Rant 1204 / My First Trip To Taipei Alone

30 Sept 2014




Booked 2 limo airport transfers for this Taiwan trip, but only on the SG side.

I get one free transfer for every hotel/flight charged to my Prestige card exceeding $500, up to 4 per year.

Since I won't be needing any till the NZ trip in Dec, they might as well get used up asap. Right now, I'll probably only use up three.

Wonder what sort of car they use for this.

The trip to the airport is an overkill since I'm going during off-peak hours and cabs will be easy to find, but the trip back home will be totally worth it since there's the airport surcharge and the peak hour surcharge. Overall, I'll be saving about $50-60 on cab fares.

But the best news I'm getting is that they just made a change to the Priority Pass airport lounge access - it's now unlimited instead of just 4 per year, but only for the primary cardholder. Although the supplementary card is free, it doesn't get this perk.

I think this also means no guests :(

But I won't be needing this access in SG before flying to Taipei. Not sure about the way back, but it's possible to try out the one at Taoyuan, depending on my schedule.

It's great that this isn't linked to Citigold, but the Prestige card, since I don't plan to remain as a Citigold member for very long.


























08 Oct 2014

Ok this trip to Taiwan was a lot more interesting than most of the other trips I've been on in recent years, hence it's worth the effort to record it here.

It began with the free limo ride from home. The taxi driver sent me a SMS to inform me that he's already downstairs and I went down. It's like taking a Mercedes taxi except all I need to do is sign a form at the end of the journey.

Arriving a little early, I decided to try using my Priority Pass card from Citibank to check out the airport lounges here. Note that there seem to be at least two tiers of lounges at Changi Airport, the first being the premier lounges located separately hosted by organizations like DBS Treasures, and the second being lounges like this Ambassador Transit Lounge I visited.

The sticker that works as the entry pass

Free flow buffet and drinks but they were not impressive. Main thing seems to be that the lounge was awesomely quiet - great for napping in.

The view at the outdoor area wasn't that great, although it was the same view as the Skygarden. In fact, the outdoor area was just a fenced-off section of one end of the Skygarden.

Exchange rate at Taoyuan airport was better than that found at Changi.

Astar Hotel at Zhongshan. Not too bad for a boutique hotel, enough for 3 stars even though boutique hotels technically have no stars. Old though, hence the low rate of about S$80 per night despite the location. Speaking of location, Zhongshan is apparently known for its sleazy bars and KTV lounges. Didn't know that until a tour guide mentioned it. In Taiwan, if a bar/KTV lounge has a Japanese name, it's probably sleazy because the Japanese like to indulge in that sort of thing after a hard day's work.

This may be the only time when I didn't make full use of the tub. In fact I only soaked in it twice in the 7 days I was there, mainly because the lighting and decoration made the water seem yellowish and I couldn't tell if it was actually really yellowish.

My first 卤肉饭 (braised pork rice) in Taiwan. It was awesome!

粉肠汤 (small intestines soup)

And that was my dinner.

 

And that was breakfast. A simple stir-fried cabbage, a braised egg and a bowl of fish-and-cockles porridge.

 A temple near the wholesale market I visited.

Another nearby temple which was also near the Raohe Night Market, and this one was way bigger.

Don't ask me why...

Taiwanese temples are pretty modern these days.

An art installation nearby.

Third cup of bubble tea for the day and it wasn't even 4pm yet.

肉圆 (meatball, Taiwanese style)

A squirrel! Spotted while resting on a bench in the park.

Beef cubes at the night market. This is the teriyaki flavour - just the same beef cubes with teriyaki sauce.

鲜肉包 (meat bun)

Beancurd dessert

卤味 (braised... everything)

 炸牛奶 (fried milk)

Also bought the braised stuff back because it wasn't very comfortable to eat there.

And some fried crabs. 200NTD for this. Not too bad.

And some fried prawns. Also 200NTD.

 4th day. Went to take a half-day tour and it began with a gondola ride to Maokong, and we took the Crystal Cabin which had a transparent floor. Very long queue for this even though it costs more than regular cabins which also had no queue.

 View from the station.

 Long queue for Crystal Cabins.

 Transparent floor

 Every station had this map.

 Temples everywhere!

 Tea plantations everywhere since this area was known for tea cultivation.

 Street food at Maokong station but it was full of tourists. Instead we went straight to the next stop.

The tea promotion institute

 Free tieguanyin

Free pastries from the tour agency

The tea bible.

Different types of tea

A tea flower. Eventually it will bear fruit and produce seeds that are used to make tea oil.

A nearby street with lots of food stalls, it's supposed to be pretty old and is known for its fermented beancurd, although another thing I feel is unique is the tea-related food like the pastries made with tea seeds.

Pastries made with tea seeds.

油饭, some sort of glutinous rice with mushrooms and meat sauce.

Grilled chicken butts. Literally tastes like ass. And ass tastes good.

Fermented beancurd.

Lunch. This place is almost impossible to get to without a car. We did see one cyclist on our way back though.

Those noodles are handmade and residents nearby do come over to buy some, as a few did during our meal there.

Boiling the noodles for us.

Original plain noodles and green-tea-flavoured noodles, mixed with tea oil. Very nice. Unfortunately a little plain or we would have eaten more. No side dishes available.

Our noodles normally costs 50NTD per pax.

How they make their noodles.

More tea plantations. Apparently you should see a hammerhead shark in the middle of the oxbow lake and a dolphin to the right.

Malt sugar!

They also make 腐乳 (another kind of fermented beancurd), fermented soy beans and soy sauce.

Here they prepare the glutinous rice for the malt sugar.

Original flavour.

Special flavour, made with these three ingredients in addition to the malt sugar.

How it's made.

They also sell biscuits made from the beans but those received the least amount of attention.

A closer shot of the rice.

The sprouts used for the malt sugar. They are grown indoor to keep them from growing green, since green sprouts turn the mix bitter.

卤肉饭便当加猪脚 (braised meat lunch set with an additional side of braised pig trotters)

Plus an additional side of braised large intestines. And that was dinner.

 Sun Yet Sen Memorial Hall

 Dance groups practising outside.

 Meat roll

 Chinese chives bun

 Meat bun (again)

 Mushroom and pork porridge, small size.

 Fried squid, pretty good.

 A local market

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. I'm surprised a guy like him has a bigger hall than Sun Yat Sen, but then again, Sun Yat Sen didn't choose his.

 His MRT station even has that.

Pig's blood soup! Was at a night market tour where I met my tour guide who was kinda cute and extremely friendly. Even took photos of me posing with other food with her phone, but I'm not posting those here.

Small sausage wrapped in big sausage.

 It's a meat sausage in an even bigger rice sausage.

Braised duck head, duck neck, 甜不辣.

Found the Confucius Temple.

 But first, breakfast.

 Back to the temple.

 Cute lol.

 I like the concept but we won't be seeing them anytime soon in Singapore.

 Peanut ice cream. She shaved the peanut candy and put it on some crushed peanuts and ice cream.

 Taipei 101

Long queue for the tickets.

 The other half of the ticket queue.

 The queue for the elevator.

 Taiwan beer, just trying out of curiosity.

Ordered a personal name seal here the following morning.

 That's his namecard. 1600NTD for this, might have been a little too much, but it seemed good.

Took the MRT to Danshui (Tamsui) because the girl who was my tour guide at the night market the other night offered to bring me around in this area.

That's Bali, just not the one in Indonesia.

This place was where the Japanese used to store their petroleum products and got bombed to smithereens by the Americans.

 A1 gei3. it looks interesting and is a giant dumpling containing rice vermicelli and some other stuff and covered in some kind of red sweet sauce.

 And that was dinner.

 The next morning, she got up early to bring me to have some beef noodles and since we were early, I decided to have this first.This chain is very popular, even on weekdays but we were so early the place was empty.

The beef noodles (with beef tendons). The ambience was bad though. If felt as though they were rushing everyone to eat quickly and go.

 Had one last braised pork rice at the airport lounge for free before leaving.

 Free limo ride from my credit card. Frickin awesome!

In the process of moving all the way down...

I literally just laid down for most of the journey home from the airport after exploring enough. And I didn't have to queue!

Too bad this airport transfer is only available for free four times a year.

Rant 1203 / Another Lesson Learnt. The Hard Way.

Just got the Prestige card and the Citigold status, and all the perks are so awesome.

1) Citigold Centres around the world are all lounges apparently, and I have free access to them. There should be free coffee but no wifi in SG.

2) Free one-way limo transfer for every $500 I spend on travel-related expenses, eg flight or hotel, but limited to four per year.

3) Free very basic travel insurance when I charge $500 for the same travel expenses.

4) Free ABTC (for access to the express "air-crew" lane through customs at 19 countries)

5) Lots of miles (1.4 miles per SGD local spend + 15% relationship bonus for first five years, 20% for next five years, 30% for 11th year onwards = 1.61, 1.68 and 1.82 miles per SGD local spend respectively)

6) Special Cathay Pacific rates (not that fantastic TBH)

7) Priority Pass giving me 4 free entries per year to airport lounges all over the world.









































This sucks. Really shouldn't hang out with any girl too often, regardless of whether I'm interested in her.

Learnt this the hard way. At least it wasn't too serious.

So I had a falling out with this girl I've been going with a lot. Purely platonic. She's still trying to get over her ex and I had no intention of going for a girl like her.

Stopped talking for a couple of days, but when I cooled down after 2 days, I noticed I was missing her. Ok, that wasn't too bad. Maybe I just miss having a companion who can hang out at weird hours during the day on weekdays.

But then I dreamt of her 2 nights in a row, and I don't dream about people.

Now I'm pretty sure I'm having some feelings for her, and told her rather brusquely to leave me alone when she tried to talk to me again. Of course I explained why and she agreed it was a good idea too. But she had to keep on talking and asking questions and doubting whether I'm handling it well, hence "brusquely".

Not surprisingly, she's blocked me again. Not sure if she's pissed or if she thinks she's doing me a favour (it actually didn't matter) but overall, this is inconsequential for the time being. The problem is that I'm wondering if I should cut off all contact with her, because we're still in one group chat on Whatsapp and she's kinda active in there.

I've already resigned from our mobile game that we were playing, but this last chat still reminds me of her. Moreover, I keep mentioning her in my conversations with others.

At least this is nowhere as bad as the last few girls I had some serious feelings for.

But shit, why does a girl like that have to be so sweet and smart? It really doesn't help that she's the sweetest girl I've ever met, albeit only when she's in her happy mood. And pretty. All the time.

Annoying annoying annoying. Even when this is over and we're back in contact again, if at all since she's blocked me again, I will not go out with her so often, nor with anyone else for that matter, unless I'm trying to date someone.

On the bright side, I'm back in contact with a girl I had made a mistake with earlier this year. She's attached now and we still don't have that much to talk about.

In addition, I'm back in contact with a few other guys and made a few new friends through online means. New method to replace my old one, since my old one wasn't working. The coming weekend is already full!

Rant 1202 / All Calm On The Surface.

In spite of everything here, I have accomplished nothing. This is what is constantly gnawing at me - that I will have done nothing of note by 30.

I talk about beginnings all the time, but whatever happened to all the good endings?

Is this impatience or is there something truly wrong here?

I simply cannot tell.





























Nice girls talking to me but I'm not sure. Will date but cannot be serious. Not easy.

Going to Taiwan and meeting some new people this time. Same with NZ. May encounter someone awesome. Who knows?

Must leave my options open and avoid tough decisions.

Rant 1201 / This Is Pretty Short Despite Taking So Long To Get Posted.

16 Aug 2014

So who are my international readers? The last post had 20 views the day it was posted (accurate as of 0030 Saturday +8GMT), yet the blog only had 10 views from Singapore.

The other 10 were most likely from Russia, US and UK. Strange to think that Russians would be interested to read about my life.

























25 Aug 2014

Going to Phuket with two ladies tomorrow. Sounds enviable but they're both not available and older than me. Hot though. One is engaged while the other is in a limbo state between freshly broke up and still attached. Long story.

Good tips from them nonetheless.

























01 Sept 2014

Talking to a lot of people now so the desire to blog is getting really tiny.

There was a funny incident with a sea gypsy boy in Phuket though. (Sea gypsies were nomads who travelled around in boats for the last millenia who only settled down on land around the Andaman Sea about a century ago, but even now they're still mostly fishermen and sailors.) When my guide learnt that they didn't like school, she asked in Thai if he knew how to fish. He said yes, so she asked if he could speak English.

And he replied," No, but can you fish?"

So cheeky lol!

Anyway the sea gypsies were an interesting people. Kinda like the kampong folks in Malaysia. They believe they originated from some part of Indonesia but lacking a written language, they can only make claims they will never be able to prove. However, they also speak Bahasa Melayu in addition to whichever language is spoken in the country their ancestors chose to settle in, so it's kinda confusing.

The guide also brought me to see the village chief who was a second-generation sea gypsy. His parents were some of the first sea gypsies to settle in Thailand, so he was one of the few remaining ones who still recall what their original boats looked like. Today, they all use boats with similar shapes but with motors, so no oars, no shelters and no sails.

In order to let his descendants know what he had seen in the past, he has become the only boat model maker in the village, and I actually bought one without haggling. 1000 baht, but it seems meaningful enough to be worth the price. Similar boat models in the airport were going at 2300 bahts, and those weren't lovingly carved and lacquered by the village chief of the largest sea gypsy village in Phuket.

So this 1000baht was definitely worth spending.

























04 Sept 2014

Back to 86kg again.

Seriously, I now believe it's because of the lack of exercise. This weight loss probably isn't due to the reduction of fats but that of muscular mass instead.

How else is it possible that I can lose weight despite eating so much in Phuket?



















The change in photo in my online profile took some time to work, but work it did.

Now I'm chatting with three girls simultaneously all of a sudden, in addition to the chats I already have with platonic friends.

Too bad I really don't want to go out with anyone from now till the coming Wednesday. Got to clear a huge backlog and a few appointments have already been made on top of that. Maybe just for one of them, I may make an exception. She's kinda unique in that she's also into extreme sports and yet geeky.






















So now it's settled - I'm like the younger brother she never had. Part of me likes her, but the rest of me (mainly my brain) knows it's a ridiculously bad idea to try to go any further. She's hot, thoughtful and smart, but she also comes with a humongous package of catches. On my end, I'm not smart, thoughtful nor experienced in (real) life. Liking her is just me, as a straight guy, being shallow.

So this is what it's like to have an elder sister.

Btw I'm not going to concede that I'm less experienced in all aspects of life, just reality. While chatting with a friend who's working in cybersecurity a few weeks ago, he actually asked me why I didn't go into his industry. Yes, I was flattered lol

I was just young, curious and playful. While my sister here went partying and drinking and getting into bad relationships, I was more interested in getting access into accounts, bypassing censors and finding out how software pirates work.

Just to be clear, I never went further than trying to be a script kiddie. Having almost no experience in programming, I couldn't have done anything more than use what others have made and put online. Moreover, my knowledge on social engineering is limited, not to mention outdated, since I've only read the books by Kevin Mitnick and a bit more online.

Then again, I bet a lot of the local uni grads going into that industry probably haven't read or done what I've done anyway until they've worked there for a while.
























Oh wow my new CC has SO MANY PERKS!

If I pay the full travel fares with the card, I automatically get free travel insurance! Holy crap!!

But I've got to clarify what "full travel fares" mean - does it simply refer to the airfares? Because if the price of the tour is included, then I won't get it for the NZ trip. Otherwise, I haven't booked my air tickets yet so I still have a chance!

Also, free golf games. No use for that but maybe I can find someone to play with me and teach me.

As for the renewal fees, I really don't see any reason why I shouldn't pay. Comes with 25k miles for the S$535 fee. Since the normal mileage rate is 1.4 miles per dollar spent, this rate for the renewal fee (46.7miles per dollar) is just awesome. With this card, I seriously don't get why some people are telling me that I should never pay the renewal fee for cards.


Another thing I noticed was how eager they were to get me the card. The biggest hint is this: they have yet to ask me for any document other than my IC. With the money I've deposited in the bank, they are clearly not giving a damn about how much I make - and I make about A LOT less than the $120k p.a. that they require for this card.

This is funny to me because my bro actually got rejected when he tried to apply some good cards with another bank. Really, money talks.

Rant 1200 / Too Far Gone.

14 July 2014





Finally, an ERB season finale I really like.























What does one do when a girl one doesn't really like in the gf sort of way expresses her liking for him?

My first time encountering this, discounting the ridiculous but mild harassment by another woman.

I know I should be nice, but to what extent?

My first time googling "how to reject a girl nicely".

She also told me her age in the text so I'll just pretend I didn't know she was this old until now, then go with the "we can still be friends" thing.

I already knew roughly how old she was when she told me how long it's been since she was in uni.



























22 July 2014 


Yes! Happy happy joy joy.

Another small step towards success!

Wanted to make the first date easier by asking her to join a group outing, but she wasn't interested in Hercules. Fortunately, she also told me the movies she WANTED to watch! Woot!

Let's see if I can get that first date with her.






















26 July 2014

It's been weird. First she gave me enough hints to confirm that she didn't want to watch movies with me, then when I tried to set up a meeting to pass her the facial masks I bought for her in Korea, she suggested watching a movie with me before enthusiastically agreeing to brunch too.

I don't even know what's going on now; girls are complicated. This is like a date that isn't a date, seriously. However I won't be paying for her since I'm not trying to pursue her anymore. Just going to be friends now and treat her mixed signals as just being very friendly, just like I do with another girl.

It's weird that I'm making good friends now with only girls.




















27 July 2014

So I realized that the above was just me overthinking this. Should just treat her like other friends.

Funny thing was that when I told another friend how I behaved today with her, that friend told me I should have apologized for not waiting for her before ordering and getting a seat.

Since I'm just treating her like other friends, that was not necessary. So what's this friend trying to tell me? That I should try to be more than just a friend.

It's not a date date; this is just two friends catching a movie and having a meal. Why should I bother with that sort of stuff?
























01 Aug 2014

So there was this niece of one of the ladies at a dinner outing I attended who had the most beautiful smile. She came with a guy whom she claimed was just her friend, but it looks more like he is her bf.

Had a hard time resisting the urge to focus on her but it got easier when her aunt invited everyone to an outing at a shooting range. Now that's a better opportunity to approach her.

Not sure if it's even a good idea or not though since she's still at the age where it's cool to wear more blings than Christmas trees.

No, this is just me being shallow.




















03 Aug 2014

So I've been seeing this girl almost everyday in the last week and it's all platonic. Not always 1-to-1 but mostly so.

This is so new to me. She's got the looks (really doesn't look her age) and the personality but too bad she's a little too old. Even if we ever date (which is impossible since her current bf is practically an angel), by the time I'm ready to get married, she'd probably be almost ready to deal with menopause. Moreover, she strongly believes in marrying for love, and there is none between us.

Nope. Just friends. She's a great friend, giving me a lot of good advice in many things. Not perfect, since she's a little naggy sometimes like a mother, but she's pointing me in the right direction so it's all good.























Come to think about it, I really am juggling a lot of things now. In addition to running this business, I'm also studying for the boating license, getting ready for a fashion-related course, studying for CFA level 1, reading certain finance papers/magazines, studying web design, and all the while going out to know more ladies.

In addition, foreign language courses are under consideration right now, while I've just started on a speed-reading course.

Speaking of which, learning speed-reading will be at the very top of my priority list from today onwards. Mastering this ability will make everything I'm juggling far easier.





































04 Aug 2014

Now I'm a third of the way through the speedreading online course. Now I need time to get used to some of the new techniques.




















06 Aug 2014

So I made a whole excel sheet to calculate which flights and times I should pick. Booked a Contiki tour package for NZ later this year and now I need a cheaper flight to compensate for the huge price tag.

This is going to be a little complicated.

The conclusion of my little research was that I can fly on Scootbiz to and from Australia, plus Jetstar economy between Australia and NZ, and still pay less than anything that can be found among full-service airlines.

Scootbiz for long haul! And it's still cheaper than full-service economy! Fuck yeah!

Yeah I thought about taking just one airline for the entire thing but Scoot doesn't fly to NZ while Jetstar's SG-AUS flights are more expensive than the aforementioned combination.

To add to the confusion, this flight plan includes transiting at different airports in Australia. From SG, I will be flying to Gold Coast before flying to Auckland. At the end, I will fly from Christchurch to Sydney then Singapore.

On the bright side, the flights to Auckland will both be direct flights, plus almost a whole day for me to explore the airport at Gold Coast, maybe even Gold Coast itself.

The end will be less comfortable though. The tour will end at 6pm but I will fly off only at 6am the next day to Sydney, then to SG almost 6 hours later. Deducting 2 hours for check-in, that's 4 hours to explore the airport.



















11 Aug 2014

Apparently I missed Scoot's National Day sale since I wasn't in their mailing list. Oh well.

























15 Aug 2014

Failed the theory test for the boating license. I can fail exams.













No potential target at all. Realized that I've always had a distorted view of romantic relationships, that they can be started from nothing. Like if I like a girl, I can try to woo/date her and get a gf.

It does not work that way.

Yet I have also discovered that this view is rather common among the less sociable guys.

What a tragedy.

The fact is that we all have to start from friendship; this is the norm.

Relationships that began in school were different because as schoolmates and classmates, we can observe one another much more easily without being close friends. Outside of school, there are few of such opportunities.

So now, I'm not going to bother targeting specific girls. Just going to try and know more, then see where it goes.



















The tour to NZ will be covering Christmas and New Year's Day so the trip is going to be fantastic. Not cheap though, at 3k USD just for the tour, excluding flight tickets and the more exciting optional activities like skydiving.

I estimate that the whole thing will cost me around S$7-9k. $3.6k for the tour, $1.7k for the flights and at least $2k for food and drinks during the free nights and optional activities.























My bro decided to get an air-conditioner for the living room and a bi-fold door to separate the two living rooms to keep the cool air within one.

In addition, we're adding curtains to all the windows, so total is S$6k. Since his wife is pretty much officially living here, I'm paying only a third.




















Still going out for food a lot with this female friend. I need to watch my weight. First time finding someone whom I can talk to for so long, although it's mainly her.

Wonder if I can ever find a gf like her. Her bf is so lucky but I wonder if he really understands that.
























After comparing various cards and asking for advice from multiple sources, I've decided to sign up for Citigold for the Prestige card, if I can qualify. Technically I don't have enough annual income but there is the chance that they may change their minds when I deposit the minimum amount to qualify for Citigold.

The Citibank Prestige CC seems to have one of the best mileage for expenditure (1.4miles per $1 local spend) and has rebates for groceries too, so I like it more than others.

With this card, why do I need another card for normal spending? People seem to like to have one for miles and one for normal stuff but this card is good enough for both purposes.

Meanwhile, the shallower part of me wonders if I'll get a hot RM to talk to me about their products.

Rant 1199 / There Is Such A Thing As Too Much Balls.

07 July 2014

Ok, finally one legit success!

For once, I managed to ask a girl for her number IRL directly and not at a singles event. Oh yeah!

Cute but... she's a 3rd year uni student. I'm going younger and younger, not sure if this is even a good idea.

Regardless, YOLO!

New option if it turns out that I should move on. The current one, I'm going to wait till she returns to SG this month and try out a date or two. That's it.




















08 July 2014

So the fresh grad is turning out to be pretty rich. After all the hiding, she finally blurted out that her family has a maid before revealing that both her parents are bosses of their own companies. And now she's going to work in a bank.

This may get intimidating.

On the other hand, I'm not sure if we really click. She said she's chatty but these days, she rarely checks her phone. To me, that's a strong sign of a lack of interest in talking to me.


















Turns out that undergrad was a transguy, as in born female but pretty much male in all ways except physically. The only way I can date him is if I'm gay, since he's definitely going for treatment in the future.

Had an interesting chat though; they're so different from lesbians.

Tough life.

Ok, I am a little disappointed too - he was pretty interesting to talk to.























09 July 2014

Since the girl seems to be uninterested, time to continue to meet more girls.

Abandoning the use of Meetup.com as my main method but will still attend some. It's not bad, just not good enough. Too many older ladies, too few younger.

A rethink of my strategy is clearly required.

Discovered several options: volunteer work, foreign language course, clubbing, attending Diner en Blanc next year.

Removing clubbing from the list because despite what some clubber friends said, everything points to the fact that clubs are bad places to look for steads.

Volunteer work is a maybe because it is frowned upon, apparently, unless it's stated as a singles event.

Diner en Blanc is next year.

Remaining best possible option: attend a foreign language course.



Although it sucks that I've to do this all over again, I'm not exactly back to square one after all these months. Certainly, lessons have been learnt and friends were made who will make life easier for me in the future.























10 July 2014

Time to make a move. She's finally back in SG!


























11 July 2014

Thought she had blocked me yesterday when her "Last seen" status vanished after arriving in SG. Apologized at midnight about being busy so I'm just too sensitive.

Anyway, asking her out is going to be hard. Both of us are busy. Possible though.

I think something's wrong with the Whatsapp app. Maybe it's a sign that I should be using the new Lenovo phone I got a while back as my main phone.






















12 July 2014

So I can't ask her out because her mum's going to stay till next week. Her parents are very protective of their only daughter so I should worry about them.

















Interesting lesson last night. There were a number of hot girls but my cousin had advised a while back that in each gathering, a guy can only ask for the number of one girl, so I picked one... and I failed.

Just couldn't get the right opportunity except for that one short sliver of a moment when we said bye, during which I just couldn't muster the courage to do it in front of everyone.

Apparently, that was a good thing.

My dating coach advised that I cannot keep asking for numbers in every gathering, not without being subtle about it. Apparently, if word spreads, I will look like what they call a "tryer", not to mention insincere.

In contrast, another guy there said it was perfectly ok when I mentioned this advice to him on the train home. Then again, he's a few years older and still single while my dating coach is a girl and in a steady relationship. Both used to be players. It's obvious here who's words are worth more.

Tomorrow, I will be going for a dinner, but it will not be to get another number. Instead, it will be a practice session for interacting with the ladies, including the ones I will never be interested in.

In other words, no more numbers. I like this current one too much to risk it.




















It's crazy but the transguy just offered to introduce a nice girl to me. Not very good-looking but apparently she's good-natured and stuff. In a word, homely.

Nah, I'm already trying to date a better girl, and this new one is not attractive enough to worth risking that girl for.

It's worth noting because I've only known him for less than a week! Damn he's so nice!

Rant 1198 / I Like My Sugar With Coffee

04 June 2014


Low-hanging fruit. Going to ask the latest one out. Would ask the fresh grad out but she's still overseas on her grad trip, and we're running out of things to talk about since all she can think about is places to visit in China and I barely know any of those.

This one, I don't know. I'm concerned about her finances and that she's probably got ADHD.

Low-hanging fruit.






















Chinups somehow improving. Almost managed to kiss the ceiling above the bar today. Weight dropped from 92 to 88 again. Must have eaten way too much in the last few days.

I don't even know how it works. It's not like I'm exercising much. Just around 3-5 quasi-chinups a day.






















05 June 2015

It's true - I'm lonely. She's cute too.

Asked her out for a movie this weekend. Got a positive reply. Another milestone.

25 with a private diploma; I really am concerned about her ability to stand on her own, hence this does not look like it will be a long-term thing.





In the meantime, another girl is considering sharing my double bed room with me in Taiwan if she can't find any travel buddies.





As for the girl in China, we barely talk anymore because she's trying to explore almost the entire China before she starts her working life.






Yet another girl is asking me to go to Cambodia with her. This one is really all platonic since she's attached and there's at least one more guy with us. Sucks that she's attached, but not surprising at all. She's pretty awesome, though she seems pretty serious about Jesus. Religion is a downside for me.





And a failure. This Indonesian girl barely talks. I tried, she seemed interested since she always replied but her replies were so short I had nothing to respond with. With these many things bugging me, I'm not going to bother to talk to her till she warms up to me. It looks possible though.

























I just couldn't help but say,"The fuck...?"





















07 June 2014



























09 June 2014



So that's a date. We just sat around and chat a lot. Somehow I don't talk about movies I've just watched so we didn't discuss the one we watched much. I don't know, I just can't think of anything to say about the film usually, and it was no different this time.

And I don't know about this girl. She's nice and all but I will probably never let this become "serious".

Maybe there is some truth to the online quiz result saying I may have narcissistic personality disorder. Back when I first saw it, I immediately dismissed it when it said I lacked empathy.

The girl I dated the other day just told me her grandfather is in critical condition in a hospital and I feel... absolutely nothing.

No concern, no sympathy, nada - just another Monday evening.

I reacted as I was supposed to but inside me, nothing stirred.

This kinda worries me though, the lack of concern. Shouldn't I feel sad or worried?



















10 June 2014

Communication. Maybe that's the key.

I like her but I believe I should date more girls.

Choices. Two other girls I am interested in dating but cannot at the moment - do I wait or do I search for more? Not impossible to date though, just got to wait a bit more.

There's yet another girl who's been trying to talk to me and making me overthink. She's attached but whenever a girl initiates conversations with me more than once within a week, I just automatically think that there's more to it than simply the desire to chat with me.

Maybe I'm underestimating my conversational ability? Unlikely. Or maybe I just need to be less insecure.






























13 June 2014

Finished Lifeless Planet. Interesting game. It's so easy it's more of an interactive story than a game. Or maybe, the gameplay is meant to stretch it out to pace the story. Maybe.





















She's unable to come out this week due to the passing of a family member, and explicitly told me that she wasn't trying to avoid me. That implies that a second date is practically guaranteed.

But the other girl will be coming back to Singapore soon.



















Drinking Long Flat's 2012 Pink Moscato now. Pretty good for the price: $17.25 (U.P. $18.95). It's the sweet and gassy sort, yet not a fortified wine. Rose wine, whatever that is. Great for non-drinkers like me. Never saw the appeal of dry wines anyway.





















15th June 2014






























Nope nope nope.

I may be overthinking this but I'm feeling a little guilty right now. This girl is just too... girlish. Not that I'm particularly manly but just.. no.






















21 June 2014



Absolutely hilarious, the last scene.
























Spent a lot of time thinking about how to say it and neglected to text her since Monday. Finally texted her this morning and she seemed confused. Apparently it would have been better to just ignore her but I felt that she deserved an explanation. Unfortunately she didn't seem to understand me so that didn't go well, and I ended up taking her advise and ignoring her, which led her to block me.

Weird, it was only one date. I guess it was a good idea to do it so quickly. Who knows how she would have reacted if I had taken longer?






The fact that she blocked me showed that she was taking it quite badly. She must have been seriously insecure then, to fall for my newbie sweet talk to that degree. Guess I made the right choice to end it after just one date.



























23 June 2014

This energy! Been quite a while since I felt this energetic! But how to resist releasing it?





















27 June 2014

Planet Explorers is FANTASTIC! It's exactly the kind of game I've always been looking for! Lots of exploration, custom-building and quests! Holy crap!!!

Exploration: huge map even in the relatively small story mode. I've spent two days in the game and I've only covered 2 biomes, a forest and a grassland, and under the forest is a huge cavernous maze!

The building part is big too! In this game, building a car does not simply mean getting all the components and clicking on "Build". Instead, the player goes to the Creation menu and customizes a vehicle from scratch. The game only builds the seat, engine and wheels using the "Replicated" button but the player has to decide where to place these components and build the frame from scratch.

And you can probably build tanks that way too.

This is the same for watercrafts, aircrafts, structures and equipment.

To build a base, there are also sentry guns in addition to whatever structures you want to build (like watchtowers and fortified walls). Not sure if the sentry guns can be customized though.

Really recommend it for ppl who love to build and explore!
























This is weird. She must be the most sociable girl I know because she's just invited me for 3 events over 4 days.

I'm not doing anything here because she's attached. No sweetening of my words or anything.

They aren't the sort of dates that I may find inappropriate between a single guy and an attached girl since she's invited others too, except for the one on Monday.

Too bad I'm flying on Monday.

Can people really be that friendly and sweet?

I said sweet because she helped me with two things consecutively.

First, I helped her order some stuff and in exchange, I asked her to just give me a free movie ticket the next time she organizes an outing instead of paying cash. Hence she invited me for a movie on Saturday. The problem here was that it was the same movie I'd already signed up for with another guy for tonight, and I'd already cancelled my slot for the last outing he organized. It might be annoying for him to do it again and find someone to take my place.

When she realized that, she offered to talk to him for me since he owed her favours.

After that, she figured she had made my Friday night empty, so she invited me for another event tonight. Holy crap, a girl this sweet, I can't believe her time isn't fully booked by her bf. What is she doing alone on both Friday and Saturday nights?!







OR maybe I'm just going crazy from not fapping for so many days.





















28th June 2014

So it was just the two of us plus another girl as the others couldn't make it.





















06 July 2014

Should I be worried if I'm chatting with a girl I'm not trying to date far more often than with the one whom I am?

Maybe she's busy, or maybe it's time to move on; I'm inclined with the latter.

Time to rethink my strategy if this goes on. Perhaps I really should consider the new idea that girl I'm chatting a lot of with gave me.

Anyway she also gave me a crash course on nail polish shopping. I never noticed the sample nails until last week in Seoul when I provided personal shopping service for her while wandering the streets of Namdaemun. It was so what I kinda expected when it resulted in me standing around there for about 20mins or half an hour just to get a bottle of nail polish and a box of glitter.

Very amusing, and I'm not being sarcastic. She was SO fussy lol.

That girl I'm trying to date, she was much simpler, mainly because she had been spending her last week in Europe and had been able to buy plenty of cosmetic stuff over there, and partly because the only Korean brand she was interested in was quite out of the way for me. In the end, I only got her 60 masks. Cheap because Etude House was having a promotion and their latests masks were going for less than 5k wons (about 800KRW per SGD) per packet of 10. The normal price for most brands seems to be 10k wons per packet.

Kept saying she's not rich, but the more I chat with her, the wealthier she seems and the more worrying it's getting.

As for Seoul, the street food at Myeongdong seems to be changing. This year, there's ice cream in some kind of edible waffle tubes, meatballs, and roasted gingko nuts, among many others, not just fish cakes everywhere like the first time I was there.

Oh yes, jajangmyeun too, but DO NOT TRY. Stick with those sold in restaurants. The stuff they sell at the roadside stalls is terrible, and it's inconvenient to eat anyway.

Regardless, it's great because I can literally have a full meal just by walking around Myeongdong. Meatballs, Korean vermicelli, seaweed fishcakes, roasted nuts, and have at least two types of ice creams for dessert. Awesome!

Just not cheap LOL

Far cheaper to get a nice bowl of bibimbap for 4-6k each. Or visit the porridge shop just next to ibis Ambassador Myeongdong, the hotel I was staying at, for their nice porridge or dumpling soup. Still as awesome as ever but expensive as fuck. 10k wons for the seafood porridge! That's like S$8! However, to be fair, it's still pretty good value with the fresh ingredients and free flow squid kimchi (and radish and cabbage kimchi). Yes, I only go for the squid kimchi because that's the only place I know that serves it.
















Chinups somehow didn't get worse when I got back. Very slightly harder but still able to kiss the ceiling when I'm up, and I'm still able to start from a lower height, about 60 degrees below the horizontal.





















Planet Explorers is awesome but... I lost an important NPC!!! Ugh!

He's one of the NPCs that gave me a quest that was vital to the storyline, so now I'm stuck at this point with the only solution being to search a gigantic area to find him again.

I'm restarting this. There's no console command to make him pop up next to me like in Fallout or Skyrim.