Get(ting) Smart

Yesterday (25th) was a pretty lousy day. I'm glad it's OVER. Today is a new day. Thank god!

But seeing as "every cloud has a silver lining", "there's a bright side to everything", all that jazz - I accompanied An on her after-exams outing on the 25th. :] She finished her last paper at 12.30pm, and was in front of my house (driven by her cousin, "Louis Koo") by, like, 1pm. Waa. Haha.

We watched "Get Smart"! It was hilarious, very enjoyable!! Hehehe. Even funnier than "Kung Fu Panda" and "40-year-old Virgin".

Oh, and we had to kill some time while waiting for the movie to start, so we managed to figure out a few 'productive' ways to do just that.

Equipment Needed:

1 Digital Camera/Cellphone Camera

Minimum 1 person(s)

1 Thick Face

1) Take photos with all available props for movies.

2) Take photos of / with all available company

3) Pretend to be characters from movies

4) Go to the loo. You don't want to miss bits of the movie by going out to take a leak in the middle of it! You may also take photographs in the loo. If caught or reprimanded by toilet authorities, do one of two things: (a) pretend you do not speak English/Malay/whichever language you are being reprimanded in - then walk away, pretending to be irritated, OR (b) apologise profusely and claim you were not aware at all about laws regulating use of cameras in washrooms. If push comes to shove, start bawling.

After the movie, we went to a few stores to look for some things An Nie wanted, and I just browsed through whatever looked interesting.

Here are some things I learnt by carefully studying 1-Utama for a blistering total of 7 hours:

1) On clothes: The conclusion I have arrived at is that the prices of clothes in 1-Utama can be ridiculously high! For example, just because something is branded with a big fashion name, it can be tagged at over RM300. That's just f-ing ridiculous. Almost nothing, and I repeat, nothing can be found for RM20 and below. Only a handful of stores even sell clothes that cost RM15-30. I feel sad to say that 99.9999% of clothes now in 1U stores (excluding Jusco and similar stores) cost well over RM50.

All one can do in times of high prices is to wear whatever you want - in the fitting rooms only. :D

At one of the moderately priced stores (this is the 1U average), I tried on a super outrageous muti-coloured ensemble that I thought my grandmother in Serdang wears (left picture) and a really nice-looking brown blouse (right picture). Guess how much they cost? (I didn't buy anything)

Go on, guess!

.

.

.

The answers: around RM30 for the left, and RM90 for the right.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

I think FOS and JUSCO may be the only 2 places I personally deem economical enough to buy clothes in, in 1-Utama. :/ Maybe 1u rental is too high, and turnover in clothing stores too low. Maybe, maybe.

Poor businesspeople, poor consumers... kesian everybody, but what can we do?

2) On books: I think we've long known that Malaysia has a big issue with pricing books. Books in Malaysia are very expensive. The government says it wants to encourage reading, but there are not enough public libraries around and books are nearly always sold for a high price. MPH and Kinokuniya are classic examples of the squeezing numbers - Big Bookshop's Warehouse is an example of the de-squeezing. I wonder why?

But hey, MPH was giving free 3D glasses for that Hannah Montana show on ASTRO's Disney Channel. But I think it was on the 21st of June (it says ONE NIGHT ONLY hahaha), which has, as we all know, passed! Haha. 3D glasses were cool though. MPH deserves a picture mention for our new paper toys.

I think both of us are falling ill from the poor choices of food we made all day. First off, for the movie I managed to smuggle in An Nie's KFC popcorn chicken in my bag for her, I bought caramel popcorn, An bought the cinema hotdog. We were not sick yet then...

After the movie, we dropped by A&W to get root beers. I got a teeny packet of curly fries to go.

Then, feeling floooozy already (An more than me), we walked and walked and walked until it was time to eat dinner before leaving for home. We went to Itallianies for their calamari ...

But it didn't taste as good as the last time we went there. :( It's probably in our minds though.

I think An Nie was sick thanks to her eating durian in excess (a very Malaysian reason to fall sick, haha) and a serious lack of water (the girl doesn't drink water, you have to practically force it on her! ;S) ... and I dunno why I didn't have my appetite, I think that's what junk food does to you. :(

But spending the day with a lethargic, sick-thanks-to-herself friend does take its toll on your own mood also. It's surprisingly hard to be upbeat when your best friend is dragging her feet, yawning hugely, and suddenly losing her "LET'S GO EAT CHILLIS, THEN NANDOS, THEN ITALLIANNIES - OKAY? OKAY?" appetite.

Thanksalot An Nie. Hahahaha. Just joking la, don't worry.

But while we're on the subject, now that An's dehydration has gotten me thinking ... A lousy mood, like the flu, is infectious. This is a lesson for me: to somehow make myself impervious to what is not good. You know that saying, that says if one happy fella walks into a group of sad, whining fellas, then the happy fella very quickly becomes a sad fella also. But when a sad fella walks into a group of happy fellas, the whole group very quickly becomes a sad group also!

Hmmm.

OHHHH BUT WAIT!! Entries in this blog will always strive to end on a positive note, because goodness gracious the world needs more positivity!

At 11.05am on the 25th of June 2008, my cousin, Theodore Pung, was BORN! :D
Welcome to the family, Teddy!!!!!!! :D