Scouty’s Weblog

Met up with my poly friends on Friday to try and rent our graduation gown for our up-coming graduation in May. Was pretty happy to see the few of them again. Since the last time we met was in class before our course ended. So the 4 of us met up and did some catching up while walking to the Convention Center.

The first thing that came to my mind when I saw the gown and when my friend was trying it on, I was like “It look like Harry Potter” Well… just when I thought the gown was weird looking when I saw it on the website, the actual gown looks even more weird, as it has this red in the middle with strip of gold lining at the 2 side of the red. So first glance of it, it really look like one of the Harry Potter costume.

Nevertheless, the 4 of us still try out the gown to get the right size before proceeding to pay the rental fee for the gown.

Now that I have the gown with me, it will be just waiting for the actual day to arrive. Perhaps I am just getting abit too excited, I had even plan out what shirt and tie to wear for the ceremony, so as to match with my this Harry Potter looking graduation gown.

Its been a long long time since I last put on a graduation gown….

Finally remembered what I wanted to blog about. Went to this shop near my sister’s place to have my glasses made, as my current pair is like a few years old already. So its about time I make a new pair.

So went over to the shop near my sister’s place to make my glasses before dinner, as my mum mentioned the shop owner don’t charge that much for a pair of glasses. Furthermore, my Dad and Mum also had their’s made there. So decide to try them out, since my glasses were always expensive, so if there is a shop that can offer a good price for my glasses why not.

Upon reaching the shop, well its a very simple shop run by this couple. The wife was pretty helpful and will find out what I need and recommend. Shortly after that, the husband came back. He was quite a funny man. First he reeks of alcohol smell, which made my mum and me wonder if he is in a state to render his service. Then what kind of irritates me is the way he recommend the various type of frames. He is like trying to just push any frames to me, despite me stating a few times that I wanted something with a bigger frame for the lens, because my eyes are big and I have an oval shape face. So if the frame is too small, it will look darn weird on me. But he just like.. “This one ok.. This one ok..” or “This one nice, see.. good right” or “This one can… This one can… My frame is even smaller than this. So this one sure can!” I have to admit, at this point I almost wanted to tell the man off.

However what makes the whole experience an ever eye-opener was when I asked if there is a need to check my eyes  of any changes to the degree of my lens. First he got his wife to check the current degree of my lens, then tell me based on that to make my new lens. I was like… “Dude.. the last time I had my glasses checked was like at least 3 years back! Got no change meh”? Then he told me to stand outside his shop, using the traditional eye chart on the wall, ask me to read a line of numbers on the chart, from there determine that got no change.

Seeing my uneasiness and the WTF look on my face. The wife suggested that he checked for me again, that’s where he used those specs where he can placed many lens to determine the correct degree required. Well… final verdict, there is a slight increase in the astigmatism.

Personally I really have the intention to just tell him that I will not want to have my specs made. The way he conduct the whole deal, sure give me the uneasiness. However, perhaps the only saving grace in the whole experience was the price he charged me for the whole pair of glasses. It cost me $228 for the glasses, I have to say it has been the cheapest pair I made till date. Consider the fact that my lens had always cost the most and based on the previous few pairs made. Its always at the range of $300+. So today I can get a pair at just slightly $200, I was thinking.. “Ok.. Just give it a shot. If no good, then he can forget about earning my money again.”

So there was it… My experience of making my glasses with a seemingly drunkard man.

Decide to took half-day leave today, as I have something to do and also want to take the chance do some shopping in the middle of the day.

So first stop was to Raffles City, as I wanted to go to the Robinson Store. Since Robinson is well-known for its services, thus wanted to go experience some good customer service. Well.. now I realised that selecting perfume to buy is not an easy task, especially when the info I had on hand is rather vague. So its pretty much relying on gut-feel to find out  the scent I want to get. To make matter worse, a particular brand has to come out with 3 different  scent all under 1 range; Addict, Addict 2 and Addict Shine. So gave up on this brand, move on to brand 2. This one at least pretty straight-forward, since they only have 2 different scent for their range that comes with numbers. But I was wrong, cos this brand of perfumes (in my own words) have this time-lapse feature that the actual scent will only come out after it takes time to ’settle-down’. Cos the promoter was explaining to me why I couldn’t get the scent right earlier because the scent has yet to ’settle-down’.

Now at least I can ‘put a face’ to the different scent and brand of perfumes I can get, should I decide to purchase it. So move on the my 2nd stop, where its time for me to relax and chill over a drink. Went down to my favourite lounge at Intercontinental Hotel to spend my afternoon reading while sipping a cold beer.  I had found this place to be very conducive for reading, since its pretty quiet with soft music played over the lounge. If I were to stay later, I can get to hear live performance by the lounge piano player. Had managed to finished reading the Library Journal containing papers presented during the 2008 Library Conference and 2 short stories excerpts from this year’s Read Singapore selected reading material. Haa… I guess I will be hanging out at the lounge this week again, since now I got another book on hand to complete.

After spending my afternoon at the lounge, decide to do some window-shopping before heading for dinner. So ended up at Kinokuniya Book-store. Decide to check out this book ‘The Best I Could’ by Subhas Anandan, the famous criminal lawyer in Singapore. Chance upon this book on Monday while I was at Times Bookshop, got rather engrossed while browsing it. Had initally wanted to loan it from the library (the cheapo side of me say “Don’t Buy.. Loan!!”) but upon checking the Online Catalogue, the book is either out on loan or under reservation in all the libraries. I figure by the time I get my hands on it, the interest in the book might be lost. So decide to purchase the book from Kinokuniya, since they are offering a further 20% discount on the book. So a good book that cost slightly above $20, where to find!!

So decide to head down to Central Mall for dinner, since I am not too sure what I want to have for dinner, but had the intention to check out some clothes at one of the shops there. Upon reaching Central Mall, decide to go for dinner first as its troublesome to look for dining place alone, and worse if I have any shopping bags with me should I decide to buy some clothes. Decided to try this shop that sells Hong Kong style food, as that is the only store that kind of sell something not local and yet look decent enough. Furthermore, there were these 2 ladies that also happened to decide eating at this shop and I actually made a couple of eye-contact with one of the lady. Haa… so ordered my food and drink, got a seat and enjoy my nice cold milk-tea while waiting for my Pork-Chop noodle to be served. I must said, the food was good, serving was rather large I would said. So had a satisfying dinner, then decide to buy some Japanese pastries for my colleagues at work tomorrow. Since I hasn’t really given them a treat ever since I join AFS, so decide to give them a little treat since I had gotten my PB. Had bought this cute finger-bite size donuts and cakes.

Finally all is done and its time to head home. On the way, start reading the book that I just bought and the momentum just build up. Now the reading mood is once again ignited.