Do Singapore women expect too much?

Look what we have here. In today’s Sunday Times, an article reported some results of a survey done on 200 single women. I guess the government should know by now why we have a shortage of babies. The flat reason is our women have severe attitude problem. Perhaps our education system should include a moral education for our ladies on how they should esteem themselves.

In the Life section titled “Love me, Spoil me”, I read that women (in Singapore) expect men to foot the bill, send them home, initiate celebrations, open restaurant and car doors for them, and even carry their handbags. Gracious me. This is quite shocking. This could very well be a contributing factor of men’s shortened lifespan.

I have many opinions but I won’t voice them all out because I might offend people. Well some comments that people made are quite astonishing. Look what high education has done to people. Just because these women can afford their own car they think they deserve Queen Elizabeth’s treatment. That’s so contradicting.

Anyway, these are comments made by some ladies.

“I’m fine with going dutch, but not on the first date. I think it’s basic courtesy that the guy should foot the bill.”

Fair enough.

“If not, what’s the point of having a boyfriend? I might as well hang out with my girlfriends.”

This lady is 32-years-old and still single. I wonder why. I didn’t know boyfriends these days are dogs. No point of having one if he doesn’t serve you. Honestly, this lady disgusts me.

How can women ever be taken seriously as an equal in society if they behave this way with their mates? If she can’t even carry her own handbag, why should she expect respect in her workplace?

For the sake of Christ, I do sincerely hope no Christian lady is found to have such an attitude and expectation. If one would think she deserves her date fawning all over her, then she doesn’t know what grace is. Grace applies to every part of our lives including our relationships with others. From the moment you think you deserve something, you’re proving yourself otherwise.

But there’s always the other side. Really conceited ladies make it a requirement for men to be at her feet and feed her every need. Yet it is not wrong for men to do these for women, out of love. These are just acts of love and kindness, not acts to prove that he’s worth the woman’s while. An assistant professor said if these are the most important items on most people’s date checklists, then the human race is doomed.

92% of the men surveyed said they will gladly foot the bill for dates. And the rest of the poll claimed that in general men are willing to fulfil these ‘great expectations’.

But men commented as well.

“Some of them are a bit of a nightmare and expect too much from men.”

“There should be give and take in a relationship.”

“Some women are hypocritical as they demand to be taken seriously and treated equally, but when it comes to dating etiquette, they expect their boyfriends to attend to their every need.”

I guess enough has been said. Women should just take time off to ‘face the wall’ and think about how they should meet men’s expectations. It’s not wrong to expect to be treated with equality as a modern woman, but to do so in the workplace and then expect to be treated like a porcelain doll on a pedestal on a date is not virtuous. It’s called double-standard.

I should hope I’m not kicked out of the international sisterhood for saying this. I wonder if anyone would comment.

All it takes

Just last night we met for dinner. It turned out to be a lot more enjoyable than I'd thought. Most of the time, I would turn up at such dinners forcibly. I figured if I hadn't enjoyed their company before, I wouldn't really now would I? All it takes is just for me to be christlike.

Work and responsibilities just piled up and I felt exploited until I heard the centre principal said "if this isn't going to help the kids know Christ, I'm not agreeing to it." That was like wow. It pretty much put me to a bit of shame and I realised I was being selfish. It's just so hard to not be self-centred these days. All it takes is just for me to focus on Christ.

♥♥♥♥♥

Flicker just reminded me that I'm running out of space. Fantastic. So now it's either I buy a flicker pro account or buy me a webspace. A webspace sounds more inviting of course. Just so that I won't be limited to the confines of blogger.

I should be picking up dance soon and hoping I've not gone way too stiff yet. A pity it's too expensive to get a diploma for dance but I'm stil keeping that in mind. Everyone seems supportive in me furthering in Performing Arts but who knows what they really think. My parents for instance say ok but on the other hand, constantly suggests other degrees to go for. They didn't do that when I applied to study Mass Comm in poly.

Time to get apprencticeship done for Friday.

What Jude told me

The recent study of Jude was thought-provoking. The study has not been completed yet but a turn to look back.

Just as Jude declares his servanthood in Christ, will we ever be proud to do the same? We can either be bold to declare our status in Christ or disown Jesus like Peter did.

The Lord calls and loves and keeps us, and gives us mercy, peace and love in abundance. That's all the reason I ever need to contend for the faith I live for. Contend is to live out the biblical truths and teach sound doctrine. It also means to die for rather than deny the faith. We are called to persevere and agonise for the faith.

And the wake up call starts here. In churches all over the world, people stream in not to seek God but to seek self-centred gains. These people can be found in every ministry, even in the church's leadership. Outwardly, everything may seem fine. Everyone seem like they are faithfully serving but their motives, unseen by men will expose their pretence. God has said it before that many will come but few will enter the kingdom of heaven.

And its a wake up call to watch my faith, most importantly my motives of whether I'm going to serve or to be served.

Double Chocolate Brownie

And I’ve ventured far enough to make a batch of brownies, double chocolate brownies at that. A large part of this motivation comes from wanting to make nice sweet comfort food for those I love. Surprisingly, they don’t take as much work as I had thought.
Brownies are really pretty easy to make. My first attempt didn't go wrong. That usually says something about it.

Canthan New Year 2008

While we are celebrating the Lunar New Year or Spring Festival, we got the Canthan New Year celebration 2008 in Guild Wars too. Now why would an American game have a Lunar New Year event? The simple reason is that the continent of Cantha introduced in Guild Wars Factions is an imitation of Asian countries. The designs of the houses are Asian and the peasants wear round straw hats like those in the paddy fields.

During the New Year, Lion's Arch, Kamadan and Shing Jea Monastery are all beautifully decorated with lanterns. They remind me of Mid-Autumn Festival.













The quests and activities reward players with sparklers, bottle rockets, champagne poppers, red bean cake and the sugary blue drink. Each of these items adds points to either the Party Animal title or Sweet Tooth title. These are the ordinary items. What most players try to obtain is the mini celestial rat. Last year’s animal was a mini pig. No prices for guessing why those animals.



Each year, the grand event is to participate in the making of the feast for a celestial being. I don’t take part in this event for obvious reasons. Just don’t want to be found idol-worshipping in-game. Anyway, chefs are placed in a large area to prepare a meal for the celestial being and players in the outpost will have to try and produce the ingredients.



At the end of the event, all players in the outpost get a dragon mask.

Other event-exclusive activities are the Broadwalk games and the Dragon Arena. The Broadwalk games are basically Rings of Fortune and Nine Rings. Simply purchase festival tickets and stand in a circle you think will be chosen. It is actually gambling, so very fitting for the Chinese who love to gamble during New Year. Broadwalk games participated add to the Lucky/Unlucky title .

And that made our Canthan New Year. It was enjoyable doing the quests too.

My Valentine's Day

Yes it’s Valentines Day but valentines don’t make the entirety of it does it?

Something that happened today bugged me quite a bit and is still bugging me while I’m typing this. I left Harvest Care Centre and was waiting at a rather empty bus stop along Sims Drive. To be exact, I was waiting for 64 which usually take excruciatingly long. A girl, in her school uniform (I shan’t name the school), treaded past me. I glanced briefly and saw a teardrop halfway down her cheek. At that moment, the bus I was waiting for was about to leave the stop and the girl strode across the road. By then she was sobbing a little. Fearing that I might have to wait another gruelling 20 minutes, I got up the bus, saying a quick prayer for the girl and hoping for the best.

Was I self-centred? The reason why this was bugging me was that I could have done something for her but I didn’t. Now and perhaps the next few days, I will have to live with this downtrodden feeling and it’s very unpleasant.

Back to main topic, Valentines Day. It is always made special by the person and not activity. For the 2nd year, I got ‘home-made’ flowers. Some people wonder why girls like flowers so much. My reason is because they’re the only form of God’s beautiful creation of nature you can take home. Since this was hand-wrapped, it’s like God’s plus Terence’s creation.





I honestly wasn’t even expecting flowers but he surprised me.. again. Now I’m really impressed with his bouquet wrapping skills and ironically, I want to learn it. It would probably serve as my Valentines Day activity next year in case Terence can’t celebrate with me.

So I came home with flowers. Usually my grandma would ask where that came from and she’ll say “beware of those guys who buy you flowers.. they just want to get you to bed”, and I’d be thoroughly amused. Strangely enough, she doesn’t say that about Terence. Instead, she’ll get the poor maid to find a vase for them and tells me how to prolong their lives.

Finally, for the first time in a very long while, I bought myself something under the clothing/shoes/bags/accessories category. Applause to me. However, it was made unpleasant when I found out that Aldo in PS doesn’t participate in the CapitaLand gift voucher promotion after I said confidently “I’ll take this pair” with a big smile on my face. So I paid a hefty sum. Sadness.

Be My Valentine

Happy Valentine's Day!

Bailamos En La Calle

Almost my last 10 posts have been about anything but me. That is because nothing very exciting has been happening. My html achievements have only brought me from creating faith-book and this new layout which I'm totally pleased with because I did everything from scratch.

Anyway, I'm very much looking forward to this.

Kung Fu Dunk

Initially, I was apprehensive about this movie, thinking it’s just another one of those movies to feed the Jay Chou fan club. Well it isn’t. At the very least, the lead role seems tailor-made for Jay Chou.

Kung Fu Dunk is conceived to be the movie version of the Japanese manga Slam Dunk. On the other hand, it seems similar to Stephen Chow’s Shaolin Soccer, being a movie which combines martial arts and sports.

Shi-Jie (starring Jay Chou) is an abandoned baby who grew up in a martial arts university. There, he practiced martial arts skilfully and developed a good sense of feel. Hidden in his blood was his talent in basketball.

He met Wang-Li who introduced him to the first university basketball team, with wicked intention of using him to make money. There, Shi-Jie found out that the girl he admired is the sister of the team’s captain. And the rest of it is about Shi-Jie growing into the team and in the sport.

It is undeniable that the simple plot was sufficient for audience satisfaction. It was a good mix of humour, drama and some romance. This is a good one for Jay Chou fans and normal people alike. Ladies, if Jay Chou isn’t your cup of tea, there’re a couple more good-looking guys in the movie to choose.

It was thoroughly enjoyable. But perhaps showing longer basketball scenes would be nice.

Kung Fu Dunk

Happy Lunar New Year 2008!

Happy new year folks!

Bacon and Mushroom Cabonara

Carbonara is a traditional Italian pasta dish. It’s name is derived from the word carbone which means charcoal. It is believed that this dish was popular among the charcoal makers. Some suggest that the bits of charred bacon and freshly grounded black pepper made it look like a dish with charcoal. However, the true origins of this dish remain obscure.



The varieties of Carbonara are aplenty. That's one of those good things about pasta, having the freedom to use whatever ingredients. I think that's what makes it so popular. So because bacon and mushrooms are 2 of my favourite foods, bacon and mushroom it is.

27 Dresses

It is one of those shows that make you go “Aww.. How romantic…” This little romantic comedy is very light-hearted and enjoyable with bits of humour in the script.

Jane Nichols is a selfless young lady who makes the perfect wedding coordinator and PA. But playing the maid-of-honour 27 times is far-fetched. Jane obviously isn’t content because she wants to be a bride herself.

She has a crush on her boss, and if things aren’t bad enough, her sister comes home from Europe to win his heart just after meeting him once.

Opinions of the show are that 27 Dresses is just another cliché. It starts and ends typically with a semi-witty script. Fluffy, colourful, simple and ordinary is what I’d call this film. It is watched and forgotten.

27 Dresses

Colourful Bins!

Recently they've taken to decorating bins.  I think the post boxes look better.

These decorated bins are around Orchard Road and the white one above is my personal favourite. I wonder if anyone got excited at all seeing nice bins everywhere because I certainly did. I thought it was a pretty good idea just like the post boxes.