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Where emptiness abounds she is to be found. She fights back strong emotions as she wanders through the darkness and the uncertainty of the night. Cold and hungry, she finds solace under a large oak tree. Then it started. A few light drops but then it started pouring cats and dogs. Not sure of what to do next, she stayed in her position hoping it would stop. It didn’t. It just got heavier, and heavier, as if nothing would ever be powerful enough to contain mother nature. All she wanted was a few drops of water to fill her empty tank. Despite the downpour, her tank was still empty. No matter what she did, it just didn’t fill up. Not even half way.

She took a look around her, hoping things would change. But they didn’t. There she was, still under the large tree, the only thing that was solid in her present life.

Then a bright ray of something woke her up from what seemed like a never ending nightmare. She saw some hope, but it didn’t convince her the first time. Nothing seemed to cast her fears. She was still hungry, secretly hoping the light would give her more to live for. Then the light gently and slowly showed her another way of filling her empty tank. She followed the path the light was moving to- it was the first ray of hope she had seen in many years. It was as if her eyes were suddenly open to a deep realisation of self-worth and a reason to remain on earth.

She picked herself up and hurried back to the place she had known as ‘home’ for the past decade. She had something new to tell them, for once...

Ok...the title says it all! I am hooked onto Malay songs at the moment, particularly this one:
and here's the closest interpretation (direct translation) I could figure out after nearly a decade away from my home country!

It's really a breakup song..utk org yg patah hati but somehow I have fallen in love with it!
I really miss the place, regardless of what people say about it, I am eternally grateful to the country that taught me so much about life and living. I love the language, love the people, and love the culture! Looks like they did manage to instil some patriotism in some people after all (those Pendidikan Moral classes must have meant something....).
 

I just had some raisins. But they were not the ones I usually eat. I bought them at a supermarket and I didn't even notice what brand they were when i bought them. All I knew at the time was, that raisins were raisins and they can't taste much different from each other, can they?

The ones I just had were jucier and larger than the ones I'm used to having. To my surprise, I prefer the crystallized ones if that's what you call it. The rough texture of sugar from the raisin is usually what my tastebuds expect when I pop one in my mouth. These ones however were smooth, flawless and chewy. I'm not used to them.

Am I really so bored to end up writing something about raisins? Maybe. Or maybe it is another way of looking at the choices we make in life? It might just be boredom, or the lack of understanding about raisins :)

Looking to buy a new camera? Or camera equipment? Prices in Singapore are much cheaper compared to that in Australia, but you have to be careful. There is this shop called :

B***Y PHOTO

They have many branches in Singapore. There are two in Funan Plaza, and one in Sim Lim square. But be careful! The motto of their business seems to be 'earn money by tricking customers'. We went to buy some equipment and went shopping around for prices. We were looking for camera shops in Funan Plaza, and what caught my eye was this shop on the higher levels with tripods outside the shop. It was not a big shop, but it looked attractive.

We were greeted lazily by a Chinese-looking man who looked nerdy. His colleague looked like an 'Ah Beng', was wearing black shirt with the first three buttons undone, and was chomping away at his food right in front of us. We dealt with the Chinese man, who turned out to be a complete s***face. At first I gave him the benefit of doubt, seeing how conservatively he was dressed. I couldn't really tell if he was the honest type because his eyes were too tiny.

Then, the negotiations began. We were looking to buy three things. He quoted a higher price on the first, and extremely good prices on the last two.

"Can you write down the prices for me?"
"Nah! you write yourself." (throws us a tiny piece of paper and a pen)
"So how much is it in total?"
Gets out his calculator and adds up all the prices.
And then, he does something more on the calculator:

" total is S$XX"

What?? We didn't believe it added up to so much. So we grabbed his calculator and did the math ourselves. It ended up a few thousand dollars less than his calculations!
When asked:

"Haiyah, ya lah, this is total, and then you add 10%GST and 7% tax mah!!"

"Huh?!..Can we test the equipment?"

"No, no. Cannot unless you pay money" (secretly winks at his colleague, but I caught him doing so)

We left the store, thinking what an idiot he was!!

Then we went to another camera store called JOHN 3:16. Owned and operated by father and son, and they had a shop full of customers. They had a huge signboard which read, "Christ is the head of all transactions", something like that. The atmosphere was honest, the people were pleasant and they went straight to the point. We ended up getting a few things from them, and they even gave us a business card, their name and email. They were the nicest camera shop people you'd ever meet. And their prices were reasonable. The price they quoted, included GST and they only had to add 2% tax or credit card charge, I can't remember.

However, they didn't have one of the things we needed, so we had to end up going to another B Photo store. Apparently all the other camera shops didn't have this one as there was a short supply by the manufacturer. I wonder why B Photo had it? Sounds a bit dodgy to me. Again, the man gave us a reasonable price so we took out cash to pay. Then he suddenly said it was much more (took out his calculator too, and showed us his calculations).
"You first time to Singapore issit? Must add GST one lah, its 10%!!"
"Look, we have just bought these other things from another shop, and they price you quote is the FINAL price!! It is NOT our first time to Singpore and we know how it works."

The man looked embarrassed. "Where got lie that wan? Haiya. Haiyah. Ok lah oklah I just give you lah."
We paid the money and left. I didn't even bother saying thank you or goodbye. We later found out another shop in Chinatown had the same thing for a little less.

 Unbelievable!


More coming up...