3 rounds of drinks – $67

• 2 Jager Bombs
• 6 Johnny Walker and Cokes

Entry to Exotica – $15
Tipping money – $10
5-minute private lap dance with a Ukranian blonde and extra good service after – $50
Conversation with a total stranger about the qualities of Perth brothels and the etiquette involved – priceless
Total – $142

Was it worth it? Oooh yeah.

And tonight I’m going to Ministry of Sound Australia’s Hard NRG Tour 2006. Woohoo!

YC asked me to post photos up. So here they are!

Blue steel baby!

Last Friday, Wendy and I and a new acquiantance of 3 weeks, called Ben* went out for drinks and dinner. We had a couple of drinks over interesting conversation and everything was hunky dory at this stage. Then we headed to a nearby restaurant for dinner. As the conversation continued, we had no inkling about what was to happen. Wendy was saying something when Ben suddenly said to her in a serious tone,

Be careful.

I was bemused and so was Wendy:

Careful for what? What did I say?

Ben just continued on about “being careful”. I do not want to go into the details of the conversation but suffice to say it was of a personal nature. But what got me and Wendy bemused was that we were all sharing details of that particular topic so why the sudden sensitivity? Everyone of us was commenting about each other. Yes there was sarcasm but everyone was in on it.

It made everyone tense. Wendy was annoyed not knowing what had caused Ben’s reaction because Ben wasn’t forthcoming about it. I was on Wendy’s side but didn’t want to inflame the situation so I sought to quieten them down. This was towards the end of the meal so I quickly got up and settled the bill. I then hurried back to the table and said,

Alright, alright, let’s go for more drinks!

I took Wendy aside and asked her to just leave it: Ben was just being ultra-sensitive and hypocritical about it all. But she was offended for being chided for no obvious reason and wasn’t ready to give up. All the way back to the pub and while I was buying the drinks (yeah I know – I’m such a good friend! ), their little argument continued. It stewed and stewed even after that drink when to the relief of both Wendy and I, Ben said that he will catch a taxi home. After he left, Wendy said to me:

We are not going out with him again.

Heh.

Here’s my thoughts about it all:

• had Ben just said, “This is kinda sensitive for me and I don’t really want to talk about it,” we would have taken the hint and moved on to something else.

• as acquiantances, or even friends, sometimes we do not fully know what makes you tick and what doesn’t – we are not mind readers. Saying “be careful” and expecting us to know what for without any explanation is ludicrous.

• … because of the above reason, getting pissy about it all is a surefire way of losing friends and souring ppl’s impression of you.

I don’t like going out with ultra-sensitive ppl who can joke about other ppl but don’t like it when it’s the other way around. I don’t like ppl who’d get upset and not tell you why, and then get aggresive and argumentative because you don’t know why that they are upset.

Fuck! Life is too short so I will just keep the friends that are sensible and are happy to be around me. Everyone else who expect ppl to “respect their feelings” when they don’t reciprocate it can fuck off.

* not his real name but close enough

dantada @ morguefile
(found via EveryStockPhoto.com)

The weather is getting cooler, there’s gonna be more rain, and the days are getting shorter while the nights are getting longer. What does autumn mean to me personally?

• Occasionally waking up in the middle of the night with a cold and wet nose.
• Waking up at 7am, looking out the window and thinking it’s still 6am …
• … with the blanket over my face, wishing it *was* really still 6am.
• Taking a deep breath and planting my ass down on the toilet seat quickly. 1, 2, 3 … *sit* cold, Cold, COLD! *shiver shiver squirm shudder* Ahhh.
• Not having to water my mom’s precious roses daily. (the house that I’m living in now is where we used to live previously)
• Using Snoop as my footwarmer.
• Seeing him curling up more inside his little dog house – the one that sits there half of the year unused.
• Love to go out for my favourite Vietnamese and Malaysian soup-noodles even more. That is, if mom’s not making her laksa or prawn-mee.
• Hearing and feeling my Skyline spool up. All cars love cooler air, especially turbo cars. If I drive sensibly (umm, yeah) my fuel consumption will even drop.
• Going to clubs all wrapped up and then paying $2-$3 to use the cloakroom. If we are club-hopping, this could easily add up. Side note: it always amuses me to see girls looking all scantily clad and sexy but cold and shivering in the line. Ai swee mai mia.
• Less ogling of girls at The Cott’s beer garden – everyone is inside next to the heaters. Because we are not hiding behind sunglasses, it’s harder to *ahem* admire girls without looking like perverts.
• The increased “buzziness” of the alcohol due to the colder temperatures makes up for it. Trust me, it’s different.
• Oh, and last but not least – all the pretty leaves.

Technorati Tags: autumn

Taken at Dad’s birthday 2005

My parents are not the affectionate kind. Nor do they really talk much to each other. I mean really talk. Most of the times, it’s either to ask the other to do something or it’s an argument. It wasn’t always like this. I could still remember seeing my parents kiss each other before they leave for work each day. And also the conversations at the dinner table when my brother and I were little kids.

So what happened? I don’t know. The fact that they haven’t divorced yet is amazing enough. Sometimes their arguments would be so intense with the both of them yelling over each other’s voices, I’d get so frustrated and I’d swear at them to “fucking shut up!”

And it works. Heh. Purely because of the shock factor. Then they’d quieten down a bit and stew over it in their little corners of the house. Dad in front of the TV or computer, and mom in the kitchen.

I’d say that over the years, instead of appreciating each other more, they’d just learnt to tolerate each other more. Which obviously isn’t the best. And sometimes that tolerance has its limits.

Where’s the kids in this picture? Well my brother talks a lot with my mother because he’s working with her at the restaurant. After work though, he’s usually out and even when he’s in, he’s in front of the TV or computer – him and my father are quite alike! Even when dad and him are watching the same program, they don’t talk so much. Except maybe about the FA Cup and the English Premier League which they both love.

It is usually left to me to talk to them both, at the same time. The only common thing between my parents now is that they both watch the same TV shows: all the Law and Order and CSI shows, Desperate Housewives, Lost and Prison Break. Incidentally, those are my favourite shows too.

It’d be the three of us on the couch most weeknights when I go over for dinner. TV shows is the “glue”, while I faciliate the conversations. If it’s not about the shows, I’d tell them about my personal life and my friends, show them my blog and get their opinions on stuff. It is then that I’d truly see them converse and it gives me a little joy everytime that that happens.

So I’ve learnt to accept the fact that they probably won’t revert back to the way they were when they were newly weds or even when we were kids. Ppl change and that’s understandable. If it requires me to encourage conversation between the two of them, then I’m happy to do it.

There’s nothing better than to bring joy into another person’s life, even for brief moments at a time.

Yes I is boh-liao but Blinkymummy’s vids of her cats gave me inspiration for this. Afterall you all haven’t seen Snoop in motion before, so this is as good of an excuse as any. Riiiiight?

On the way to work this morning, I came across the holy trinity of bad driver stereotypes:

• Asian
• Woman
• Volvo

I only avoided slamming on my brakes because I anticipated what she was gonna do when she started drifting into my lane. She didn’t signal and I don’t think she even bothered to check her blind spot. So I was behind for a while and a few minutes later, she pulled the same shit again! The other car was almost side by side with hers and couldn’t get out of the way or slow down like I did.

When she realised this, she did a jerk-and-swerve and narrowly avoided driving into the other car.

I would cringe whenever I see bad Asian drivers on the road because I know it confirms the stereotype about us. Even worse when it’s a combination of ALL the stereotypes.