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."