on the sales floor

Tangs kicked off its sales period with a closed-door sales event at Tang + Co Orchard, open only to Citibank cardmembers, this evening. So I went down to man our counter. For the first time! And alone too!

The sale started at 5 pm, but I got there only at 6, and was there until their 9.30 pm closing time. Smiled and greeted customers, asked if they would like to try our jewellery and entertained their inquiries.

The total turnout was probably less than one quarter for the one generated by the previous Tang + Co event I attended. During the lulls, I entertained myself by helping the cashiers scan items.

Sold one pair of earrings and a ring during the time I was there. That was about $600 in sales! :D

By the time I got home I was totally exhausted.

what is real

Went to this jeweller’s at Lucky Plaza last Friday afternoon to pick up some jewellery I had sent for replating. They look as good as new! :)

They also happen to sell replicas of Chanel interlocking C‘s jewellery so I asked them how much the pair of interlocking C‘s ear studs cost. The replica studs are about half the size of the genuine Chanel studs (JJ bought a pair some time ago), but cost $350, $150 more than the Chanel ones. This is because the replicas are made of gold and diamonds, whereas the Chanel ones are made of a cheaper metal and crystals.

I was pondering this and suddenly realized: the real shop sells fakes, and the fake shop sells reals! Which amused me greatly.

正所谓：

假作真时真亦假，无为有处有还无。

as august ends

Happy birthday Karen!!!

To many more food and kBox adventures ahead!!! :D

states of mind

Was walking home quite some time ago when I suddenly recalled The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde.

In the novella, the Otises, an American family, move into the stately Canterville Chase, which happens to be haunted by a ghost. Mr and Mrs Otis have four children, the eldest son, Washington; the second daughter, Virginia; followed by a pair of twin boys, known as ‘The Star and Stripes’. The twin boys are never named explicitly, so I wondered what their real names could be.

After looking at a list of the states in America, I guess they were probably called North and South Dakota? There’s also North and South Carolina, but that’s probably too feminine. So I’m going with Dakota, which is a unisex name. Although the most famous Dakota (Fanning) in the world is female! Haha.

eyebrows and elsewhere

Unwanted hair grows faster than Olympic sprinters! Boo!

undergrad > graduand > graduate

My convocation was held on July 12.

I wasn’t looking forward to it at first, but it turned out to be one exhilarating night!

Maybe that’s why they call it Commencement, because it is the beginning of the rest of my life.

PS Thanks Jia Jie; your MSN sub-nick provided the title of this entry! :)

emily of emerald hill

Just finished reading the play Emily of Emerald Hill by Stella Kon. The introduction says that the play is about two hours long, but I took only a little time to finish both acts.

I was actually expecting something much more dramatic, but the play is simply about the life and times of a Peranakan woman. In any case, it’s a play, so it’s probably much better rendered on stage than in print.

pseudohematuria

Have been eating quite a lot of red-fleshed dragonfruit lately (don’t know why but my mum said she doesn’t like the white-fleshed ones), and the Wikipedia article on dragonfruit says:

Ingestion of significant amounts of red-fleshed dragon fruit (such as Costa Rica Pitaya) may result in pseudohematuria, a harmless reddish discoloration of the urine and faeces.

So I was telling Ma Cherie about this on MSN yesterday night, and she replied that ‘beets also’ and ‘rifampicin the tb drug’ also cause the same thing. Very informative, dear, thank you! :D

a very slow monday afternoon

I love the ending of 《连城诀》 (especially the very last line, which I’ve bolded!), even though much of the book is bleak and brutal and not my cup of tea:

狄云在丁典和凌姑娘的坟前种了几百棵菊花。他没雇人帮忙，全是自己动手。他是庄稼人，锄地种植的事本是内行。

只不过他从前很少种花，种的是辣椒、黄瓜、冬瓜、白菜、茄子、空心菜……

他离了荆州城，抱着空心菜，匹马走上了征途。他不愿再在江湖上厮混，他要找一个人迹不到的荒僻之地，将空心菜养大成人。

他回到了藏边的雪谷。鹅毛般的大雪又开始飘下，来到了昔日的山洞前。

突然之间，远远望见山洞前站着一个少女。

那是水笙！

她满脸欢笑，向他飞奔过来，叫道：“我等了你这么久！我知道你终于会回来的。”

金庸《连城诀》第十二回

onim

Oh No It’s Monday!!!

rainy night

Wet tar is luminous in the yellow glow of the streetlights……

variance

Was going to school for the FASS Mentorship Dinner yesterday evening when I bumped into Gabriel.

So we were chatting on the bus and he asked me where I lived. I told him, and he immediately asked, ‘Why didn’t you go Tampines JC?’

Finally, something somewhat different from the one I usually get, which is: ‘Why didn’t you go RJ?’

peanut butter cups

Checked Candy Empire at VivoCity some time ago and they told me that Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups had been out of stock for six months.

Was telling HL on Saturday that I should have asked her to bring some back when she returned from the States. I love them because I love chocolate and I love peanut butter.

So she told me to import and sell them, and I said I’d think about it.

And when I was at the mall yesterday afternoon, I was both amazed and amused to see that a Hershey’s store is going to open soon! Someone stole my business idea! Boo!!!

But anyway I hope they bring in lots of peanut butter cups!!!

twins

Went shopping with Hui Lin at Taka on Saturday. We were looking at clothes from fashion.LAB when this sales assistant auntie suddenly exclaimed, ‘You two twins ah?’

Then HL went into the changing room, and I was hanging around outside. The auntie came up to me and asked if I was sunburnt and I was completely ?????? because everyone knows I avoid the sun even more than a vampire.  Turned out that it was just the blush I was wearing. She said the ‘红粉’ looked very nice and natural and asked me what brand it was (Clinique).

This must be what people mean when they say sunkissed. Haha.

back issues

Am currently collating a list of American media contacts.

Gotta love this snippet from Vanity Fair’s Contact page:

BACK ISSUES

If you can’t remember the date of the issue in which a particular story appeared, please call 212-286-8180, and we will try to help you. All requests for back issues should be sent to subscriptions@vf.com. You can also call 800-365-0635 for issues dating from January 1999. Any other back issues: please go to a chiropractor.