My Nike Free Runs have arrived! Time to start training!

Hi all. I've received my nike free runs 5.0 from my online purchase at only $65 dollars. But, I am not a runner, so why should I even spend money on a pair of running shoes when I already got almost every NS boy's asics shoes? The reason is simple and its one word: Boyfriend. He wants me to have thin legs which can only be done if I manage to go for long distant jogs at least once in two weeks. I kind of regret my decision to work towards his fetish (even though he denies it is one I know it is his fetish for thin smooth legs).

Okay, how about let me show you a glimpse of the differences in our legs.

These are my so called fat legs.

These are my boyfriend's legs.

I guess that is how thin he wants my legs to tone down to be. That would mean more training and that means I am going to regret this. Why oh why did I choose to tone my legs down. Now that I began my first 2 clicks yesterday, I am going to have to complete my training till I can jog at least 10 clicks before I join my boyfriend on jogs. I hope that seasoned runner boyfriend doesn't go too fast like the last time nearly killing me just to catch up to him. How can that lil' thing run so fast?

Boyfriend: Day One in the New Unit

Today is day one for my boyfriend in his new unit. Knowing him, he'll be all stressed up with all the uncertainties of being in the new unit. Like, what's the place like, what buddy he is going to have, will be be nice?, the food in the new place, and, even the way to get there. Luckily for him, his parents forked out some money for him to take a cab to the place. If not, my poor boy would have to drag his over 20 kg worth of NS junk to camp.

Look at the size of that bag. I have one too and I remembered the days when we first carried that monster up 8 flights of stairs to the fourth floor of our bunk and then the last time when I carried it home when I went OOT. It's even bigger size than my boyfriend! You can't expect a smallish twinky boy to carry that monster! Anyways, if you are wondering, the person in the photo isn't my boyfriend. Anyways, my boyfriend is about the same built and size as this fella here.

With the knowledge of my boyfriend's stress, how can I sleep well. Obviously I can't. I didn't sleep till 1 am though I needed to wake up at 6 this morning because I kept thinking of him. If only I can hug him to calm him down and tell him that I'll be there for him no matter what. He would be calmer and I can have my peace of mind and sleep better. Too bad we aren't cohabiting! I do wish it will happen soon.

Anyways, it sucks to know my boyfriend instead of being sent to a command school is send to some physically grueling unit that focuses on mechanical work. He isn't even trained to do mechanical stuff! Sheesh!

I want your hug dear! I miss you already and there isn't a thing I can do but whine and whine. Boo Hoo! :(

Mothers and Boyfriend

For the whole of yesterday, my boyfriend and I shared our time together to spend time having coffee and sitting around in a cafe. We don't have a place we can share together to have some rest and relax time. My house is out of bounds because my parents have great prejudice about my boyfriend. Not that they know he is my boyfriend, but, I think they suspect he is. They also think he is a bad influence on me. Especially the fact that when I was admitted to hospital for a seizure, he was with me so, I am guessing my mother attributed the occurrence to his presence. My parents have told me a few times in the past to stay away from him, but in reality, I love him with all my heart, and, it would kill me to stay away from him more than 5 days. The longest I've gone without actually touching him (as in holding hands or hugging) is 2 weeks and that was because of confinement in BMT. Besides, I'm lonely without him. He just makes my life so much more interesting and colourful. I don't think I can imagine a life without him. It would just be so grey and boring. So, that concludes the reason why he isn't allowed in my house. I just don't want a rift to split us apart. I rather we spend time outside together but still be able to see each other.

He on the other hand doesn't want to cause suspicion within his christian family which I agree because it would just be too troublesome. With the religious side and the overall singaporean culture and perspective towards such "deviant" behaviour, I don't think going and tell his family he is mine is the best option. We do however steal times when his entire family is out to just lie in each other's arms and enjoy the warmth and company. It's those times I feel the most loved and the happiest. But sadly, it is out of bounds on weekends when we meet up.

Its rather funny how we view our future mother-in-laws. I view my future mother-in-law differently than what my boyfriend views his mum. While I view her to be always in an infinite angry mode, he views her as just loud. I view her as an authoritative person because of her uniform job in the past which from what I know was quite high a rank. I view her as a tiger mum, maybe due to the fact the household is filled with smart asses. My boyfriend's sister is a literary genius, his brother a mathematics and physics Olympiad, and both parents are degree holders and the dad is even studying alternative medicine now! With so many smart asses, she would surely have something to do with their academic standings at least. Plus,she is huge, has a firm and loud voice and very menacing from my view point. But to my boyfriend, she's a nice lady whom he thinks treats his friends too well, always buying treats and snacks for them when they come over. I don't know whether it is fortunate or unfortunate that I haven't had the experience of my future mother-in-law buying treats and snacks for me while I am at his house. I do hope however next time when my boyfriend shifts to his new house, I'd be able to visit and just spend my Saturdays with him in his room playing ps4, wii or xbox or just chatting.

My take, she looks like the typical Singaporean tiger mother. Scary for a boy of my stature.

My mother has always been the loving on of both my parents. My dad had been struggling with army (when he signed on as a pilot), his degree and his part time job as long as I can remember when I was just 4-5. I consistently didn't get to spend time with him. So, most of my time was spent with my mum. Perhaps that is why I find my mum more of the loving one than my dad. Besides, its probably his job nature that makes him very tippy and easily frustrated due to the long working hours that when I was young, even spilling a glass of water would result in dire consequences. So, I view my dad as fierce and my mum as loving. My boyfriend who met them a few times. One time, he was interrogated by them (supposedly when I was half conscious due to the seizure). My boyfriend's image of my mum from then on is a fierce woman. Though my mum has a short stature and is rather thin for reasons such as slimming and what not, she can come across as fierce looking from first glance. So this is probably what she looks like to my boyfriend from what he describes to me.

I hope it didn't scare him too much because he would probably have to face her more often in the future. Besides, I get the feeling my mum is lowly coming to terms with the fact that I may be gay. I just didn't tell her yet. I got a feeling she knows and have been coming to terms with it (together with my dad). I don't think I want to find out now with all the uncertainties so I shall wait.

Next time I meet my future mother-in-law, I'll try my best to put aside my first evaluation of her. Hopefully, we hit off well and it would be a smoother transition as I intend to marry this cute son of hers. :D

Cooking for my boyfriend: Pork Chops w/ Sweet and Sour Bell Peppers and Onions.

This isn't the first time I cooked for my boyfriend though we shall say some previous attempts at cooking for him ended up quite disastrous. Once I made oven baked portebellos and they were very unappetizing with an extreme amount of balsamic vinegar. I learnt to never trust a random cooking site that displays their recipe. Another time, I attempted a mushroom sauce for my chicken breast but it ended up too salty because the bullion cubes were salted. Horrible as well.

Away from the horrible cooking experiences, I've had more successful cooking stints which includes my very first ramen, cha soba, cheesey baked chicken, fried chicken in hawaiian sauce and of course yesterday's pork chops. The pork chops turned out to be awesome.

Here's a few pictures of my previous attempts at cooking which was more successful.

Pork Chops with red peppers and caramelized onions.

 Cha Soba with Spring Onions

 Cheesy Sausages

Cheesy Chicken, Hawaiian Stir-fried Chicken and a bowl of Tonkatsu Ramen.

If you do want to know how I cooked my pork chops which was much a success aside from the fact that I added too much butter which lead to much of the pepper being washed off, you can see the recipe below. Feel free to tweak the recipe to suit your needs.

INGREDIENTS

Serves 2

• 4 Pieces Pork Chops, seasoned with salt and peppers (taken out of the fridge 20 mins before cooking)
• Olive oil, for frying
• 1/2 red bell pepper, sliced
• 1/2 onion thinly sliced
• ½ clove garlic, crushed
• 4 sprigs thyme
• About 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 6 slices of butter

Method

1. Sauté the sliced bell peppers and onions, and sprinkle some salt, pepper and one tablespoon of sugar to help caramelise the onions and peppers. After they caramelise, add red wine vinegar to stain and deglaze. Turn off the gas, add 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and allow the vegetables to stew for 2-3 mins. Add in chopped basil and cook for further 30 seconds.
2. Heat a large, heavy-based sauté pan or shallow saucepan over a high heat. Add a good glug of oil and put in the seasoned pork chops. Before placing in, ensure to cut the slits in the Rhine to prevent the pork from curling up. Add the crushed garlic cloves and thyme into the pan. Depending on thickness, 2 inches thick requires about 3 ½ to 4 minutes on each side. Add slices of butter after turning over the pork chops and baste the butter over the pork chops constantly to keep them moist. Take them out after they are ready and let them rest for 10 minutes before serving.

My Boyfriend certainly enjoyed the dish I made. I did too. The sauce was amazing! Yum. 

Day out on Day off: The Fried Chicken of Singapore Verdict!

First off, I want to say that the following is just my take on the taste of the fried chicken available in Singapore. Not all of them are included here but there are the more common fried chicken that we all go for. It might be just my taste and preferences, but today, I can proudly say that I have tried all popular fast-food fried chicken in Singapore: Popeyes, KFC, Texas, Tenderfresh and Jolibee. Excluding the newly introduced 4fingers which I haven't yet have a chance to try since the queue has always been too long and the sitting area too small.

So today is my off day from work and my boyfriend is currently on his block leave. Coincidentally, his french press that I bought him almost 2 years ago started to have cracks appearing in the glass meaning that brewing coffee would be a messy process. So, we decided to head out to buy a french press so that the idiot can continue to douse himself with the acidic mixture to "perk" himself up. I don't really enjoy coffee as much so I will never understand the amount of money or his passion to get coffee. To me, coffee is coffee. Th best coffee is the coffee from the espresso machine where the coffee's aroma is the most intense and that is regardless of the brand of coffee used. So, we shopped the whole of Orchard road starting with Wisma Atria which we thought ISETAN would have one. But, it turned out that the ISETAN only had clothing and apparels. They didn't even carry toys or kitchen appliance.

Thereby continuing the quest to find the french press, we went to Takashimaya which I was sure would have the french press. We indeed found some there and was spoilt for choices. Me being me persuaded him to buy a gold plated Bodum french press as it was on offer at only $88 instead of the usual $148. It looked awesome but of course I knew it didn't justify its price because the filter was the same either way. Being the cheapo boyfriend he was, he settled for a $19 made in france and assembled in china french press from Harrio (I think). Then after that we headed to TANGS just to see if there was french press there too. Interestingly, there was a siphon coffee and grinder bundled together for only 139. It was a steal but I am certain I will not buy that, ever. It too much for a cup of coffee. For me as I have said, coffee is coffee and should only come from an espresso machine. That 139 can go to  espresso machine that would have much better aroma. Period! So I didn't buy it for him even when he pestered me to. Besides, my pay is so measly I hardly have enough money to spend 100 dollars a month on myself.

After the mission of the day was completed, we went to Jolibee at Lucky Plaza to try out what many has called the no.1 fried chicken in singapore. When we reached the plaza, we saw the amount of shops and remittance banks that totally showed how much the place catered to the Filipino people. We went straight to the 6th floor only to find out the queue was a snakingly long one at about 30 people. Imagine the amount of money they are making from the people there. I have almost never seen such a queue for fast food before. They even had about 6-7 cashiers manning the ordering and cash registers. After my meal, I have comed up with my decision on my ranking of fried chicken in singapore. I shall include IKEA's famous fried chicken wings and Corona chicken which pulled out quite some time ago so that I can make my numbers and credentials more impressive. I've about 18 years of chicken eating in my resume. I will also be talking about the good and the bad as well as some tips about the restaurant/ outlets.

In 7th Place, we have Tenderfresh

Though it is a franchise mostly, it has some good stalls that serve up quite delicious fried chicken wings that go very very well with cold drinks or beer for some late night supper. That used to be a regular thing for me but it is now a luxury considering I hardly get to go out for such suppers frequently due to me juggling work, studies and this as well as part time designing/ interior design.

The Good: Juicy insides and good marinate that will leave you wanting to eat more until you realise that it is actually very oily
The Bad: Because it is franchised, the quality cannot be controlled easily. Some outlets are better than other outlets. Besides, the fried chicken is cooked in too low a temperature oil resulting in the oil coating the chicken wings and making them quite the sponge for oil.
Chicken-rator verdict:

In 6th Place, it is a difficult one, so I shall just place Texas Chicken
                                            
Texas chicken is a favorite for my family probably because of their impression that KFC is an over stated fried chicken champion. In some ways it is true but Texas chicken loses out in many ways too. While its batter is clearly a winning formula in terms of texture and crunchiness, it quickly loses out in terms of taste and the chicken, as compared to the others is a tad on the dry side.

The Good: The biscuits are the savior of Texas chicken when comparing to their arch enemy (as I would like to call it) Popeye's. It is much more buttery and much more flavorful with each mouthful melting in your mouth with a blend of sweetness from the biscuit's pastry and saltiness from the butter. Crunchy batter.
The Bad: The chicken is a tad dry and the flavor is not marinated enough into the chicken. Moreover, not many eat the biscuit which means Texas hardly redeems itself for its lack of expertise on chicken.
Tips: To overcome the dryness, eat only the wings and the drumsticks or the thigh. Try to avoid the breast meat as it is too dry.
Chicken-rator verdict:


In 5th place, we have KFC. Surely this is a disappointment to many people but this is a fact and it is the KFC of Singapore that we are comparing. If it was the KFC of New Zealand which I tried while there, there is no question it will immediately top the chart here in Singapore. The fact that they used fresh free range chickens made the meat juicy and tender and virtually fat-less. In Singapore we cannot deny the fact that KFC uses frozen chicken for the preparation of their fried chicken. That diminishes the quality of the meat and definitely does a lot to the overall taste and experience.

The Good: The Spicy marinate is prevalent in the batter as well as marinated into the chicken giving a very satisfying taste even as the batter goes immediately into your mouth and left with a skinless chicken. It still tastes good.
The Bad: The use of frozen chicken reduces the juiciness of the chicken resulting in dryer than average chicken.
Tips: Eat only the drumsticks, thigh and the wings to avoid dry meat. They are dry but still not nearly as dry as the breast meat. Also, the air con in the Tampines branch is too cold. Try to avoid eating there if you are afraid of the cold.
Chicken-rator verdict:

In 4th place, we have Jolibee. Yes, the famed Jolibee rates 4th on my list of fried chicken. They are amazingly nice as all people have said but they aren't really as fantastic as people claim they are. I somehow suspect it is just a hype and its not much of really how good it is. I can only say that the marinate does not soak into the meat enough. Sure the chicken is definitely the winner in terms of juiciness, but, the flavour in this case is lacking. It taste a tad bland in actual fact. By the second piece, I was struggling to enjoy the chicken. It surely didn't dry my throat out as what most other fried chicken does because it was mazingly moist though with the crispy skin and batter. However, it was bland even for the batter. The flavour was missing in the chicken. In fact, I believe it is chicken doused in flour and then fried in very very very hot oil so that moisture is retained but it tastes of nothing other than chicken. Chicken in reality is a chef's delight. Why so? Because it is like a blank canvas. Chef liken themselves to artists and paint flavour into the chicken. Without the marinate here, the juicy chicken is sure to lose out to its competitors. But, hey, they proved me wrong by the way the queue formed even as we left after eating. It was still as horrendously long as before when we queued.

The good: Juicy chick
en, even the breast meat!
The bad: Too bland. Need more marinate. The sauce helps but it doesn't bring out the omph that says, "I'm the best chicken out there". It's truth the marinate and sauces doesn't do justice to the juiciness of the chicken. I feel, it's a tad of a waste to have such wonderful juicy chicken tasting so bland.
Tips: To singaporeans visiting Jolibee for the first time, don't chop seats please. It's stated on the front of the store and practically everywhere that you have to go queue and buy before you take a seat so as to ensure seats are fairly distributed to all. Please also bring some hand soap because they don't have hand soap at the wash basin. Maybe that's why Popeyes and Texas are better at service.
Chicken-rator verdict:

In 3rd place, we have Corona Chicken

Remember Corona chicken in the 1990s which was found as a franchise all over in many food courts and some coffee shops. These amazing chicken experts disappeared over time and indeed it was a sad thing for me. I loved chicken wings and corona was probably my favorite. It even beat the KFC when there wasn't Jolibee, Popeyes, Texas or even Tenderfresh around at that time. The marinate was good, the chicken was tender and fresh. And it was juicy. I didn't like rice when I was young though so the rice was mostly unfinished but I surely loved the chicken wings so much that I sometimes ordered extras to eat and have excuse to not finish my rice. More wings less rice! Always the way to go!

The good: Juicy and Tasty chicken

The bad: They suddenly disappeared and I no longer can taste the corona chicken anymore.

Chicken-rator verdict:

In 2nd Place, we have IKEA's Fried Chicken Wing

What I cannot comprehend is how the chicken wings supposedly only marinated in pepper and salt taste like its marinated in something more than that. It is simply delicious but immediately you realize they are a tad too oily. Instead of relying on batter to keep the wings moist, the wings are lightly dusted with flour before frying so that they have a golden and crunchy skin while not having a thick layer o batter like the other fried chicken. It is oily, but definitely delicious. You definitely wouldn't care about the oil until you finished and need to wash your hands. It plain too delicious!

The good: It's juicy even without a layer of batter to keep the insides moist. The skin and meat is very flavorful.

The bad: Messy and oily but, who cares?

Chicken-rator verdict:

In FIRST PLACE, *drum roll* is none other than POPEYES!

Popeyes is good. Good for their chicken that is. Louisiana's Bonafide chicken is definitely the juiciest great tasting fried chicken in Singapore. While the biscuit is dry and simply disgusting, we cant do anything about it other than throw it away or bring it back for our dogs to eat as an amazing treat (hey, as you enjoy, your dog deserves to enjoy some of it too even though you don't like it doesn't mean it doesn't. You don't like dog food, but it certainly loves it.) The batter is good and crisp and the chicken is moist and tender. The chicken tenders are my boyfriend's favorite and I won't argue on that. It was so nice we fought for the last piece and I ended up coinciding defeat and giving it to him. The pepper nuggets are fiery hot and a good change to taste if one gets bored of the bonafide chicken. Then the nuggets came with a sauce that tasted rather smokey and complex. It was a mix of saltiness, sweetness and a tad of bitterness. A good sauce indeed but I think it was phased out for some reason.

The good: The batter, the chicken, the tenders (must try!), the fiery nuggets and the cajun fries.

The bad: The Biscuit. No one cares! I don't!

Chicken-rator verdict:

I won't give a complete 5 drumstick Chickenrator because I have not yet tasted a perfect fried chicken. And till that day comes, the elusive 5 chicken drumsticks will not appear! I am dying to taste fried chicken better than popeyes! Someone please, come up with a good recipe and start a good fried chicken business! If you have other fried chicken that you think is more worthy of the verdict, please leave in the comment your views on which should be the best and why. If it is a new stall that is not mentioned here, I am excited to try so please leave a comment on the stall/restaruant's name and the address so I can try and then give it a Chicken-rator verdict as well! Cheerios!

POP.

Yesterday was POP(Pass out Parade) day for my boyfriend. I went with a mutual friend of his to see the proud moment that he was announced as a trained soldier. Though I had to wake up early, endure the drizzling (because the idiot sergents on duty refused to let us use the umbrellas and didn't even offer to give us ponchos). Anyways, I'm a sort of soldier and so, we endured the cold. But surely, it would've been tougher for my baby boy. He had to walk/run 24 kilometers and didn't really sleep the previous day. So he was pretty tired to say the least. For me, I am pretty tired because I woke up at 5 30 to catch the first bus there when usually I wake up at 8 on weekends. If I was tired, I can't imagine how tired my poor baby was. When the time came, it was a massive crowd of people and there was about 1000+ soldiers that were on the floating platform. I tried my very best to make out where he was because I was sitting so far away, with practically everyone looking like my boyfriend from far.

I spotted him in action at least even though I didn't manage to take a photo with him afterwards and see him. I thought I wanted to surprise him but it didn't work out in the end. Knowing my boyfriend, he says I wasted my time. But, I feel I didn't. Instead, I got to feel what it is like to POP, soaking in all the intensely furious, anxious, happy and sad atmosphere that is oozing from all the recruits. Happy that they are finally done with the first phase of army, anxious for the new vocations, happy to see their friends and parents that "form the basic support group for the recruits", sad to leave all the friends and buddies they made during BMT. All these I didn't get to feel except the last one when I OOT (Out of Training) in my BMT. I left School 4 with sadness leaving my buddy, my friends and acquaintances that I made in two months of doing shit and almost everything (short of bathing and something else naughty) together. Though I left with smiles on everyone's faces (except my fucking sergent which I totally hate because he keep picking on me for no rhyme or reason), when I was leaving in the bus and on the ferry, I was just remembering the good and bad times we had together and it was a truly wonderful experience. I say NS is a waste of time save the relationships and friendships that you make from these two odd years. Of course, they endured throughout and all survived (except for tall chest 'something I call him'... he was lifted out from Tekong in a Super Puma/ Chinook to the Hospital for a gash on his face after he fell on a curb... Ouch!) My buddy: I'm sorry for leaving you half way through the journey but, my medical condition was deteriorating and I think I couldn't have done better than all of you. Though I left you, you were still independent and  I guess my friendship with the other guy paided off because you two were closer and were more like buddies. In a way, he took over my place. And though I haven't yet congratulate you for becoming a sergent yourself, a big heartfelt congrats from your EX-buddy who OOT-ed! And one more thing: Remember Sergent Wxx Qx, don't be like him. Don't abuse your authority. Let your recruits follow you and respect you instead of hating and fearing you.

After the march and the display and speech and award ceremony which was all in the cold morning rain (or when the cold wind blows... when the cold wind blows), there was an interesting part where the military band came out and performed to stall time. For my friend beside me who was a regular at attending POP, he said it was something new. Indeed I found it entertaining when they played oldies and suddenly switched to pop songs like Adele's Set fire to the rain and then Lady Gaga's Bad Romance which is the video below. You can click on the link if you want to view the video. It's not much and its pretty poor quality coming from a iphone 5 camera.
https://distilleryimage11.s3.amazonaws.com/de7e63daec1b11e28e8022000ae81479_101.mp4

On a side note, my teacher was there too but I didn't bump into her. Her son was in that batch too. This was a picture taken by her. Judging from it, I went when the skies were much brighter. Talking about kiasu.

Anyways, my boyfriend is now resting at home. Tomorrow starts the day when I take leave to annoy the hell out of him now that he rested enough! :D

Day of surprise: Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the day my boyfriend POP's (Pass Out Parade). Highlighted by the throwing cap ceremony at the end as shown below. This moment is the defining moment that they all passed BMT unscathed and no longer are the recruits they once were. My boyfriend is turning more into a man (people think that) but seriously, I don't see any change! No bigger muscles *pouts*. I expected that since he did undergo some vigorous training and I love my boy with some muscles. *sighs*

And he doesn't know I will be going together with a friend of his. Yes, it will be such a surprise. Can't wait to see his reaction and his joy! What most parents here term as the first step towards "manliness" which I haven't yet gone through and probably will never experience this ever. So, it would probably be something new tomorrow. At least if I don't experience it myself, I can watch my darling do this. Because of my inability to complete the Basic Military Training (BMT) due to some medical problems of mine, my parents have always made jokes of how "un-manly" I am. Not that it matters to me, but, the fact that they believe my work in NS to be relatively slacker than those who undergo physical training. Bad news update: It's mental fucking torture! Everyday I have to do shit for those people whom pretend somewhat they appreciate my presence and give me work that are either too time-consuming, too boring or too menial for them to do. I get treated like a effing "slave" and for what? A similarly "slave-worthy" pay of just 500 a month. That excludes my insurance and phone bills and other miscellaneous bills that are linked to the SAF. which makes about 350 left to spend and save? Well, let me give you another point of view. My job is similar to what people outside or in the private sector call an office boy or a clerk. These people have qualifications ranging from secondary school leavers to O levels. The pay they generally have based on my research (I tried applying for these jobs during my holidays) and estimates is about 800-1200. For this fact, I am already underpaid. Secondly, cleaners earn a 700-800 on average and they do a specific job like cleaning and taking out the trash. While, I do things out of my job scope that I don't gain credit for. The best I get is a thanks. Nothing more nothing less. And my boss has to rub it in giving my a timeline to complete an almost impossible task. 2 weeks is already impossible. Why not try doing it yourself? Well, actually all I am trying to say is that I am severely overworked and underpaid.

I am just so pissed off that even my parents don't credit me for the work I do. True enough that they don't get to see what I do from day to day but it would be best if they could know and acknowledge that even if I don't serve the nation with my blood and sweat, I am serving it with my brains, time and heart (sometimes).

Away from that ranting and back to my day to day life, my parents have decided to shift their company to occupy a new building. As such, they enlisted my help to design the layout of the office and I completed two differing drafts in just a couple of hours. I am just so proud of myself. *Claps* Anyways, this would be my maiden project in interior design (which in a way is similar to interior architecture. Architecture being a field I am greatly interested in.). My second project would be my new home which is surprisingly on its way faster than I would have expected. My home is on the first floor (in the new home) but I would finally get to have my own room! Yes, I still sleep in the same room as my brother and he snores! Sometimes it feels like an airplane landed in my room. I've designed most of the house but that will have to wait till my NS is over. Then I can dedicate more time to designing that. I'll get down to the itsy tinsy details. Finally not a rojak house anymore. Rojak is a word for mixed, or a dish created by the chinese that is a mix of dough fritters, cucumbers, pineapple, yam, peanuts and prawn paste. In essence it is a salad. Not all people love it. Like me, I am the odd one that dislikes this uniquely Singaporean cuisine. However, there are people like my brother, my cousin and my Dad that simply adores this dish. It looks something like below.

On a side note: My mum's pink coloured cheap bag is getting on my nerves. There is nothing worse than a bad fashion statement that gives people the impression that one has bad fashion sense. She carries that thing every fucking where we go! Dammit! I bought her 3 new bags just today online that would be shipping here in about 2 weeks. God help, I have to spent another 2 weeks being embarrassed when people stare and probably think of how my mum can have such bad fashion sense. A fuchsia/ hotpink bag that looks like it costs 5 dollars? Oh please! It looks something like this less the brand name and the sort of superb finishing and build quality in this specimen. Hideous colour though! Absolutely hideous!

It's time to work hard: For me and my Boyfriend.

Well, it's finally here: My final exams are round the corner. Exactly in one month's time from now, in the midst of NS and all, I'll be done with my part time diploma and have myself the capability to earn more than my current measly pay by about three times! Of course that will still have to wait till my NS is over. While there is assignment and studying to be done on my part, my poor baby has to do his first (and hopefully last) 24 km route march to his glorious end of his basic military training. I won't be there to watch him do that amazing feat (for which I was excused from in my days of bmt) because his family will be there and it would take a lot of explanation as to why a boy is attending in place of his sister. Of which they have only had a glance previously. I would definitely not have anything to talk about and much less stammer the whole way because I am such a bad liar. So he didn't want me to go. Besides, we promised that if we were to come out, it would be a time when we both felt comfortable. And telling your in-laws you are his/her son's boyfriend is a double shock. Imagine knowing the fact that your son is gay and the fact that he has a boyfriend. It could go both ways. One, the mum/dad already knows and says something on the line like, "Oh. I already know lah.  Psst. *whispers* He's a hottie!" Or, the less desirable way when he/she breaks down, maybe starts swearing and hopefully not have violence involve.

I know for one that my family isn't very receptive of homosexuality (I guess it is a typical asian parent thing). I won't be having it easy when I come out though I did leave a few traces of my being one here and there for them to speculate since I am pretty much the normal boy save the fact I love dicks. Each time I did, I rated their response and so far, it doesn't look very promising. Well, I just hope they take in those information and piece together and finally come to terms with it before my actual "coming out" so that it will be less of a problem when it does happen. Eventually and I envision it to be soon. Maybe in about 5 years? There are times when I do feel like I am tired. Tired of all these 'pretentious lies' that I am "going out with my friends" when it is my boyfriend I am going out with. "Oh, this is just a friend", "I'm going overseas with friends". All of these lies. I can't really tell lies so each time I do manage to slip over one, I feel like I die a little inside. I just hope my coming out to be a better story than I hope it'll be.

Btw, I think my boyfriend is a smart, cute and adorable little boy. I just want to hug him and snuggle up to him every moment of my life. He is however on the depressed side and tend to think of negative things. I guess it is just his personality. But I do love every aspect of him except for him always running late for dates and his negative outlook on almost everything. But, asides from all that, he really is a sweet boy. A little on the scrawny side but I like to call it slim twink-ish. I do have similar body shape but I have more pronounced pectorals and biceps despite the fact he in physically exercising and I am not really doing it on as regular a basis as I want it to be (I do chest building exercises like maybe once in two weeks). It is true that in a relationship, sex can be excluded. However, if a relationship is to last long, sex is necessary. 

Why do I say that? Well, when sex is performed, it releases a lot of dopamine. The central neurochemical player behind falling in—and out—of love is dopamine. Dopamine is the principal neurochemical that activates your reward circuitry, the centerpiece of the limbic system. Dopamine is involved with many aspects of mood, behavior, and perception. Even small shifts in dopamine sensitivity or levels can have profound effects on how you see the world, or your partner.The key word is bonding. Bonding is more than a behavior. It is a mammalian program, the program that permits parenting and living in groups. When dopamine drops, you are likely to find your partner less rewarding—and your bond unravels. So when you have sex, the attraction towards him is renewed. I don't need that often because I fall in love with him again and again and again and all I need is his smile. That smile of his never seems to fail in cheering me up and making feel like he is the "one" for me.

I do hope Mr Right stays with me till the day I step out of the closet so that even if I enter a new battlefield after stepping out, my prince charming will be there to back me up and we can get through the storm together. In the past, both of us walked a lonely path. Today, I feel that he made me much less lonely and I really really really love that innocent boy that never fails to stop eating baby carrots. A bunny indeed!

To my bunny boyfriend: I love you! :)

Pinkdot 2013 and the list of "I like"s

Pinkdot 2013 was a massive event. According to Calcy Tay on InSing.com, "A record 21,000 people turned up at this year’s Pink Dot event held over the weekend at Speakers’ Corner". The last time I went to pinkdot was in 2010 when pinkdot came for the third time. I remember how I had to go out of the house in a non-pink t-shirt and later change to a pink t-shirt because it was the precarious time when my parents found out about my boyfriend and I, and, going for the event would definitely not help to ease the situation.

As you can see from the photos that pinkdot has grown over the years. I went to pinkdot in 2010 in its third year and already, the dot was no longer a "dot", it was an out of shape circle. In 2011, I didn't partake in the event because my boyfriend and I both forgot about the event. So, we didn't go. But it certainly is growing bigger. Then, it was already a sea of pink. This year,  with 6,000 more attendees than the previous year, it was definitely much more crowded with people spilling into the streets. I am truly happy to see the amount of people who are like me, being supported by this great community. I can say that I am proud to be part of such a loving community. Though, I am not so sure it will continue to be a success in the following years. Of course, it has gained global attention. A few gays living overseas even came back for the event. But still, as the event gains supporters, it will be more difficult to hold all these people in the park alone as having the event outside the park is considered against the law and illegal. I do hope the event gets support from the government and can finally progress and get the necessary approval to hold the event at a larger venue.

Also,  Vincent Wijeysingha a Singaporean opposition leader has come out of the closet in what he calls, "a way to garner more support for the event and call people to join the event". I applaud his move and his bravery as this can have both a bad and good side to it. While the gay community would largely vote for him, this doesn't rid the fact that Singapore is still largely a backward country in terms of openness and homophobia. He might jolly well get the bad votes just for being gay. That is very much unfair, but, it is the harsh reality. Kudos to Vincent and Pinkdot supporters! Embrace the love and cast away the fears(and ignorance)!
Now, I will be moving on to more about myself. It's the list of "I like". This list will not be as extensive as the list of "I hate" because I really hate a lot of things, even my boyfriend complains about it.

I like my boyfriend.
I like d**ks
I like gummy bears
I like lean and fit boys
I like berries
I like yoghurt
I like ice cream
I like roast duck
I like roast chicken
I like pork chops
I like bak kut teh(pork rib soup: Singaporean dish) One of the hawkers that is going to challenge Gordon Ramsay in the Singtel Hawker cook-off challenge? I think It'll probably be too easy for Ramsay. I say, we see him ake Roti Prata! Let's laugh at the Michelin Starred Chef making holey pratas (indian flat bread that is chewy and crispy on the outside)
I like blue
I like s**
I like mango
I like thai food
I like chinese food
I like steaks and chops
I like vegetables (a legacy of my mum's teachings when we were young)
I like soup
I like mushrooms
I like japanese food
I like korean bbq (not their food because some of them are too sweet for my liking)
I like travelling the world
I like reading
I like drawing
I like architecture
I like quiet and serene places
I like being loved by my boyfriend
I like being hugged

Well, it is quite extensive already so I shan't continue. But, here you are, a list of what I like... to be continued. I seriously didn't expect myself to come up with so much things that I like. Wait till you see the list of "I hate". Hahas. Till next time!