Men and the City

At some point in every girl's life, we meet guys, go out on a few dates and while some dates turn into serious relationships, most other dates give us a glimpse of different personalities (read: psychopaths). In order to help some of you girls out there who may have difficulties reading men, I will attempt to share my dating experience by classifying them into categories. Take note that these categories are non-exhaustive simply because each guy is unique in his own way and that there is no way I can cover the entire male population just by boxing them into certain types. However, here are some of the more common types that I've encountered so far:

Photo: REUTERS

1. The Player - lots of money and lots of women. This guy will call you at a specific time every day but you almost always could not get him when you call and he does all the calling because of only one reason-- he is using a secondary number to call you. He will only ask you out on certain days of the week all the time, much like your ice cream bar's 'flavor of the day'. And when you're out in public with him, he seems distracted and always checking out other people, afraid that someone might recognize him.

Girls, I cannot stress enough on how dangerous this guy is. He is the perfect recipe for heartbreak and disillusionment, so run towards the opposite direction, far far away from him. Run as fast as you can because his good looks and suave nature will be your downfall.

http://thedatingmarathon.blogspot.sg

2. The Booty Call - this one's less sly than The Player and he makes no attempt at hiding his real intentions, which is, duh, sex. Some, out of politeness will ask you how your day went, blah blah but his real question always goes along the lines of 'what are you doing tonight' at 9:30pm on a Sunday night. He is also MIA from your life except when he needs you.

The Booty Call guy can come in different shapes and sizes, he is not a bad guy, nor is he a good one. He just likes having fun and if you have the same expectations, then it is totally fine. But be careful not to get emotionally attached with this one because once guys have placed you in the 'bed zone', you will find it almost impossible to get to the 'serious relationship zone', if that is what you're looking for.

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3. Houdini - intense first date, followed by a second, third and fourth date. You are on cloud nine because you think that you've finally found someone whom you can connect with on all levels. Then he disappears into thin air without a word or warning.

Don't go looking for him because he will be untraceable. You will start to question yourself on why things have gone wrong and even blame yourself while you rewind every single thing that you could have said or done to make him disappear just like he did. Guess what? It's him, not you. A decent, mature guy will always give you closure even if he has to be the bad guy by doing so. Houdini is not even worth a second chance if he does return from the dead.

http://blogs.medindia.net

4. The Multiple Identity Disorder (MID) - one minute he's John and the next, he's Andy. This guy has serious identity issues and his mood can swing from ecstatic to depressed within a few minutes. Ultimately confused with his life and where you fit in, he may even be dating other girls behind your back and blame you and your lack of attention for him in order to justify his behavior. He is totally unpredictable, not to mention dangerous because his erratic mental condition is infectious.

Unless you want to spend the rest of your days in self pity or you are a really good shrink, avoid this guy at all cost. MID guys can even be a combination of The Player, The Booty Call and Houdini, or anyone else. You will never know what is up with this guy because he can change into anyone, really.

http://antoinebandele.blogspot.sg

5. The Keeper - as the name suggests, he is one for the books. The One. The perfect guy. His type is so elusive and hard to come by that they're almost mythical. But until you've found him, and the feeling goes both ways, keep dating. Not because you want to find him, but also because we all have to go through growing pains in life that shape us into better individuals.



Tata,
B

Bangkok: Where Street Food Beats Them All!

Been a loooooong time since I made an entry. For all 4 of us actually.

Since a good paddler friend of ours mentioned randomly today that she came across our blog, guess it was a sign to start this again :) So good job to me and B, and boo to Ilene and Gor.

Thinking about the million interesting things that happened over the past 6 months, and i guess one of them is Bangkok.

Went there twice in a month, one for work and the other one was for fun.

FOR WORK:

First trip ever since I joined my ad agency. Not too hectic, just an overnight thing to meet clients. But the awesome thing here is that I was able to meet up with my mom who was also there randomly for a vacation. :)

Hi Maaaaa!!!!! :)

We had 2.5 hours together - her friends dropped her off to my hotel, and we did an amazing race type of thing. Walked the whole street where Pan Pacific is and tried all the street food we found interesting.

Grilled bananas with sweet syrup

The most awesome Basmati rice ever! ate it as it is with just some thai sauce. chills...

Drinks by the street. Got iced coffee and mom got fresh lime juice.

Wasn't able to try this - don't even know what type of meat he is grilling but it 's huge!!!

Bought 6 pairs of shoes in 15min. Panic mode haha

After 1 hour of non-stop eating, we just saw a bazaar and shopped for a bit, then went back to my hotel. Mom had her usual random naps while I worked for a bit, then I had to say goodbye since I need to head off to another meeting. Bitter Sweet random meet up. But was very much thankful to see her even for a few hours :)


FOR FUN:

2nd random trip with Bernice and Ilene. We usually learn about long weekends just weeks before so again, another unplanned adventure with the girls. Our last Jakarta trip was all over the place so this time, we came prepared. Even made a PPT with all the places to visit, food to try and the best shopping places.

Mandatory group shot before the flight

Going back to our food trip, we all agree that the best Thai food we had was on the streets!!! Cheap, not sure if super clean, but man was it amazing!!! We were also very tired from walking and shopping and also hungry when we ate here - but really, these didn't affect our judgement at all!

Crepe thing with cotton candy thing (Bernice's recommendation); the most awesome sticky rice and mango; the most awesome phad thai I tried! Wasn't in our PPT to try this street stall, but I guess the best things happen by accident. :)

Ilene's quail eggs. Just interesting that they sell it sunny side up style there, but not something I would buy or eat. I just tried one, can't believe these 2 ladies ate more- getting a headache just talking about this. 

Other photos are in my camera, but too lazy to get from there.

We also visited Wine Republic, suggested by my boss. Awesome place. Very chill, good vibes, good music, nice crowd. Met Oliver there too. :)

In case you want to try it.

Cheers! Rose for all of us :)

Another interesting restaurant we visited is Cabbages and Condoms. Cool concept - Thai restaurant that promotes safe sex.

Thai Iced Tea - still don't love it as much as Ilene does.

Traditional Thai appetizer - very weird really. Some kind of leaf, where you have coconut, peanuts and other veggies inside. Taste grows on you though (I am only saying this because I suggested this dish and the 2 girls hated it haha) 

From top center: Red curry, Pandan Chicken, Black and white rice, and Phad Thai hidden in an egg wrapper. Not as awesome as the street ones we tried but was okay.

Got some condoms too of course. They don't have mints, so they give you this instead ;)

So much more to say about Bangkok. I had so much fun exploring this place especially with my bestest friends. Super crazy adventures, sometimes scary even. Good job girls. 'Til the next one :)

Volunteer Caps On: Part 1

Stuck at work on a rainy thursday evening. Since we haven't updated this recently, will kick-start the blogging mode again (ahem bernz Ilene and gor).

This Saturday, Ilene and I will volunteer at the Singapore zoo for the elephant parade. Not as grand as it sounds - no elephants will be walking parade style.

There are these elephant statues around Sg now with unique designs (elephant with zebra stripes, peacock feathered one, a devil elephant, angry birds themed one and much more). Think that will be up for auction and the money will be for a good cause. Assuming it's for elephant welfare.

Since we are fresh volunteers, we attended a training workshop last last week. Learned about so much stuff on elephants. But we already did our google research before that so Ilene and I know some stuff already.

Early morning training (9am Nov 12 2011)

Both of us won a prize during an ice-breaker game - an SG Zoo post-it haha

As volunteers, we will entertain the park guests and explain to them cool facts on elephants, inform them about how they are being threatened nowadays and how we can help.

We will also have some specimens with us like elephant molars (did you know they only have 4 molars at a time and will only have 6 sets in their lifetime??) sad thing is most elderly elephants die of starvation when they already lose all their molars :(

Molar of a baby elephant!

We will also show people their hair strand which is amazingly thick! Sample of their ear skin, and even their dung!!

Lots of stuff to learn and memorize. Hopefully this Saturday both of us will do a good job of being elephant ambassadors. *fingers crossed*

Random thing to share: there was an area near the auditorium we trained in where bats sleep. Very lucky they found their hiding place!

“But the most exciting, challenging and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself. And if you can find someone to love the you you love, well, that's just fabulous.” - Carrie Bradshaw

One of my favorite pastimes ever since moving to Singapore 2 years ago was to discover the city by myself. It was something that I forced myself to do because I simply dreaded going out by myself in Manila. I always worried about what I would possibly do when I'm only with myself and what people would think of me (ayyy, loner? :D)

One of my greatest discoveries was seeing myself grow from dreading being alone to enjoying my own company. Tonight was one such night where I strolled off to have dinner by myself at a non-descript Italian restaurant at Taka, Domani.

If you're doing this for the first time, be prepared to see THAT look on people's faces as if they pity you for not having company. You'll soon realize that their looks of pity is a small exchange for the enjoyable time you'll be having with yourself. After all, if you can't bear to be with yourself, how can others bear to be with you?

Tata,

Bernice

Herbs & Spices: Italian meets Indian

With the girls again for our weekly Friday dinner. Bernice suggested to have Italian and she found this place near bugis area. It was called Tintine but it was renamed to Herbs & Spices.

It's not really a fusion restaurant since they don't mix cuisines. But they serve both Indian and Italian dishes. Weird but one of a kind.

We all had Italian. Ilene got spinach risotto with jumbo prawns (38sgd). Story behind this is that she only ordered the normal prawn one for 20sgd but the hostess offered the jumbo ones. She went for it and later just realized she had to top up 18sgd more. It was worth it though since the prawns were really big.

Bernice had her alio olio pasta with normal sized prawns (13sgd). It wasn't the best one she had according to her but it was okay. Amici in Manila is still her top choice.

I had the spaghetti marina (20sgd) which was baked in parchment paper. Ilene said it looked like a giant garlic bulb when it was served. I actually ordered this because I saw a review in a blog and sounded cool. It was quite good. Sauce was flavorful. The dish had 4 prawns, 1 scallop, 3 clams, 2 mussels and some pieces of squid so it was really worth it.

Including some photos of our costumes tomorrow too :) before dinner we took out all the props we bought/made. Woot!!

Using blogger app so photos are scrambled. Gah.

Prawning Adventure!

Having run out of activities to do, Marie suggested that we go prawning at Punggol. The idea came from a colleague of hers, as prawning is a pastime among Singaporeans. And so the three of us went prawn fishing on a Saturday afternoon, thinking that we'd catch enough prawns to enjoy a nice, barbecued dinner. I read somewhere that Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, only eats food that he has hunted for himself. This is because he wants to be reminded that a living creature had to die in order for him to live. We were all inspired by this so we carried on with the challenge!

The prawning rate ranges from SGD 15-30 for 1-3 hours of prawn fishing time. We took the 2-hour package with the rod and earthworm bait provided. Their friendly Filipino staff helped us with the cutting and hooking of the bait. We were officially in business (of fishing prawns)!

L-R: Earthworm bait; Slicing the worms

We caught a total of 8 prawns after 2 hours of prawning. That was pathetic by prawning standards so much so that the staff there took pity on us and gave us a prawn which he'd caught. Ilene caught the most prawns followed by Marie, then myself. We decided to just take our sad prawns home and cook it some other time.

L-R: Marie's first catch; Ilene's new calling in life: prawning; Me, still with no catch after 1 hour

Did you know that prawns have pincers? We were surprised to find them on some of the (few) prawns that we have caught. Their blasted pincer were in the way while removing the hook but we were able to outsmart the prawn by pinning its pincers down with our trusty slipper!

Until our next adventure!

Tata,

Bernice

EWF: Lamb Burger

Stopped over for dinner before meeting B :) alone time mode!

Decided to try Everything With Fries which is located at Orchard Central Mall. Same people who own Awfully Chocolate - so they serve their cupcakes here too!

Didn't order the meal (which has the fries) though haha I got myself their lamb burger :) it's 6.90 SGD for the sandwich. Very affordable if you ask me.

I give this place two thumbs up!! The burger was very juicy - cooked medium / medium rare. You can really taste the lamb flavor which I loooove!!

I'm a condiments type of girl so I had to eventually put my ketchup and mustard. Surprisingly the ketchup brought out the lamb flavor more!

And when you get to the middle, there's this block of cheese which is a lovely surprise to the palate.

Can't wait to try their other burgers next time! Woot!!