The Metro

My first step (i think) down a dark path leading to metrosexual-ness was taken in Paris earlier this week. And before you start thinking that I went and got my nipple pierced or went to a tanning salon - I'll let you know - I bought a bottle of "Clinique's skin supplies for Men" range of maximum hydration moisturiser cream costing more than $50 Aussie dollars.

This bottle which promises to reduce fine lines, is usually the stuff reserved for those more attuned to the Queer Eye stuff i.e. guys that wear pink shirts. However, drastic times call for drastic measures - and unfortunately over the last few months my face has succumbed to the fierce weather and chilly winds of London. It had got to the point that i was leaving a potentially incriminating trail of DNA (not dandruff i swear) wherever i went. in short I felt like that freaky dude in Goldfinger who's skin was peeling off (except i wasn't eating mine!)

If buying cream wasn't bad enough, living here and constantly talking to Pommie lads and birds has had some adverse effects on the way i speak. Words like dancing - normally pronounced DAN-cing, have been coming out as DAARN-cing; accompanied by a very appropriate pouncy tone of voice.

With these recent changes, and my body turning skinnier and less climbing and touch footy fit I wonder - will drinking beer and eating chips on a Friday night be enough to stop me turning into a complete wuss bag?

Shopping survival tips

It's the middle of summer over here in London now, though you might not have known that due to the 16 degree weather and people wearing jumpers. It is quite pleasant though - and we have had a mini-heatwave of consecutive 24 degree days, and that co-incided with random british dudes and gals getting down to their jocks and bikinis in the park (no water within 100kms but ppl in their bikinis ... go figure!) Summer here also means sale time - which means more shopping!! (for Jen)

Shopping is absoloutely CRAZY over here - just the number of people plus tourists all adds up to a heap of ppl

The one thing that's always confused me is - why do girls like dragging guys (esp husbands, boyfriends etc) along to do the shopping with them? Guys generally have the following qualities:

1. Guys are quick when doing shopping. Girls are not.
2. Shopping is not the same as quality time. (though it should count towards getting out of other stuff u don't want to do later. e.g. "I'm not cleaning the oven today, cause I spent time watching you shop today")
3. Guys are not good with fashion
4. There is a distinct lack of guy's shops

Yet I still see these men being dragged around shops. So here goes my survival tips for shopping:

* Find a seat - preferably those ones that the shop makers have conveniently placed near the change rooms. That way u are in a prime position to see what your lady looks like in her new outifit(s) while sitting enjoying that luxurious leather - you could almost close your eyes and imagine you were at home in front of the tv ... almost. (side note: lots of other ladies tend to come out of change rooms and parade in front of the mirrors also ...)

* Make quick but thoughtful decisions about clothes - you have to be decisive if you want to get out of the shop so don't dilly dally. It either looks good or bad or average and the more you umm and err the longer you stay.

* If you've already agreed to go shopping take it in your stride - sulking doesn't acheive much once a girl has stepped into "shopping-land"!! Suddnely their supremely talented multi-tasking brains become awfully one dimensional as they get distracted by the outfits and pretty colours.

I miss Oz :(

Have u ever been homesick?? I never knew what people meant when they talked about it, but lately I think I can relate to what ppl mean.

It's been 6 weeks now away from home - travelling through Greece and Italy, and now finally settling into London. It's been a great time really, and we've been really lucky being able to travel with the honeymooners, the newly engaged, and the recently marrieds. Many many silly photos of honeymooners Wong I must say!

Anyway, it all started with weird dreams. I’d dream about dinners with groups of friends and I could see people’s faces and I could feel the love and I’d wake up and everyone would disappear. I’d be left awake in the middle of the night wondering what those people were up to on the other side of the world, and I wouldn't be able to sleep for the next 2 hours.

Then other symptoms began to appear – an almost obsessive need to check email overtook me (and Jen I think). There we were in these foreign country with marvellous sights around us and all we wanted to do at times is find an internet cafe and pay the $4-15 Aus/hr to find out what people at home were up to. We’d sit there and read ALL those reply-all emails – trying to find out how karaoke went the other night, what happened at rock climbing, who went, how they climbed, any little piece of information to remind you of home and make u feel that bit closer again.

You get this compulsion to send these giant mass emails about your travels – one purpose being to tell everyone what you’ve been up to, and the other reason is so that you hopefully can get an email in return. I never realised how many people there are that you want to catch up with and how hard it is to write personal emails to everyone. You sit back after sending the mail and expect a flurry of replies, but the other people are not in the same time zone (not like email banter at work!), so you are left to sign out and check again the next day.

One night you can’t sleep and you lay awake thinking about how to organise your school reunion (and planning it for 2 years time, so that you'll be back in Aus by then)!

I can only imagine how difficult it must have been for my folks and others who travel alone – the thought of leaving everything behind, breaking out of that comfort zone and doing it solo … it’s already tough enough I think.

It’s makes you happy when you think of the farewells, dinners and time spent with people before leaving – I’m sure it’ll make us appreciate home much more too!

Anyways - we miss you guys! Keep letting us know all those silly things that are happening in your life - all those mundane things too. It's weird how u grow to miss those things too. Lastly, get your butts over here soon and join us! Anna and Geri's Christmas white elephant party is only 6 months away!

Is there a God?

It has now been six weeks since the Boxing Day Tsunami - the most recent death toll is stated at 295,000 with a massive 250,000 reported dead or missing from Indonesia alone. Though it feels like such a long time ago, I wanted to go back and write some thoughts about the event.

The tsunami and the grave destruction that was brought down on evoked a lot of different emotions in people. Some people felt sadness and despair as they saw the destruction or lossed loved ones; in some it evoked a feeling of compassion as they dug deep in their pockets to contribute to these people who had lost so much. Personally, I felt a bit numb - that same feeling I had after the 9/11 attacks - an emotional void ... weird ...

For others it brought a sense of anger - a feeling of why has this happened - a sense of hopelessness at the atrocities in the world. What i found interesting was this article that ran in the SMH and reprinted on Mockkie - it echoed a common thought - that if bad things like this were allowed to happen then there must not be a god.

Not being one that has had to deal with real loss it's difficult for me to know what I would think when it feels like the world is crashing down. Would I too begin to doubt God? Would my faith stand the tests of the most troubling times also?

I hope my faith would survive. I am convinced that there is a God out there - one of my favourite movies of all time is Boyz N the Hood - in that Doughboy (aka Ice Cube) says "Is there a God? Sure, I mean how can u have the stars the moon and all that" before debating "why niggaz be killing niggaz" ... point is there is no way that the world and all the complexities of human life can be attributed back to such a random event as the big band. No way.

In regards to the tsunami and why God would let that happen - I know that God has a plan for everyone and controls everything in this world. It's not like he just stood aside and watched what was happening. Everything that happens here is meant to happen, not everything is good though. Sometimes bad things do happen for a reason - losing tickets to Black Eyed Peas wasn't great, but it taught me to be more careful with my possessions. Failures and losses are very instructive.

And finally, how are we as humans, supposed to understand the complexity of God - let alone challenge what he does? Remember, God did destroy the world before (only allowing Noah to survive) - I'm sure he probably wasn't too popular that time either!

NFL regular season ends

As the NFL playoffs have reached the Conference championships (ie Top 2 teams from AFC and NFC play off) I thought I should update everyone on the NFL tipping race.

NFL Wks 8-14 saw some furious competition as Mushi took an initial lead in the tips before Nasde (spurred on by the addition of Gobbo) came charging back to level the scores. The final 3 weeks of the season started with Mushi and Nasde even.

Wk 15: Mushi nudges ahead by 1
Wk 16: Nasde goes ahead by 2

With one week of the regular season to go, and a schedule over-burdened with New Year's eve parties and farewells to Jo-jo, we both put in random tips for wk 17. More careful examination would have revealed teams resting players for the playoffs, teams with nothing to play for and mismatches across the board. The result for wk 17: Mushi goes 10-5-1, Nasde 5-10-1

Season finishes: Mushi up by 3

What a disgrace! Two points were proven: Firstly, Mushi is a much better random guesser than I am. Secondly, how hard it is to win money gambling on sports! Even the so-called experts finished basically even, and only slightly infront of Mushi who does not follow the NFL results AT ALL!!

Well, what prize did the winner get, you ask?? Well it was agreed that the loser had to buy the winner dinner ... so it's congratulations to Gobbo - who by virute of failing to enter a tip for the last 3 weeks, hence automatically securing the lowest point score for that week, finished last. And the judges declare that he should take Mushi for dinner!

And on a final note, to prove the season results were an abberation (with Mushi finishing on top) we are continuing to tip for the playoffs! In the playoffs, with less random teams, teams competing at 110% and more time to analyse picks, there should be no way that picks based on team colours, team names, or movie gossip will succeed! Check out SportsGuy's Playoff Manifesto to get some sports tips from the man!

marriage and the xbox

Girls - let's set something straight.
#1 Guy playing xbox =/ (does not equal) guy avoiding girl
#2 We want to be with you
#3 We like to play xbox

Now why is that a problem? Can't women and the xbox co-exist?

It seems to me that complaining about the xbox, and guys playing the xbox, has hit an all time high. Along with Mushi using her talents re: the xbox (to quote Mushi: "Complaining's one of the things I'm best at and you can't take that away from me") there's also been blog complaints about xbox, internet articles written about the follies of Halo 2 vs the wife; In fact, it feels like we're not far away from people appearing on Jerry Springer for shows titled "He says he loves you, but he just bought an xbox steering wheel" !! ... they would have the xbox there in the sound proof room with ear muffs on and everyone would be booing, ladies be crying ....

What's the big deal?

We do realise that woman can't be like xbox's or like the games we play on them - well most of us realise that - I did see this show on discovery channel today titled Lara Croft: Every Man's wish - and this guy was gushing about how great Lara was and how the dates he went on the ladies weren't as pretty/intelligent/responsive as she was ... (Dude! Stop fiddling with your joy stick. You need to get out)

I understand that complaining about the xbox is just an extension of an age-old practice. That is: of women complaining. I'm sure in the old days - it was women yelling at men "Now if u don't stop fooling around with that car, we be getting divorced!" Now that's switched to the xbox. I just wish that women could complain about stuff we didn't care about - why can't they say "Nasde, your toilet cleaning skills are crap - never do it again!"

However, for all the boys out feeling the same xbox-hate, I have a solution.

Prove the xbox means nothing to you. That's right ... only by proving that you don't need to play it and that the girl comes first can you ever break the vicious cycle of xbox play followed by complaint handling and then relationship management.

That's why I've taken the steps down this path of xbox enlightenment with the imposition of a xbox fast for 4 weeks. You heard me right - NO XBOX. And while I understand that it is a sacrifice, it also means NO COMPLAINING ABOUT XBOX! Sssssweeeeet!! U can't put a price on that I tells ya!

As for mushi's part of the bargain, a no TV rule for 4 weeks has also been enforced. Now this has made thing's really interesting. No more waiting for Outback Jack, One Tree Hill and those other girlie shows to finish before going to bed! No more all night Angel sessions and no more feverish explanations of vampire slayer dreams in the morning!

If all goes well, we'll survive the next 4 weeks (or 2 weeks depending on when my new xbox games arrive) and find ourselves a closer couple (now with all that spare time for QT) and destroyed our perceived Xbox and TV addictions. Hopefully the cycle will be broken and harmony will be restored to the new Tan household. Maybe then, finally, I can play my xbox in peace??