Monday, 9 September 2013
Sunday, 8 September 2013
Would you rather have AIDS or die from eating McRibs?
I was searching online for McDonald's McRibs and I stumbled upon a website article asking the question above. It was rather shocking to me to compare McDonalds to AIDS. I know McD is not really healthy, but this writer interviewed some people to ask if they would rather have AIDS or McRibs. Out of curiosity, I had to read the entire article. Some comments were funny too: "fuck you vice and vice staff mcribs are delicious ask a fat person instead of these gaunt dickless squares"
Link: http://www.vice.com/read/question-of-the-day---would-you-rather-have-aids-or-have-to-eat-strictly-mcribs-for-the-rest-of-your-life
Have you tasted the McDonalds Chicken McRibs?
I haven't. But, I have seen it. It was drenched with sauce! My family says it is quite good.
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I have tried the Pork McRib in Trier, Germany. It was sweet. Give me a filet-o-fish anytime!
If you miss the Pork McRibs, here is a recipe to DIY: http://www.topsecretrecipes.com/mcdonalds-mcrib-sandwich-recipe.html
Link: http://www.vice.com/read/question-of-the-day---would-you-rather-have-aids-or-have-to-eat-strictly-mcribs-for-the-rest-of-your-life
Have you tasted the McDonalds Chicken McRibs?
I haven't. But, I have seen it. It was drenched with sauce! My family says it is quite good.
.png)
I have tried the Pork McRib in Trier, Germany. It was sweet. Give me a filet-o-fish anytime!
If you miss the Pork McRibs, here is a recipe to DIY: http://www.topsecretrecipes.com/mcdonalds-mcrib-sandwich-recipe.html
Growing up
Its always nice to look back at old pictures and see how much we have grown.
 |
| My aunties, cousins and I. Can you spot me? :) |
When I look back at all the pictures I took, I realised my hairstyle changed and my weight fluctuated. At the very beginning of uni I thought I was fat.
But, when I look at the old photo now, I was not as fat as I thought I was. I am fatter now! HAH!
Before uni started, I was in USA and I was on my feet most of the time. So, I had plenty of exercise.
 |
| Photoshoot for Prestige magazine 2008 |
In uni, it was mostly burning time in the library. Also, unhealthy food became part of my life once uni began. I remember buying so many teh tarik and chicken sandwich because it was the only easy thing to eat in the library. I also started baking, cooking more and trying more food! Before uni, I hardly ate fried food, seldom had McDonalds cravings and I went to gym on a weekly basis.
 |
| Stilla makeover = photoshopped imperfections |
Suffice to say, not watching what I ate over the years is detrimental. It is also important to have a partner who wants to be healthy too because studies have shown that woman who start dating will gain weight. This was because they try to eat the same portion as their other half on dates.
Three months ago, I started jogging, doing you tube exercises and watching what I ate. I had so much fat to burn that I was losing 1kg per week. That was amazing to me because so many times I lose control of what I eat.
20% exercise, 80% diet!
Getting Older
I had a weird thought this morning. Okay, this happens quite a lot to me, but this one actually prompted a blog. The thought was this: I compared an average life span of say 80 years to a calendar year. It occurred to me on this basis, that I was in June. That's an odd thought, but not an unpleasant one.
Then I decided to be a bit more precise about this. If we take a good life span as 85 years, and spread that across the year, I'm actually on 29 June (day 180 of the 365 of the year). My Mutti is on 5 October. My boyfriend (still unacceptably young) is about to burst into blossom. He's on 31 March. But here I am, in the "summer of my years".
Hitting 40
Like everyone I have fretted about my age at various times. I remember thinking that I wanted to stop the clock forever at 24: the perfect age. 30 is of course a big milestone, though to be honest it wasn't one that bothered me particularly. 40, hung over me, however, like a giant circling vulture looking for a tasty sheep carcass to feed on. From every birthday 35 onwards I feared it's approach.
For a gay man 40 is particularly significant, you see. In "gay years" (akin to dog years) you're dead at 30. At 40 you're a zombie, who has been dead, buried, exhumed and then cremated. So in fact you're zombie ashes. You don't really exist. At least that's the perceived wisdom out there. When I got to 40, was I bothered? No, it was wonderfully liberating to stop worrying about it. I just thought "meh, I look great, feel great and who cares". And of course shortly afterwards I met my devastatingly dashing boyfriend just to prove what nonsense all of this is.
Celebrate Every Stage
Every stage of my life has had something wonderful to commend it. I had the most ridiculously fortunate, happy childhood. I was nicknamed the "Cheshire Cat" because I permanently had a happy grin on my face. It was a childhood full of love and joy and huge amounts of travel. We moved house 12 times in my first 12 years and I'd been to 20 odd countries by the time I was seven. Being an "army brat" meant for me that my family was a constant source of stability, and we were used to being outgoing, making friends rapidly and settling in quickly.
Let's skip over my teen period, because let's face it no one wants to hear about living in a bungalow in Cowplain (aka "Cowpat") in Hampshire and being a spotty youth who spent hours torturing himself over being gay. I soon snapped out of that, and from sixth form onwards things improved rapidly.
University (Cambridge: get me, first from Cowpat Comprehensive to get in!) and law school were all good, with loads more travel at every opportunity. I found the constant moving of my things in and out of rooms frustrating though and longed for a place to call my own. That came when I moved to London, my first proper job in a big law firm, and moving in with my then boyfriend. I could start to put down roots, and it felt fantastic!
Since then, well things have just got better and better, despite some bumps along the way. I'd say I've never been happier than right now. It's the summer of my life: the garden is planted, it's coming into full bloom and life will pan out (baring any unexpected disasters) on the course that all that hard work in the earlier months of the year have set out. All the angst of wondering what I will do, where I will be etc are long gone. I'm blessed to be incredibly healthy and I take good care of myself. I'm materially well off, and I'm so lucky to be able to travel crazy amounts still.
I've experienced people I've loved dying and this was not something I'd known before. Even people of my own age or younger, which is a huge shock to the system, and truly brings home the reality of mortality. Of course there might be storms and dark, frightening times (who knows what lies round the corner), but in general there should be long, light, sunny days to look forward to for many months to come. Late June is a great time of year!
Time Speeds Up
Life definitely speeds up as we get older. At least our perception of it certainly does. Apparently it's to do with new experiences: if we want to "slow time down" we should expose ourselves to new things. If you're doing things you're not used to, time seems to pass more slowly. I was thinking about one day I had on holiday in Switzerland recently: we packed an impossible amount of things into one single day (a cable car, scooter bikes, driving along lakes, husky trekking and fondue on a mountainside) and I remember virtually every minute. I compare that to one day at the office, when week after week merges together and I can't remember a single thing that stands out.
Where there is monotony, contrary to what you might instinctively think, the years fly by. Consider it this way: when you were 7, a year seemed an incredibly long period of time. Everything was new and fresh, and you perceived it in a different way, full of exploration. Nowadays the months merge into each other and the years "fly by" - unless you're doing lots of new things and trying out experiences you never have before. If you've been on a long motorway journey it can seem to go on forever, but often when you arrive you can't remember any of it. Apparently we go into a different type of consciousness (similar to a trance) and that's why we don't register the time in the same way.
In any case, doing new things is apparently how to slow time down, if you wish to. If you're used to lots of travel and each trip merges into the next, do something different for a change. I went on "Go Ape" recently: where I was hanging from a zip wire up trees in Thetford Forest for 3 hours. It was amazing and something I'd never done before. Again, I remember every minute of it. If you're used to hanging from trees, go the theatre. If you go to the theatre weekly, take a Japanese cookery course. Etc.
Autumn and Winter
My summer will eventually come to and end, and autumn will loom. What's the point in regretting that you're no longer as young as you were? Autumn offers warm evenings in front of the fire, interspersed with still many sunny days, and perhaps changing the pace of what I do. I have a feeling I'll be just as happy then as I was then. Perhaps I'm essentially just a dog (click on the link for an explanation) and every time of life is my "favourite thing". It's not a bad philosophy.
Winter will follow, and there's no changing that. Winter too has much to commend it. There is nothing more certain than the cycle of the calendar year, and the fact life will at some point end for us all. If you make it to the end of December I think it's fair to acknowledge that this is of itself a wonderful blessing, and far from everyone has this opportunity.
So, whatever date you are on in your life (see below), I hope it's a good one for you. There's no winding the clock back, and gay boys... you don't die at 40, or even 30. There IS life after death!
Peter x
To find out your day, divide your age by 85. Then multiply the result by 365. Google for example "200 day of the year" and the exact day will appear as a result.
Then I decided to be a bit more precise about this. If we take a good life span as 85 years, and spread that across the year, I'm actually on 29 June (day 180 of the 365 of the year). My Mutti is on 5 October. My boyfriend (still unacceptably young) is about to burst into blossom. He's on 31 March. But here I am, in the "summer of my years".
Hitting 40
Like everyone I have fretted about my age at various times. I remember thinking that I wanted to stop the clock forever at 24: the perfect age. 30 is of course a big milestone, though to be honest it wasn't one that bothered me particularly. 40, hung over me, however, like a giant circling vulture looking for a tasty sheep carcass to feed on. From every birthday 35 onwards I feared it's approach.
For a gay man 40 is particularly significant, you see. In "gay years" (akin to dog years) you're dead at 30. At 40 you're a zombie, who has been dead, buried, exhumed and then cremated. So in fact you're zombie ashes. You don't really exist. At least that's the perceived wisdom out there. When I got to 40, was I bothered? No, it was wonderfully liberating to stop worrying about it. I just thought "meh, I look great, feel great and who cares". And of course shortly afterwards I met my devastatingly dashing boyfriend just to prove what nonsense all of this is.
Celebrate Every Stage
Every stage of my life has had something wonderful to commend it. I had the most ridiculously fortunate, happy childhood. I was nicknamed the "Cheshire Cat" because I permanently had a happy grin on my face. It was a childhood full of love and joy and huge amounts of travel. We moved house 12 times in my first 12 years and I'd been to 20 odd countries by the time I was seven. Being an "army brat" meant for me that my family was a constant source of stability, and we were used to being outgoing, making friends rapidly and settling in quickly.
 |
| Cheshire Cat (Centre). Ugly/Annoying big bros (R/L) |
Let's skip over my teen period, because let's face it no one wants to hear about living in a bungalow in Cowplain (aka "Cowpat") in Hampshire and being a spotty youth who spent hours torturing himself over being gay. I soon snapped out of that, and from sixth form onwards things improved rapidly.
University (Cambridge: get me, first from Cowpat Comprehensive to get in!) and law school were all good, with loads more travel at every opportunity. I found the constant moving of my things in and out of rooms frustrating though and longed for a place to call my own. That came when I moved to London, my first proper job in a big law firm, and moving in with my then boyfriend. I could start to put down roots, and it felt fantastic!
 |
| Living in Amsterdam, late 20s |
I've experienced people I've loved dying and this was not something I'd known before. Even people of my own age or younger, which is a huge shock to the system, and truly brings home the reality of mortality. Of course there might be storms and dark, frightening times (who knows what lies round the corner), but in general there should be long, light, sunny days to look forward to for many months to come. Late June is a great time of year!
 |
| Enjoying summer! Me with my loved ones |
Time Speeds Up
Life definitely speeds up as we get older. At least our perception of it certainly does. Apparently it's to do with new experiences: if we want to "slow time down" we should expose ourselves to new things. If you're doing things you're not used to, time seems to pass more slowly. I was thinking about one day I had on holiday in Switzerland recently: we packed an impossible amount of things into one single day (a cable car, scooter bikes, driving along lakes, husky trekking and fondue on a mountainside) and I remember virtually every minute. I compare that to one day at the office, when week after week merges together and I can't remember a single thing that stands out.
Where there is monotony, contrary to what you might instinctively think, the years fly by. Consider it this way: when you were 7, a year seemed an incredibly long period of time. Everything was new and fresh, and you perceived it in a different way, full of exploration. Nowadays the months merge into each other and the years "fly by" - unless you're doing lots of new things and trying out experiences you never have before. If you've been on a long motorway journey it can seem to go on forever, but often when you arrive you can't remember any of it. Apparently we go into a different type of consciousness (similar to a trance) and that's why we don't register the time in the same way.
In any case, doing new things is apparently how to slow time down, if you wish to. If you're used to lots of travel and each trip merges into the next, do something different for a change. I went on "Go Ape" recently: where I was hanging from a zip wire up trees in Thetford Forest for 3 hours. It was amazing and something I'd never done before. Again, I remember every minute of it. If you're used to hanging from trees, go the theatre. If you go to the theatre weekly, take a Japanese cookery course. Etc.
Autumn and Winter
My summer will eventually come to and end, and autumn will loom. What's the point in regretting that you're no longer as young as you were? Autumn offers warm evenings in front of the fire, interspersed with still many sunny days, and perhaps changing the pace of what I do. I have a feeling I'll be just as happy then as I was then. Perhaps I'm essentially just a dog (click on the link for an explanation) and every time of life is my "favourite thing". It's not a bad philosophy.
Winter will follow, and there's no changing that. Winter too has much to commend it. There is nothing more certain than the cycle of the calendar year, and the fact life will at some point end for us all. If you make it to the end of December I think it's fair to acknowledge that this is of itself a wonderful blessing, and far from everyone has this opportunity.
 |
| Oscar (11) is nearing his winter days. What a great life he's had. |
So, whatever date you are on in your life (see below), I hope it's a good one for you. There's no winding the clock back, and gay boys... you don't die at 40, or even 30. There IS life after death!
Peter x
To find out your day, divide your age by 85. Then multiply the result by 365. Google for example "200 day of the year" and the exact day will appear as a result.
Monday, 2 September 2013
Sam Bailey - X- factor UK
If you have not heard her sing, you should!
It made me tear because it was amazing.
I had a new haircut yesterday. It cost 5 pounds only and the hairdresser was a pro!
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