So I recently bought a set meal from the Korea Food Company instead of just the bibimbap like my first order there, and what I found really surprised me.
The kimchi was fantastic, far better than those I usually find in Korean restaurants in Seoul! The spring onion in it really made a huge difference. Next time, I'm ordering the other kimchis in their menu, like the radish kimchi, and when I go to NZ at the end of the year, I will bring a jar of this kimchi over since my uncle likes it.
$11 for a 1kg jar? Worth it.
The bibimbap was split over three meals although it was meant for 5-6 people, and it made me gain 4kgs temporarily. The japchae, which appeared to be glass noodles with vegetables, was awesome because of the sesame seed oil and sesame seeds. Finally, the chilli anchovies were a nice snack.
Now what shall I do with the steel chopsticks?
28th March 2014
Initially planned to chill at home this fine Friday evening and watch GSL on the new Twitch channel, maybe play The Last Remnant that I had just bought on Steam, but some chiobu asked me out for movie, got to give face.
Ok, that was an exaggeration. She's good-looking but not to the point of being a "chiobu", and there are a few others in the group. It was funny how she phrased it: "a select few". This made it sound so exclusive, as if there were some special criteria we had to fulfil before she would invite us.
TBH I have no idea why I was invited since I've only met her once and after that, I didn't go beyond asking her about the disappearance of a photo she uploaded for the last outing. Maybe I'm just too new to this; maybe this is supposed to be normal.
But there is nothing on my schedule tonight, so it's fine. There is a slight problem though - no pants! I'll have to wear the pair of old jeans again. Sucks to have just a single pair of dress pants. Can't wait till three other pairs are done next week.
Worried about my waistline now. Although my weight has remained below 90kg so far, I've been eating more stuff recently. Tried to offset this by having just a protein shake to replace meals (even though they aren't meal replacements) and it may have worked so far.
Bought a jar of meal replacement thing from iHerb though. Hopefully it will last longer than the two hours this protein shake gives.
Speaking of my fitness, I've finally managed to do one set of 10 reps of lateral raises using 5kg weights without stopping!
Woot!
Whoever thinks it's a waste of time to do just 3 sets of 10 of weights everyday needs to rethink this. It works, just slowly.
29th March 2014
So it seems I still lack experience when interacting with friendly people - I wasn't the only person she invited whom she's only met once.
The Japanese event was a little awkward. The entire place was filled with Japanese people and apparently, our meetup group didn't sit together, so everyone around me was speaking Japanese. Still, it was interesting. Tried to talk to them a little but they all knew each other so it was hard to join in their conversations, especially since they all spoke Japanese to each other.
Heirloom vegetables, as they call it. They really were species of vegetables they used to grow but are no longer as valuable as the more conventional species we eat today. It's more of an economic and social change, as farmers find that other species created by agricultural companies yielded bigger harvests, tastier produce or just better-looking ones.
Urban-dwellers don't have the expertise to tell whether an uglier-looking fruit can be sweeter, so the appearance is important.
This event is meant to increase awareness for these crops, especially since plenty of them have really gone extinct already. I thought this was just pure nostalgia to be honest, because if they really are as tasty as they say, they would be valuable enough to be grown by more farmers. The fact is that they just aren't worth the time and effort to grow.
Sorry if this offends any farmers or Japanese people, but I just feel that this is the undeniable truth.
Natural selection.
The singles event tonight was much bigger and a lot more interesting. While playing the icebreaking game, a group of ladies old enough to be my mother told me to forget the game - they could just give me their numbers directly.
I was like, ok, go ahead. Not sure why, especially since I do not plan to call them. But somehow it was funny when another girl gave me her number on the same piece of paper and got surprised by how "popular" I was.
Anyway, two girls out of the 20-plus there gave me their numbers and promised to call me. Not sure if this is good or bad, but this will be my benchmark. Probably bad, but we've all got to start somewhere.
One of them was probably way older than me, had a horrible job and liked to run (not sure why she thought we click), while the other looked close to my age and appeared more interesting. For the former, I felt more sympathy than interest.
Maybe I should go for more of these events, just to thicken my skin. It took a bit of guts to talk to every girl there, even though I ended up only remembering the names of three girls. Everyone else on the paper, I don't remember anymore.
Another thing I noticed is that my job does turn heads. If I just introduce myself, some of the girls appeared completely uninterested and would just turn away once we were done with the icebreaking game. But when I talked about what I do, at least one girl turned her head and decided to join our conversation instead.
Those steel chopsticks were surprisingly light! Must be hollow, unlike the ones I always use in Korea. Nice!
30th March 2014
Chatted with one of the girls who promised to call me. Turned out to be trying to promote something. All she wanted to talk about was that, and when I told her directly that I was not interested in it, she just ended it with "Good night"... at 8pm.
Now I move on to the last girl I'm going to talk to whom I've met last evening.
31st March 2014
We could've had it AAAAAALLLLLLLL!!!
Looking back, I have no idea what I'm doing specifically. The general direction is still there but the details are lost in the mess. I'm just going with the flow. My flow.
It's been exciting and the flow does not look like it will be ebbing anytime soon.
Approaching and chatting with one of the hottest girls that evening while being completely sober was another new thing I've never done before. New step? New milestone? Waste of time? All of the above?
Heck, I'm moving on anyway. Next step: finding someone who can click with me (and is still single and is not overly-mature).
01 April 2014
Mixing normal crappy kimchi with the nice kimchi doesn't work :(
Got to see if the Korean shops nearby sell this kimchi with spring onions, otherwise I'm going to have to keep buying from them.
Or, I'm going to have to make it myself. Could be fun! I'm a little tired of those cheap ones I find in supermarkets that are sometimes more sour than usual because it was either not stored properly or have been out for too long. Still edible, just not as pleasant. Apparently, some people do like their kimchi more sour, so they just place it outside the fridge for a couple of hours.
Mixed day. Today I spent the day watch the guys from the town council carry some old furniture out because my bro's getting some new ones over. Like a sofa. Haven't had a sofa in years!
Needed one because the relatives of his wife will be coming to visit during festivals.
Wonder what's going to happen if I get married too. Going to be interesting.
Rearranged my room too, after removing the shittier wardrobe, leaving me with my parent's one which is way sturdier despite its age. Dusty too, lots of dustballs were revealed when I shifted it.
Now my room is a lot roomier. Now for the rest of the house.
That was really tiring but turned out to be good exercise because my aim really improved tonight in NS2.
And the two girls I'm still chatting with seem to be warming up to me. Blatant flattery really seems to work, but I will need more evidence to make a solid conclusion. My words were sincere, but the old me would never have said such things to girls I barely know.
So I really did make less than last year, as expected. But only by a few thousands, so I made more than expected. It's actually good news from my perspective. This year, I'm sure it will be better.
02 April 2014
Joined the Marco Polo Club. Doesn't sound too hard to fulfil the minimum requirements for automatic renewal annually. They require 4 trips every 12 months, and I'm already flying at least twice a year just for work at the end of the year. Adding another 2 isn't hard, especially since I plan to skydive this year, making it 3 trips. Next Chinese New Year, I'm going to fly to Hong Kong, so that's 4. Easy.
So my new portable routers arrived and I discovered that they don't support HSDPA, while my 3G USB dongle uses that.
/facepalm.
Still no 3G then.
Clutches that can fit my iPad are so hard to find in retail stores here!
04 April 2014
So I somehow sat close to that desperate girl I met previously after the movie last night, and she turned out to be so obnoxious!
There was a Swedish guy next to me, and she went straight to admitting that she's one of the "10% of Singapore girls who like white guys only", before moving on to "What do you think about local guys?"
That was a weird question, a hilariously weird one.
He ended up saying we were friendly, to which she replied," What? Really? Like him?" while pointing to me. I was like "WHAT?"
Wow! No wonder she's single and desperate at 30. Not desperate enough to be nice though. And I thought I was insensitive!
Am I not friendly?!?
Noah was boring at some parts. Draggy. Not my kind of film.
The clutch has arrived and it's big enough for A4-size papers. Wonder if I will like it. Will find out soon enough. Came with a cardholder as a freebie which I'm using immediately.
So one of the girls I talked to at the singles event is really trying to ask me out now, but starting with group gatherings, or more specifically, a cycling event. Still wondering how much older she is than me, and what sort of girl she actually is. She doesn't say much, prone to single-syllable replies sometimes without elaborating like I used to. All I can tell is that she's warming up to me and she likes the flattery. Not sure about her overall.
The other girl, I like more at the moment. She's easier to talk to and ALWAYS replies whenever she can, frequently with long answers. She accepts the flattery quietly but clearly wants to begin as friends. A serious Christian too. The worst issue here is her schedule, because her job takes up a lot of her time, and she's got plenty of other people to go out with.
Seems that again, the harder a girl is, the more I like her. But too cold, like some others, and I feel like I'm wasting my time if I talk to them.
Or maybe I just like girls who actually talk with more than single-word replies.
One thing I've really noticed about myself is that I don't give a shit if a girl describes herself as "simple". People are never simple, and it does not matter to me at all whether they are that. What's so attractive about simple people? Aren't they boring?
It seems that the issue with my 3G stuff is not because of compatibility but the SIM card itself. Tried it in my old phone and it didn't work. I'm going to have to go down to one of the M1 customer service centres to replace it. Ugh.
Bought several shirts from Gilt. Despite spending almost S$500 there on four shirts and some tie bars, I don't really feel guilty though because my wardrobe is still going to be smaller than my bro's. Still planning to buy more from some local department store.
Also got a pair of jeans and a belt yesterday from Levi's using the Groupon voucher, so that I can return the pair I'm currently wearing to my bro. It's pretty worn and very comfy, so he really wants it back lol.
So now I have 3 pairs of jeans, a dark blue one that's still at the tailor, a somewhat faded one from Levi's and a black one from Density. The first two are classic straight fit, but the last is a low-rise slim fit. Don't really like low rise though, but I guess it's normal enough that I may wear it sometimes. I like its fabric the most, so that's the main reason for keeping it.
05 April 2014
So I went to M1 and realized that the SIM card was fine. Dang, need a new dongle.
Two things I've noticed about flattering girls:
1) When a girl says something nice about you, even if she's simply being polite, say that she's sweet. Remind her some time later, eg you have to go to work/exercise and couldn't continue chatting regardless of how sweet she was.
2) When she encourages you to do something, say that since a cute/pretty/hot/gorgeous girl is supporting you, you will definitely do it.
Simple rudimentary stuff I'm picking up from trials-and-error that seem to work. Got to be sincere though.
Went to Levi's and picked up the new pair of jeans and the brown belt. The jeans needed to be shortened. Now I have a belt that matches my suede shoes, but my suede shoes are being cleaned for a month. Oh well.
At least now I don't have to wear my bro's jeans anymore. May still want to get an even lighter pair though.
Also, I've confirmed that I really don't like low-rise jeans. Really. So I'm going to either donate it or trade it in.
Went to take a look at the T M Lewin store at Plaza Singapura too, and they're having a sale, so every shirt costs $100 or less. So going to buy them soon. Maybe 3, maybe 6. Not sure.
21 April 2014
Long time no blog!
First, the SIM card. It was ok. The issue was that when telco customers get the free USB dongle for the SIM card, its settings have been set by the telco to run straight away on the correct options. With the one I bought from some random Chinese online store, it took me a while to realize I had to set everything myself.
Now it works!
But the battery-cum-router was a disappointment - it lasted five hours, not ten as advertised.
Got a second clutch that looks better than the plain black ones. Too bad the magnet sucks, but I'm getting used to using one now.
T.M. Lewin shirts are too big. The fabric of their non-iron series is awesome but the cutting is too big for a big Asian guy like myself even when I chose only the slim fit shirts. On the other hand, Goldlion shirts are fantastic. From now on, I'm going for those brands instead. As for pants, Pierre Cardin and Goldlion do have very nice pants, so no worries. Cheap too, compared to the chinos I used to get from JShopper.
Flamenco was fun. Very hard too, needed quite a bit of concentration to coordinate all my limbs and maintain my posture at the same time. Somehow the instructore and the other guy attending the workshop kept telling me that I did very well throughout the 2-hour lesson even though I'm 100% sure I kept missing SO MANY STEPS all the time, with or without music. It's harder with music.
Anyway that particular class was on alegrias (a form of flamenco) so even the beats took some getting used to. It was a 12-beat rhythm instead of the 4, 8 or 16 beats we're all used to, and emphasis while clapping to them was on the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 10th and 12th beats.
The instructor was big on the techniques. Not only did she keep watching our posture, she made sure we did the stamping the correct way, which is NOT to stamp it with force but simply let go after lifting the foot.
Both were due to safety concerns. The posture made sure we didn't injure our back, just tire it; the stamping would kill our knees if we did it forcefully.
This, apparently, was different from most other instructors because they actually encouraged stamping hard. As for posture, they didn't care too much because girls tend to not find it good-looking - the correct posture does not involve sticking their butts out. Since girls like to look good while dancing, the instructors can't do much about it.
This instructor, on the other hand, is pretty new and had studied under one of the most prominent instructors in Spain, apparently a master of the castanets (an instrument played with certain styles of flamenco).
"I love National Geographic. The mating habits of mid-level government employees, totally captivating."
Best line ever.
23 April 2014
Looking back, I don't seem to be particularly good at talking to girls. During the most recent movie outings, one girl asked for my number (without doing anything with it) while another turned cold the day after we met even though we were getting along so well when we shared a cab home.
Result at this moment: just one girl still chatting with me, the attached one whom I've mentioned before.
Still going to try. As long as girls are asking for my number, it can't be going too badly :D
But seriously, I have no idea why the latter got so unresponsive. Next time we meet, I'll try that line I've used on another unresponsive girl before that got me a positive reaction, something about how it's hard to compete with the 20 other guys also trying to chat her up after that evening. The problem is that she rarely attends these events so this is going to be just something I'll keep in mind.
TBH I'd be surprised if she's still single. She's friendly, good-looking and nice enough to pay for my share of the taxi fare that evening (then refused to accept my payment afterwards). How can a girl like that still be single, unless there's a major catch somewhere?
Anyway, I'll be going for a chick flick this evening with 2 other guys... and 14 girls. Hopefully, things will go well tonight.
Also, managed to persuade another girl to go for the flamenco workshop this Sunday, but she's way older than me, so it's purely to support the instructor.
Maybe I'll even try the actual classes held by the instructor.
My Marco Polo card is here!!
Comes with two special classy baggage tags too!
Cool!
Green member now, which only gets me priority boarding in addition to these tags, but it's a start :D
24th April 2014
Tired for some reason. Managed to hit 88kg (lowest point so far) yesterday so I ate a lot last night.
Disappointing though because no one stayed for coffee after the movie, and I forgot to get the number of the only girl I was interested in. Oh well, next time then. As for today, it's going to be all guys, with just two ladies I have already known for several weeks. Brick Mansions, it's a guy movie.
Probably my favourite Skrillex music.
