I know what my friends are saying. Go dream. They think that marriage is the end of my freedom. That I’ll be tied down, stuck in one place, and never do anything fun again. Sure, I’m getting married, but I still plan on having plenty of freedom.

Marriage doesn’t have to mean the end of freedom. It doesn’t have to mean giving up your life or the things that make you happy. It’s about two people coming together and forming a partnership. It’s about compromise and respect. It’s about making decisions as a team and supporting each other through good times and bad. That doesn’t mean giving up your freedom.

I plan on continuing to do the things I love after I get married. I’ll still go out with my friends, take trips, and explore new places. I’ll still be able to enjoy my hobbies and take time to myself. I’ll still have the freedom to do the things that make me happy and have experiences that I’ll remember for a lifetime.

The key is communication. Having honest conversations with your partner about what you each need and what you both want out of life. Being able to express your feelings and work together to make compromises. It’s important to understand your partner’s needs and to make sure that they understand yours as well. That way, both of you can be happy and still have freedom.

My friends don’t understand that marriage doesn’t have to mean the end of freedom. They think that I’ll be tied down and never do anything fun again. But I know that I’ll still have plenty of freedom after I get married. I’ll still be able to do the things I love and have experiences that I’ll remember for a lifetime.

Marriage is about two people coming together and forming a partnership. It’s about compromise and respect. It’s about understanding each other’s needs and making decisions as a team. It’s about communication and being able to express your feelings and work together to make compromises. And it’s definitely not the end of freedom.

So, to my friends who tell me to go dream, I say this. I’m still going to have plenty of freedom after marriage. I’ll still be able to do the things I love and have experiences that I’ll remember for a lifetime. I’ll still have the freedom to be happy and do what makes me happy. Marriage doesn’t have to mean the end of freedom.

To get this out of the way: I’m a flatchested girl. I suffered from health issues and growth problems so I’m small but I’m proud of myself.

My fiance and I went over to his parents house for his niece’s birthday. I wore a sweetheart shape dress and my sil (Mel) who always comments on my chest, saw the dress and went like “this dress needs b**bs, you ain’t got any”.

I ignored her but then at dinner she asked if I was planning on getting a plastic surgery before the wedding so that I don’t “ruin” the wedding dress.

I found this offensive especially when others were watching. I said nothing but when we were sitting in the living room later, Mel suddenly started wiping her nose and trying to clear it (it’s stuffed due to cold apparently).

She has a large nose so I smiled and asked “do you need help with that? I could get the plunger for you.”.

She was stunned and the room got awkward after her husband was laughing. She was fuming and told my fiance that I stepped out of line and ruined her daughter’s birthday with my words that humiliated her.

My fiance said I shouldn’t have caused a scene after his parents told us to leave. I explained how her comments made me feel but he said she said it was out of concern but my comment was out of hate.

Now she’s expecting an apology. Did I go too far here?

With CNY coming up, it’s time for your controversial opinions. So what are your CNY hot takes?

The best part of yu sheng is the biscuits and I take they should sell them separately for rest of the year

Netizens’ comments

1. We should get 15 days of public holiday plz gahmen thanks
   And since we are multiracial, we should share more per ph lol
2. I think it’s ok to not visit relatives that you don’t contact for the other 364 days of the year.
   I mean come on la, Singapore is so small and if we can’t make an effort to meet each other on the other days then I really don’t think there’s a need for me to go visit my relatives that I only meet once a year.
   We’re probably closer to our friends or even colleagues than them tbh.
3. There is no reason to buy new clothes just for the sake of Chinese New Year. This dates back to olden days when people were poorer and may not be able to afford new clothes. Hence, there started a tradition to dress new clothes to start new year because they didn’t buy new clothes throughout most of the year. Now, we aren’t as poor to be able to buy new clothes once a year.
   This is an outdated tradition.
4. Cny cannot sweep floor. Ok lor I arm myself with vacuum cleaner. Come on.. so many people walk in walk out and kids dropping crumbs.. you wan pickup dirt by dirt meh.
5. Just becos u gave me and ang pow doesn’t mean you disrespect and judge by asking about my singlehood, job etc. take ur 10 dollars, fold it into a cylindrical shape, lube it with olive oil and shuv it up yours
6. It’s perfectly ok to not want to spend time with your family if you don’t want to
7. Feel free to give me red packets that end with 4 or odd numbers or with coins.
8. Hosting for guests is a lot of prep work before and after they visit. I rather be invited to someone elses house.
9. it is weird to give ang paos to your unmarried sibling who is 2 years younger than you.
10. it is also weird to receive ang paos from my married cousins 2 years older than me.
    can we just give ang paos to whoever we want to treat with respect (like elderly, parents, aunts/uncles) and children?

Strong independent women

I respect you that what you believe is how you live your life and happy that you eventually find your partner.

I am jealous, I have not and will not deny that. I still believe in the more traditional way where man are earns more, and manage more. I myself is doing reasonably ok.

I think there are some details missing out that makes you think I am purely jealous out of no reason. So let me fill the gaps.

Those women that I am jealous of are not able to finance that kind of lifestyle if not for their partners. And they have the decency to say it’s just dating, or date around still. Or claim that it’s shared assets when they don’t bring that much to the table.

Like you said, we need to rely on ourselves to live the lifestyle we want. I totally agree and have been doing so. But it brings me nothing. Spending emotional capacity, financials and body as well (if we want to say that a women’s body is precious too) in a relationship and man could just give any reasons to breakup with you.

According to those women, their logic is just let man pay, man will only be loyal when they invested enough and it’s also a good way to filter out less capable man.

It’s not exactly palatable the way the put it but I can’t help but to think maybe they are right. What gets to me is just how self prideful they are in portraying themselves as strong independent women who are equal with their partners.

I am happy for everyone who find their happily ever after, with whatever beliefs and means and what not. I am just beaten by reality to be nice lady who play my part as a real strong women.

The best part is, people like me actually have to go through radical change in personal principles and people like them takes everything for granted.

Husband kept making jokes about how he “likes them petite” and I may regret my decision to bite back
Excuse the pun.

Ive always been a small person – I’m short and usually around 43kg, even after having our child I was able to maintain that..

Now. My husband and I have been together 8 years and, as mentioned, have one adorable 3 yr old together. My pregnancy wasn’t exactly a good time but I was all belly and came out no stretch marks much to his happiness and my absolute indifference.

Since the weight gain he’s started making comments, the first two were jokes like I said something about the size of his chips (small) and he said “well you know I like them petite” the next we were buying clothes and he was like “you’re a size 6 yeh? Or?”

So being my usual cbf self I didn’t say anything until today… When he suggested I do some starjumps to “keep warm”. I pressed him saying “are you suggesting I need to exercise?” And he laughed saying “it wouldn’t hurt”.

Now, I snapped kind of in a light hearted way said “listen, I get it you like me petite but I like Zac Efron in Baywatch, are you gonna sort yourself out to be like him?” He has always been underweight/skinny which is not my usual type but I never complained.

Now he’s doing push-ups and it looks like I’m going to have to start getting ontop of my star jumps 🫠 I am fuming. How does 4- 5kg even make a difference ?? I guess on my small frame it does but I’m still upset about this. I went through a massive illness with anxiety and was hospitalized for malnutrition so if anything he should be happy I’m being healthier. I’m so confused and upset and stressed about this whole situation. Maybe until he actually looks like the beefcake in that movie Ill start acting on it. Hating life right now, I honestly feel like I’m scared to eat in front of him

Ride Hailing apps (Grab, Gojek etc) are a curse in disguise

Nowadays it seems like the price is always hiked up due to a “surge” in demand.

This has also made it extremely difficult to flag down a metered-taxi on the street as most taxi drivers would rather earn the higher fare.

This basically forces us to accept the higher fare as a norm.

Basically it makes getting a cab at regular prices near impossible, at certain times of the day (which seem to be becoming more and more often)

Recently my not so tech-savy aunties had to force themselves to learn how to use Grab app because they are always spending more than 30min trying to flag a cab – so that they can book a ride at a much higher price

Netizens’ comments

• flagging cab is one thing, then they tell you change shift la nonsense bs excuse again. using apps is still better but like another comment mention – vote w your wallet. there isnt only grab or gojek now.
  try other apps, (ryde,tada, comfort etc) the drivers are actually nicer, and some of them even talk shit about gojek and grab cos of its unscrupulous policies.
• There was once I was booking a ride from Tampines to Changi Airport. It costed like $35 for a 10mins drive. I ended up taking a bus and mrt with my luggage and backpack.
• The worst is Gojek, wait for 5mins for a car before timeout due to ‘no driver’ and need to retry. But every reattempt at booking will automatically see a small surge. Every single attempt. End up a $15 dollar becomes $28. Check on another phone, lo and behold, no price surge.

It happened unexpectedly, and I’m still not sure how to feel about it.

I had been dating my boyfriend for a few months and things were going really well. We had a strong connection and were really comfortable with one another.

We were spending more and more time together, and I thought everything was perfect.

That is until one night when I realized something odd. We had been apart for a few days and when we finally reunited I noticed something strange. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but it felt like I was missing something.

I was in his arms and everything was perfect, but I still felt like something was off.

After a few minutes of being in his presence, I finally realized what it was. I was missing his body odour. It was the most bizarre thing I had ever experienced. I realized that if I didn’t smell his body odour for more than 24 hours, I would start to feel sick.

At first, I thought I was crazy. I mean, who feels sick if they don’t smell their boyfriend’s body odour? It seemed absurd, but I couldn’t deny the fact that it was true. I started to ask around and it turns out that I’m not alone. A lot of people have the same experience and it’s something that science is starting to take more seriously.

Apparently, the body odour of a person can have a huge impact on our emotions and even our physical health. Studies have shown that when we smell a familiar scent, it triggers the release of feel-good hormones like oxytocin and dopamine. This can have a calming effect on our bodies and psyche.

On the other hand, not being able to smell a familiar scent can have the opposite effect. It can leave us feeling anxious and stressed out. This can even lead to physical ailments like headaches and nausea.

So, it’s not just my imagination. Not being able to smell my boyfriend’s body odour for more than 24 hours does make me feel sick. It’s a strange phenomenon, but I’m starting to understand it better. The body odour of someone we are close to can have a strong effect on our emotions and physical state.

It’s a strange but powerful thing. I’m still not sure how to feel about it, but I’m starting to accept it as part of my relationship with my boyfriend. Who would have thought that something as simple as body odour could have such a powerful effect?

I hooked up with a former student during the hardest year of my life and it’s turned into the happiest, healthiest relationship I’ve ever had.

We started it as a physical thing a few years ago. I (late 30sF) ran into him (mid 20sM) at the gym 5 years after he was in my class.

I was separated from my now ex, 3 kids, down and a little overweight. We worked out together over a year before anything physical happened.

Talked about everything. We both developed a crush. Eventually we made a deal for just physical intimacy which I hoped would solve the crush.

He was amazing in bed. I still fantasize about the first time. We tried to be very non-romantic but we just fell in love. It was hard though, and neither of us really wanted to be in love.

When I got officially divorced (it was a long, tedious process) we broke it off because we both thought the place we were in life was too different and I felt like too much of a mess to date.

I went to therapy a lot and focused on my kids. He moved away. We didn’t talk for a few months because we were in love and it hurt to talk. We tried dating other people.

A little over a year ago he was in town and we agreed to hang out as friends, with mutual friends. We stayed late talking. Could not resist touching.

We tentatively agreed to try again and this time we didn’t pretend it wasn’t a relationship. It’s still hard sometimes but but considering I am older, make way more money, am way more secure in my career, have kids… it’s honestly pretty easy.

We talk about everything, we put each other first, we’re patient, we apologize if we mess up, we have a level of intimacy that I didn’t know existed.

I can’t decide if I’m delusional or lucky sometimes but I’m so very happy and I feel loved.