Date experiences

I randomly came upon these stories of date experiences on Facebook and found them pretty hilarious so decided to share them here. Some of them are unusual and some downright disturbing. I'm just trying hard to imagine what these people had to go through!

This makes me remember a first date experience I had when I was younger that didn't lead to a second date with the girl. I was 15 and had just moved to Hong Kong with my family. It was a time when ICQ was the rage among my generation (I feel old now) and you could use it to meet strangers who were (or claimed to be) in your age group and vicinity.

I met a girl online and we caught up about our lives. She said she was very sporty and listed the teams she captained in her school, so I built up a certain impression about her. She refused to send over any pictures of herself and I guess that only built up the intrigue a bit. When she asked for a 'blind date', I agreed.

It was my first and last blind date. Ever.

Back then we didn't have handphones and so when I go to the train station I was supposed to meet her, I was early and decided to call my best friend from the payphone for moral support. Halfway through my conversation I looked up and saw someone smiling and striding to me confidently. She was so different from what I had pictured that I actually mouthed 'oh shit' to my friend on the phone and the girl saw it and frowned.

Pretty bad start to a first date.

The girl had red hair, was short and rather...overweight. No matter. She seemed friendly and so I decided to try to make the best of it.

She asked if I was willing to take the train with her to the mainland side of HK which I'd never been because that was where she was familiar with. I went along and we took a long ride to the mall she wanted to go to. The conversation was pleasant enough. I asked about the hockey team that she said she captained in school...

We arrived at the mall and three of her guy friends showed up. They appeared to have been waiting. That was all right with me to hang out in a group. I just hoped they didn't have any bad intentions.

She decided to get another piercing on one of her ears - the seventh hole in a right ear filled with six earrings already. Then she insisted to go for a movie.

I hadn't heard of the movie before, Reconstructing Harry starring Woody Allen, but it turned out to be filled with sexually explicit scenes which was completely uncensored (unless I'm remembering wrongly from 17 years ago since I never watched it again...). Whatever it was, I remember feeling very uncomfortable watching it next to a girl on a first date (her friends sat on another row)...especially since she knew I was a Youth Leader in the church.

We hung out for a bit after the movie then I excused myself to head back and take the long train ride home alone. It was the most comfortable I had been all day sitting on that train reflecting on the experience.

All in all, it wasn't a terrible day. I didn't get mugged in mainland HK by her 3 friends. She was a pleasant enough person.

What happened after? We kept in touch as friends for maybe a year. She never asked for a date again and neither did I. I like to think she didn't because she sensed I didn't want to pursue it rather than she finding me unattractive but that's just for my ego.

In this day and age, it's probably not safe to go for these type of blind dates anymore, unless maybe the person has been vetted by someone you trust. But it was a unique experience I'll remember nonetheless...

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Thankful

"Blessed indeed is the man who hears many gentle voices call him father."

~Lydia M. Child~

There's been no greater adventure in my life than fatherhood.

These two little munchkins may have taken energy, finances and time away from me, but they've given so much more life than I could ever imagine. They are truly the two most incredible girls in the world.

As different as night and day but one is very much as precious as the other. Fighting each other every single day but so fiercely protective and loving of each other at the same time, they call out the other's name as they fall asleep and then smile when they wake up next to other.

What grace from God to allow them to be close in age so that they can grow up to be the best of friends. The older sister is already counting the days for the younger one to enter the same preschool so that she can take care of her.

I thank God every day seeing them grow up and fall in love with them even more as time goes by. They will grow up so loved and they will know it - I'm praying that as they comprehend it more, it will be a love that strengthens and helps them to grow in humility and confidence, rather than cause them to feel entitled or be spoilt.

There's something about hearing the words, 'I love you, daddy', gently spoken with complete innocence and sincerity. You can hardly find in adults anymore and it gives you hope for the human nature and condition, that we can always reach for something greater.

That it's within our capacity to be a better person if we can find the child in our hearts that is not afraid to explore, to love and to live.

I am grateful.

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3 things

There three most important things I learnt in my 20s:

1. You can't out-exercise irresponsible eating.
2. You can't out-earn irresponsible spending.
3. You can't out-pray irresponsible living.

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Playground observations

In general, depending on who brings a child to the playground, there are different levels of risk the child is exposed to. I’m not saying that it’s always true but it’s pretty accurate most times.

So just for fun, let’s start with the most risky and work our way down.

The dads

The biggest culprits who expose their kids to the most risk. They usually give the child free reign and freedom of the entire playground. Many times, they stand off and either watch from a distance or fiddle with their phones while waiting. There were times when I’d see a kid rampaging around and I’d look around wondering where the parent was; it would be the dad right on the opposite side of the playground, checking out cute joggers.

The babysitters

Many children nowadays are primarily taken care of by full time babysitters, often from Indonesia or Philippines. They half-heartedly chase the kid around, while regularly calling the child’s name in a whiny, scolding tone. They already know the child won’t listen to them because of the times the parents have let the children override them. It’s not their own child so the ownership level is obviously different. The only thing that keeps them following the child around is that they’d get in trouble if there was an injury.

The grandfathers

Even though I’ve ranked grandfathers as pretty ‘risky’, it’s not that they’re not careful. They just tend to be older and find it hard to keep up with the child running around, even though many of them still think they can! At the same time, I find that men tend to have a lower intuition for danger, and that sense for what’s going on around them continues getting more numb as they grow older, not for lack of effort. There’s no tingling sensation when something is about to go wrong which moms tend to pick up almost on a superhuman level.

The moms

Moms tend to let the child enjoy within boundaries of safety. They can play on the first and maybe the second slide, come to the third and highest one, and it’s “that’s too high for you dear, let the big kids go there, you’ll fall down”. Mothers also like to treat things as a learning experience, every moment of the day. “Don’t help my child up. I want to let her learn that she’s gotta do it herself!” “See? You are unable to climb up this ladder so you should grow older first.” “Come away from that. You can play here and here, but not there.”

The grandmothers

I really pity the grandmas. They follow the child through every narrow tunnel, every bridge, every stair, sometimes even the slide, all the while holding both hands out in case she needs to cushion an inadvertent bump at every turn. You can see their concern that anything could happen anytime which could hurt their precious grandchild, and they are the only ones who can be the all-present protector. And you can also see the beads of sweat on her forehead, the slight shaking as she stoops over, where the next day is sure to come with a few aches.

The dads (again)

But who gets the award of being the safest for the child to be with? Once again the fathers…who go to the playground with both the child AND the mother. The mother will be following the other two around, making statements non-stop. “That’s too dangerous for our boo-boo. Take him there.” “Careful of his head, dear! He came so close to bumping it on the railing. Are you even watching him???” “Should we go soon? There are so many other kids and they could knock over our little one.” Inevitably, the dad becomes a bit like the grandmother, only fitter, hovering close by and trying to cushion all the imaginary falls and dangers, all the while being ‘supervised’ by the closely observing mommy. He knows there’ll be hell to pay if the child makes even a little stumble.

I don’t know whether I pity the grandmothers more or these dads…

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Random Fact

My wife told me that she was running out of work pants to wear so I gave full consent for her to go out and look for new ones to buy.

The next day she came home with six new pants...or was it seven?

Two weeks later, we found out she was pregnant.

And two weeks after that, she could no longer fit in her new pants because of the way it placed pressure on her navel area.

Sigh.

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