A Christmas dinners leftovers dinner

Yesterday I was invited to a Christmas dinners leftovers dinner. SR and RE cooked dinner on Christmas day and Boxing Day for the two sets of their family, and there were so many leftovers that they invited some friends to taste them. The food was nice (SR is a good cook) and he turned the leftovers into a Shepherd's pie I didn't know the other 3 guests but as all of us are gay it wasn't difficult to find some common topics. And good to meet some new people after 3 nights in a row in the bar with the gang. January will be seriously boring after all the parties and dinners of the festive season.

Bearforce1 Christmas clip

I am a bit slow - apparently this video has been out a long time but I just heard about it tonight.

Do not call a police officer homo

An appeal court in the Dutch town of Den Bosch has found a 19-year-old man guilty of insulting a police officer by calling him "homo". Magistrates earlier ruled the term was not an insult. The man was fined €200. The reasoning of the appeal court was interesting: "the comment was meant to be an insult and therefore must be considered an insult". The lower court had earlier ruled that being or being called a "homo" was normal and therefore not an insult.

A lunch-time fuck

Sgboy recently reported that he had 20,000 visitors to his blog this year. Right now, my score is only 7,440 visitors, the difference caused of course by sgboy's frequent sex stories. (sex sells) I know I am late to catch up, it being December 27, but let's try to get some visitors with a sex story.
Some guy messaged me on Fridae.com yesterday telling me he is in Amsterdam until early January and would I like to meet. His pictures looked nice enough so I sent him a message "ok when do you have time" and he said "only Thursday between 11am and 3pm". Well, I needed to work today so I replied "sorry I work on Thursday" and he asked "where do you work". Turns out he stays 3 minutes from my office, his boyfriend is out for a couple of hours today, so before I knew it I had a lunch-hour fuck date. We met up outside the Febo at Stadionplein (left on picture, in the background is Amsterdam's 1928 Olympic Stadium), he looked nice (slim, goatee, and at 26 quite presentable), so we walked to his apartment where we had a chat and he gave me a coffee. He was a bit shy which I liked so after a while I moved closer and asked whether he wanted something else. Suddenly he was no longer shy and we moved to the bedroom, kissed, undressed and did a long 69. He was a bit nervous as he wasn't quite sure when his boyfriend would return, which made me nervous too (after all, I don't know the boyfriend who may be crazy and may have an ax hidden in the kitchen), but anyway we continued sucking as if there was no end to the lunch hour. After a while he started fingering me and made it clear what else he wanted. He rubbered up and 3 seconds after he got in (I was still getting in position) he came. He apologized for cumming so quickly but was nice enough to help me finish. As far as I can remember this was my first lunch hour fuck date in Amsterdam. Gives new energy for work in the afternoon!

Battling serious crime in Singapore

I haven't seen this story reported in the Singapore media yet, so here we go: A Singapore national serviceman who sashayed into a lift early one morning wearing only a pink bikini has been handed a day's jail and a S$11,000 fine by a court in the city-state, a newspaper said on Tuesday. Tan Wen Zhong, 21, admitted to five charges, including "outraging the modesty" of the woman who shared the lift with him and "fraudulent possession of women's underwear". Possession of women's underwear is a crime? And what is "fraudulent possession"? I would love to read the law that makes it a crime! Or did he steal the underwear? Then why don't they say so? Or is borrowing from your sister also called "fraudulent possession"? Anyway, it is good to know that the Singapore security forces are keeping the island safe.

Restaurant In de Waag, Amsterdam

I took my family out for Christmas dinner last night at Restaurant In de Waag. "De Waag" is a building from 1690 on the Nieuwmarkt ("New Market") in downtown Amsterdam. We had a six course special Christmas dinner with selected wines, all very good. Three generations of my family (the oldest 81, the youngest 15) interacted nicely, and I believe everyone (even the young ones) enjoyed the evening very much.
The biggest surprise this Christmas was a call from my Spanish friend FE on Christmas Eve. We were lovers in 1992 (if I remember correctly), and kind of lost contact some 4 years ago. He lives in Berlin now and we had a good chat. I must add Berlin to my list of places to visit for 2008.

Merry Christmas

Artificial insemination

Yesterday DAZ and his son YU came for dinner. YU is now 17 months old which is a nice age for children so I had lots of fun playing with him. DAZ had lots of news to tell: he found a new boyfriend and he decided to father another child with the other half of the lesbian couple that he has YU with. (so both lesbians will have a child and the children will be biological half-siblings.) The process of the artificial insemination is rather unromantic: the women are in the bedroom, one with legs spread, while DAZ produces the sperm in the bathroom and deposits it in a specially prepared container. Only, this time DAZ had problems producing the sperm because he had just spent lots of quality time with his new boyfriend. In the end, he only produced a little drop and the lesbians were complaining why it took him so long to give them so little. But end good, all good, because the girl is pregnant!
Saturday night I went to a pre-Christmas party at DA and RM's house. About 50 people on 60 square meters so it was not difficult to meet new friends. At one point someone put a gay porn DVD on and I found myself explaining the technique of oral sex to some girls.
It was great winter weather this weekend and I took some pictures.

A witness of history

Today, the so-called Schengen free-travel zone in Europe has been expanded by 9 countries. People can now travel all the way from Estonia to Portugal, and from Iceland to Malta without having to stop at borders or show passports.
What a change from 1980, when I first crossed the border from West to East Berlin at Checkpoint Charlie and back. While walking around in East Berlin I remember the strange feeling that I was free to come and go, and almost everyone around me was not. A year later, WL and I drove all the way to (then) Czechoslovakia and Hungary. We needed to get visas and the checks at the borders were very intensive and took hours. In 1989 the Berlin Wall fell and MN and I went to Berlin a few weeks later. The East German border guards were still there at the time, but they were suddenly smiling and joking. Fast forward to today, and places that were formerly (but not so long ago) hidden behind Iron curtains can now be reached easily and without stopping at borders. I feel I am witnessing history being made again. An excellent day for Europe.

The first snow

We had the first snow of the winter today! And winter only officially starts tomorrow.

Restaurant De Kas, Amsterdam

We had our company's Christmas lunch today in Restaurant De Kas. A "kas" is a greenhouse and the restaurant is actually in a greenhouse on the East side of Amsterdam. They claim that they grow all of their vegetables in their own greenhouse and a small organic farm North of Amsterdam.
The food was excellent (much better than last time I was in this restaurant some 4 years ago) and the conversation went well. We were talking English as two of our staff don't speak Dutch; the waiter kept addressing me in English and my (American) boss in Dutch. I will go to work tomorrow but the economy has already come to a complete stop here. Next week I'll just work Thursday (and perhaps Friday) and then again in the new year.

The Dubliners - Seven Drunken Nights

I am in an Irish mood tonight - one of the songs that I like to sing when I am - ummmmm - drunk.

BBC censors Fairytale of New York

I am sick and tired of all the sweet boring Christmas songs playing non-stop. This song is a nice change, until the BBC decided to censor the popular Christmas song amid fears the lyrics will upset homosexuals. The song tells the story of two lovers who trade insults on Christmas Eve and one verse ends with the memorable line: "You scumbag, you maggot you cheap lousy faggot, Happy Christmas your arse I pray God It's our last."
BBC Radio 1 bosses have bleeped out the word faggot from the song, for fear it will offend homosexuals, but have provoked the ire of one of their own leading DJs as well as listeners.

Singapore's propaganda getting sillier

Singapore's propaganda apparatus believes Singaporeans have an average IQ of 3. How else to explain that they print this extreme nonsense in the State's Times? "I read with great relief the article about ministers and top civil servants getting a 4-21 per cent pay rise next month."
The propaganda people for sure don't deserve any pay rise. They would never find a job in the private sector. They could do with some fresh-up course in marketing, right now all they do is copy the methods of the former communist countries in Eastern Europe. And we all know what happened to their dictators.

Money matters

Several money matters in the news today:
1) Dutch are in top 3 of richest in the EU. The purchasing power of the Dutch is 31 percent higher than the EU average, European statistics bureau Eurostat reported on Monday. Quite surprising.
2) I finally found a good argument to convince my boss that I need more salary. I'll just tell him that I could easily make more elsewhere. I am sure he will give me a big raise immediately. After all, if Singapore's leaders can get away with such nonsense, why wouldn't I? "But if I were outside, I can earn more than this. I am confident I can earn more than S$3 million." The audacity....
3) Got a blue envelope today in the mail. (the Dutch tax service sends it's bad news in blue envelopes) I lived in the Netherlands for 8 days in 2006 so they want money. Fortunately my employer made a mistake in my deductions so now I get quite a nice sum back from the tax man. With interest!

Reminiscences on a cold Monday

My mood has been drifting between happy and sad this past week. Objectively, there is not much to complain: had a great night with the gang in the bars on Friday; was invited by MA and JE to one of the best restaurants in Amsterdam, Dynasty, on Saturday to celebrate their one year wedding anniversary; did a long walk on the beach in very sunny winter weather on Sunday; watched an old movie "Minority Report" starring Tom Cruise Sunday night; OS is back to work; my work is good as my bosses are happy and relaxed; and, I almost forgot, I "scored a fuck" (borrowed expression) on Saturday.....
Yet I think about a year ago when I was given a surprise party (brilliantly organized by ER and AN, I didn't have a clue hehe) and was slowly getting ready to leave a land far east. It is good to have a nice time now, it is good to have sweet memories about the past, maybe I am asking too much to want to have it all..........

Restaurant Me Naam Naan, Amsterdam

It had been a while since I met up with MI so we decided to do dinner. Thai food just like last time, a new restaurant for me and just so-so quality of food. MI had good stories about his work trip to India and he also told me he has been going on two blind dates (set up by friends) recently. One of the guys was nice, but, in MI's words, "too much handbag" (meaning too feminine) and the other date was "just a disaster". I remembered the only (surprise) blind date I have ever been on, now some 15 years ago. I had been invited for dinner by (straight) friends, and another guy turned up and we soon felt that the hosts wanted us to meet. They disappeared into the kitchen telling us "you just get to know each other better" so it was all kind of obvious. The guy was nice enough to talk to, but no sparks flew and the hosts were very disappointed we didn't immediately fall in love as "we would make such a nice couple". We just laughed it off and thanked the couple for their good intentions. Anyway, MI still would like to meet someone nice so if you are interested just let me know!

A 17 year old football star with dreamy eyes

I woke up a few times last night (which doesn't happen very often) and finally fell into a deep sleep around 4 AM. And this was my dream:
I am walking to work. The road follows a stream in green pasture land, and in the distance I see a very small village consisting of nice villas; my office is in one of the villas. As I am getting closer to the village, I see a group of teenagers playing football. "Sir, Sir", I hear, "would you like to play with us?" I answer that I can't, after all I am going to work and am not dressed to play football. One of the boys runs to me, and says that he would like me to join them. "No, I really can not", I say and continue my way to work. The boy follows me and takes my hand. I notice he has beautiful dreamy eyes. The way he looks at me makes me feel weak. As we enter the village a policeman stops us and asks the boy how old he is. He is 17 and I think to myself "fortunately he is already 17". We start kissing and kissing and kissing....until I wake up.
Strange. Normally I don't like (too) young boys, so what is my dream trying to tell me?

In memoriam Arne Jansen

Everybody in the Netherlands knows Arne Jansen, who committed suicide today, aged 56. He was one of these artists who had only one big hit, in his case the song "Meisjes met rooie haren" (Red hair girls) from 1971. He has been signing this song for 35 years (this video is from August 2007) and people couldn't get enough of it. "Girls with red hair, they can kiss like no-one else, girls with red hair, they can tell you what real love is"
May he rest in peace.

Useful work

One of my bosses is often in the office early, and when I arrive he is cleaning dishes in our office kitchen. We talked last week how we like to do such visibly useful and immediately rewarding work - I also don't mind at all doing the dishes. When one's normal job is to organize, manage, etc., which is (hopefully) useful as well, but much more indirect, the direct results of activities like dish washing are a nice change. I even find these kind of activities very relaxing. So today I was clearing leaves from the garden for a few hours which made me feel tired - but very relaxed at the same time.
Yesterday I was playing cards with my card-playing gang: since 1985 and still going strong. It is fun to notice that the two guys with children live in a totally different world as RE and myself: they know different artists, watch different TV programs and know different games and books, all because of the children. Gay guys need to be careful or they'll find themselves disconnected from modern society!

SMS only 15 years old!

I read a very interesting article in nrc.next, my daily newspaper, today about the history of texting also known as SMS messaging. Turns out the first ever text message was only sent 15 years ago, in December 1992! O my god, I was already in my thirties when text messaging was invented......Now, on average I believe I am sending 2 or 3 SMS messages per day; when I lived in Singapore I sent many more, but here in the Netherlands people call more often and text less. Maybe because it is easier to call when on a bicycle and more convenient to text when on the MRT.
Often I wonder if 25 years from now there will be as many new inventions in our daily lifes as I have experienced in the last 25 years: mobile phones, SMS, computers, MSN, e-mail, ATM cards, contactless chip cards, GPS,......

Celebrating Sinterklaas with the gang

Yesterday I celebrated Sinterklaas with the gang. RO and REM took the initiative for the celebration, made sure we all got a name of one person to buy a gift for, and RO made a very tasty erwtensoep. Sinterklaas was very nice for me and gave me a modern large picture frame with many pictures of myself and other members of the gang. And the poem was sweet and nice too, which isn't really the idea as the tradition is to be blunt and critical in the Sinterklaas poems.
I was chatting with sgboy not too long ago about "gangs" (groups of friends to regularly hang out with) and I am lucky to have this gang since many years. Our gang has about 10 core members; including non-core members and (temporary) boyfriends the gang is between 20 and 30 guys. The youngest core member is 39 and the oldest 49 but lately two much younger guys in their 20's joined our gang. I don't know why they like to hang out with guys twice their age, but it is good to have some fresh blood in our gang.
Back to yesterday's celebration: it was not surprising that almost all poems had a sexual content and MA was even instructed in his poem to kneel and put tit clamps on. Revenge from SI (I mean Sinterklaas) on behalf of all of the gang, as MA normally likes to greet us by pinching our nipples real hard.

Cunt weather

I was biking home in cunt weather today. Cunt weather? In Dutch, we like to use reproductive organs as our swear words. Someone we don't like is a "klootzak" ("testicle bag") or simply a "lul" ("penis"). And when the weather is bad it is "kutweer". ("cunt weather") And when a movie, or a novel, or a meal is bad, it is "kut met peren". ("cunt with pears")
In other news, ER may be interested to know that this is a top year for biological products. "Ten years ago biological products were unknown, and even five years ago there wasn't any growth in the figures. Now there has really been a breakthrough." I personally notice that the section with biological products in my local supermarket is getting bigger and bigger.

Taking care of the poor and the sick

I already knew that this country is taking good care of the poor and the sick - my tax bill is the annual witness!
But now with OS being sick I am confronted with how good the care actually is:
1) all of OS' hospital bills and doctors' bills are fully paid by his health insurance
2) during his time in hospital (and until he is fit enough to work again) he receives a government sickness benefit of 250 euro per week (of course being in hospital he didn't spend a dime so this is pure savings)
3) he needs to go to hospital on a daily basis for the radio therapy. Someone told me the insurance company will pay for the transport costs - I called today and they said yes, we will pay for the taxi costs! OS would have been happy with reimbursement of a bus ticket, but taxi is much better of course....
Well, it is still much better to be healthy, but at least now I know where my tax euros are going.

Want to have a picture of my boobs?

Sometimes we gay men are protected by our sexual orientation. Just got a MSN message in which a friend in Bangkok is offering to send me a picture of his "boobs" and download a file. Straight men would have hit the "start download" button immediately but I was more careful and decided the download must be a virus. After all, I already have a picture of my friend's "boobs".

Playing nurse

OS finally came home yesterday after 41 days in hospital. He can eat only liquid food, feels very tired and talks with a slur, but for the rest he is OK. So I have to play nurse for a few days and make sure he takes care of himself. I won't miss the daily treks to the hospital (sometimes twice a day) - I must have driven that distance at least 50 times.
In other news, the Gemeente Museum has decided not to show the gay men with Mohammed masks. (see previous post) They say they "want to show art, not be an instrument in a political game". Our friend Ehsan Jami is also joining the anti-Islam camp with a film entitled The life of Mohammed which should be ready in February or March of next year. Jami says the film "will cause more of a commotion than the Danish cartoons of Mohammed". A representative of the Muslim community here had a very wise comment: "We have seen and heard it all. We can't be shocked any more."

Art or blasphemy?

The Gemeente Museum in The Hague has an exposition of a piece of art depicting two gay men wearing masks representing the prophet Mohammed and his son in law Ali. The artist is Sooreh Hera, a 34 year old woman of Iranian origin currently living in the Netherlands. Ms. Hera says: "Homosexuality is a good example of the hypocrisy surrounding sex in the Islamic world. It is very common for men in countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia to have sex with other men, but it is all done in secret." Ms. Hera took pictures of gay muslim men in the Netherlands, most of whom didn't want their faces to be visible. "To show the hypocrisy I used masks of Mohammed and Ali".
In similar news, Dutch extreme right-wing politician Geert Wilders is working on an anti-islam film. Mr. Wilders is on a crusade against muslims, the Koran and Islam in general. The Dutch government and national security institutions are afraid that showing the film (which will be ready in January and in which (it is said) Mr. Wilders will burn or tear apart the Koran), will lead to violence not unlike the Danish cartoon riots.
On the one hand, I am totally in favour of freedom of speech. And it is true that many people use the Koran or the Islamic faith to spread hatred and violence. And of course everybody who has been to an islamic country knows that they have invented homosexuality there: nowhere in the world do so many men fuck other men. So if people want to make fun of or criticize Islam, they have the right to do so. We have made fun and criticized Christianity for the last 30 years, too.
On the other hand, it is wrong to insult everybody who is a Muslim. There are many peaceful Muslims. Mr. Wilders clearly goes too far. He is a dangerous man and I hope the stupid people who support him will soon come to their senses.

Stress, no thank you

According to this story, 8 in 10 employees in Taiwan are stressed out. The story reminded me of the conversation I had with BR at JE's party on Sunday. I have known BR for many years but we hardly ever talked in the past. He is a good friend of MA, and I believe MA has said something nice about me because for the last few weeks BR is suddenly very friendly to me. BR is originally from Taiwan and very muscular which he likes to accentuate with very tight shirts. Anyway, on Sunday I asked him if he has plans to go back to Taiwan and he told me never. Reason: the difference in stress levels here and there. Confirmed by the news today.

Singapore's propaganda employs clever statisticians

I just read that the median monthly income for full-timers in Singapore rose over the year by 7.7 per cent to S$2,330 in June 2007. Well, that's very little and I am always surprised how people in Singapore can pay all their bills with so little money. Especially with the costs of housing skyrocketing. No wonder that the majority of my Singapore friends still live with their parent(s), even at a ripe age.
On the other hand, Singapore propaganda employs very clever statisticians who report the median income. In countries which have lots of workers with very low incomes (such as Singapore), and smaller groups with middle and higher incomes, the average income is much higher than the median income. For example suppose Singapore has a million people making S$ 1,000, seven hundred thousand who make S$ 4,000 and two hundred thousand who make S$ 30,000. In this example the median income is only S$ 1,000, but the average income is a whopping S$ 5,158. So by presenting the median income (most people won't know what "median" means and they will wrongly translate as "average"), the propaganda machine gives a feel-good message to the lower income employees: "See, your salary is not so bad. You are earning close to average". Whereas if they published the average income a lot of people would be very unhappy with the peanuts that they are paid.

Eating liver with a rich ex-prostitute

Yesterday was JE's 42nd birthday party. JE is a professional cook and he is gooooood. So I loaded my plate without looking at what was on offer. (he usually prepares a buffet of 6 or 7 different dishes for his parties) I dug in to the food and yikes, one of the dishes was liver. I eat almost everything, but liver is one of the exceptions. I just don't like it. I put on a brave face and ate it all. Next time I am going to pay more attention.
It was a 100% gay-male party. All the usual suspects were present and I must say I enjoyed myself. A good change from the hospital visits. I chatted with XX who told me everything about his life as a prostitute. (XX is not his real name but I will protect his privacy on a public site.) I have known XX more than 10 years - he is an ex-colleague (hairdresser) of OS. Later he became the boyfriend of YY, and we always got along very well. After YY broke up with him, he had a difficult period and decided to become a prostitute, dressing up like a girl and sitting in a window of the red light district. Apparently, there is a big market for guys who dress up like girls, and XX soon became popular. At first, he did the 100 euro tricks, but some guys fell in love with him and were willing to spend much more. So he had "lovers" all over Europe and the Middle East who bought him air tickets to visit them, and spent thousands of euros on his services. He did this for two years and he told me how much he saved: a lot. An awful lot.
The doctors told OS that he might be allowed to go home by the end of this week. Finally.

Stepping into a wasp's nest

A dream: I am somewhere in Eastern Europe in a car with 3 people half my age that I don't know, 2 girls and a boy. They have a sense of humour that I don't understand and I am left out of their conversation. The car is hit by a tsunami (in Eastern Europe?), and later I need to push the car as it can not go uphill. I step in a wasp's nest, panic and wake up.
Slept almost 10 hours just now. Had dinner with RE and SO yesterday which was a nice change from pizza and ready-made salads at home. On Friday spent all evening in the bars. KE was so stoned and drunk I had to accompany him home and put him in bed. Some people just don't know when to stop - such a thing would never happen to me. Hehe.

Wish I was heterosexual.....

Serious research tells us that 77% of women prefer a "funny personality", "nice eyes" and a "cute smile" over a "perfect body". The latter is only important for 27% of all women. Bad luck for me that for gay men the figures are 99% for "perfect body", and 4%, 2% and 1% respectively for "funny personality", "nice eyes" and "cute smile". (the figures for gay men were made up by me, but probably not far from the truth hehe)

A ridiculous idea: gay health insurance

I always thought that the idea of gay rights was that gays would belong to the main stream and we would be treated the same as everyone else. And then you get some idiots who come up with this: "Health insurer Agis is launching a special policy for homosexuals next year. The idea has been developed in consultation with gay rights organisation COC." Can someone stop these people? I have an excellent, non-gay health insurance and nobody has ever asked me about my sexual preferences. For all I know, the gay insurance would be more expensive because of the higher risk of venereal diseases......

Having sex with one's sister

So this is the view from my bedroom window - they are replacing the sewers and gas and electricity and what-not, which is going to take 10 weeks. And these men start work around 6:30am every week day and wake me up.....
I had dinner with WI last night who told me this story that he had heard from a friend the night before. A guy was drunk last week, meets a girl who is also drunk, he takes her home and as they are having sex (apparently the woman getting fucked while on her side and looking at the wall of the bedroom), the guy's roommate walks in and asks "may I join?" and guy # 1 and the girl agree so guy # 2 takes over from guy # 1 and happily fucks the girl. When they are done they find out that guy # 2 and the girl are brother and sister.... WI claims he believes the story is true, but even if not it is a good story. Makes for nice dinner conversation when visiting mom and dad.
ER says that I am "daddy material" now after gaining weight during my period of inactiveness as a result of my bruises. Well, this weekend I got quite some good attention so if this comes with being a daddy I am not complaining. First Saturday night a Japanese student was interested and yesterday a nice black man. But I have been quite jaded lately so nothing happened.
OS had his 5th operation this morning and he was quite depressed when I visited him just now. The doctors claim they have no idea why his wounds won't heal. He still can't eat and can't talk and the doctors told him he needs to stay another 2 weeks minimum in hospital. And after the wounds have healed he needs to start 6 weeks of daily radio therapy which will cause bad burns in his mouth (and again, no eating and drinking).

Becoming an alcoholic?

I don't know why (or maybe I do?), but for the last few weeks I like to drink some wine every evening. Until recently, I have always been a social drinker, only drinking alcohol (sometimes too much even) in social settings, but never drinking alone. But now I find myself with a glass of wine (or two) in my hands every evening......Well, they say one glass of wine per day is healthy, so as long as I don't drink more it should be OK........This (picture) is the wine I have been drinking quite tasty if you ask me...
OS is still quite sick because he was complaining about this new "student" nurse who according to OS is inexperienced and clumsy, and when he walked in I thought to myself wow, I'd never complain about this guy.....19 or maybe 20 years old, blond, very, very cute, for a split-second I wished I was in hospital.......
Anyway, work is busy my bosses don't want to pay me for extra days but they want me to do the work so I am working close to full-time again and they'll just have to pay me.

How many nationalities did you have sex with?

I received an e-mail from DL from Bangkok who writes: "Hi Happyamsguy, Remember one day that we were walking in the park and talk about how many nationalities that we had sex with, that question came back to me few days ago & I start count again, about 24 this time!! wanna do your?"

OK just for fun, my total is 28 as follows:

Americas: Canada, USA, Mexico, Trinidad & Tobago, Colombia, Ecuador
Europe: Netherlands, Germany, UK, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland
Africa: Morocco
Asia: Japan, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India
Australia: Australia

I am quite sure some of the faithful readers of this blog have a much higher nationality-count!

Shopping for clothes

There are few things in life that I detest more than shopping for clothes. (hence my very fashionable wardrobe hehe) Usually, I go alone but once in a while I find someone who can actually help me find decent clothes quickly. In Singapore, ER helped me buy some shirts last year, and today AA who was visiting from London assisted me. We went to Hennes and Mauritz and within 15 minutes I had found and bought some new clothes. Earlier, I had dimsum with AA, HS and CHU at Cantonese restaurant Nam Tin. I don't know why this place is so popular with Chinese tourists who are coming in by the bus load, as it is not cheap and the food is very average. They probably pay big commissions to the tour operators.
OS is back in his room and doing relatively well. He is starting to look pale from being in hospital beds for 3 weeks. At the earliest he will be allowed to come home at the end of this week, but they could also decide to keep him one more week.

Gays encouraged to come out

The Dutch government has decided to allocate € 2.5 million to encourage gay people to come out to family, friends and colleagues. Education and Culture Minister Ronald Plasterk (picture) said: "The Netherlands has more than 900,000 gay and lesbian inhabitants, that's about 1 in every 16. During the last decades we have given homosexuals equal rights, and discrimination of gays is against the law, but there are still many gay men and women who are in the closet, especially those that live in conservative Christian and Muslim communities. The government will fund organizations that will go into communities, schools, sports clubs, etc. to provide objective information about homosexuality and encourage gays to come out. October 11 will be "coming-out day" every year, which will hopefully make it easier for (young) gays to be open about their homosexuality. The government has arranged the "hard side" of equal rights, now it is time to spend time, money and effort on making homosexuality really accepted in our country, by all and in every town and village, and within every religion."

Of hospitals and condoms

OS had his third operation on Wednesday morning after more internal bleeding during the night. I was called at 530am and when I arrived at the hospital I was quite shocked seeing the bloodbath that OS was in. After the operation he had high fever and too low blood pressure so they decided to keep him in the intensive care department. The fever has gone and the blood pressure is back to normal now, so perhaps he can go back to his "normal" room later today again. Anyway, early in the week he was hoping to go home today but that has now been postponed by at least 10 days.
In better news, the social democrats in the European Parliament want to keep condoms affordable. "The value added tax on condoms throughout the EU should be kept to a minimum. Dutch Labour Party PvdA and other social democrats in the European Parliament are urging for this. They hope this will help stop the spread of HIV and AIDS in Europe. EU members set the VAT rate for condoms in their respective countries. In Sweden and Denmark they are taxed at 25 percent. In the Netherlands condoms are already in the lower VAT bracket of 6 percent. The legal minimum in the EU is 5 percent." Not that I have been a big user of condoms lately, but you never know when happier times will arrive again.

Dark and depressing

It was not a good day. Work was the same old shit and after lunch I was wondering what the heck I was doing there. While cycling home it started to rain; I don't like this time of the year when it is so dark, wet and generally depressing. There was a letter in the mail informing me that they will replace the sewers in the street and will work on the electricity and gas pipes which will take two months. The entire street is gonna be a mess and they want me to clear the entire front garden as they need to work on the private properties as well. OS is getting sick and tired of being in hospital and he used me to vent his anger, which honestly I think I haven't deserved. And I am here alone in front of my computer when I should be in bed with the sweetest man's arm around me.
Signing off for the night.

The Poppers Factory

Have you ever wondered where they make all of these little nice bottles of poppers? As I was driving on the boring road North today to visit my niece, I found the answer. The poppers factory is not far from the town of Lelystad in the Netherlands. The company first started operating in 1910 in Amsterdam. Here is a picture of their first factory:

The Handbag Museum

It was a busy weekend. After the school reunion and the daily hospital visit, I was invited for dinner at RO's place. Once a year, most of the museums in Amsterdam are open until late (at least until 2am) for the so-called "Museum Night". The idea is to make it "cool" to visit a museum, and I think the idea works as thousands of mostly young people were "museum hopping". Our group consisted of RO, MA, WIB, FR, WI, GO and myself and we visited 4 museums: the Film Museum, the Biblical Museum (where we sang Christmas Carols), the Handbag Museum and the Museum of the Tropics. The Handbag Museum was lots of fun for a group of corny gay men. And I liked the collection of 58 "bisj poles" from the Asmat tribe from New Guinea in the Museum of the Tropics.
Today I drove 400km to visit my youngest niece who was celebrating her 13th birthday. A good family reunion. On the way back I visited OS in hospital. I just checked e-mail and my inbox had an e-mail from RE telling me he had lots of fun at Amsterdam Leather Pride weekend. I missed it completely......

A stabilizing factor

This is a picture of the Dalton Scholengemeenschap in Den Haag (The Hague), where I went to (secondary) school from 1973 - 1979. After graduating from this school I moved to Groningen (about 200km North-East) for my University studies, and I never set foot in the school again - until yesterday. Every year the school organizes a "come-back day" for ex-students and I received an e-mail inviting me to the event. Seven of my class mates showed up and it was so nice to see them again after so many years. It is amazing how people don't really change even after 28 years. Well, one of the girls from my class who was not exactly pretty is now a quite beautiful woman, so some do change. And a guy from my group who I always thought of as "a-sexual" was carrying an "Out games Montreal" bag so that's already 3 confirmed gays from my class. (another guy was out even at that time and at the age of 17, unfortunately he didn't show up for the reunion) I also shook hands with 3 of my former teachers. The teacher of Dutch language and literature remembered me as a "stabilizing factor" in our class, I am still wondering what he meant. Well, he is 83 years old now so maybe his memory is not accurate.

Got US$ 1.3 million to spare?

My friend SI from Hong Kong has this fabulous new job developing real estate in Asia. His first project is now on the market and can be seen here. A good reason to win the lottery.

Long socks

I bought some new socks yesterday and when I put the first pair on this morning I had to giggle as they were quite long. Memories of ML in Singapore, who liked to have sex with both of us having long socks on.......

Man arrested for having sex with a bicycle

A proper follow-up to my previous post. A man has been placed on the sex offenders’ register after being caught trying to have sex with a bicycle. Robert Stewart was discovered in his room by two cleaners at the Aberley House Hostel in Ayr, south west Scotland, in October last year. They knocked on the door several times and there was no reply. They used a master key to unlock the door and they then observed the accused wearing only a white T-shirt, naked from the waist down. The accused was holding the bike and moving his hips back and forth as if to simulate sex. Both witnesses, who were extremely shocked, notified the hotel manager, who in turn alerted the police. Mr. Stewart is not the first man to be convicted of a sexual offence involving an inanimate object, however. Karl Watkins, an electrician, was jailed for having sex with pavements in Redditch, Worcs, in 1993.
Only in Britain.....

Bicycle, telephone and investments

I missed my daily bicycle commute to work and suddenly realized why I felt so bloated and tired: not enough fresh air. So today I ignored the pains and decided to ride to work. At first the muscles were painful, but after a few breaths of fresh air I was feeling like an 18-year old boy again.
I spent all evening on the phone. Everybody is calling to ask how is OS and how am I, and for some reason they all have their own sickness stories too. MA has an infection on/under his nose (looks like too many poppers), DAZ has an infected cheek (but his good news is that he starts his new job with the fire brigade tomorrow, aren't we all jealous?), and WIB's partner FR has been suffering from stomach pains. Free investment advice part 3: buy medical stocks now!

Pain killers and comfort food

I realized yesterday when I left the hospital that while OS is kept pain free by loads of pain killers, I am still having pain with just about every move. Of course I could have gone home and swallowed paracetamol pills, but that's not very glamorous or is it?, so I called KE who always has a good supply of weeds at home. We shared two joints and I could feel the stress and tension flow out of my body.
Today when driving home around 830pm after the hospital visit I was thinking whether to 1) eat pizza again; 2) go buy a salad meal; or 3) get Chinese take-away food, when I passed the McDrive. Sometimes the solution to a problem is thrown in your face. Yummie.

Darker days

I got a call from the hospital at 7 am this morning. (or was it 8am - I am confused with the time as last night daylight savings time ended and we got an extra hour of sleep) OS had an internal bleeding of his main artery and they had to operate him again. According to the doctor the situation was "critical" but after the operation he is stable. Now he needs to stay at the intensive care section of the hospital for a longer time.
Went out last night for a few beers at April. Was good to see everyone again and to hear naughty stories that hadn't been reported to me from Singapore yet.

Dreaming about Russian Banks

Now that OS is in a normal hospital room and doing well given the circumstances, my own bruises are slowly healing, and my bathroom is being renovated as we speak, I guess my brain is back to normality so I dreamt about....compliance issues in Russian banks. We won a few large projects in Russia which explains my nightly thoughts. Work has been very busy as we scored lots of new projects. I should be careful or I will build up stress.
When I was in the US I compared notes with DA about the amount of money one needs to retire. (DA retired in his mid 40's) Another 3 or 4 years and I should have enough to follow his example...

Peadophiles use royal photos

The Dutch royal family was shocked to learn that a photo of Princess Amalia had been posted on the website of paedophile association Martijn. "It is almost inconceivable to think of anything further beyond the limit of decency," said a spokesperson for the government information service RVD on behalf of Crown Prince Willem-Alexander. The RVD called on the government attorney to take legal action against Martijn. The photos bore the caption ‘our royal family has once again produced a whole generation of little princes and princesses, thank goodness!' There were also allegedly comments of a sexual nature below the photos. These had been removed by Thursday afternoon however.
I am a very liberal person but I make one exception: peadophiles should all be castrated and banned to some island surrounded by dangerous sharks, and be left alone to rot.

US asks Netherlands to take Guantanamo suspects

A bloody shame. The US has asked the Netherlands to take over a number of prisoners from its Guantanamo Bay camp. So after the US jailed all these people illegally and against all international treaties, denied them a proper trial, they now want to dump the ex-prisoners here. There is only one answer our government should give: FUCK you, America, and solve your own problems.

Thanks for the support

I have been overwhelmed by all the calls, e-mails, sms'es, postcards from friends and family during these days of sickness. You don't know how important all these messages are for me. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
OS is still in intensive care. Still has drains to get rid of the blood, and he will have to be artificially fed for a week they say. Seeing his suffering my own bruises and pains are suddenly a lot more bearable.

In Singapore: logic or anti-gay hatred?

Singapore Member of Parliament and Law Professor Thio Li-ann said the following on Tuesday:
"Anal-penetrative sex is inherently damaging to the body and a misuse of organs, like shoving a straw up your nose to drink. The anus is designed to expel waste; when something is forcibly inserted into it, the muscles contract and cause tearing; fecal waste, viruses carried by sperm and blood thus congregate, with adverse health implications like ‘gay bowel syndrome’, anal cancer. ‘Acts of gross indecency’ under 377A also covers unhygienic practices like “rimming” where the mouth comes into contact with the anus.”
She then proceeds to vote for repealing a law (for heterosexuals only) that prohibited to engage in oral and anal sex.
Makes sense, doesn't it?

A sentimental bitch....

...yes, that's me. OS had his 9-hour operation today and according to the doctor who called me (the handsome one!) everything went "according to protocol" whatever that is supposed to mean. I went to the hospital and I guess I wasn't prepared for the carnage that I was seeing. They cut him open from this left ear all the way down and up again to his chin, easily 15-20cm. So now he is full of stitches and what looks like staples. Two tubes inserted into his throat to get rid of all the blood from the big wounds, and when I was there the blood flowed like the Niagara Falls on a rainy day. Add more sensors, artifical breathing, blood dripping out of his mouth and you get the picture. His eyes were closed (so soon after the operation still effects from the anaesthesia) but when I touched him he looked up for a few seconds and a few tears flowed. And when I told this story to my mum I had a tear in my eye, too. Sentimental bitch, me.

Larry Craig's New Music Video

Larry Craig is the US Senator who was trying to get sex in a toilet. Thanks to DA for sending me this link.

Work - hospital -sleep

OS has been admitted to hospital yesterday and will have his operation tomorrow. I must say I am quite impressed with the care he is getting: lots of nurses around, a nice room all for himself with a great view, lots of choices for food and drinks. It is a huge hospital: the Academisch Medisch Centrum was completed in 1980 and at that time was the largest building in Europe. Now let's hope the doctors are successful in doing what they need to do tomorrow. In the mean time, all I do is go to work, after work go to hospital, come home, and sleep.

Cyclist may continue to ignore other traffic

Dutch Transport Minister Camiel Eurlings decided today that cyclists may continue listening to music while cycling. According to Mr. Eurlings, the dangers to traffic safety are negligible and enforcing such a ban could only be achieved by deploying extensive police surveillance. Having seen on a daily basis how listening to music and talking on phones by cyclists is jeopardizing their own and others' safety, and still being in pain from my own cycling accident, I disagree with the Minister.

Singapore keeps anti-gay laws

Singapore's leaders today decided to follow, not lead. Bigots and religious zealots got their way. Parliament kept the penal code's section 377A, which makes sex between men a criminal offence, rejecting a petition by gay rights activists and their non-homosexual supporters to abolish the law as well.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, appropriately dressed in a pink/purple shirt, needed a few lies to convince his audience that discrimination and non-inclusiveness is actually OK: “....if you look at Western Europe, the marriage as an institution is dead, families have broken down, the majority of children are born out of wedlock and live in families where the father and the mother are not husband and wife living together bringing them up.”
Mr Lee, I don't know where you get this nonsense from, but in Western Europe the vast majority of children are living in traditional families. Sometimes the father and mother are not married, but does it matter if they are loving parents to their children?