Happy Anniversary My Loved One :-)

Darby and I watched "My Blueberry Nights", a new movie by his favourite director Wong Kar Wai when we were holidaying in Shanghai a few days ago. It's been a long time since we went to the cinema together and I was secretly glad I was able to persuade him to do so. There's something about being holed up in a cinema with a loved one, which I like. Maybe it's the physical closeness that this brings. Maybe it's the simple fact of just doing something together, however passive the activity may be. Or maybe, the truth is I just don't enjoy watching a movie alone anymore.

Couplehood, as I have come to realise, has its prons and cons. Love songs seem to speak out to me more strongly after I became attached. Happy love songs and sad love songs now stir my emotions the way only a good movie can do when I was unattached. When I miss darby and feel melancholic, I will turn on my pc and immerse myself in the numerous mp3s that I have saved in the folders. Soon enough, I will be fine and back to my cheerful self. When I hear a happy love song, I will be reminded of the moments (similar or otherwise) which we have shared in and outside Singapore.

The downside (if you consider it a negative) is that I wouldn't now make certain decisions without getting some feedback or help from darby. The reasons are varied. It could be that darby is the more informed among the two (such as when it comes to IT and gadget related matters). It could be that I felt it necessary to keep our relationship 'equal' and democratic. Whatever the reasons, I have found my discussions with darby to be a good form of interaction, and it has helped to improve my understanding of him.

4 years is not too long a period of time, for couples who are committed to each other. That said, it's still a little milestone for a "first timer" like me.

I want to tell my loved one it's a happy milestone that I have crossed, with my short legs astride. Happy and grateful, cos I know I am not crossing it alone, but hand in hand, heart to heart with him at the same time.

ILU and happy anniversary :-)

Mcdull

Another new department again

After the transfer to a new department in Oct 07 , and tasked to support a new product group in department A , i am now being given the task of supporting another dept B (since 7 Dec last friday) . it is record breaking among exec level employees - that within 3 months i have worked in 3 different departments. I am quite uncomfortable with the posting to dept B as it is well known for its harsh working environment, which is notorious. Many managers / engineers from overseas have tried to work there and failed and resigned. I guess i have to plan for the worst, if it comes, and take it positively in the best way that i can.

From yesterday onwards, I began to use my glass tea pot (only costs me 4 SGD ) that i bought at Taipo market in Hongkong to make my Pu Er tea , which is well known for detoxifying and lowering blood pressure. I have taken much more meat here in China as the local ppl does not like to take vege, or they will cook it in a very salty/oily manner. These plus poor control on the food safety/pesticides, makes me wonder know how much toxic i have taken in. Yes , i have no confidence in China local products at all. Taking Chinese tea was my habit since young ( mum will also boil a big pot for us in the morning). That is why every time i have very low blood pressure whenever i go for medical check up. I have stopped taking Chinese tea and grew addicted to English tea and coffee after i began to work in Spore. Every morning i will make myself a glass of hot tea or coffee to go with sandwiches. And i am very much a coffee lover now, but i only take those grounded coffee powder in small sachets like Lipton tea bag. It tastes like Kopitiam coffee in Spore , and it reminds me of Spore / Msia.

The locals are not very crazy about coffee, let alone tea. So you cannot expect to find good coffee or tea shops here, and they like to use artificial flavorings/ coloring to make their tea or coffee especially in remote places like where i am living . The most i can do is bring back coffee powder/ tea bags from Hongkong , but i still like the taste of old Hainanese coffee made from powder best. The local breads taste horrible with oily smell that really put me off. I can only buy more imported biscuit from Hongkong such as McVites to go with coffee every morning.

So that's what I have for my breakfast in China, very pathetic.

Darby

Warning letter

I regret to inform Mr Porky Pig aka Mcdull that due to lack of monthly maintenance and contribution to this blog by you over last few months, you risk losing your membership rights to this very popular blog site (when the time you have spent on the mahjong table is sufficent for any writer to publish a book). Your membership to this blog will be cancelled in two months' time, if there is no response and sufficient blogs submitted by you within two months from the time this warning is issued. Upon failure to fulfill your abovementioned duty, you will be fined for the delayed blogs installment and breach of contract. The fine amount could go as high as one carat diamond ring for Darby.
Thank you.

Yours truly
Darby
9 Dec 2007

Light years

i transferred to a new department in Oct, and it is almost 2 months now. i like the jobscope pretty much, still doing the same stuff but in a different position as a consultant. i get to spend more time to research and learn things which i did not have time to learn in the past, i have time to analyse the data trend of the failure that the customers returned to us , i get to be involved in setting up the procedures for improvement. No longer in a fire fighting role. And i have shorter working hours, Great ! I began to blend into the team too, without much difficulties. Work is so far smooth sailing.

I counted that by 30 Dec 2007 , it would have been 4 years since i am with piggy, and for the past 1 year and 7 months we are living in different countries. we only get to meet each other whenever there is a holiday, thrice or more in a year usually, but there is no strange feeling every time we meet up. it is just that i have become more independant as i am used to loneliness without piggy, he spends every weekend at his fav casino. As time slowly goes by, we both handle the relationship carefully and wholeheartedly , the frequency is always maintained at the same hertz. The fortune teller said that for my horoscope, i need to travel more and be away from home in year 2008 to earn my living and i will have a harder time. i was thinking am i not far away enough from my hometown and lover? Should i work in north pole ? What a curse.

My HK housemate who has taken over my position in my ex department is bringing a bottle of red wine every week. we will both sit in front of the tv and take a sip of red wine every night as winter is approaching. Good life. Weather is nice this year, summer is not as hot , winter is not as cold, i guess it could be due to global warming.

Light years, is a term we used to describe time. It is strange that you get to find the person you like from this earth with its crazily huge population, and spend time with him/ her , hopefully till your or his/her last breath. Yoga teaches us that a slow and calm breath will give you longer life span, that is why tortoise has long life span. But how long is the life span of human beings in this universe when we used light years as a measurement unit ?? A very tiny fraction that could be neligible ?? i do not know . But i do know that every couple in love is lucky although they may have very little time to spend together in this universe.

Darby

shanghai ... we are coming

X mas is coming. Piggy and i am planning to go to Shanghai for our holidays. I have bought a book to guide us around the MRT routes, which is the favorite transport of mine. I have been reading about the good eating places/ shopping/sightseeing spots. Winter will be below 10 degree C. It will be a new experience to spend our xmas at the bund in cold weather. I want to spend our time there slow and relaxing. I hope the pig will not fall sick again like he did in korea / thailand / JB / kl / malaca / taipei /hongkong / vietnam/ bali / india / italy / london / singapore ......(Yes, he is that lousy).

It is late autumm now here and winter is around the corner. It's been cold every night even with the heater on and my sensitive skin is beginning to turn dry and itchy. I hope to have less scar this time although my eczema is killing me.

That s all for today.

darby

Lazy Piggy signing in again

It's been a long time since I last wrote. Work combined with pure laziness have resulted in this state of affairs. Many things have happened meanwhile, and it will take a few blogs for me to give an account of what darby and I have gone through together and separately the last few months.

Today's the 1st day darby is reporting to his new department. He's now in a consultant position in the same company which he had thought of leaving not too long ago. This being a new start for him, I wish him a charmed life henceforth in his new department. I can't be with him but have sent my fairy godmother there. May my fairy godmother keep a close watch over him.

Mcdull

Nonsense

It has been many weeks since i wrote my previous blog, many things happened in between. I was being offered to transfer to another dept in the same co, fell sick then recovered after almost got killed by the China doctors, and today my brother informed me that he is considering working in Dubai.

It is never advised to leave your family or loved ones for money if you can avoid doing so, leaving them for money is a big mistake. If you must, pls bring them along, no money can buy family ties, good time spent together. I truly realised by now.

Work is the only thing in your life when you are alone overseas, no time no place no nothing for friends / lover / family as they are thousands of miles away and you cannot do anything about it.

I hope my brother can reconsider as he has got a very good wife , a very pretty daughter , very cute and naughty twins, naggy mother who is ageing, he would be missing so many precious moments as his little ones are growing up if he is not near them. What a waste.

But at the same time , i do respect him as a real man who is willing to brave the risk out there in middle east , to bring home butter and bread for the family. He is a good man that i will always respect. The same goes for my younger brother, willing to eat the humble pie earning very low income by teaching tuition despite he is a Master degree holder, being jobless for months after graduating from a prestigious university such as NUS. My mama used to work as an operator for 7 years travelling between Singapore and JB, with her skinny hands she worked for the family, shouldered the household chores after work, she is the most beautiful woman i ever knew and i cannot love her enough. Even Piggy is able to work in a same company for years and years taking all the dirty work from his boss, still going on with very strong spirit, no grumbling heard.

I myself, more like a pampered brat compared to them, keep changing job within 2 yrs for the past few years, always complaining to Piggy. I am quite ashamed of myself sometimes when i think about it. I am just not a grown up yet mentally, childish me.

Darby.

White Flag

I am listening to my favorite song by Dido on my Ipod while typing this blog. It is raining outside - a cold night in summer. For the past few days , i have been suffering from severe depression due to unknown reason. Maybe the tiredness accumulated for more than a year has found an outlet suddenly after my resignation. My urge to go back to my home has never been stronger and i just cannot wait for a day more to get out of here. Enough is enough. Money really cannot buy happiness, but dun get me wrong, i am not working as a prostitute.

I have told myself many years back i will be all right if I have to stay single for this life. But if a partner comes along it will be a bonus from the Man above. I got one now and i just want to spend my after work hours with him everyday, cause i am craving for intimacy, even if it is just watching tv together. I think i have turned into a hopeless little man who wants to stick like a plaster onto my partner. I am no longer the lone ranger who lives out of a suitcase. It is my wish that i can return to a home with him one day, and i very much want to settle down both mentally to a person and physically to a place like an old dog.

Piggy celebrated his 36th yo birthday last Sunday, while i was not around. I promised my mum this year that i will keep her company next year on mother's day and her birthday. I think i should do the same to piggy and if possible to my old friends. I am really sorry that i have to leave them for my own career. I think this trip to China and Hongkong is an eye opener. I do not regret it but i doubt i want to leave my loved ones again as my mum's eyes will become wet everytime i leave the gate of my house to the airport and it breaks my heart, although many years ago somebody had forecasted that i will have to leave my homeland to earn a living which is a better thing for me. I think it is a curse, 'cos being alone in a foreign land is never a good feeling especially when one becomes older (like me). China is not Malaysia or Singapore and it can never replace my home. Even if returning to Singapore or Malaysia means lower pay and less cash to spend, i should be contented as i just want a simple and peaceful life. I am really really tired now.

Darby

The first typhoon of 2007

It is signal 1 for the typhoon alert today. Plastic bags and papers are flying high in the sky. The sky is dark at 4 pm. We are experiencing the first typhoon of the year. It is much belated than last year.

In China , weather is a major concern of everyone. It varies from day to day and affects everyone. It could be as high as 35 deg C like today and the next day may be a stormy day, not to mention winter days where you just want to beg for it to be over soon. I have begun to serve my 1 month notice starting from today, what a coincidence too.

I have learnt many things in this year and come to know that ppl can be very selfish , no matter how good he is to you outwardly. It is sad to find out that these ppl are mostly Malaysians from KL and Penang. Among all nationality and origins , I find most of the KL colleagues here are cunning. They are born as takers and not givers. And some Penang colleagues are similar and good at exploiting their subordinates. Kedah ppl are very honest, generous and down to earth. I am the only Johorean. I consider myself not smart enough to be cunning but i am not sorry for that, for i value humanity. Hongkee colleagues are smart usually, but they are very radical , one group is good at Taiji , another group is down to earth and creative when it comes to work. I make more good friends with Hongkees than with Malaysians, and i like them better. There are very few singaporeans here and they are ppl whom i already knew. They do not play politics and usually are givers in friendship in ways that they can afford. Filipinos are surprisingly very street smart, usually a taiji master, but they do not harm you too. Thai ppl are good and lovely as always. China ppl if they are from the northen part are usually very generous , decisive and good co-workers. But if they are from the southern part , they are just wasting everyone's time in the company but get their monies at the end of the month, yes , they are that lousy.

Darby

Tsham Shui Poo

I went to hongkong last weekend to do my banking and shopping as usual, within these two days i actually combed through Tsham Shui Poo (TSP), the small town, twice ! i rediscovered many new things that i did not notice in the past when i was there. I found the wholesale streets for kids wear , mens wear and ladies cheongsam boutique selling at low price. Of course it is well known for cheap computer and electronics stuffs , long and boring stalls like Womens Street at Mongkok. In fact , TSP is the place for local Hongkee to get their clothings / necessities / electronics / computer gadgets. And it is most known for women clothings wholesale business to everyone.

Mongkok and Wanchai is among the more expensive locations to get your stuffs, which usually only tourists will go there for shopping. I would say we can give Womens Street at Mongkok a miss as it is not really cheap and uninteresting compared to our shopping in Singapore or Malaysia , we just go there for the atmosphere. But for shoes , of course there is only one place to go , Po Ha Kai at Mongkok, ( Shoes Street ). Hundred of shops for your eyes along the streets.

In Hongkong , one shoud only shop for clothings at Tshim Sha Tsui (TST), at Gransville road it is full of outlet stores ( where piggy has dumped hundreds bucks like a tycoon ), Uniqlo at Miramar Hotel ( also at TST ) is highly recommended as unique Japanese fashion are brought in with cheap prices, Silvercord center is holding Dmop and IT which is the fav of many Hongkong stars. Good quality at reasonable prices ( Around 60~100 HKD ) , with lots of variety, this is shopping at TST.

The next places to go will be TSP , it is similar to Mongkok but at lower cost. One should go there for low budget clothings but not sacrificing the quality, you can get Korean/ Jap fashion at below 50 HKD ( 10 SGD ) . I bought many pencil thin ties for piggy and myself, and it just cost me 10 HKD for each. A rainbow color singlet for piggy too , at 49 HKD. I have also bought mum some ladies wear at her order, else she will refuse to cook for me when i am home. Choices are not too many for man , as limited menswear shops available ( about 30 shophouses ) compared to hundreds of ladies wear shophouses, but it is concentrated and at a lower cost definitely, most of the time you can find the stuffs you want at low price and with good surprise.

Books are not the fav of Hongkee besides comics, therefore do not think much about getting the books you want here in HK.

When it comes to eating , i am totally an outsider, as i only ask for the minimum , clean / healthy / taste all right will do. I guess it is a waste , as HK has lots of good eating places , as i am alone most of the time, i will only go to Chinese Fast Foods link such as De Coral / Fairwood/ Hai Huang Porridge. They are serving big portion of set meal with drinks and soup, it can cost you from 30 HKD to 50 HKD, i always choose Curry Beef at Fairwood as the curry itself is the closest to what we can get in Singapore. One thing to note is Hongkong does have many good Chinese restaurant like Yong Kee Roast Goose , Liang Xiang Lou Tea House, Hong Xin Dim Sum... You will eat till you drop.

So much for today, and hope whoever is going to HK will benefit from it.

Darby

My trip to home

I spent a short and happy holiday back home in Singapore and JB. When the airplane touched down in Changi Airport , being a non Singaporean , i suddenly felt that this is a wonderful place to live in and was happy to come back. The basic infrastructure, facilities , control of consumer goods with quality and safety, ease of transportation, service quality are all found here unlike the China outskirts I stay in and, I can only hope that they will pick up and learn to respect human beings in the next 100 years. Till then, Singapore or even Malaysia is still much better - at least i can eat at any stall without worrying about food poisoning, the traffic is safe, the roads are flat and i get to be served by the customer service personnel without feeling that i am their problem. i really hate China's service industry and i want to tell all those China Service Industry personnel with poor attitude that they can f*ck off and go home. Let's not give them a single cent profit by boycotting their shops/services to teach them that we are the customers .

Coming back to the topic on my home trip, i spent the first day eating and lazing around at Piggy's place, i had Prata/Chicken rice. My younger bro picked me up in the afternoon to go back to JB. On the first nite , i had a mj game overnight at Alien's place. Yes , 4 lonely hearts played mj till midnight. There's a lot of gossips and catch up of course, and they planned to visit HK for a holiday sometime soon. After a few games, we were tired and went to bed to sleep. The following 3 days, i stayed at home and did nothing much, except some groceries shopping with mum. Mummy cooked my fav vinegar pig trotters , soups , we had lots of fruits and of course durians. On the 4th night, i left my JB house and went back to Sin again to meet my ex colleagues for dinner.

The most funny part came on the last day , when i was supposed to meet piggy in the afternoon after his work. We ended up sitting at a Raffles City basement cafe after lunch. I was too tired and dozed off due to poor sleep at the Singapore home. Piggy was angry and bored and buried his big face in the newspaper. After the nap and on the way back to pick up my luggage, both of us fell asleep in the train again. I think we should just date at his place in the future as both of us were too tired to do anything together, that way we can spend our time together just sleeping but no actions when dating. It is the price to pay for the modern life we want to live, that we have no energy to do other things with our loved ones.

I also got the chance to play with the twins at my elder brother's place on the last day in the morning, they are both fleshy/outgoing/ over active, just like Mcdull and Mcmug . When you carry them in your arms, you get to smell them real close and the smell of babies is great , with their soft and warm bodies resting on you. If you carry one of them, the other one will be jealous and wants to be carried too. I think they want a hug as bad as i do - living alone in China without any physical contact with another. So both the twins and I enjoyed it and it was therapeutic. Sometimes a hug is better than sex.


Darby

PS i think this blog has become my personal blog as piggy has been indulging in his mahjong games since i left.

Friday nite eating nite

I am more sensitive towards colours and shapes than smell/ taste, if I am asked to rank my "five senses". That is why i am never good at ordering food and choosing restaurants. I hate to do that too, so i always stick to one restaurant if i find it passable (with healthy food/preparation of food is clean ) . In the little town which i am living now in China, i only like to eat gyozas from a nearby restaurant but i began to feel sick of it and stop visiting the restaurant when I found that their food is unable to maintain the quality i want. Recently however, one of my good friend and colleague from another dept (he is from Singapore too and generous and like to enjoy good things in life) , begin to bring me out for dinner every Friday night. I then realised that if i had bothered to explore further, there are many good eating places in this little town with decent food and reasonable price ( not more that 10 SGD ) - and I have wasted 1 year eating Gyozas. On that one street crowded with many restaurants ( mind you Taiwan Ding Tai Fung has a branch here too) , we have gone to the Chinese /Korean/Taiwanese restaurants and all were amazingly good, far surpassing my basic expectations. The Taiwanese restraurant i visited last night is worth 4 stars out of 5 stars and it will do well even if in Singapore.

The tea they served is not chinese black tea but english tea served chilled. My colleague ordered:

1. fried doughstick in honey
Terrificly good! The doughstick inside is filled with some white meat which i cannot tell what it is but, the doughstick skin is elastic and sweet. It tastes great whether hot or cold.

2. century eggs with tofu
Similar to Japanese dish cold tofu. The cold tofu in small cubes is special , very solid texture unlike normal smooth and soft tofu we used to have and the century eggs tasted very light , topped with a layer of gravy and minch dried fish which is hot and sweet at the same time. We later managed to guess that the hot flavour comes from garlic , although there are no signs of garlic in it.

3. braised beef with vege
Average among the dishes , but i like it as it not oily and salty, which is unusual in China.

4. fried vege
Simple and good. Just like cooking by my mother.

5. Hot and sour soup ( Szechuan )
Besides what i have tried in Singapore with Piggy at Tianjin Gyoza at Chinatown , this is among the best.

Dessert is English Tea Jelly with milk topping. Unthinkable to see this in Shenzhen as China restaurant is never creative, with the taste of tea only and Jellylike texture, it is light and not too sweet. Perfect ending. We later found out the chef is from Taiwan, no wonder.

And i want to do this every Friday night from now on , and i hope i will not turn into a pig like poor Mcdull.


Darby

An unhappy day at work

Maybe writing blogs helps me to relieve stress in certain ways that i do not know , i get to vent my anger /dissatisfaction /criticise / dissipate negative energy through this channel and the readers (if there is anyone besides the pig) will absorb it, in the end they turn into angry persons, no wonder piggy has become an angry man recently ( ok i am bullshitting here ) .

i have an unhappy day at work today bcs of my direct supervisor is unappreciative of my work and unclear about the huge workload i have, (as he never bothers to lift the unnecessary workload off my shoulder when i approached him when i was made to perform them at the request of our department head) . He has forgotten the delay and backlog is bcs he did not do his job to define a clear jobscope for his subordinate, and i am being blamed for that. I realised that many of those who are holding managerial positions are usually monkeys who do not deserve to be where they are, and they are good at politics and nonsense thats why they are up there. Sad to say i am not good at either one of them , i think i should go sell cha kwa teow. After complaining to piggy after my dinner , i feel better, a loner in a foreign land needs a pair of listening piggy ears.

I decided not to teach my boss a lesson, let him stay as a monkey with his pigeon brain to understand the world. Anyway i will be leaving the company soon to return to my homeland.

Ok , time to sleep. Imagine the pig is sleeping next to me and snoring loud.

Darby

Lychees season now and i am on fire

It is summer now and it is lychee season now (after peach season in Spring ) in Southern part of China and i bought a big bag of lychees for only 5RMB today ( ya, not working bcs HK holiday ) , i.e 1 SGD . I usually do not eat lychees in Singapore as it is heaty and expensive and not good for my already heaty body and wallet. But here they have various species of lychees that are just so tempting. I finally gave in and bought 1 bag since i did not get try to them last year. It is sweet and with really small seeds, not bad. However i got myself on fire now.

Talking about fruits in China, I always eat mangoes from taiwan and peach from northen part of China, as mango is my favorite fruit . But peach is a new found love after i moved here, it is juicy , fragrant , sweet and light to eat. I know the best peach comes from Japan , but the peach from China is enough to make me kill for it. And not mentioning many other fruits like plums , cherry and some others which I cannot even tell what they are.


Darby

Life goes on ..

Born as a loner, i am always an outsider every where i had been to since i was born. I was a new comer to my own family, which I rejoined when I was seven yrs old, went to 3 primary schools, 2 secondary schools, places i have grown up and stayed at were further and further away from home , travelled to places but i could not stay for long.

I have an ID card from Msia and PR from Spore/ HK, but am always treated as an outsider when i am with the ppl from any of the 3 countries. I do not belong to them by the mainstream definition. Malaysians overseas I know treat me as a foreigner as i am not able to speak Cantonese like a native speaker but speak English/Mandarin like Singaporeans do. Singaporeans treat me as a foreigner as i do not serve NS like they do, and not to mention HK as i have not even lived there for a long time although HK ppl is lovely. I am indeed an alien too, besides my best friend.

I found that sometimes we are ironically similar to the person that Wong Kar Wai sought to project in Days of Being Wild through Leslie Cheung - somebody in this world who is like a bird without legs, that it cannot land no matter how tired it is . The second part is the day the bird lands will be its last day on earth. Of course i am not a bird and i am too fat to fly non stop in the sky. But we can feel what it feels, with a kind of loneliness/tiredness that is buried deep in our hearts.

It took years for me to turn into the person I am today - a quiet, low profile, serious person. This is not coincidence of course as your environment will mould your character. I try to balance my negative side with more positive energy whichwas something i could do when i was in Singapore with sports/yoga/books/company from Piggy. I am now being stripped of the chances and ability to do good things to myself, my mind, my health, and it just makes me feel awful.

I thought i could make it for 2 yrs living in Shenzhen outskirt, but i am giving up soon. Each day is a long war to fight, my body and mind unable to carry on for too long. I might be giving up and return to where i came from soon. I am glad to do that, and i am dreaming of a long holiday say for 2 to 3 months, before i start another job later, as a hawker that sells char kwa teoy. Financial gain in Shenzhen may be good but at the expenses of my physical / mental health - no way! I am leading a life that i do not know who i am or where it is heading towards. Is this midlife crisis ?? i hope not.

2 days ago , i bought a large oil painting on canvas at SZ , a duplicate of a modern China oil painting. It showed 2 laughing asian men with one guy poking his index finger into another's nostril. I think not many will like it, but i think it is a picture that i want to hang in one of my rooms when i have a house to myself. It is what i want in the future, to be one half of a happy old couple.

Darby

The journey that we found out abt ...

i blog for the first time almost one month after the Korea trip.

It is a HK - Korea trip actually . Here is the itinery:

Day 0 , piggy arrived in HK

Day 1 , Dai Yu Shan Big Buddha and CityGate factory outlet

Day 2 , Tshimshatsui , Sweet Dynasty dessert , Uniqlo Boutique , Gransville Road, piggy fell sick

Day 3 , Piggy and fat cat flew to Korea

Day 4 , Nandemum ( my camera spoilt ) , Myeodong , Nansam Tower (see above) , Korea Style sauna ( hanjamum ) , pig and cat fighting

Day 5 , Gyeong bok Gung , Tapgul Park , Insa Dong, pig and cat fighting

Day 6 , Inchion Hot spring in outskirt of Seoult, pig and cat fighting

Day 7 , COEX mall , pig and cat fighting then flew back to HK

Day 8 , Both animals fell Sick

Day 9 , Piggy flew back to Singapore.

I think it is a trip that we both learnt more abt each other. When the big mouth pig is sick (although it could be minor illness), he can be really demanding , wants to be pampered and is bad tempered. And fat cat is too independent/less thoughtful himself to understand piggy's need. We have an unpleasant trip in fact and both of us did not enjoy the Korea trip. We saw another side to each other, many differences. Regardless of that , we had long chats on this trip, to voice out what each other is feeling and thinking actually, and ready to forgo. it is a trip that we found out more about each other, our own weaknesses.

Darby

2 more days to go

I am so excited this week bcs i am gonna see pig pig soon in HK airport on Friday, i am thinking if i should do a dramatic run jump and somersault then land and hug welcoming gesture ... the pig likes it , typical Leo..

And more to come, bring it to places in HK and then plan our trip to Korea together at nite. We have not had the chance to do anything together for a long time. It's been 4 months since CNY and i have grown fatter older and more haggard bcs of work. I hope it won mind.

We will quietly enjoy our time in this coming long holiday, hopefully no pig fight. And after that , i think i can only go back in OCT if i want to. No matter wat, even if we just sit on the sofa and watch tv together at night , i will just feel wonderful. Weather in HK has become hotter, and Korea is still ok. Hope the pig will not get too heaty. No junk foods allowed. But dimsum is ok.

Fat cat

Speechless

I have closed my C***bank account just after Chinese new year this year , and applied for GIRO on the same day to pay my credit card bills with another account. But i do not know what the f%$# went wrong with them. I was told that the application was not activated and they idiotically told me that the account which they have linked to is the account i have closed. Whether it is true or not, for goodness sake they have not called or tried to contact me in the past few months. And suddenly my brother in Sg received a letter from the bank threatening legal action against me and, sad to say, none of my siblings has bothered to inform me abt my bill until they saw the bank's letter. I know i cannot count on them although i am working hard overseas to support the family, sigh...

I then spent the whole morning in the office to settle this with a bad headache and luckily there was no customer visit. I am quite disappointed with both the bank and my siblings. I do not think it matters to either of them whatever happens to me. Only mama will care. I love her and owe her too much. She is the only woman i love. I think i should go back to spend more time with her in the coming years. And thanks to piggy, who again saves fat cat through its diligent mind and patience. I love piggy too.

Darby

Our first trip in 2007 - Seoul in Spring

After much hassle and trouble, i finally booked a free and easy trip to Seoul, instead of Li jiang, China. Piggy and i will be on our own and although this is not the first time the two of us are travelling to a non chinese/english speaking country together, Korea is very much an enclosed country and likely to be much more difficult when it comes to communication for foreigners like us as compared to Thailand. I can only count on my memory and experience as i was there twice this yr for business trips, and piggy can only count on me, since piggy has not successfully planned a trip by itself for the two of us in the past, except doing clerical work like booking the air tickets. Hopefully, we will enjoy the trip and not be biting each other the wrong way during the trip. (i always bite piggy when i like to)

We have not been to a country like Korea together and it will be a new experience for piggy. Hope piggy will enjoy and relax . It is spring now.

Darby

PS 'My mama ' is by far the best written posting by piggy, i think.

My mama

We read about heroes from time to time - real life people whose acts of greatness inspire the soul. Awesome though they may be, they don't affect my life so intimately the way my mama does. To me, she is my one and only heroine in this life.

Like all the good mama-s in this world, she embodies selfless love, commitment and sacrifice for her children. I am convinced both my brother and I will be poorer without her. She was both the disciplinarian and the comforter and took care of our everyday needs for years (and still is, in my case) with nary a complaint.

I don't believe I can ever repay all that she had done for me. If my mama and I were both reincarnated in our next lives, I hope I can be her benefactor, the way she is to me now.

Till that happens, I will be sure to buy her a good meal this coming Mother's day on Sunday. No, it won't be any turkey (as in the image). More like sharksfin and crabs, which are her favourites.

I wish her good health and happiness - every single day.

Mcdull

Eternal Summer

Eternal Summer is not a happy movie to watch but I like it anyway.

It reminded me why I like going to the cinemas - to see good acting especially by new actors (which are truly refreshing) and to watch a movie that connects to my emotions.

Bryant Chang (Zhang Rui Jia) delivered a convincing and nuanced performance in his role as the young man secretly in love with his best childhood friend. I wonder if a 'straight' person, after watching this movie, would understand how tragic and destructive unrequited gay love can be. Would the 'straight' person emphatise with the gay person who wants to love but finds it difficult or close to impossible to do so openly? Would the 'straight' man conclude, like I did, that there is nothing deviant about gay love? After all, if you go to the core of things, all that anyone yearns to have, is that easy to understand yet hard to obtain feeling called Love.

Isn't that so?

Mcdull

What makes us Gay?

I guess every gay person will have his/her take on what "causes" him/her to be gay?

My personal situation mirrors one school of thought - protective mother vs distant father. But I have yet to figure out how that makes me one.

Call me a late bloomer or a dimwit, if you like. It took quite a long while before I fully come to terms with my identity as a gay man. The process started with the mind (I rationalised about being gay, the pros and cons), then the body, followed lastly by the heart (thanks to darby, who opened up this side of me).

There are a number of theories on what makes one a gay (see the article below which was first published in Trevvy). To my mind, all scientific theories don't explain the affairs of the heart. The defining moment for me as a gay man was when I found the man I love, and who gave me his love in return.

Mcdull

*************************************************************

"If in fact it is true - and I’ve asked doctors this - that you are genetically born a homosexual, because that’s the nature of the genetic random transmission of genes, you can’t help it. So why should we criminalize it?"

These recent remarks by Minister Mentor Lee must have brought a guarded smile to the faces of even the most politically jaded gay Singaporean. After years of either ignoring the homosexual issue or considering it to be a deviant and unhealthy lifestyle choice, the establishment – or at least the man who created it – has finally realised what we as gay people have known since we first found ourselves attracted to the same sex – you can’t help it.

Remember the first time you felt attracted to another person of the same sex and thought it might be a phase that will go away but never did? Most gay men know from (often painful) personal experience that their homosexual inclination was never a deliberate choice. Yet opponents of gay rights choose to disregard our personal experiences and continue to portray homosexuality as a sinful choice that should be criminalised.

Cue the scramble from conservatives to disprove the notion that homosexuality is decided from birth. Why the brouhaha? If the government does decide that homosexuality is innate – like race and sex – then there can be no justification for discrimination, not just in the form of laws criminalising gay sex, but extending beyond that into other social issues such as marriage and laws protecting homosexuals from bigotry.

This is not to say that Singapore is on its way to become the Netherlands of Southeast Asia – ‘Asian’ values and traditions are far too entrenched, and we must never forget who our neighbours are – but there is definitely reason for gay men and women to feel at least slightly optimistic, even as social conservatives embark on a public relations offensive to convince the local population that homosexuality is not an inborn condition.

Much as we might all prefer to be creative writers and dancers, knowledge of the hard science serves to elucidate the difficulties faced by homosexual men and women alike. It becomes more important that gay men can tell their genes apart from jeans when homophobes try to use biology to deny us our rights.

For much of the 20th century, the dominant thinking among scientists connected homosexuality to upbringing. Psychiatrist Sigmund Freud speculated that overprotective mothers and distant fathers helped make boys gay. It was not until 1973 that the American Psychiatric Association removed "homosexuality" from its manual of mental disorders.

Then, in 1991, gay neuroscientist Simon LeVay announced to the world he had found a key difference between the brains of homosexual and heterosexual men he studied. LeVay showed that a tiny clump of neurons of the anterior hypothalamus - which is believed to control sexual behavior - was, on average, a portion of the anterior hypothalamus that is believed to control sexual behaviour was almost twice as large in heterosexual as in homosexual men. Theoretically, the clumps could have changed size because of homosexual behaviour. Nevertheless the study jump-started the effort to prove a biological basis for homosexuality.

The controlled male twins study of Bailey and Pillard (1991) showed a 52% concordance of homosexuality in monozygotic twins, 22% for dizygotic twins, and 11% for adoptive brothers of homosexual men. This research seems to suggest that “gay gene” has a 50% penetrance factor, a measure of the likelihood of gene expression.

Then, the big news. In 1993, Dean Hamer of the National Cancer Institute in the USA discovered that 33 out of 40 pairs of homosexual brothers had the same genetic markers in the Xq28 region of their X chromosome. This finding, though non-conclusive, helps to crystallise the theory of a "gay gene".

Critics of the X chromosome theory point out inadequacies of the study. The only research team to confirm the original 1993 results was the same team of scientists. Hamer’s team has failed to locate similar gene correspondencies in lesbian X chromosomes.

The focus of sexual-orientation research has since shifted to biological causes, and there hasn’t been much science produced to support the old theories tying homosexuality to upbringing. Freud may have been seeing the effect rather than the cause when he posits that homosexuality is a result of overprotective mothers and distant fathers. In recent years, researchers who suspect that homosexuality is inborn - whether because of genetics or events happening in the womb - have looked everywhere for clues: prenatal hormones, birth order, finger length, fingerprints, stress, sweat, eye blinks, spatial relations, hearing, handedness, and even "gay" sheep!

Take finger length for instance. Men in general have shorter index fingers in relation to their ring fingers. In women, the lengths are generally about the same. Researchers have found that lesbians generally have ratios closer to males.Other studies have shown masculinized results for lesbians in inner-ear functions and eye-blink reactions to sudden loud noises, and feminized patterns for gay men on certain cognitive tasks like spatial perception and remembering the placement of objects.

Willliam Reiner, psychiatrist and urologist with the University of Oklahoma, has evaluated hundreds of cases regarding medical conditions where boys born with severely inadequate penises were castrated and have his parents raise him as a girl. At the end of the study Reiner found that nurture, even when surgery is done soon after birth, cannot trump nature. This means that of all the boys who were raise as girls, not one of them were found to be sexually attracted to males. They all remain sexually attracted to females.

More recently, Brain Scan studies done in 2005 by Swedish researchers found that while straight men’s brain were sexually aroused by female urine compounds, gay men’s brain were aroused by male sweat compounds. Perhaps this explains why we are so attracted to hot perspiring men. This study yet again connecting the hypothalamus to sexual orientation comes right after the studies with sheep. It seems that about 8% of domestic rams are exclusively attracted to other rams. Further investigation revealed that a region of the brains similar to the one LeVay identified in human brains was also larger in straight rams than gay ones.

In June 2005, scientists in Vienna announced that they had isolated a master genetic switch for sexual orientation in the fruit fly. Once the switch was flicked, the genetically altered female flies rebuffed overtures from males and instead attempted to mate with other females, adopting the elaborate courting dance and mating songs that males use.

And now in a highly unsual move, the National Insitutes of Health in America is sponsoring a $2.5 million large-scale, five-year genetic study of gay brothers. Relying on a robust sample of 1,000 gay-brother pairs and the latest advancements in genetic screening, this study promises to bring some clarity to the murky area of what role genes may play in homosexuality.

Canadian researchers have consistently documented a "big-brother effect," finding that the chances of a boy being gay increase with each additional older brother he has. For some reason birth order does not appear to play a role with lesbians. So accordingly a male with three older brothers is three times more likely to be gay than one with no older brothers, though there’s still a better than 90 percent chance he will be straight. They argue that this results from a complex interaction involving hormones, antigens, and the mother’s immune system.

But nobody’s sure what’s causing it.

Regardless of what the science says – and they do suggest a correlation though not causation between sexual orientation and innate biological events – opponents of gay rights would never be satisfied. Just look at the recent debate on climate change.

While proving sexual orientation is inborn would make it easier to frame the debate as simply a matter of civil rights. We should note that other rights such as freedom of religion in most places around the world enjoyed protection long before inborn traits like race and sex.

For something we all know deep down inside that is innate to us, it seems to be a grave injustice that we have to justify our existence is not some freak of nature.

We are going for a trip

Piggy and fat cat will go for a trip in mid May. We hope to bring back more good photos of the places we are visiting. We are planning to go Yunnan and Li Jiang -the booking has not been finalised yet. As it is off peak season , things should be cheaper. Hope to spend some good time before our second trip at the end of the yr.

Darby

Comrades, almost a love story

On one of the lazy sunday afternoons , while i was typing on my laptop doing my paperwork and surfing the tv program at the same time in my living room, i happened to find a local channel which was showing "Comrades, almost a love story. " by Maggie and Leon.
I can still recall that i watched the movie for the first time when i was on sick leave from my first company many yrs ago. I was so sick that I could not walk to the clinic properly. After taking the medication and lunch at hawker stall, i felt much better, but i did not want to go back to my small rented room too early. So i walked to the nearby cinema and it happened to be showing this movie. I watched it alone. As you can see it is really pathetic, being sick and alone and watching a sad movie .

For anyone who has watched the movie, if you are not from HK or in HK at that time , besides the love story , you cannot really feel very much what the director , the actor and actress are trying to express about the HK ppl. A mainland Chinese couple struggling for living each day, both with different characters - the man is easily contented, the woman is money minded. The return of HK to China. The status of China ppl in HK in the past. The contrast between HK and China in the past. Mc Donald and Beeper. The foreign prostitutes . The rundown and matchbox size living condition ( even until today ) . It is a very HK movie.

It was selected as one of the best movies by HK movie critics recently , and it deserves the honour.

Darby

No job switch in the company

i have gotten the reply from another dept head today that the position he proposed to me is not available anymore. The organization restructuring plan has stopped bcs his new boss has reported not long ago and he is hiring an ex colleague of us for a lower grade but similar post. Never mind, as things has turned out to be better recently in my department. I was offered the same lower grade position by another leader in the same dept a few times previously , but i chose to reject the leader (partly bcs i have not much interest in the job altho i can do it well , and partly because i was not able then to switch having worked in the company for less than a yr). I know the leader was in need of a good helper and he happened to see my analytical capablity in a meeting and was quite fond of me . The leader has left the company too now.
Since both options have been cut off , i will choose to opt for a job from outside, as i do not think i can and want to work in any other dept besides my current one. Worst , i will return to my home land, which is in my plan too.

Darby.

Haruki Murakami

You must be wondering what this subject title stands for ? If you know what it means, we are on the same planet. Yes, he is a japanese author that has become my must read ( must watch - Wong Kar Wai , must listen - Faye Wong ) . I have become a fan of him since the Norwegian Woods - the loneliness of a soul depicted in the story just described my feeling exactly when i was still single and unsettled. I like the individuals living in the stories who are quiet , fragile and unique - a lonely man's life in a city. I can read the same book again and again, and never get tired of it till today. I know i will fill my book shelves with his books in the future. I can still remember when i was in Spore, on those days when i do not have to go out to walk the pig, i would read his books on my bed for the whole day.

Another reason that makes me a big fan is the style he has as an author. Every story is told very vividly, as if you were watching a great movie.

He has slowed down in his writing recently - the last book i have read is Kafka on the Shore. ( Mandarin version from library ) . And i hope to read his new book soon.


Darby

Housekeeping day, winter is over!!

Today is housekeeping day for me since the morning, i have kept the thick blanket used for winter into my wardrobe, taken out the mosquito net and set it up on my bed. As the weather has turned warm , i kept the heater and took out the fan last nite too. It is a sign that summer is coming , altho spring is not exactly over yet. I dread the heaty warm air in summer, which makes everyone stink and sweaty. Believe me it is worse than tropical weather as we have cool air to regulate the heat from sunlight . I also tidied up the living room because the water tank was under repair at roof top and water entered into my hostel unit yesterday. I mopped the floor again altho the hostel staff did it yesterday after I complained. I then cleared up my table and things in my room. Then threw away my old Gola sport shoes after i bought a new pair of New Balance from HK.

After all that were done , i cooked myself two packets of instant noodles, with mushrooms and tomyam paste added. A cup of coffee after that, life is heavenly good. Then watched TV for a few hrs while trying to fix my lap top, which was infected by virus.

I will wash my clothes by hand later in the bathroom, as they are pure white t shirts i bought from BKK that have turned yellowish after being washed too many times by the washing machine. And do the office paperwork before I sleep. I know tonight i can sleep well as the mosquito net has been set up and with the fan on , i can finally roll freely to left and right without the thick blanket on me, like i used to do in Spore.

Hope to have a conversation with piggy before sleep , as it was on mahjong table again last nite.

Darby

The HK and China that i know

Being a staff of a HK company working in the SZ office during the weekdays, I am entitled to spend my weekends in HK with free lodging provided by the company when I want to. I have travelled to several parts of HK and am beginning to feel bored -maybe it is bcs i am alone. But piggy, who is a mahjong and food lover , loves HK like HK ppl love char siew paos. And i must admit , HK is a much more fascinating place, compared to Spore. There are plenty of commercial activities taking place in this vibrant small piece of land ( Look left for signages in YuanLang ) filled with cantonese speaking chinese ppl , who have very pragmatic mindset/efficient and are well known for being mercenery and materialistic. On the other hand, they are kind ppl too who are really helpful and generous to strangers - which i have experienced many times when asking for help along their narrow streets. The sales people in HK are really warm and professional (Look right for Mongkok streets), and allow you to have your own freedom to move abt in their premises, which i like alot .

In China , the sales people are like houseflies, babbling and stuck to you for good once you step into their premises , and their piece of opinion is always worthless and unwanted by me, as being a foreigner, I have seen/known more than China consumers. As a consumer, my requirement for quality and environmental/health concerns when i purchase any good, can seldom be understood by the China sales staff. I always feel like saying to them : SHUT UP . And most of the China ppl on the street that i came across are rude and selfish, altho there are good ppl but sadly not too many. The upbringing of China ppl can only be improved as a whole in the next 50 yrs from now.

So, HK to me is a girl well brought up by her British step mother who knows what civilisation means; China on the other hand is a self centered and arrogant chick who has just struck TOTO. It is indeed sad for me to say this, as my ancestors are from Mainland China, and i do not feel proud of it, altho i have lived in the land of Dragon for a yr.

Darby

爱我

爱我 is a song which my all time favourite singer 林志炫 co-sang with 柯以敏. There's this part of the song which went 爱我没有你我变得好贫穷,在人世中少你左右我想我连什么价值都没有.

I found these expressions of love to be slightly exaggerated. I don't think we will all become 'nothings' if we do not have a partner/lover. There's no denying however that being loved and loving another in return are fulfilling emotionally.

Everyday, I walk past numerous couples on the street as I make my way back home and wish darby was right next to me. Although darby is now in China and I cannot see him every other day, I always find comfort in the thought that we are still very much in love and we will be united again not too long from now. This other part of the song captures my feelings pretty well.

尤其在人海沙漠
人的心越来越难懂
至少心中有个你寄托

I want to say to darby 好好爱我.

我也会好好爱你 :-)

Mcdull

Alien

I promised to write abt my best friend Alien, and today s blog is dedicated to him solely.
We have known each other since secondary one or two in a catholic boy school, there were another 5 cute little boys besides us, whom we spent the recess hours with everyday under the trees, talking, laughing, making fun of each other just like any mischievious boys will do at that age. I was quite fortunate that being a loner and new comer to the school , Alien took me in to the group instantly without much thinking, he did not know that he has helped to light up a small fire in my teenage yrs that kept me going on and on, when my family was in deep financial crisis at that time.
Slowly I realised that we are very identical in many ways except he is much more street smart and more optimistic. We spent our teenage years together doing many silly things and there were many good times that we shared.
Now, our life has come to a stage where we are all away from each other and each has his role and place in this crazy world. But once in a yr at least there will be a reunion, and we will spend time to catch up on each other s life / work / family.
Alien found his Walau last yr which is very much belated for a flirt like him, we began to share our experience on how to deal with relationships ... etc . This has definitely strengthened our friendship further as we had shared the deepest secret in our life. I hope the best for him , there is never an easy way out for love, but you will lose the best thing in your life if you choose to escape from it.
For us , we are all "Aliens" in disguise , which only another alien can tell if you are one of them, if its radar is working ( mine is spoilt without questions ). May be that is why he is named Alien.

Darby

Shivaree

I finally found the mp3 of Good night moon sang by Shivaree , played at the end of Kill Bill Volume II, when Umma Thurman was driving in her convertible contently. The singer has a clear and lazy feminine voice that just mesmerized me instantly. I will recommend this singer to everyone who has ears.

Good night moon _ Shivaree

There's a nail in the door
And there's glass on the lawn
Tacks on the floor
And the TV is on
And I always sleep with my guns
When you're gone
There's a blade by the bed
And a phone in my hand
A dog on the floor
And some cash on the nightstand
When I'm all alone the dreaming stops
And I just can't stand
What should I do I'm just a little baby
What if the lights go out and maybe
And then the wind just starts to moan
Outside the door he followed me home
Well goodnight moonI want the sun
If it's not here soon I might be done
No it won't be too soon 'til I sayGoodnight moon
There's a shark in the pool
And a witch in the tree
A crazy old neighbour and he's been watching me
And there's footsteps loud and strong coming down the hall
Something's under the bed
Now it's out in the hedge
There's a big black crow sitting on my window ledge
And I hear something scratching through the wall
Oh what should I do I'm just a little baby
What if the lights go out and maybe
I just hate to be all alone
Outside the door he followed me home
Now goodnight moonI want the sun
If it's not here soonI might be done
No it won't be too soon 'til I sayGoodnight moon
Well you're up so high
How can you save me
When the dark comes here
Tonight to take me up
To my front walkAnd into bed where it kisses my face
And eats my head
Oh what should I do I'm just a little baby
What if the lights go out and maybe
And then the wind just starts to moan
Outside the door he followed me home
Now goodnight moonI want the sun
If it's not here soonI might be done
No it won't be too soon 'til I sayGoodnight moon
No it won't be too soon 'til I sayGoodnight moon

Gyoza and steamed fish

I took my lunch at 2pm, went back to the office again to work and then decided to write abt the Gyoza restaurant here. It is opened by by a Northen China lady, who is tall and pretty in her mid 40 s.
I cannot get used to most of the food here except Gyoza, and so far i can truly enjoy only those franchised restaurants such as McDonalds, Ichiban Ramen, etc....when i go to the town .
I used to order a plate , which has abt 20 gyozas, with minced pork and vege fillings. Serve while it is hot and dip it into vinegar , yummy. I can settle my lunch or dinner with just a portion of gyozas, and it costs only 8 RMB ( 1. 8 SGD ) . Simple and nice. Others dishes are just too oily and salty for me, which i only eat just bcs i need to eat.

Besides , i like the steamed fish here , i think it is a kind of sea fish as it does not smell awful , the local named it Lu Yu ( Lu Fish ) . I do not know much abt types of fishes , only know how to eat them. A steamed fish with a bowl of rice , used to be my Friday dinner , which i can sit and quietly enjoy it slowly , before i go back to my room for a good sleep. And i miss nasi lemak , char kwa teoy , roti prata , curry chicken , rojak.... drooling . I can only eat them in my dreams now..

Weather is still freezing cold this week at around 14 deg C although it is spring now and much warmer than winter which can go below 10 deg C. We tropical kids cannot ever image wearing two long sleeves pullover and one long cotton pants over thermal wear for the whole day. And i can only sleep with thick blacket and with heater on in the nite when it is cold. After spending the winter and summer here for a year , i can only say, i miss the warm weather in Spore and Msia. At least i do not tremble in the morning/ nite when washing my face and taking shower, i can walk bare foot in the room and not feel like i am walking on ice, i do not have to wear gloves when i sleep, i have less clothings to wear and to wash.....etc.

You can tell i am determined to go home one day, the reason being i am alone here and life is plain and dull. If i can import the pig here to China maybe things will be better, but it is not necessary now as i will deport myself back to Singapore soon.

Darby

Mahjong pig

After a long week of hard work and long working hrs , finally it is weekend for a break. It is HK public holiday for HK employees like me since last thurs till coming tues ( Ching Ming / Good Friday / Easter all in a shot ) , but i still go back to the office for work due to heavy workload. me and my colleague went to a dim sum restaurant in Shenzhen on Friday nite at 11 pm , to pamper our selves, after all other HK employess have gone for their holidays / trips... Poor me.

On Sat morning , i went to supermart for groceries shopping and eating at KFC. I bought some mushroom to add to my fav instant noodles for dinner, (Japan Nissin Noodles or Ding mee as HK named it). As piggy did not give a ring/ sms for the whole day since it's morning call, i knew it is on mj table again ( i bet you it has forgotten who Darby is totally). There are at least 2 things in the world in its priority list , No 1 mahjong , No 2 good foods , No 3 .... , No N fat cat.

I told my colleagues i am saving for my housing in my hometown by working here, one of them told me he will stay home to iron the money to balance himself psychologically after the hardwork . We can save a lot here working in SZ, as the pay here is about 40 % higher than what we had in Singapore/ Malaysia, and there is not much expenses here as most of them is covered by the company ( such as phone / laundry / lodging ). One can save abt 4 x in a year than he can in Singapore. Although after all these savings , my net take home income is still lower than piggy's net income as it is a professional, but i think it is necessary to build up my savings while i am still young. Then both of us can spend our coming years together without major financial burdens, it is a kind of ideal life to me, something i am looking forward to.

Darby

You make me feel ....

Yes it is a song title of Aretha Franklin if you happen to know about this song, and i just want to dedicate this mushy love song to Mc Dull, who is always there for me when i am down and needed someone to lift me up like Tiramisu. The song is playing in my Ipod while i am typing, i just felt so so passionate suddenly , may it is the lyrics , may be it is her powerful lungs , but i can only think of someone that this song can go to . . Le Pork. Working in a foreign land is very demanding emotionally and physically, i always feel tired and lonely after working long hours, but thanks to piggy who is always a phone call away to cheer me up without fail

Looking out on the morning rain
I used to feel so uninspired
and when i knew i had to face another day
lord it made me feel so tired.
before the day i met you,life was so unkind
You're the key to my piece of mind
chorus:cause you make me feelyou make me feel you make me feel like a natural fat cat (fatcat)

when my soul was in the lost and found
you came along to claim it
i didnt know just what was wrong with me
till your kiss helped me name it.
now im no longer doubtful of what im living for
and if i make you happy i dont need to do more
chorus ohh baby what ya done to me (whatcha done to me)
made me feel so good inside (good inside)
and i just wanna be (wanna be)close to you
you make me feel so alive

And yes it has been a year we have been kept apart but we are still going on and going strong ... PIGGY.

Darby

Penny

Do you find that you acquire some of your partner or other half's habits and likings over time? I think it happens to most people and it's part and parcel of being in a relationship.

After darby and I got together, I started to do certain things that I would otherwise not have done and listen to certain types of song which I don't usually do. Penny Tai (also from Malaysia like darby) was one of the singers whose songs I grew to like after darby sang her songs in KTV and lent her album to me.

I am very fond of her song 怎样. It's a sad song written with simple words but very touching.

我这里天快要黑了那里呢
我这里天气凉凉的那里呢
我这里一切都变了
我变的懂事了
我又开始写日记了
而那你呢
我这里天快要亮了
那里呢
我这里天气很炎热
那里呢
我这里一切都变了
我变的不哭了
我把照片也收起了
而那你呢
如果我们现在还在一起会是怎样
我们是不是还是深爱着对方
像开始时那样
握着手就算天快亮
我们现在还在一起会是怎样
我们是不是还是隐瞒着对方
像结束时那样
明知道你没有错
还硬要我原谅
我不会原谅
我怎么原谅

Mcdull

1st Anniversary

Darby has officially joined JE for 1 year as of today. It's been a year filled by plenty of hard work, sweat and tears from what he has told me.

I have to commend Darby for having that determination to rough it out and giving his best to stick to his plan of working for 2 years in JE, especially when the physical living conditions were far from ideal and the work is stressful every single day. I am not certain that I will have that firm resolve to uproot and work away from home if I were asked to, one day.

There's very little that I can do, from day to day, to solve or ease darby's difficulties or problems. On his homecoming day however, I will be sure to welcome him with open arms and give him a pat on the back.

I look forward to that day :-)

Mcdull

i am back

Well i have disappeared for a week because i went on another business trip to Korea again. It was not a pleasant experience although it is spring now as i was too sick from nostril and esophagus inflammation. I will share more when i have time to write about this tragic trip. I managed to take a photo of the Peach Flower ( Tao Hua ) along the road side up close. It is beautiful when both sides of the roads are lined with trees with the Peach Flowers in full bloom.

I just realised that my best friend Alien has left some nice comments and i think i will write abt him and his Walau soon when i am free. hahaha ...

Also want to share with the whole IPODDER community , i have bought my first Ipod Video. hehe... being an ex employee of Apple Inc still makes me proud till today. Pathetic me. I bought this in HK and it costs me 1980 HKD , which is abt 400 SGD. But i think it worth the price, as it is 30 G and can play video / store pictures , only cost 50 SGD more than the Ipod nano that is only 8 G? but cannot play video/ pictures. Although i may not play video at all , I would not be so lonely when travelling alone in the future.

Can I sing a song for you?

I have liked to sing since I was a little boy. I recall vividly those days when I would sit myself on a high stool in my grandma's spectacle shop and hum to the Mandarin songs that were playing from the radio, whilst my mum was tending to the customers in the shop. Feng Fei Fei and Fei Yu Qing were my favourite singers when I was a 10 year old boy.

If you listen to Mandarin pop, you will know that 7 out of 10 songs deal with the subject of Love. I must have heard thousands of Mandarin love songs by now. However, it is only after I fell in love with darby that love songs took on an added significance for me. The lyrics of the song 都是你 speak out to me when I first heard it as it echoes my feelings whenever i miss darby. Before I know it, I will be singing the song to myself, and hoped that somehow darby will know that i was thinking of him at that moment.


谁改变了我的世界
没有方向没有日夜
我看着天这一刻在想你
是否会对我一样思念
你曾说我们有一个梦
等到那天我们来实现
我望着天在心中默默念
下一秒你出现在眼前
想念的心装满的都是你
我的钢琴弹奏的都是你
我的日记写满的都是你的名
才发现又另一个黎明

你曾说我们有一个梦
等到那天我们来实现
我望着天在心中默默念
下一秒你出现在眼前
想念的心装满的都是你
我的钢琴弹奏的都是你
我的日记写满的都是你的名
才发现又另一个黎明
我的日记写满的都是你的名
才发现又另一个黎明
这是我对你爱的累积

Mcdull

McDull orders lunch

One of our favorites. Note the reaction of Darby, it actually slammed its head hard on the table. Poor thing, must have been devastated by McDull's talk.



Darby

i did it

After trying for a day , i finally sucessfully uploaded Mc Dull for the first time.
Piggy , double click and see.


Darby

In the mood for love

I was thinking that it is strange that no one has posted anything abt movie since we started this blog cause we both love movies alot, not very much the same genre i guess, but basically good movies. I like movies with great music /cinematography/ sceneries / actors and director. A movie script might be simple but a good director can turn it into a masterpiece. i can divide them into 2 categories , they are very different : Asian and Western.

First let's talk abt Asian or Chinese films :
Wong Kar Wai takes the no 1 seat. In the mood for love / Happy together / Chungking Express ( i have been to Chungking guesthouse, just to change money ) / The Days Of Being Wild. Great actors , terrific music is always chosen with very sophisticated taste , always my must watch movies. Wong KW is like a rock star as a director, as his movie is always full of trance / grunge feeling..

Lee Ang, a very meticulous director ( like a classical musician ) who makes fine movies like red wine. Personally my fav is BBM / Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon . Both are very different but really great movies. Music is not particularly catchy but acceptable.

And Zhang Yimou , for his earlier movie, The story of my father and mother , by Zhang Ziyi. it is so so China that it cannot be made by someone else. He is more like a folk song artist to me, which explains why he is never good at making big budget movies ( or i never like them ) , but he is very good at telling stories of common people.

Piggy and i used to go for movies during weekends , i just stopped doing that since i left Spore. I feel quite lazy to go for a movie alone now unless it s a movie i must watch .I think it is the same for piggy.

Darby

the romantic stuff

i am very tired today after work , and when piggy called me from Spore , i was not in the mood to chat either. Very guilty every time, but i am a person with poor stamina and low energy level. Hope it won mind when we are old.

i want to recall back ( before my memory fails me) the most romantic things we ever did. One of them is the proposal fm piggy before i left singapore to work in Shenzhen. It did not book the whole cinema on 18 Feb. After watching the movie BBM, i was still deeply engrossed in its sad ending when suddenly my phone beeped, an sms came in from piggy and it wrote some sentimental stuff which i am too shy to disclose here, and ended the sms with a proposal.
i was very touched then and immediately my tears were rolling non stop beyond my control. We later went to a HK tea house for me to calm myself down.
That was the most romantic thing No 1.

Darby

Telling J

I told my best female friend J this evening that I'm gay. She was shocked by the revelation and I must have set her heart pumping at record speed for a good 15 minutes. There were no tell tale signs, she said.

To me, the question has always been when, rather than whether, I should tell J. She is one of those whose friendship I cherish and embrace with my heart completely and it only felt right that I should let her know this other side to me.

Overall, she responded very well and even chuckled over the phone at some parts of our conversation. She now knows there's someone in my life at this point in time and I am a "qualified" love counsellor as I have some experience to speak of.

I have done with J what I hope to do with some of my family members - which is to be completely true to them and to myself.

When that day comes (if at all), I hope they will accept the news with understanding and still love me for the person I am.

Mcdull

My first baby step to love

Growing up, I have wished for romantic love - a firm grasp of the hands, a tight hug of the bodies, and a meeting of the lips.

I met darby at a time when I wasn't seeking a partner. I don't think he was either. He called me a day after we first met and asked if I could join him for a new year eve countdown in town. I declined but we agreed to meet again. Then came the second meet up in his house where I stayed over and we had a long chat and loads of fun throughout the night. I can't be quite sure now if we watched the movie "Love Actually" the very next morning. What I do recall is hearing his laughter and finding myself quite amused by it. His laughter was easily one of the loudest and most distinctive in that cinema hall. I also remember darby grasping my left hand with his right hand in the middle of the movie, in a gentle but firm manner. I responded by closing my fingers around his. That was a moment which I will remember throughout this life as it's the first time I have my hands held in an affectionate way by a guy. During that moment,I felt as if a love story (darby and mine) was unfolding in the cinema, other than the love stories unfolding on the screen.

I think that movie was a catalyst for our relationship. We began to meet more frequently and talked more often on the phone and soon became good friends.


Mcdull

Sam soon pig

Piggy sms me and told me how much it misses me when it hugged the Samsoon pig i bought for it. SS pig is a big soft toy pig which is about 50 CM in height , cost about 30 SGD and cheaper as i bought it in Shenzhen. I have seen the same toy before in Spore and Msia and it costs abt 50 SGD. it is of good quality and by the original manufacturer, which is really good to hug as it is fluffy. I have installed a nano size camera and receiver in SS pig and it will help me to spy on piggy , if it is misbehaving , SS pig will alert me. Kidding..
I am just glad that piggy likes the toy as i took the trouble to search for it and fly it from China to Spore. I like to see a happy pig.

Darby

Glad that the pig is safe

i worked till 9 pm as usual , so when piggy called me up , the earthquake was over , and it mentioned not a single word on it. i wonder if it will think of me when it was running for its life with its short legs and what was its thoughts at that time. i am glad that piggy is safe, hope no more earthquake again at Indonesia.

i found this today :
职业概述麦兜不完全档案
麦兜出生年月：8月12
性别：男
上过的幼儿园：春田花花幼儿园
梦想：当奥运冠军；去马尔代夫旅游
性格：单纯、憨厚、乐观、与世无争 isnt true ???
麦兜语录
大难不死，必有锅粥。臀结就是力量。猪还有一猪兜。肉不琢，不成饼。天有不测之风云，人有霎时之蛋挞。闻鸡起筷！

50词其他行业,中国,香港,春田花花幼稚园

I told another dept head today that i am willing to consider for a leader position in his dept. I am resorting to this mainly because of an assistant manager, who has joined my dept for months. i was already under huge pressure since i took up the position in early 2006 and having an assistant manager who does not contribute to ease my work load , is not something pleasant to me . I do not mean to be sacarstic , but the AM is more like an admin clerk to me ( which my young and pretty admin clerk who is of Miao parentage can do better ) . Neither does he function like a manager in terms of decision making nor resource planning. i am very much on my own now as approaching him for any support will get me no way. At the same time, i have lost the support from the manager himself as he is taking charge of 2 depts now and scarcely has time for me. Besides , my only subordinate resigned early this yr as he cannot take the pressure. Lets hope the job switch to another dept works out smoothly.. After the job switch , i will spend more time in Hongkong and less in Shenzhen as it is based in Hongkong, hopefully piggy can join me for holidays in the coming months.

Darby

I FELT THE EARTH MOVE.. UNDER MY FEET

I was in a clients' meeting around noon today when I felt my body swing to the left then right. My first instincts told me that I might be experiencing the tremors of an earthquake. Minutes later, my HR manager came into the room and told me that we have received an announcement to vacate the building.

My good heart told me to check on my other colleagues, in case they have not been told of the evacuation notice. I walked down the row of cubicles in my department and found that not a single soul was around! Hmmph - even my dear secretary has abandoned me :-p (she later told me she remembered me only when she was taking the lift down).

I found out from the lunch time TV broadcast subsequently that the earthquake originated from Sumatra, Indonesia and measured 6.6 on the Ritcher scale. It's the first time I have experienced tremors and I hope it's the last as well as many lives were lost in Indonesia today.

Mcdull

Toto (more more!)

My mummy struck Toto Group 2 prize in the toto annual 'hong bao' draw last Friday (2 March 2007)!!! The prize money was lower than the usual as there were just too many people (84 to be exact) who, like my mummy, narrowly missed becoming a millionaire overnight just by one number.

Still, it was an event worth rejoicing. I told my best female friend (and darby too) about the good news and my best female friend shared the news with such enthusiasm it's as if she or her own dearest mummy had struck the prize themselves! My mum also shared the news with her two sisters who quizzed her on how the winning numbers were picked.

I have taken a photograph of the winning ticket with my handphone camera. My dear darby will have to tell me if the photograph can be transferred to this blog as I am a complete idiot when it comes to technology matters.

This is a good start for the new lunar year. Cheers to this win and we hope there're more and more DUO DUO winnings to come.

Mcdull

FAT CAT

Fat cat is the nickname I gave to darby.

I can't quite remember how it all started as I don't usually give nicknames to people I know. Furthermore, darby was not even fat when I first met him. He then had a sultry figure and a 28 or 29 inch waist to boast of (but now no more, hoho :-).

What I do remember from our first meeting is that his look resembles that of a cat in some ways. You know how some people look like dogs and some others look like birds. To me, darby belongs to the cat category.

I started to call darby fat cat after we became more familiar with each other. It was a term of affection where I am concerned. Surprisingly, darby didn't protest very much, or not even at all over the nickname.

On hindsight, he must have liked me enough by then to tolerate my name calling and I must have liked him too to coin an original nickname for him.

I still call darby by this nickname and will possibly do so for the rest of our lives together. I hope he likes the sound of it as much as I do.


Mcdull

Mc Dull

So he is Mc Dull. A piglet born in HK , supposedly. I named piggy after this cute animated character as he is almost the same like Mc Dull except his figure. Like to eat / easy going / short legs / optimistic/ blurr when it comes to certain things...

We finally travelled to HK in 2005 for 1st time and we love it, not long after that i left Singapore , and spending time in Shenzhen for work and in HK for leisure. life has become boring for me without the piglet.

Besides Mc Dull , someone i must mention here is Mdm McBing aka Mai Tai, Mc Dull s mum. A lovely chubby lady who cooks delicious meals for me whenever i visit her house. I truly admire the way she carries herself , a friendly cheerful easygoing lady, to an outsider like me.

Darby

oink oink everyone (^@^)

here comes... the PIG...

My beloved darby created this blog. I don't know when he conceived the idea but I think it is fabulous! I was telling a lawyer friend this morning how darby and I have been keeping our currently long distance relationship going through sms-es, phone and cam chat and occasional trips together. I think this blog is a complement to what we have been doing and will definitely enhance our communication and mutual understanding.

This being my first posting, I will keep it short. There will be lots to write about and plenty of things to record in the days to come.

Mcdull (aka piggy or pig pig)

i love Korea

i was in Korea for a few days for business in Feb 07, went to Busan for 2 days and Seoul for 2 days.


Having stayed for a long time in run down Shenzhen country side , Korea does impress me with its neat and tidy streets/layout. Very similar to Singapore and i think it is on par with Japan.
This is a bridge over Hanjiang river, which i took when the airport express bus sent me to the airport on my return trip.
I like it alot .

Darby