Tham gave me a new nickname the other day. He called me “The Happy Cynic”. My close friends would know that is an apt description. I’m more a pessimist than an optimist but I don’t mope around bringing other people down. Instead, I remain happy which may seem paradoxical at first.
My favourite phrases of incredulity are “yeah right” and “that will not happen in real life”, which makes me a pain to be around if we are watching a romantic comedy together. But it doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy them in small doses. It just means that I take it all with a grain of salt. I enjoy brief moments of fantasy but I don’t let it fool me into thinking happy endings are the norm rather than the exception.
I dream and fantasise like everyone does but I don’t over-indulge in it. I treat them as brief escapes. Even when I’m on the cusp of something truly wonderful, I’d hold myself back least it doesn’t become true. Even when I’m truly happy I will be the first to remind myself that it may all be temporary. And therein lies the secret to my madness: because I know it’s temporary and hard to come by, I will make sure that I enjoy every good moment that comes my way.
And because I’m pessimistic about my own happiness, I choose to be happy about the simplest things in life. Makes sense now right?
I read this last week and I thought it too good not to share. Check it …
He is a Sneaky Nice Guy Lover, the kind who lets you cry on your shoulder, then cops a feel. He will listen to you whine about your mean ex-boyfriend and say you deserve someone better, someone who will respect you—someone like him.
Read the rest of the article for some truly spot on analysis about how some guys operate. You all know how I feel about waiting for that girl who isn’t available – I don’t. Which is why I will never be a sneaky nice guy lover who will let you bitch and moan freely about the bad boy whom you would return to again and again, in the hope that eventually you will see through him and then come running back to me.
Hah, the strategising would just take too much time and effort, and I don’t have the patience for it. And if I want to cop a feel, I’d just do it without the pretense of being caring and understanding.
Although, as sleazy and sneaky as SNGLs are, they exists because there are women who enjoy having such a guy around to patch them up emotionally from time to time. It’s a symbiotic relationship like that of a parasite and its host.
And as the article sums up quite nicely, the kind of girl who only likes you when she’s needy emotionally may not be the best kind of girl to be with. And SNGLs should stop being sneaky and just go for girls with less baggage – it’s probably much easier.
The weather forecast was for rain and thunderstorms in the evening – no big deal. But what hit us was something way more than that. It’s like someone unzipped a bag of water over Perth and then did it continuously over 3 hours. And then decided to throw some ice cubes into the mix. And just for kicks, decided to turn on the fan also so the ice and water will fly sideways. Fun times.
It was one hour before my knock off time when I heard the distinctive sounds of hail. The lightning shot across the skies outside my window and water was gushing down the sides of it. When it was time to leave for home, I was watching all of this from the lobby of my office building, contemplating should I make a run for it or not. In the end, I thought fuck it and ran. Woohoo!
The best way to describe it would be: it was like buckets of water being thrown at you because that’s how strong the water felt as it hit me. I couldn’t see more than 3 metres in front of me making things bloody dangerous. I remember being forced to stand by the side of the road with no shelter, and waiting to cross the road thinking, “Please please please, turn green!” As soon as I saw the green man flashing, I bolted across the road to the bus stop and saw other people who were wet and miserable like I was. By now, I was completely drenched.
I got onto the bus bound for the train station, standing all the time and dripping water. As the bus stopped near the train station, I bolted again. The rain has lessened by now but the wind was still going strong.
Esplanade station was very crowded by now. As I stood there squeezing the water from my clothes, shivering and air-drying myself and my iPhone (yay! it survived!), the crowd got larger and larger. I was there for about half an hour watching the signs trying to tell us when the next train might arrive but in the end, that got turned off. I think they gave up too. Hah.
After about another 10 minutes, I decided to go try my luck at the bus station. Looking back down at the crowd as I was leaving, this was what I saw.
When I got up to the top, I can see the security guards stopping people from getting down there because the platform was way over-crowded.
Things weren’t much better at the bus station – the power was out and only essential lights were turned on. They turned off the electronic signs here too.
The stair wells were dark like this and the escalators were not moving.
Down at the platforms, people were trying to cram into buses that came few and far in between.
I was trying to get onto this bus but check out how many people crammed into it. Can you see the people up against the front door?
I decided that this wasn’t much better and started walking back to the train station to just wait it out there. And yay, it looked like the people there crammed into the last train too because there weren’t many people on the platform and when the next train came in a few minutes it was mostly empty. Joy.
You can almost see the cars outside the train on the dark freeway, jammed almost all the way.
Anyways, by the time I took another bus from my local train station back to my neighbourhood it was about 7:30pm – two and a half hours after I had finished work. The whole area was pitch dark except for the lights of the cars on the road. The power was out.
The family thawed some bread from the freezer and had some cold canned food with it. The blackout was to last till 1pm today. I was hoping that the power would be out at my office this morning too but no such luck. Hahah!
So yeah, last night? It was the biggest storm to have hit Perth in 15 years and I think it was worse than the last one. But what an adventure getting home.
And see what a difference a day makes! This was taken today around 6pm. Luckily for us, the follow-up storm that was forecasted for today never happened.
Footnote: friends from Singapore who were staying in some apartments on Mounts Bay Road had to be evacuated with others to the Perth Exhibition Centre due to the big landslide. My friend’s mom even made it onto the local TV news saying the immortal words, “It was shocking!” Yeah it sure was.
Was talking to an old friend and ex-colleague of mine about his 6 year old daughter …
Me: She’s very pretty. Him: *sigh* She’s only in pre-school and she thinks she has boyfriends already. Me: Hahah! You think you’ve got problems now, wait till she goes through puberty. Him: You have to say that, didn’t you? Can’t you let me eat my lunch in peace? Now I’m totally stressed out. Me: Hahah. Sorry man.
Getting all jealous when your crush talks to someone of your gender … even when they are old like your grandpa.
Scratching your butt when you pee.
Walking the long way just so you can walk behind that hot chick just a little bit longer.
Looking down at your food and chewing really slowly because you see someone that you don’t want to talk to walking towards you.
Thinking your dog smells fine when everyone else doesn’t.
Shazaming songs and if that doesn’t work, googling the lyrics.
Putting on earphones when you have to do a #2 in a public toilet so that you don’t have to listen to the embarrassing noises and worry about how loud and echo-y the place is.
That fake lemon smell in car fresheners.
Silently mouthing the words to WTF. You just did it, didn’t you?
Giving the finger to the computer. With both hands. And moving them up and down.
Cracking your fingers three times because twice just isn’t satisfying enough.
Making that stupid face when you’re trimming your nose hair.
If it smells ok, you can still wear it.
If it’s yellow, let it mellow. I’m helping save water, assholes!
Staring at your own blog, thinking how great it is.
As I was mucking around on the computer the other day, my mother walked up behind me and said rather matter-of-factly, “hmm, there’s a hole here” whilst poking down on the top of my head. Noooooo!
“I said it wasn’t that big but there’s a spot there. On the good side, your hair is very dark. I don’t see any grey at all. My hair started to grey when I was in my late 20s. You are taking after your father then. His hair is still very dark.”
“Yeah but he’s bald. When did he start balding?”
“Hmm, in his mid 30s?”
“…. I’m in my mid 30s, mom.”
“Well then …”
Heh. So I know my hairline is very high up, and it looks like it’s receding but it’s been like that for a while. Given a choice between a hairline that is creeping up and a bald spot developing on the top of my head, I’d rather have a receding hairline because then I can look like Agent Smith …
But that’s probably not gonna happen and I’m probably gonna lose hair in 2 directions. I hope I have a good looking skull.
Then a topless photo of her when she was 19 surfaced in the news, courtesy of Brendan Fevola, the married football player she was involved with at the time.
So in the midst of all this, Michael Clarke decided to leave the Australian cricket team which was due to play in New Zealand and flew back to Australia to deal with it. The engagement is now off.
And here’s why he’s a dope. By up and leaving the Australian cricket team in a lurch, he’s basically shown to team management that he cannot be counted on to place the team as his top priority. He can kiss being captain of the team goodbye. Not to say that one should always place one’s career above family and relationships but it doesn’t exactly place confidence in his ability to focus on what he’s being paid a tremendous amount of money for.
So he’s jeapordised his career advancement for a woman whose problems are mostly brought on by herself. If it was an unfortunate accident or a family crisis which demanded that Michael be by Lara’s side then I’m sure most of us and Cricket Australia will understand. But this? Not so much. She’s a big distraction to him and the team.
If the Tiger Woods story did not hammer it down already, the fact is that as long as there’s rich and powerful men, there will always be women like Lara Bingle. If Michael Clarke likes the blonde leggy types, I’m sure there are a lot of them willing to throw themselves at him. Love? Please.
But the one thing that Michael Clarke is not a dope at is with protecting his assets. Although he’s bought her a $200,000 engagement ring and a $250,000 Aston Martin amongst other expensive gifts, his properties and financial assets are all in his own name.
