Dec 2 - A Fistful of Aussies (Pt 2)
Orchard Rd is pretty much a 3km stretch of shopping centers. Malls, stalls, vendors... mostly multi-level towers filled with everything you do and don’t need. Usually when I go to Orchard, I only have one place in mind: Ngee Ann City. It’s a twin-towered behemoth of shopping with two basement levels of food courts, markets and wine stores. Takashimaya, a Japanese department store, takes up one of the towers all by itself, and then in the other tower you have Cartier, Louis Vuitton, and my personal favourite, Kinokuniya.
I like to delay my pleasure until the last moment when I’m shopping though, kind of like tantric retail therapy. So I walked into every other mall first, purposefully avoiding Ngee Ann, saving it for last. I picked up a few things in Wisma Atria (Isetan is a nice, sometimes cheaper alternative... think Myer!) , accidentally walked into Far East Shopping Center before remembering it’s just full of golfing shops, wandered around the Borders, and fretted over where I could have lunch. There were heaps of school kids wandering around in yellow t-shirts, selling flowers (fake ofc) for $1 each to support World Aids Day, or something of the like. Happy to oblige, I picked one up and curled it round my satchel strap. Pretty!
After an hour or so of pointless meandering, I was ready to climax. Gogo Kinokuniya! I probably spent near an hour just looking at book covers, flicking through cultural studies and pretending I knew asian languages to justify standing in the manga section and just looking at the pretty pictures. I barely saw half of the store, which again, was on purpose. I’ll head back next week and look at the art books, architecture and history stuff!
Heading over to Takashimaya, I took a detour to Louis Vuitton, only to find a line outside the store. No shit, there were ten people just waiting to be let in to walk around. A doorman monitored the capacity of the store like a bouncer, which turned me off. I hate bouncers with a passion, so I walked away. Guess I’ll try again another day :/
Clothes shopping in Takashimaya is lots of fun, if nothing else than just to see a nice range of stuff all in the one place. As far as serious shopping goes, it’s better to hit up some of the shopping areas which pool a bunch of designer outlets together: better range, better bargaining potential and better variety. But that’s the case wherever you are really, not just Singapore.
The differences in fashion were interesting, but not always something I could see myself wearing. There’s a whole lot of gorgeous dresses and tops that I loved the look of, but I’d need to have asian hips to wear them (that is, have no hips at all)... I’ll find some stuff eventually though, just gonna have to get used to not fitting into half the stuff I like ; ;
It’s also not very flattering when you’ve been round about a small size all your life and now you have to try on stuff labeled medium, or even large... I know I’ve put on a little weight this year but come on! I’d like to think I could just blame it on the difference in averages heights between western countries and asian countries, but deep down I can hear a lil voice laughing at my fat ass >.<
I wanted to buy a whole heap of stuff, but I’m still unsure about what my monetary situation is at the moment. Sachin gave me a nice allowance to work with, but food and travel expenses have been burning it up quicker than I’d like. I can’t really use any of my own money either, because that’s all staying in my bank to pay my rent and phone bill while I’m away! Dx
I did, however, embark on a pilgrimage, a mission to locate a cocktail shaker. The previous night, I’d been talking with Sach and Shruti about our favourite foods and drinks. Shruti professed her love of Amaretto, to which I asked if she’d ever tried an Amaretto Sour. When she answered ‘no’, it became my mission to make one for her! She had no problem with that :P
After finding only a bunch of overpriced shakers ($80-$100 nuthx) I finally located a simple one that cost as much as another brand’s jigger. Nothing fancy, but it’d get the job done. So packing that in my bag, along with the extra bits of underwear I’d bought, I walked home and fell into the pool.
While chilling out during the afternoon, watching an episode or two of Entourage, Sach sent me a msg to come for drinks on Robertson Walk. Heading down I met two of his friends, Adam and Caleb. No surprise, they were both Aussies. Over some vodka and tonics, I found out they’d both run the marathon that morning; Adam the 10km and Caleb the full 22! They looked pretty knackered, but were great fun to chat to. Sach let slip that Adam had a date that night, and while we were prepared to slip off and let him have some alone time with his girl, when Jamie (the girl <.>) rocked up, she pretty much invited us all to join them for dinner. Sach was sneaky and sent a message to Adam’s phone asking if that was alright? Adam just shrugged. It was a good thing too, in the end, we had a fantastic night!
Jamie took us to a Taiwanese place nearby which served the most delicious pork spare ribs, yummy dumplings, marinated vegetables and minced pork on rice. Jamie was gorgeous, and turned out she knew a lot about Australia, we were even talking about restaurants in Box Hill at one point! I found out Caleb actually lived in Carlton, which is where my uni is, and was only in Singapore for a week or so to check on his real estate investments.
After dinner we headed over to the wine bar (20 meters away, lol) and had a nice bottle of pinot noir from Central Otago. It wasn’t long before people were ready to turn in tho, which is not surprising considering the whole marathon running thing! I’m surprised the boys lasted as long as they did D:
I was in bed by midnight once again, which would normally feel weird... but when you start eating and drinking round 5.30-6 each night, midnight rocks around and you’re pretty much done. Work was in the morning anyway, so I was thankful for feeling tired.