Shopping Spree

Was in one of my gloomy mood again... Went to my friend's house for house warming... Maybe it had been a long time since we meet up... i feel that i wasnt myself today... maybe i was trying to hide my lousy mood..

I left my friend's house around evening time and called a few friends if they are interested to meet up.. Unfortunately, i dont have much luck. I missed my bus 133. Without much thinking, i simply boarded bus 13, which leads me to Junction 8.

Just thinking of window shopping for awhile then went back. I was still in a lousy mood.. Some people choose to hide themselves away, indulge in food, or scream at someone when they are feeling low. For me, i choose to buy lots of clothes... and keep rather quiet. But then god knows, the sales girls were exceptionally helpful and talkative today... I was influenced by their warm and sincere smiles.

That's what i like about shopping when they are having sales... In the end, i got myself a striped dress, a flora top and a B/W flower print skirts from 3 different shops. Going to wear them on CNY (If i can wait) keke :)

I bought a new jeans!

Let you see my new jeans... Nice rite? I like the back pockets keke

I bought a pair of new jeans at Giordano. It is having 50% xmas discounts! Few months back, if you have noticed, Giordano is trying to change its marketing strategy. To push its branding from low cost products to a higher level, to be in par with middle range brand names such as Espirt, Levis... They even renovated their shops and changed their clothes to better designs and quality and so that they can sell their stuffs at a higher cost.

I did a small survey with my friends... i asked them, Giordano has changed so much... if ask you to buy a S$70 jeans from them, would you buy? Their immediate replies are... "You crazy ah... buy a Giordano jeans at $70? No way man! I rather pay slightly more to get Levis Jeans..."

Yah, that’s the point! All along, they have been seen or they have brand their products as low cost with lots of discount. And now, they want to portray the image that they belong to the middle-level range. It’s hard for the shoppers, like us, to accept it... Shoppers like me, are still waiting for their discounts.

I saw this pair of jeans 1 month back. I knew its new marketing strategy, is not going to work for now yet. So I waited. True enough, I got my Giordano jeans at half price. It’s not that I like to wait. It’s because I know that they will drop the price, once people do not think that this pair of jeans worth $70. No doubt, i would say the quality has been improved. People are just still not willing to fork out that kind of money. Why pay more, when you can get less?

Its not so much importance on changing its packaging... Its the mindset of the shoppers, they have to change first...

Priceless Gift

Was actually chatting with my friend in her blog. Below is our funny conversation:

Qi: The thought behind the gift is priceless. Sadly, many people failed to see it in this way... Hey next year, we try to give each other something "free" or maximum $1 since two of us are looking at the thoughts behind the gift... :) if not, so boring rite kekkee

Tes: haha....like tat also can...hmm...$1 a bit difficult..the paper hor..already $1+ le....:P but i know what you mean.....:P

Qi: yah, u can use $1 to wrap your priceless gift loh!!!! hahhaha

Tes: wrap? aiya..y waste money? uSE NEWSPAPER lah.......Garung Guni!!! kekekee anyway, wrappers are meant to be TORE!!!! please do not be gentle..kekekeke

Qi: hahha old newspaper also needs money to buy okay! 85 cents now! hahha i know le use strings to wrap the presents kekeke innovative rite???

Tes: aiya....i make u a newspaper mache next year lah...haha... using recycled news....so u want a bowl? or? bowl lah...haha i dunno how to make other things!! LoL

Qi: i know what i want to do for you le kekkeke :P must pen it down before i forget hahha... wah a bowl ah but must able to use one leh

Tes: say..say.....then next year..i can check..correct or not..hahaa.......wah..multipy become msn ah? kekeke bowl...of coz can use lah.....use to see, use to touch..use to feel...what else u want? hahaha.....

Qi: hahha u blame the stupid msn loh.. its down at this moment! Your bowl only can see, touch and feel but cannot use leh hahhahaha... but its okay... cos its priceless! cant get it any where else :)

Tes: fine fine..keke entertain u... hahaha... so my priceless bowl...VS your?????

Qi: your priceless bowl vs my 3D card hahaha i think making card is still my forte :)

Yeah dont need to think, what to give each other next year le... Just need to excecute it. If you think giving a $1 gift is easy, then you are totally wrong! Compare to a $10 gift, it is much more harder because u have to source for your own "free" resources...

At the end of the day, the theme is "looking at the thoughts behind the gift", so u will need to give a xmas gift that has to be some beautiful standard and both of us are able to feel the "thoughts"... That's a challenge!

PS: Know what the Trick is??? The TRICK is... we just have to do it with our hearts :)

Love you, Dear

"Love you, Dear"
"Huh, who are you looking for?"
A moment of silence...
"Im looking for my wife."
"ohh okay"

He was dumbfolded when he heard my voice on the line. Never did he expect someone is sharing the same office no. as his wife. It sounds funny to me but its an embarrassment for him. But looking back, it's romantic and a sweet way to say "I love you everyday."

Its every girl's dream to be loved by her love ones everyday. But not every girl has the luxury of hearing this everyday. There are 100 and 1 ways of making a girl, falls for you. Even the most difficult, cool girl will turn soft when you melts her heart.

But what comes after "the happy-ending" ever after? Could the couples still remains the way it used to be? After blogged down with tons of workload, stress and financial commitments, the love they used to have, seems to fade off and die... The laughters in the house are replaced with quarreling, mistrust and accusations.. This is definately not what i want to see in any marriages. Love should fonders and builds stronger as the time goes by...

Everytime when you feels like screaming at your love ones. Ask yourself again, if your love one happens to leave you one day, will you bear to let him/her go?

Xmas Celebrations

How are you feeling on the Boxing Day? Did you go around boxing people around you?? i hope not.. haha Actually dont really know the true meanings of Boxing Day because im not a christian. Can anyone try to enlighten me?

Feeling freezing cold today as the rain never seems to stop. Even my water heater doesnt seem to work well.. Its a wet, wet christmas (How i wished its a white christmas!) , rains non-stop almost everday and flooding almost everywhere....

Luckily it didnt dampen my spirits of celebrating xmas, in fact its the most xmas celebrations i have attended, over so many years! Wow... 8 Parties within 2 weeks! Parties for closest friends, 2 ex-coll parties, 2 company parties (suppose to be 3 but i din go), 2 toastmasters clubs and 1 group of newly met KTV kakis! cant believe rite? me too... seems like my circle of friends have expanded hahaha

Yesterday was celebrating with my close friends, we are the group of crazy people who will try think of unusual ways of celebrating our xmas.. This year, we thought of making our very own "MS Excel version of Xmas Snake and Ladder" and have add-ons with our own bonus and forfeits. Whoever who touches the foreits, has to wear xmas hat and do what Santa (forfeit) says. The winner gets to choose the present that she/he likes the most.

My friend, shes a kicker(always kick us back to zero!). We finally realised that she is borned in the year of snake and almost banned her from playing the game keke. (hey, i think we shall play betting horses next year ba). The waiters were so happy to serve us because we keep greeting them "Merry Christmas!"(One of the forfeits).

Thats not all! we have a gift exchange session and it took us 2 hours finished it! Just the 4 of us, we have 12 presents on the table! hahaha... We took many candid shots And make a wild guess the no of shots we took? 300 shots! super kua zhang rite? Yes i know... thats y, i say we are crazy people... Doing crazy things and having crazy ideas that drives the people nuts... This is what i called a TRUE Christmas Celebration!!!

Below is the pict of our Home-made Xmas Snake and Ladder.

Xmas Presentzzz

Yesterday was my happy and sad xmas... The happy event is I gave out my most favourite gift to my best pal and i recieved the best xmas present among all the gifts this year.

Curious to know what i give? I gave a precious moment paper clips / map pins container.. my friends were looking up, down left and right, and din see any uniqueness. Its not just a normal container... it tells a story... it about two lovely kids playing at the beach happily and you can look at them at different angle.. it shows different perspectives... It just like when we look at an event, an object or even people, we only look at them at a particular angle and thinks that its the correct way it should be. It is unhealthy... try to open up your mind and look at things differently, in different perspectives and u will feel that the world is smiling at you :)

The best present of the xmas is a digital scrapbook(quoted by the creator). Its consist a few nice shots of photos that we took at colmar tropicale. I love the photos she selected and the way she wrote.. best pals that have crazy hobby and silly memories. Im even touched that she took hours to figure how to use photoshop when she knows nuts about it.

That reminds me of the xmas eve when i was upset that she refused to online maple to celebrate xmas countdown with me. Im so insensitive to detect that her sadness and and be understanding to her feeling... She wrote in her blog, GooD Friends Are to be TaKeN for GranteD? True in a certain way. I guess i have to learn how to be more understanding. Sorry pal.

Xmas Exchange

During christmas time, the most exciting part is to recieve a gift from your love ones, friends and colleagues. The fun part is you will never know what kind of "strange" gift you will recieve!

Today is my co xmas party at rendenvous hotel. My dear "xiao mei" left her present at her house. We went to PS to buy a new gift. Precious Thoughts is selling a set of nice cultery set at a very reasonable price. Me and my coll were aiming at the gift..

The gift exchange is done in such a way that everyone will be passing the present around until when the music stops, the present that u hold it belongs to u! So during the gift exchange, we were happily passing the presents and searchin for my xiao mei's present. But we couldnt get it becos that person is holding on it!!

All of us got our own presents and we are suppose to open our present on the spot. Most of us got body shop stuffs cos this year packaging is really nice and the prices fall within the budget. I got a card holder, my "er jie" got towel and my "da jie" got a beautiful desktop clock calendar.

Guess what my xiao mei got? She got a body shop bathing pack and comes with a "missing" of bath foam. Do you know why i say it's missing becos that pack should comes with 3 bottles of different fragrance bath foam and that person dont even bother to put something else to fill up the "gap"! The funny part is, we found out that the "missing" bath foam is with another coll! And that person still dare to ask my xiao mei if she like the present or not hahaha.... my xiao mei almost "fainted" loh keke

The most lousy gift in my co, i would say is, someone actually give a $10 NTUC voucher and throw in a prudential calendar inside the present.. but a free calendar??? hmmm...

Yar i know, there are different kinds of people around... Its not about the value of the gift but rather, i feel that every presents that you give it out, should be something that comes from your heart and not giving it because to meet the "target" of the gift exchange value or worse, it has or going to become an white elephant!!!

Xmas Shopping with your heart

"Behind all the decorations and gifts, is the true meaning of Christmas...".

To me, Christmas is a special and my most favourite day of the year... Thats a day where you can share your love, your thoughts towards your love ones and friends... I dont mean that normal days you cant. Just that we can express our feelings more openly. Yes, the thought behind the gift is priceless... Sadly most of the people dont see it that way...

Counting the days of Christmas, when i bought a few xmas presents long long ago before Dec. Thinking that the 5 gifts should be enough.. but seems like almost every wk, i need to scout for new presents becos more and more groups asking me to join their parties...

Some people dread to buy presents, maybe they do not know what to buy/or they are simply too lazy. Christmas shopping can be most happenings and interesting... Its all depends on how u look at it and you got to shop with your heart. Here are 5 simple steps keke..

Firstly, u have to think through, which are the group of people, u are going to give. Are they close ones or distant friends/family? Are they funky or serious type? Are they cheapo / high class type?

Secondly, u have to decide the "War Zone" to shop. Orchard, City Hall or Bugis (3 Highly Xmas Gifts Warzone)

Thirdly, when u reached the warzone, rem to scan through every single the gift items on the shelves. Thats the fun part where u will be amazed by some "special" (i called it "bo liao") gifts such sweets machine where u can turn a knob to make the sweet drop down, a tooth brush holder that has hour glass so that you can brush your teeth in 3 mins, or a big boobs cup for the guys!

Fourthly, u need to list out all the "potential" presents to buy. Once u decided, you will have to grab your gifts and remember to rush to make payment because u need to get to the next "station" within the shortest time. Thats the Gift counter.

Finally, if you are lucky, u can get all your gifts wrap up nicely. But then, the queue will be super long and you are too free to wait lah!!!

The Star of Christmas

Went to Orchard for 2 "missons" in mind: Searchin for my lost camera battery and photoshoot "the star of christmas" at Metro Paragon.

Lost my extra battery yesterday, I had no choice but to go back to the places which i think most likely have dropped it. Looking closely at every square tiles on the orchard road pavement, hoping to see miracle. Apparently, i couldnt find it but it has inspired me to take a photo of the fast-paced shoppers along the orchard road and i have captured this interesting photo. Took a couple of shots but i feel that this image depicts what i wanted.

Metro Paragon will deco the chrismas tree with a different theme every year. Spend nearly 1.5 hours to photoshoot "the star of christmas". I love this year theme. The tree is decorated with a special design wired star and at the centre of each star, there is a light bulb. From far, it may seem to be a simple christmas tree. Once you take a closer look, u will feel that its specialness.

I have explored with the brightness and contrast. Taking them with different angles and tones. I guessed a lot of digital cameras had captured my back in their SD/CF cards... hahaha... Of cos once a while, i moved myself away, just in case people start to get annoyed.

Fortunately, I finished taking the last shot of the tree's reflection and it has died on me. Displaying - "Warning: Battery is exhausted." It is telling me,"Hey, i need to rest already!" keke..

Below are the few shots that i took :)
Starlight


Starway to heaven


Reaching for the stars


Reflection

Mix and Match??

Having my first xmas gathering with my secondary friends.. Its been a long time since we met.. we gather every 12 months.. yes that "frequent"... but we are still very close... and we update on each other our little happenings in our life...

One of my curious friend, Cupid Baby, share with us her experience at sdu matching session recently. There were 10 matching couples attended this "mix and match" session.

Game RULES:First, she was given a piece of paper, indicating M1-M10. Then she got to answer 3 standard questions or other questions if there are more time and finally the guys were supposed to shift the seats in every 3 minutes, while the gals just remained in their seats. At the end of the session, the person-in-charge will take back the papers and match them accordingly for the next outing(if there is).

Just in case u are wondering what are the 3 questions:
1) How old are you? (means "Are you too old or too young for me?")
2) What is your occupation? (means "How much do you earn?")
3) What are your hobbies? (means "Do we have common interest?")
ps: this is how i interpret

As this was her first time, Cupid Baby asked her first guy,"So how do u find this mix and match session? The paranoid guy quickly replied,"Shhh, dont say so loud. You want other people to know u are in this session?". Alright, and came the 3 standard qestions...

Ding! Ding! Ding! There came a chatty guy wearing a purple top with a red pants. He was a cartoonist and loves animations. He was talking non-stop about animation movies and such. Cupid Baby was wondering if he ever took any breath in every sentence he said... Then he finally realised that Cupid Baby was very quiet,"So do u like cartoon animations?" "Erm, I dont watch cartoons" And a moment of slience...

Then, came a serious guy. He was busy scribbing some words in a paper, as if he were taking some important test. Cupid baby was puzzled and realised that he was trying to make some notes on which girl he has spoke to. The first question, he asked was which year and time was she born and take out his mini almanac to check if they are compatible or not... Diaozzz... Okay, quite compatible, and the conversation continues...

This is not all... a well-behaved, skinny spectacled guy sat down. He was holding a A4 size paper, passed to her and said,"Please read this before i answer any questions." After reading it. Cupid Baby cant helped but to ask him since he attended so many matching sessions why is he still here". He said cooly,"Please turn over the card." Behind was his list of "FAQ" answers...

Times up! Times up! After going through these 10 mixing and matching in an hr. Cupid baby had to tick the paper on which guy is she interested in. But she was fasinated by these "special" guys and she forgot to take down the no that she thought that is more normal, in the end she ticked all of them!!! hahhahahha LOL

I nearly fell off my chair after i hearing these hilarious matching... It was funny and ridiculous.. what were these people thinking anyway??? I think they have to be a little bit more "normal" before gals will look at them a second look.

Creativity

What is creativity? "Creativity is a mental process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, or new associations between existing ideas or concepts." In short, thinking ideas at different and unique perspectives.

So does most Singaporean has creativity? No... most of us are taught in the sterotyping way in the younger days... Thanks to the "Creative" MOE.. They start to panic now.. ohh, so we finally need more creative talents in our society now, to be in the competitive rat race. oh com'on, creativity doesnt appear just out of the blue.. it takes days, months and years to cultivate our creativity as well our own mindset and personality.. not just at the snap of our fingers! (how i wished we could do that..)

Just heard this incident last nite, a small young boy with full of creativity, was asked to color a cute and bubbly giraffe. Being pure at heart, he painted the giraffe, purple in color. His sterotyping art teacher walked over and insisted that he needed to color the giraffe, brown. Being stubborn and feeling injustice, he went home and complained to his mum abt this incident. In the end, he got nothing but a beat up from his mum because he refused to accept to what his mum / teacher comments.

Why this innocent little boy has to follow the "proper guidelines" and color the way it should be. This little boy is just being expressive and he's just trying to express his own creativity, instinct and feelings. He may think differently from the rest but that doesnt mean that hes wrong. Why our education is so ridge that we must follow a set of rules that they have set for us?

Are we still able to think out of the box? When our little mind is tie with an invisible ruler, to measure on us how much can we imagine, right from the start?