Although it was only a matter of time, it has been a friggin long wait nevertheless. You can now transact in Singapore dollars through PayPal. This should be good news for Singapore online merchants and bad news for WorldPay and eNets, the two dominant credit card processing companies in Singapore. Reasons to switch?

No setup fee
No annual fee
No cash holding period
Lower transaction fees

Well...turns out I've changed. I was ENTP five years ago when I last took the test with my co-workers at Team Days in Milwaukee. Took it last night again and I am ENTJ "with a very high J actually".

So I've changed from a Visionary to an Executive over the years. Although it's so much cooler to be a Visionary, I read the profiles again and I'm quite certain I'm more of an Executive.

Anyway, here's how one website describes ENTJ...

ENTJs generally have the following traits:

Driven to turn theories into plans
Highly value knowledge
Future-oriented
Natural leaders
Impatient with inefficiency and incompetence
Want things structured and orderly
Excellent verbal communication skills
Dislike routine, detail-oriented tasks
Self-confident
Decisive

ENTJs are especially well-suited to be leaders and organization builders. They have the ability to clearly identify problems and innovative solutions for the short and long-term well-being of an organization. Having a strong desire to lead, they're not likely to be happy as followers. ENTJs like to be in charge, and need to be in charge to take advantage of their special capabilities.

In this world, till now, there's only one person whom I have no basic respect for as an individual, and he is the only person I hate. Just got news that my ex-boss drowned while swimming/diving off a Malaysian island a few days ago.

So now I can truly say I have basic respect for every human being and I bear no hatred towards anyone. I hope this signifies a new beginning for me. I have been troubled for a very long time.

They came across my other blog, http://blog.mensfolio.com, which talks about nothing but men's accessories, and they wanted me to do sorta like a review on the guide. It's all part of their buzz marketing efforts through blogs.

Anyway I received the magazine today that flew in all the way from New York City (Makes me feel important. I know...I'm pathetic!). Haven't really got round to doing a "book review" but I really liked this section called Sprezzatura. It's an Italian word coined in the 16th-century. Supposedly it means, in their words, "a certain nonchalance which conceals all artistry and makes whatever one says or does seem uncontrived and effortless".

They said: "The ultimate ambition of elegant male style is working hard to look as if you don't give it a thought at all."

The statement is so true. It's pure hypocrisy I know. But it's so true.

Fond memories of sprezzatura include:

Shopping at H&M on 5th Avenue in a plain white T and blue jeans and my Ekin sunglasses when a H&M staff came up to me and asked where I got my sunglasses and I gave him the God-I-can't-remember-where-I-got-this look.

Shopping with Yaofeng at Mossimo Dutti at Ngee Ann City wearing my DSquared sneakers and the cute and smart-looking Malay salesperson serving Yaofeng said to me "Sir, I love your shoes" and I frowned and looked down and gave him the What-Shoes-Am-I-Wearing-Today? look.

Ok...enough hypocrisy for the day (or rather I can't think of any other instances).

I miss staying up late at night chatting with Adelle, with her reeking of mosquito repellant.

I miss playing squash with Toon every week. (This trip we managed to squeeze in a squash session. A close fight ensued but I prevailed in the end.)

I miss driving in KL, where you don't need to worry about signaling or cutting people off.

I miss having chicken, roasted meat and char siew with Yaofeng at the roadside stall behind Bangsar Village.

I miss the free wifi in almost every cafe. (I still can't understand why it's so difficult to offer free wifi in Singapore. Kudos to Lu Hong's Book Cafe.)

I miss the Indian banana leaf restaurant at Bangsar Village. (Toon, Seow Wei and I had lunch there today before I drove back.)

I miss the cheap(er) petrol.

I miss the 12 ringgit dvds from the video store where Desmond used to work. (Went passed it today and Toon told me that it had been raided and had shut down.)

I miss my regular dose of porn from the dodgy store near Regent Hotel.

I miss salsa dancing at Qbar, not that I do that very frequently.

I miss working from the Starbucks cafe in KLCC.

Toon proudly told me that he got his first invitation to a gay wedding in South Africa. We started talking about gay marriage, civil unions, wedding rituals.

Then we got into this whole conversation about gay saunas in Singapore and Seow Wei started to wonder why there aren't saunas for heterosexuals where people could just meet up for sex. We never got a conclusion. Maybe those places do exist.

Although the food was good and the company was great, what really made my day was a brief 10 minutes MSN chat with YF right before I had to leave for dinner. It was the most open and honest conversation we had since we started seeing each other. That ten minutes drew us a lot closer than all those time we spent before that. It just shows one thing - any interaction between two people, where either one person, or both persons, are inauthentic is a complete waste of time. So for goodness' sake, I need to stop being a pussy and wasting time.

Well the venue may not be typical but the movie definitely was. Both of us could only make it on Thursday and we ended up watching a chick flick - Just Like Heaven - by Reese Witherspoon on a Ladies' Night. Totally predictable plot: Girl was set up on a date with Guy. Girl never met Guy because she met with an accident and went into a coma. Guy coincidentally moved into Girl's apartment that was rented out. Girl's spirit showed up at the apartment. Only Guy could see and communicate with Girl's spirit. Guy and Girl's spirit fell in love. Guy got Girl out of the coma by giving her a kiss. Guy and Girl lived happily ever after.

Ya...I know it's predictable but I thought it left us both feeling warm and fuzzy after the show. I like feeling warm and fuzzy around him :-)

We were talking about Aiesec U.S. 50th Anniversary alumni gathering that's happening in New York end October. Both of us are not gonna be there. So many of our friends are now living in NYC - Anu, Joe, Sapna, Scott, Dave, Rickesh...

We ended up talking about peaches and coconuts. I was commenting that Americans seem to enjoy and feel more comfortable interacting in a big group. And he likened Americans to peaches - soft outside, hard inside, and Asians to coconuts - hard outside, soft inside. For a moment, I thought he's gonna say Asians are hard outside, hollow inside. Then I would have punched him :-)

We met up with Jessica, Cecilia, Elvin and Pavel for dinner at a japanese restaurant in The Esplanade. Here's a picture of one Taiwanese, one Hongkie, one Malaysian, one local and two Russians.

Here's a picture of his nervous uncle forcing a smile while carrying him (while standing) for the very first time. He was in a really cute OshKosh BGosh jumper and his uncle was in a really cool Energie t-shirt ;-)

Fuiting says Ah Be looks really yayapapaya but I think he looks frightened, as if I may drop him any time.

I dunno. I think it was the fact that we hung out on Tuesday and Wednesday night and I'm reminded that the intention was to hang out and have fun during his stay in Singapore. It really isn't that complicated. Plus I want him to go back without needing to wonder if things are ok between us.

The only difference is that we're enjoying each other's company without enjoying each other physically. It's not easy to resist the temptation and I'm actually surprised that I can be so logical when I want to.

Looking forward to tonight. Hanging out for the first time with Andre after a couple of SMS and MSN chats since I bumped into him last Saturday at Mox. I haven't done karaoke for months and this week I shall do it twice. I promised Warren and gang to go karaoke on Sunday and Andre suggested going karaoke tonight. So lotsa singing this weekend.

Fui Ting says:
anyway, bad news..
Fui Ting says:
baby kerna attacked by mosquito last nite..
Fui Ting says:
a total of at least 12 bites have been identified
blureye says:
oh my god!
Fui Ting says:
the attacker has been executed
blureye says:
hahahahaha
Fui Ting says:
we are now into defense mode
blureye says:
the maid kerna executed too?
Fui Ting says:
just went to buy mosquito patch, anti mozzie candles, insect repellent
Fui Ting says:
maid not executed cos the attack occured late in the nite when daddy and mummy were on duty
Fui Ting says:
mummy was attacked too..
blureye says:
hahahahahahaha
Fui Ting says:
but couldnt find the attacker last nite and was too tired to really go and find
Fui Ting says:
now grandma is blaming daddy and mummy for not catching the mozzy
Fui Ting says:
say, mummy and daddy bitten nevermind.. but not baby..
Fui Ting says:
its like we are not human beings lor
Fui Ting says:
we kerna bite
blureye says:
that's wat she said to the maid too the last time round mah
Fui Ting says:
haha