Oral Sex is now legal in Singapore...

From an email about the Consultation Paper on the Proposed Penal Code Amendments..
V: you can no longer say that 'Singapore is boring because oral sex is illegal'.
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Besides the serious stuff, e.g. inclusions to protect persons with mental disorders and minors, and the expected changes to include virtual and digital crimes, there are some interesting amendments.

These give us an idea of how society has "evolved" (read "degenerated") since the Penal Code was last reviewed in 1984.

Consensual oral and anal sex are now legal.
Homosexuality has been made ambiguous.
Transsexuals are now protected against rape.
The husband can now be charged for rape of the wife.
Girls under 16 years old can be charged for incest but not boys (Penal Code says "they are not mature enough to make an informed decision". Read "Boys are more stupid than girls").
Incest now covers sexual acts between grandmother and grandson.
It is a new offence to have sex with a dead person.
It is now not an offence to take away a married woman.

You can submit your comments at www.reach.gov.sg

turtle on a rack

I recently came across live green turtles being sold at the market in Manado, Indonesia. If the turtles had been caught within the Bunaken Marine Park, I suppose we can bring this to the attention of the marine police to take action against the illegal capture and sale of the turtles. But if the turtles had been caught outside of the Marine Park, does that mean that it is under no one's jurisdiction and therefore there is no way of preventing such acts from being committed again - unless the Indon govt ratifies the CITES and brings errant fishermen to task?

I heard that some divers had previously bought the turtles and released them back to the sea. Although well-meaning, I am not sure if this may not end up encouraging the locals to catch even more turtles since it becomes a lucrative source of income for them.

There is no easy solution for this. If divers stop buying the turtles, perhaps it will give the signal that we are not supporting this illegal trade. At the same time, we need to raise awareness among the non-diving locals that divers want to see turtles swimming freely in the sea, not laid on a rack in the market.

Perhaps something can also be done to encourage dive resorts to involve more locals in the dive industry. I think the practice in Bali works, where the women and children help carry divers gear and are paid an income for that. Only if the locals benefit from the dive industry will they support it. And this support will in turn, benefit the dive resorts.

Just to air my views. Was appalled and saddened by the fate of the 3 turtles lying in the dust in the muddy markets of Manado. If anyone has any ideas or views to share about what we can do about this, I will be happy to hear them.

j dinner

dinner at nirai kanai at the dinghy tanglin shopping centre on 3 nov, with yuki-chan, and whats-their-names-i-forgot. one of them kindly brought yuki's fins back from tioman. it fell overboard due to big wave or something and the dm later retrieved it.

it serves okinawan cuisine and their local liquor, awamori - somewhat like whisky but lighter. goes well with the light, tasty food made with very fresh ingredients. it can be mixed with water, lime, soda or even milk.

the place is very popular with the japanese community in singapore. best to make a reservation in advance, otherwise, you may have to sit at the counter which uses ridiculously high bar stools that are not friendly to vertically challenged folks.

due to some miscomm, whats-his-name didnt make a reservation so we ended up at the counter. yuki used her charms on the cute beach-boy-looking boss (complete with j-slippers) and we were subsequently ushered to a nice sit-down table.

they don't offer the usual j-fare that one finds in those commercialised sushi joints. so i left yuki to do all the ordering. my only t&c - no scary food. she suggested bitter gourd - but i didnt like bitter gourd. only afterwards did i find out that is their speciality! duh!

we ordered pork slices salad instead. lettuce was very fresh and crunchy and pork slices picked up the flavour of the salad dressing very well. i wanted to imitate the exaggerated exclamations of "OISHIIII", the way the hosts in japan hour always do but held back cos the two strangers at the same dinner table may get freaked out and think i'm mad.














yuki didnt bother with my t&c when she ordered pig's ears. i tried one strip and decided it is too gross to eat something's ears. the presentation of the dish was beautiful though. by slicing the ears into thin strips and mixed with innocent bean sprouts, the dish didnt remind anyone that those are really flappy ears.
















another attractive dish. j pizza or hirayachi (similar to okonomiyaki but thinner), which is like an omelette with some red and green pickles and dried fish shavings. i didnt really like the taste though.














the two strangers are regulars at tioman. they dived there a week ago and said the vis was mama mia! more than 20m. so now we know when is best time to dive tioman....

the new blair witch project

starring roseo as the blair witch... crank up volume of speakers to loudest for the full effect.

electric clam

i finally got to see the electric clam in manado. after nagging noldi during the whole trip to find it. as usual, he delivered. and he found it even without using his torch. he was telling us in a yayapapaya tone after the dive that the dive guide from the other diveshop cldnt find it even after circling around the site for the entire dive.

i have been wanting to see it since 2 years ago when noldi posed the teaser on the last day of my dive trip that the following could be found in manado:
1. Basket Star
2. Boxer Crab
3. Electricity emitting clam
4. Pencil urchin
5. Harlequin Shrimp

being a sucker for advertisements, i was lured back to manado exactly 2 years later. this trip, saw the boxer crab (minus one claw), pencil urchin (i found it under a coral rubble) and the clam. but we didnt find the basket star or the harlequin. according to noldi, if we see everything, we won't go back again. he may be right....

announcement

yeyang got into the gifted program. we are so proud of you!