfffttt!)
I currently weigh 75kg, so I only need to lose between 15kg to 25 kg to be considered healthy....


Dear stupid person who wrote the report, lets put things in perspective here, shall we?

An obese Singaporean

Other obese people

What a difference a year makes.......

Scene 1 : 9:00pm Sydney, Oxford Street, 7 March 2009

• Lots of screaming
• Lots of streamers
• Lots of 90% naked men and 50% naked women roaming the streets
• Lots of alcohol in apartments facing Oxford Street
• Some apartments may even be showing off drag talents

Scene 2 : 6:00 pm Singapore, Toa Payoh, 7 March 2009

• Deafening thud of the main door closing
• Spotless apartment
• 100% clothed man (me) and woman (mum) confined within the house
• Some alcohol (I bought a bottle of Chilean wine for $18.80, not too bad)
• A single determined blogger within this apartment.

What a difference a year makes.
Last year Matt and myself were the most stressed (and dressed) creatures ever to roam Oxford Street and look at us this year....and now.....

Matt's gonna hang out at NorthBridge for his dinner.
I'm gonna be at home finishing off my work so it doesn't accumulate when I spend my weekend in Perth next week (yeah!!! back to aussieland for 4 days....)

I went to the gym just now (yes I go to gyms on weekends now becuase I need to feel that I've actually stepped out of the house) and was stuck because of the rain. So I decided to call Matt.

This was how our conversation went.

Me : "Harlow Mr Sleepy Head, you feeling better today?"
Matty : "yah, better"
Me : "Are you feeling depressed cos its Mardi Gras and both of us are apart and not doing much?"
Matt : " yeah...sort of want to be there and also maybe not, am a bit confused"
Me : "Yeah, feels strange no one is calling us constantly today eh?"
Matt : "Yeah"
Me : " Anyway, whats the program next week when I get there......"

And that was it. 3 sentences and the Mardi Gras topic was swept out of the way.....

I guess because we've been doing it for so many years, it is kind of refreshing that we are not doing it this year.

Then again Mardi Gras for us has always been a gathering of friends and relatives for a great time together, sad to say, its never been about the parade (Matt and me have not seen the full parade for the last 4 years) so I must say (ok you betta save this page before I decide to remove it tomorrow) that I actually miss being in the thick of the action.........

I also miss being the centre of attention at this time of the year. Look at me now, sob, sob, alone in my room drinking Chilean red wine (which isn't too bad for $18). Its ok, the divas will rise again.

In Singapore?
In Perth?
or in San Fransisco?

We shall see.........

Complacency or Conceit?

I haven't really caught up with my local friends since I've been back. Don't know why, but every time I've been back, it was for a holiday, and I'd be rushing to catch up with everyone, nary even having 1 second for myself. So this time, I thought I'll put myself first, taking in all of Singapore before I attempt to catchup with the rest. Now it has been 2 months since I've been back and how many friends (discounting the one work colleague I knew from my days in Sydney) have I caught up with?

None.

Why? I don't know.

Because I am high and mighty, having returned from a successful working stint in Australia and am therefore better than everyone else? No.

Because both myself and my life has changed dramatically in the last 7 years and I am no longer on the same wavelength as my old mates? Possibly.

Will I ever be as good friends with them as I was before? Depends on my course of action, whether I want them to know every aspect of my life.

OK, enough self questioning.

Had a surprise call from Mr G the other. His timing couldn't have been more perfect. The first was when I was seconds away from having my first work meeting of the day. The second as I was 5 minutes into my warm up set at the gym.

He called, firstly to find out how I was doing, so I gave him a 5 minutes non-stop remix of my life in the last two months. The only reason why I was able to summarise my life in 5 minutes is because he reads my blog every single day, even when there are no updates. He just goes into the history pages and re-reads them. Sad, but true. But if I ever become famous, he can be the first to audition for my BFF reality TV show.

The second thing he wanted to find out was the incident that rocked Singapore and Australia about 3 weeks ago. If you are close enough to me and my gang, you would have known what happened. I am not about to reveal some one's private issues online, but that is not the primary area of concern here, remembering this is a self promotional blog about me and nobody else.

Now Mr G and I have been friends for about 7 years now. He was my original sidekick when we were still fresh meat on Oxford Street. It was always fun hanging out with him because he used to get all the attention in the clubs, mostly unwanted and I always had a good laugh watching him fend off fugly advances. I, on the other hand, was the go getter, always there with a mission and always reeling them in with my bait and tackle.

Some people think we have a strange kind of friendship. I don't know 100% of his personal life, he doesn't know 100% of mine. I don't call him everyday, sometimes not even for months. I don't know his exact whereabouts every second and I don't need to know why he doesn't come to the Shift when I ask him.

Yet, somehow, it works. Every important occasion, he was there. He didn't need to make a scene to be noticed, all I knew was that he was there. He even managed to make Rowinda look good on camera, that itself is a challenge. Plus I get free Nike merchandise and invites to gallery openings from him. Yes, makes me sound quite parasitic, but life is never fair is it?

So when I made the move to Singapore, I was wondering if the distance and the lack of interaction would diminish our friendship.

All it took was that one phone call last week to dissolve all the doubts. We had a good old chin wag, even talking on my hands free set while I was doing my warm up set on the cross trainer. Half of the gym was looking at this strange boy on the phone laughing and chatting in his pseudo Australian accent (they never would have guessed he was talking to another Singaporean) while huffing and puffing on the machine.

I didn't care.

All I wanted to do was chat and laugh.

Thanks for the call Mr G. And please go and bloody buy an APPLE phone card from 7-11 so you can call me more often. Cheaper lah!

A wiseman once said.....

"There is no point in revamping your blog unless you are going to update it fast enough so that people who love and care about you truly understand what you are going through in life now instead of having to worry and second guess whether you are happy, sad or simply still alive."

Heed the words of the wiseman.....

Blog, you lazy bugger.....