So thinking that I was more free than I actually was, I went to Vivocity to do some shopping and to have a look at the PageOne sale. It was a miserable trip. It's the last day of the PageOne closing down sale, so all the good books have been taken. There wasn't a single book written by a renowned author left. It was just a bunch of no-name books which will gather dust and be forgotten forever. I walked away from PageOne dejected.
I had always liked that book store. It was spacious, stocked every single kind of book possible, and it actually had reading spaces. Whenever I went to Vivocity, PageOne would be where I headed to if I'm waiting for my friends. Today, looking at it's present state, I felt a heavy stone in my heart. There were endless bookshelves...all empty. Like bodies without souls, you know?
So after that, I went looking for clothes. I'm always very standard in my shopping. I go by brands. So, from PageOne, I went to the first floor and went to the following shops: Uniqlo, Topman, Zara and then Gap.
Uniqlo's good for their very basic stuff, and sometimes they stock tees which are actually quite cool. Didn't see anything to nice over there. Then I went to Topman...which has overpriced but nice-looking hipsters stuff. I found a nice collar-tee, but then I realized that my membership card entitles me to a 20% discount on my birthday month, so I decided to wait until then. Zara...didn't have anything much. Actually, they did, but they look a bit too fancy for me.
I went to Gap and I felt at home right away. They were playing my kind of music (some indie shit where the singer is out of tune), and the clothes were plain and simple and...pleasing...and understated. Kind of like me. Not too loud, but there's a lot of substance there. Gap's on the pricey kind, but you get what you pay for, I think.
I found a nice pair of shorts, and two t-shirts and one shirt which went with it really well. I'm trying to go for the shortish shorts look. Some might dismiss the look as gay, but I think I can pull it off with my uncontrollable masculinity. Donald Glover looks great in his shorts:
So anyway, I went to the counter to pay...and my card was rejected. Perhaps I entered my pin incorrectly, so I tried again. Once more, it was rejected. Maybe the salesperson did it wrong, so I asked whether I could try again. Same result. Funny, that's never happened to me before, I told the pretty girl at the counter. I wasn't too worried, because I was assuming the fault was on their side.
I walked to the nearby ATM. I keyed in my pin number...and it was correct. I then went to check my balance. "Transaction not allowed". And then I was brought back to a moment yesterday when I had received a message from DBS. Many times, when they send me a message, it was to tell me I had made a withdrawal, so I dismissed it. Upon reading it again, I realized that it contained information which is of a certain level of significance.
"We are mailing a new ATM card to you. For added security, your card ending **** is deactivated."
Sigh. So yeah, there went my plans of treating myself a bit for the day. I was really looking forward to actually spending something on myself, for once. The past few months, I've had to be slightly stingy with my money. I paid for my Laos trip out of my own pockets, and my dad hasn't paid me back for some of the things he owe me. Last week, he finally wired me some money, and....the waves of relief and sudden financial freedom I feel is amazing. I couldn't wait to exercise this new power afforded to me by money...and then this happened.
I was down. Did some more other stupid stuff, and that got me down even more, but I'm okay now. I'm at Rochester Park Starbucks with a hot coffee in front of me. I have a good book, I'm chatting with good friends on Facebook, there are hot girls around and I have the rest of the afternoon to myself. True, I have a paper review due, but that'll take care of itself, I think.
Okay, I'm out.
No comments:
Post a Comment