Another surprise...

Saturday has been another surprise for me.
But I will say more about the surprise in a little while.

I went for my regular Chinese traditional massage.
Instead of my usual painful whole-arm treatment, I ended up being pummelled on the back of the shoulders too.
There seems to be a persistent 'knot' that refuses to heal.
Hence the shoulder-ache and all.

That session took the energy out of me.
Although I had the liberty to take an afternoon nap, I simply could not fall asleep.
Perhaps I do not have the habit of napping in the afternoon.
Or perhaps something else was bothering me...

Now, the surprise.

I was supposed to be out having dinner and social drinks with someone.
But I ended up going for a movie at a quaint, run-down cinema on the other side of the island with another friend.
It was a pleasant surprise, as I like old buildings!
The cinema is one of those really old ones that has been preserved in its original state.
And here I was, thinking that we have no such places anymore around.
Anyway, my friend and I had to try our best to ignore the irritating 'aeroplanes' that were enjoying sucking our blood occasionally.

The movie was interesting.
It is based in the local context, and mainly in Mandarin (plus a smattering of Chinese dialects and localised English).
It was about how a seemingly non-compatible couple ended up happily married to each other.
It also openly promoted the fact that the younger generation should get married and have children - the more the merrier!
The monetary incentives the government has for its citizens for having the 2nd, 3rd or 4th child were mentioned.
Sounds like a lot of money upfront, but it begs the question: how long can each of the amounts last?
Children are around for life.
And along with such high costs of living locally, one-off monetary incentives may not be sufficient to entice the younger generation to marry and have more than one child.

After all, we do not marry for the sake of marrying nowadays.
As we become more affluent individuals, we also become more confident and aware of how important the quality of life is, in many respects.
We are also more focused on wanting to achieve our personal goals in life.
Such realisation makes many of us more uncompromising.
And perhaps, that's why we will only think about marriage if it is someone we really appreciate.

But, it is hard to find such a person like that nowadays.
Because we singles have no time.
And even if we do, we rather sit in front of the TV and 'rot', rather than head out to socialise (especially after a hard day's work).
Such, is life.
In the modern local context, of course!

Other things that may be off-putting include long-standing relationships breaking up after dating each other exclusively for many years.
I have had my fair share of hearing about numerous cases such as these.
I even know of a friend who is going through a tough time, whilst a lady he is keen to date exclusively is trying her hardest to dump her other boyfriend.
Except that she is finding it hard to do so.
Said she does not have the heart to hurt her other boyfriend.
This 'yo-yo' relationship has been going on for something like half a year.
This lady may seem like a pitiful person, but personally, I think she is having the best of both worlds.
And that she is being really unfair to my friend.
If she is so indecisive (even after having agreed to meet - or even met - my friend's parents), can she hold her own in the future, when my friend finally gets to date her exclusively or marry her?
And so this complicated matter goes on...

That could explain why a lot of us are not really keen to take the risk...
...the risk of putting so much time and effort into a relationship only to have it ending up nowhere.
So the question now is: do we think this is all worthwhile?
Or are we better off as singles?