My CD Journey (Part 13) - Meeting one of my CD Idols [Meetup at my Secret Lair ]

Oops, I did it again... Never though I will not have the courage to host or invite another CD to my secret lair, but still... I did... It just happened just over the weekend but the whole meetup was so eventful and memorable, and I wished to record this as vividly as I can remember. From my thoughts and feelings, to preparation and actual meetup. This meetup was with one of my CD idols, I will just use "W" to name her. I know W from Facebook and Instagram, I think I mentioned her in one of my previous post before.

I messaged W some time in September this year on Facebook, hoping to be able to invite her to grace my lair, like how I did an open house with another CD the last time round. I extended my invitation to her as a reach out to fellow CrossDressers so as to widen my CD social circle, and also hopefully, to learn more from her about dressing out. To me, W is one of my CD idols because she is so pretty and daring. She dressed out as a female, took a lot of photos outdoors, went to a clothing store to try out female dress and she even dined in a restaurant in her CD mode. That is so cool!!! 

Anyway, back in September, I was still at my old lair site, thus much of my plan of inviting W over was nothing more than just a thought for the future days. Alas, the BIG move happened, and I was forced to move to my new current place. After I have settled in, I feel that it will be good to hold another open house to have some CDs to come over to visit my new location, and get some ideas on how to improve my lair. Remembering my invitation to W, I decided to keep to my word and invited her over to grace my new place. I messaged her on Messenger and I was in awe when she agreed to my invitation, so we fixed the date on last Sunday (28th Nov) afternoon at around 4pm. 

On the day of the meetup, I was really excited as it was like once in a blue moon when I meetup with another CD and what’s more, meeting up with my CD idol. Around 12 noon, I told my wife that I am meeting a friend to go out and will not be home for dinner before heading out. After I left home, I rushed down to IKEA to get a foldable chair and cushion as I only got a wooden foldable chair in my lair and that is for me. The next best thing for visitors to sit on, is a 3-steps wooden ladder, and that is not a proper setup to host my guest. After I gotten the needed furniture, I rushed to another shopping mall nearby to get some cakes, drinks and partyware for this event before reaching my lair at around 1:45pm. Feeling all excited, I did not feel hungry even though I never had my lunch that day.

After I reached my lair, I did not dress up immediately, but I was trying to get ready my place for hosting my guest. I put the cakes and drinks into the refrigerator and went to get some water from the pantry area in case my guest wanted some hot beverages. Just when I came back to the rented unit after I collected the water, I was in shocked. The glass doors to my rental unit was wide open and the common area was lit. Apparently, my “neighbour” who rented the room next to mine, came back with his family to settle something as I could see them hanging out at their rented room’s door area, chatting with someone inside the room. I thought to myself, my plan to meetup with W was foiled. 

I was disappointed and thought of calling off the meetup initially… However, not wanting to let W down and go back on my words, I still decided to go ahead with the meetup as per scheduled. I looked at my watch, it was only like 2pm and I was praying real hard that my “neighbour” won’t stay around for too long… I really wished that they would leave soon so that I won’t need to call off the meetup and appear like I was pulling a fast one on W, especially when it was our first meetup. Nonetheless, not wanting to leave things to chance, I still decided to remove the cakes and drinks from the fridge in case they stick around longer than I hoped. I was preparing for the worst, formulating what to do if my “neighbour” is still around during the meetup time. Since the glass door was wide open, that meant I do not need to open for W, and she can simply walk into the unit. All I need to do is to open the door to my lair and let her in. That seemed like a plan for the worst-case scenario. However, that did not really settle my racing heart down and my mood to dress up was affected actually…

Notwithstanding, I messaged W and told her about the situation and she told me not to be stressed. I tried to put myself at ease and began with my face preparation for make-up. While in the midst of doing that, I could hear that my “neighour” leaving the unit. That was a much needed relief, thank goodness. I went on to put my breast and hip forms and continued with the make-up. W messaged me when she was done with her make-up and she was on her way while I was still in the middle of applying my make-up. She had arrived earlier and I was still not ready, so, she went around the building area to explore and took photos before coming up to my unit.

I must be really nervous that day as I had given her the wrong address, but luckily, the address I had given her was around the corner. I told her to walk straight up, and I could hear the footsteps of her heels approaching. I saw her at the corner, and I waved for her to come over. We finally met in person!!! W was so gorgeous in real life, I was exhilarated.

I invited W into my small humble lair, I showed her around and explain to her my wares (both personal and CDs stuffs). I gave her some of my small size CD dresses that I bought from TaoBao, all these are my impulse or mistake buys because I underestimated my size most of the time… So, W tried out the clothing I gave her, and they fitted on her quite nicely. Well, maybe it is just a tiny bit bigger but those clothing matched her fashion sense and dressing style. She has the ability to bring out her personality and she really knows how to pose for photo taking. She tried on the dresses while I took photos for her when she was done. After trying on the dresses, we sat down, chit chat and have cakes and drinks like two ladies having tea, just that it is in the privacy of my lair. It was quite a fun and surreal experience. 

The chit-chatting session was so captivating and interesting, we covered a lot of topics, mainly revolving about CD stuff and so on. W was sharing her dress out experience and so on, while I shared about my lair setting experience. I found out more about her and I must say, she is not only a passable CD, but also simply amazing in a lot of aspect. We shared many things in common. This just increased my admiration for her. It has been such an unforgettable meetup experience.

Unfortunately, every party has to come to an end. It is time for her to go back and time for me to pack up and go home too. I must say, it has been an enjoyable meetup session and I was glad to meet W and get to know her in person instead as an online persona. All I can say is, it is momentous day for me. 

I was still contemplating about sharing the photos that W and I took because I try to avoid posting photos of myself or other CDs on my blog. However, she has given me the permission to blog about this meetup session, I feel that it is only fair if I share the photos that we took during the session. Maybe just one... (which is heavily post-processed)

Interview of Local CrossDressers on MustShareNews

OMG, OMG, OMG!!! Isabelle went for an interview with MustShareNews, that is soooo cool. That is so brave of her!!! Will not say much but just watch the interview from the video. You can read about her interview experience here. Enjoy the video!!!

Revamp and removal of all my facial photos

In a sudden change of decision, I have decided to remove all my facial photos from my blog to make it more private as I realised that I am getting visitors from all over the world. Initially when I was doing my blog, I was intending to make it a private space without many visitors. However, it does seem that I was getting more eyeballs from all over. 

So, in order to protect my privacy, I have decided to remove all my facial photos from my blog. That was why I removed some of my earlier postings and make modifications to it. I guess I picked this up from Isabelle as I realised that she seldom share her photos her blog. Well, maybe only one or two. Ever since she had done an interview on MustShareNews, I realised that her blog and social media changed to become more "publicly private"...

I guess that is a very wise move as this internet age, we tend to leave digital footprints behind. In order to protect our identity and privacy, it is better to be safe than sorry. I guess the only place you can view my photos update is through Instagram and Facebook and all those who can see are usually my friends (and some unwanted friends of friends). I guess that is the best I do... Oh well...

Shoe Expander & Stretcher - A Helpful Tool for Large Feet CrossDressers

It is almost year end and a lot of people are on leave, so I got more time to work on my blog. Hope I can keep the consistency, but I highly doubt it is unsustainable as it tends to get busy when the new year start all over again. Well, just enjoying my time where I can take those in-between periods to write my blog. 

This post is about a very useful tool for those large feet crossdressers like me. Before going on to introduce the tool, let me set the context straight. The height, body build, and activities that we do tend to somehow affect the size of our feet. For me, I am above 1.7m (but below 1.8m) and my feet size is gigantous. That is really unfortunate as there are a lot of female shoes or heels that I love to own but I cannot wear as they are made to female feet size, which is usually below EU size 40. I am looking for EU size 43 and above to get a comfortable fit and most places do not have that big size ladies heels. I really admire some crossdressers like a fellow CrossDresser named "W", who got such nice legs and small feet, she can fit into so many different heels… Really envious of her… For me, I got not much choice for heels, and I guess there are some CrossDressers out there like me, who are faced with similar predicament…

Previously, I have gotten a pair of EU size 42 (approximately 260mm) heels on TaoBao 618 anniversary sale (18th June). Typically, I am wearing like EU size 43 (approximately 265 to 270mm) but I decided to buy to try out, just to see if that 5mm make any difference… Ended up, the heels are so tight that my feet can barely fit inside them. This pair of heels has been on my shelf for quite a while and I was still contemplating about giving it away as the design of the heels is rather plain and unappealing and I doubt another other crossdressers will want them… 

Rather undeterred, I searched on TaoBao to see if anything can help with this problem, and just nice, I stumbled upon a shoe expander and extender. This tool is commonly used by shoe smith to enlarge shoes and I wonder if it will work on heels. I decided to do more research online to see how effective the shoe extender is, and it was said that shoe expander can sometime help to expand the shoes up by one size. Based on online recommendation, beside the shoe extender, I will also be needing some liquid called Shoe Stretch to soften the shoe leather for the ease of expanding. Thus, I ordered the shoe extender and the shoe stretch liquid to try out if it really works.

Once I gotten the items, I got to work on that pair of undersized heels. First, I sprayed the Shoe Stretch all over and wipe it around the heels before following the instruction of the shoe extender as per the picture below. I stretched the heels little by little each time and after almost a week, I was able to get my left feet into the heel. However, it is still a bit tight for the right feet. So, I decided to stretch it some more and leave it there for a longer period. 

The next time I tried on that pair of heels, I worn some tight pantyhose to compress my feet a little and tried using the shoe horn to let my right feet slip into the heels. Now, both my feet can fit into that size 42 heels, it was really amazing. The interior of the heels still feel a bit tight but I guess it is a good start that I can even slip them on when I cannot even do so the first time round. Therefore, I decided to continue seasoning and stretching the heels. Hopefully they will fit more comfortably the next time. So for my CrossDressing sisters, if you are having the headache of undersized heels, you should really try this tool out.

Here are my advice:

1. If you can get the largest heels size, then got for it. If the largest is off from your normal size by 0.5 to 1 size, you can still give it a try. For those that differ by 2 to 3 sizes, I think it is highly unlikely that the shoe extender and expander can work miracle…

2. Apply the Shoe Stretch and use the shoe extender slowly, do not be too rush for result. Just expand and extend a bit at a time.

3. Wear those tight pantyhose to help to compress your feet and it will also allow your feet to slip into the heels easily.

4. Use a shoe horn to wear the heels, that can help to get your feet into the heels easily.

5. Wear and season the heels by walking in them as much as possible.

6. If possible, weight loss can also help to reduce the feet size slightly (based on what I read online)

Hope that this post can give hope to those Crossdressers who are faced with the same problem of buying a pair of their favourite heels that are of smaller size. Cheers and happy heels hunting… 

The Strongest Woman in the World: Chun-Li (春丽)

Was planning to work on this post straight after my Lynda Carter post but so many things cropped up within such a short period of time that I keep delaying... I have always wanted to talk about "The Strongest Woman in the World", who is also my female goddess, Chun-Li. Chun-Li is a fictional character in Capcom's Street Fighter video game series. She is the first female playable character to appear in a fighting game, making her appearance in Street Fighter II: The World Warrior in 1991. Can't believe that it has been 30 years since Chun-Li first appeared in my life. 

Chun-Li is an undercover Interpol agent seeking to avenge the death of her father at the hands of Bison and his criminal organization. Chun-Li, the first well-known female playable character in a fighting game, was designed with muscular legs. She is well known to wear a traditional Chinese qipao dress with long side slits to accommodate her powerful kung-fu kicks. However, what really completes the looks are those brown pantyhose that goes so well with the outfit that I will find it strange or unappealing if she is without them. That really makes me fall in love with her. As far as I know, it was the first time anyone had made a video game in which a female character was clearly wearing pantyhose, and that was cool.

How is Chun-Li related to CrossDressing? Well, one way to view CrossDressing as some sort of Cosplaying where people try to portray a character that is either from anime or game. For cosplayers, it is not uncommon for people to cosplay as the opposite gender, e.g. some female will cosplay as some male protagonists in anime series and we got some males cosplaying as female characters. You will be surprised by some of the results, one good cosplayer/crossdresser I know is Gin as she loves to dress up as Lolita and she is so beautiful.

Anyway, back to the topic, Chun-Li is a popular character that a lot of people will love to cosplay as since she is the first female fighting character. There is no short of female cosplayers who cosplay as Chun-Li, we have the famous cosplayer like Yaya Han, Enji Night, Hidori Rose and so many others.

However, there is hardly any male cosplayer who can cosplay or crossdress as Chun-Li well. The typical one that you can find online is Jackie Chan’s Chun-Li or Ladybeard’s Chun-Li but I’m sorry to say, they just destroyed the image.  

Sorry for the disturbing photos above but it is quite hard for a guy to crossdress as Chun-Li well. Luckily, I managed to find one crossdresser on Reddit and I think she can still pull it through. There is one more but I cannot find the source...

To me, crossdress as Chun-Li has always been my wildest dream, but I doubt I can put through. Chun-Li as a character is so ideal in my eyes, her hour glass figure with that thin waist, firm and well formed breasts together with that hips and muscular thighs. Her facial features are so sharp and elegant coupled with that make-up, qipao dress and brown pantyhose. It is just perfect, a slight touch of masculinity in her full femininity, gentle and beautiful, yet strong and powerful at the same time.  

Despite that Chun-Li is a fictional character created for games, but she set my highest standard for the ideal lady. I have tried to crossdress as Chun-Li before but I failed miserably. It is not as easy as just getting the costume and try to pass off as her. First off, the hair with buns is not easy to achieve especially with wigs. If you see the hairdo properly, you will realised that Chun-Li's hair is pulled to the back to create those buns, leaving some fringes to the front, this is not an easy feat with wigs. Next off, her thin waist. I feel that this is the hardest to achieve unless I wear corset and have it tighten really tight. Another way is to balance the proportionality by having a larger hip and bigger breasts, which I can probably achieve with breasts form and hip pads. Last but not least, the make up. I have yet to go into the details of achieving that make-up effect for the character. I got to properly study, analyse and plan how to get it. 

I will spare all the agony of seeing my failed Chun-Li attempt but you can see some of my previous post on the Chun Li costumes that I have in my wardrobe. Hopefully the next time I crossdress as Chun-Li, I will become much better. Cheers. 

Tips on finding a suitable storage space (Part 3 - Commercial Unit)

Continuing from my previous post about searching for a commercial unit and arranging for a viewing. You may want to ask the agent or landlord the following questions when you head down to see the unit. 

1. Are utility bills included in the pricing? Some of the prices listed does not include utility fee, so it is important to ask. Usually, they will have a separate meter for each of the room unit and at the end of the month, just need to pay for what you use. Consider this, if you are away for most of the time and you may hardly use the unit, the electric bill should not be too expensive. If not, just look for one that include the utility bills inside the pricing.

2. Are there any other monthly costs involved? Good to check. Some of these units include internet and WiFi or even a refrigerator but they usually won’t add that inside price. However, it will be good to find out.

3. Is the price negotiable? If you are like me and don’t like to haggle over the price. I will try not to ask this question, but if you just want to try your luck, can go ahead, and ask for a price you are more comfortable with. Most of the time, the listed price is just a guide, it may end up slightly lowered than expected.  

4. Is GST included? Depends if the landlord company is a GST registered company or not. Some of the landlords do not collect GST and the price as listed is as it is. If not, you will need to add a 7%.

5. Any agent fee involved? Usually for tenant, we do not bore the agent cost. It is the landlord who will pay the agent instead. But better to find out also. 

6. What is the minimum lease period? The lease term is minimally 2 years, I will usually ask if after 2 years, can the unit still be renewed? However, this is quite hard to say…

7. Is the access 24/7? Usually, if you take up the room unit, you will be given card or pin access to the main door to allow you 24/7 accessibility. 

8. What are other things included in the unit? For commercial unit, they can either be fully fitted, partially fitted or bare. That is why it is important to view the unit physically. Most of the time, the flooring should be carpeted and for furniture, it really depends. Some of the landlords wanted to rent out the unit to those office workers who just need a small mobile office, hence they will have some office tables and chairs inside each of these room units. However, for CDs like us, we do not really need those. You can tell the landlord or agent if furniture is needed.   

9. Can you use the unit for light storage and business? Some commercial units are more suited for office work only and the landlord may not like to have their room units becoming a warehouse, but this is quite unusual. Normally, it is allowed, but good to ask.

10. Can you add additional locks or fittings inside the room? You may like to have additional locks to prevent unauthorized access, so it will be good to ask if you can add a digital lock or do simple fitting in the room. Good to trash out all these queries before committing to the rental.

11. Do you need a business entity for the rental? Usually, for commercial unit, unlike the Work+Store concept, the landlord and agent will prefer to rent to a business entity instead of individual. But this should not be a big problem. I will share how I did my application and share the cost also.

If you are comfortable with the unit and pricing, they will need a 2-months security deposit (which will be returned to you after the end of the lease term, and you wanted to move out) and you need to give your particulars to the agent who will prepare the Tenancy Agreement. At this time, you should have your business entity ready. Even if it is not done up yet, as long as you have given the deposit, you have already reserved that unit technically. 

Now, I will share how to apply for a business entity. 

1. Go to Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) 

2. Go to e-services and click “Login to Bizfile”

3. You will end up in a new page. Under the “For Business” tab, go to “Start a new Business” option and under there, you will see “Business (Sole proprietor / Partnership)". You will see a “Register Now” option. Click on that.

4. It will prompt you to log in, just log in using “For Individual Users” where you need your Singpass to log in.

5. For a start, you need the apply for a new business name, so you got to think of what do you want to name your company. For the “Application for a New Business Name”, you will need to pay $15.00 and the name will be reserved for 120 days. This process should be quite fast unless your business name has some implications. If not, you should get the approval almost instantaneously. 

6. After the approval of the New Business Name application, you need to apply for “Application to Register Person(s) and Business Name". For this part, it will cost you around $100 to $160 and this should last you for 3 years. For business renewal, I believe it should be around $30 per year. More details can be found here. 

7. After the previous step is done, you will need to wait for around 1 week or so for the approval. Once the approval is done, you will get a UEN (standard identification number of an entity).

Once all these are done, congratulation, you are now a business entity owner. You will need to pass that information to the agent who will do the paperwork for you. The agent will input these details into the Tenancy Agreement whereby stating that you are renting the commercial unit under your business entity. Even though it seems like a tedious and complicated process, it is quite simple actually.

Anyway, some may question, what is the draw of going through all these processes to get a business entity, just to rent a commercial unit? One thing is, the pricing of the floor space. Some of the floor space are going for $3.00 per square feet (as shown in the picture), some included the utility fees inside the rental cost. I am getting close to $3.50 to less than $4.00 per square feet for a floor space bigger than my previous unit. For the same price I was paying, I am getting a much bigger floor size. On top of that, I get full privacy and my own room where I can use the electricity without going through the trouble of needing an extension cord from the corridor…

Some may ask, what is the downside of commercial unit? Well, the two months deposit can be quite a hefty amount and the monthly rent is not a typical $100 to $200 per month. But like I mentioned, if you are sharing the unit, the cost will work out to be roughly the same. Another possible downside is, after the lease period, what is next? Will the landlord raise the price? Can you renew the lease? There are uncertainties regarding these questions. Other than that, I cannot think of any, maybe some other CDs can share their views on this.

Can’t believe I wrote so much for this post but I try to be as detailed as possible to help other CrossDressers who are still contemplating between getting a storage space or a commercial unit. Hope that these 2 most recent posts can help you to analyse better. Happy Storage Space Hunting!!! Cheers.

Tips on finding a suitable storage space (Part 2 - Work and Storage Unit)

Guess I am on fire these days as I have been blogging a lot more recently. Let's continue from my previous post about renting commercial units for CDs purposes since it is still fresh on my mind... For those CDs who wish to consider renting a commercial unit, you have come to the right place for information. I will try to be as objective as possible to give you some food for thoughts and consideration.

As mentioned previously, getting a commercial unit can sounds quite daunting initially. Some may ask, do you need a business entity, how much is the cost, do we need to pay for utilities, is there short-term leasing and so on. Let me help you with that as I have gone down that path before. As there are quite a lot to talk about on commercial units, I will focus more on work and storage unit here, then introduce how to search for a commercial unit before focusing on the rest later in my next post. 

For those who wish to have a hassle-free commercial unit without long term lease commitment or the need for a business entity. You can check out the Work+Store concept. Due to the rise of e-commerce, this option is very popular recently; people generally use Work+Store unit for storage of goods and dispatch arrangement or for small businesses such as walk-in store for wares or photography services or conducting of workshops and so on. The pricing for these Work+Store concept varies based on location and facilities provided. For those who are interested, you must check if the unit is solely for storage purposes or suitable for work and storage. If it is purely for storage only, the unit usually comes with lightings and nothing else. 

For those work and storage unit, they come as individual room unit with door lock system that either use keys or security codes to open up. Air condition can either be individual unit or a centralized system, depending on the setup. If you want power points for electricity, some providers only provide corridor power points to prevent abuse or overuse of electricity. Toilet is usually common use type serving the whole level of tenants. Do note that for work and storage unit, they are usually bare unit, meaning the floor is uncarpeted and without flooring boards. There will be no furniture or anything. I think this is good for CDs as they do not need any furniture anyway. To sign up for a work and storage unit, you need to have an idea of what business you want to use the unit for, although a business entity is not compulsory. In terms of pricing, some of these Work+Store units look expensive based on the link below.

http://workstore.com.sg/listings/WorkPlusStore.pdf

Using a 110 square feet unit for calculation, the pricing is $720 (less 25% off is around $540 per month). This cost includes the facilities fee, utilities fee and GST, so no additional fee needed except… you will need to purchase fire insurance depending on what things you want to store inside your unit. The cheapest insurance is around $10 + 7% GST, which works out to be $10.70 additional. There is 3 months free rental, but I will not take that into consideration for the calculation. So, the price per square feet is around $6.50 before discount and $4.90 after discount. Can see that the rate of $6.50 is pretty standard even with storage unit. What is the advantage of a Work+Store unit as compared to a Storage unit? Well, the main thing is, the work and storage unit is like a personal room where you can access easily and have privacy when needed, there is lighting and no need for artificial lights. So, it is more comfortable to dress up as compared to crossdress in a storage unit. The downside is the unit size can be an overkill if you just need like 25 to 50 square feet to really dress up and you do not wish to share the space with anyone else. The smallest unit that I ever get was 80 square feet and I was like paying $470 per month. I have to admit that it was another CD who gave me that idea and I never regret this decision of trying out a work and storage unit. Other additional cost includes 2 months’ rent as deposit (will be return to you if there is no damages to the property) and administrative fee of $53.50, all these are one time payment.

The pricing of the work and storage unit does not look super attractive as compared to the storage unit despite all the perks of having more privacy and comfort. This is where it can get interesting when you start looking for a commercial unit. You may want to check out commercialguru website to find something that is able to better suit your needs.

https://www.commercialguru.com.sg

I will guide you through the search. First, on top of the blank, there is BUY and RENT, this should be a no-brainer that we are looking for rental. After that, you can select the price range that you are comfortable with but be prepared that you are not looking at $100 to $200 price range. Depending on your comfort level, go for $500 to $750 if you okay with that pricing. The price is a bit steep but if you are considering sharing with other CDs, the price is quite reasonable. Next, the size that you want. I guess we must be more practical here. We cannot look for a 1,000 square feet unit when you are just looking for somewhere to store your CD stash and to crossdress. Anything below 500 square feet will be good, you can set your smallest size that to something that you want, maybe around 100 to 150 square feet. There are 4 options under the “Commercial” drop down menu. Usually, the best will be Industrial area, followed by Office. Please do not have the mindset that industrial area is all dirty and messy, or that they must be big. If you set the parameters correctly, you will find a lot of small units, ranging from 100 over square feet to 300 square feet that can be quite nice.

All thanks to WFH (Working From Home), a lot of these industrial or office units were left vacant. Thus, it is a good time to look around. After you have found the units that you are interested, do not be afraid to go for viewing. Just arrange for an appointment and go down and view the unit physically. Usually, for those units that are between 100 to 300 square feet, they are rooms that are partitioned from one big unit or floor area (usually around 800 to 850 square feet). There will be a common area or corridor connecting all the rooms, this is the usual set up for industrial or office units.

I will continue the rest of the procedure in my next post as it can get a bit too technical. Cheers.