Hello again.

I’ve finished touching up the report I mentioned earlier so I decided to do the only fun thing I can do without getting caught. So here’s another blog just 3 hours after I wrote my previous one. (and if you look real closely, you’ll notice my spelling should have improved thanks to me finally finding the Microsoft word programme)

As you know I have a lot of aunties in the factory. One of them looks too young to be called auntie but too old to be called “miss” (xiao jie). At best, I would say she’s 35 because I know she has a daughter or something. (I saw one of those childish kindergarten portraits glued to her desk.

It would seem like I am stalking her so before anyone screams “pervert!” I must clarify that I don’t really have much choice but to look at her and her desk. After all, she sat next to us for 2 days. For 2 days, we were assigned to help her with assembly work. Assembly work is really easy. It’s just like LEGO, except that screws are occasionally needed. I simply take 1 plastic part and snap it on to another plastic part. If that doesn’t sound like LEGO to you, I can only say you must have had a deprived childhood

So anyway back to this auntie that seems to have caught my attention. I just find her interesting because she’s the only auntie who seems to be quite erm… hiao? Haha…furthermore, she reminds me of those girls in NUS who are always surrounded by men. Ok for an auntie she looks quite pretty actually (stress: for an auntie…) but I think looks are not the real reason men seem to flock to her. Maybe you would think I am exgaggerating with the word “flock” but if you saw her at the canteen you would see I’m not. In the canteen, all the factory aunties sit together but she sits with the male workers. Granted, she works in a very separate and secluded part of the line so she probably doesn’t know the other aunties well. However, that part of the line doesn’t have any men either. So, all things being equal, you would expect her to sit with the aunties and not the uncles right?

I can’t say she’s flirtatious because that is too presumptious. However, being educated in NUS where just having lunch at the canteen alone with a girl can start wild rumours, it amazes me how this auntie can attract men to her and, more surprisingly, how she probably prefers to sit with the men anyway.

Of course, I do salute her for standing up to her own beliefs. Obviously, she couldn’t care less about what others think and that deserves respect.

Actually, what interest me is not trying to guess whether she’s flirtatious or just plain attractive. I’ve already taken it for granted that she’s just more comfortable with men and men just enjoy being with her. There’s nothing scandalous about that (as long as it stays that way of course and doesn’t progress to anything more intimate). What I’m really interested about is “why?”

Why do some girls just seem to attract guys from all over? They are like some walking men magnet. Wherever they go, however difficult it is to meet men, these females just seem to attract men. It’s almost as if these girls were like the sun and the men need to gravitate around her just to feel warmth and sustenance. And based on this new auntie observation, it appears that once a girl becomes a magnet, she remains a magnet even after marriage.

In fact, I wonder… do such girls learn to become the centre of men’s attention or do they just exude some kind of aura that make some men feel totally at ease with them? Does this natural gravitation towards such girls stem from some sexual desire? Or is it more innocent? Maybe the guys just enjoy talking to her?

But why a girl? Shouldn’t people prefer to hang out with people of the same sex? If you like to hang out with the opposite sex, then what do you do with your spouse or girlfriend?

Actually, I think it is possible to enjoy hanging out with the opposite sex and also be in a relationship. However, the partner in your relationship must either trust you a lot, understand you deeply or she’s just like you. Yet, it feels strange to me that I could call girl A my girlfriend when I spend the same amount of time with her as I do with girls B, C, D, E…So I guess maybe just 1 close friend of the opposite sex is the limit once you get into a relationship. So, Thank God I only have 1 close friend (knew her since jc but with whom I couldn’t be with not that it’s her fault)

Anyway, being a guy who is often seen with girls, I can sort of understand why some girls just seem to be surrounded by guys. After all, guys usually hang out with other guys just like what girls do. So if you know 1 member of the opposite sex you would have to know his friends. In short, you know 1 guy and you end up knowing 5 guys. At least I think that’s the case. To be honest I don’t really have a guy clique. I hang out with guys from church, school, army, etc but I wouldn’t say any of them are close enough to be considered a clique. Girls are different though. They make it pretty clear when a girl is considered a clique member or just a plain friend. And the only girls I know who do not have cliques are those who are themselves always hanging out with guys. So it really does seem like I have something in common with these girls.

So maybe it’s more like some “vicious cycle” not that it’s necessarily something bad. What I mean is that girls who always hang out with guys probably were not taught that it’s better to hang out with the same sex, that as long as you’re having good clean fun the gender of the friend isn’t important. So once a girl meets 1 guy, she’ll meet his guy friends and in turn their friends. This only reinforces the idea that hanging out with the opposite sex is no big deal. After all, she won’t see the guys complaining. And after a while, she hangs out with them so much that hanging out with girls then seems weird because they’re so used to guys’ ways of talking and their interests.

Those girls, mind you, are not tomboys. They still love to shop and look pretty. What I mean is that she’s probably more used to listening to guys chat about soccer than girls gossip about some tv actress even if both are of interest to her.

Being told that hanging out with the opposite gender is fine is rare in itself, which could explain why such girls are hard to find.

Another thing I wanted to blog about was the term “lao chio”. It’s supposed to describe an auntie that still looks pretty. The auntie I was blogging about is not really pretty enough to fall into lao chio category. I think Christina lim does though.. =P

But I was thinking.. let’s say for argument’s sake that ivy lee was 40 but still as pretty as she is now. I am using her as an example because she’s already had 2 babies and she still looks super hot. (In fact, I think she looked hot only after she gave birth.)

Anyway, if ivy lee looked this good at 40, what do we call her? Do we say she’s “super lao chio”? But that makes it sound like she’s super old. Probably not much of a compliment. “lao super chio” sounds better I think. But I think no matter what we do, the word “lao chio” itself already sounds bad because of the word “lao”. Unless the woman is 80, she won’t like it if you called her “lao” no matter how chio she is.

So I think to me, I’ll just say she’s hot. =)
Ivy lee I mean