Sometimes I think I am bitchy

Even though I keep telling myself that I am not, I think I too, can be bitchy, without myself knowing it. Then again, I think that bitchiness is something that people label you with.

You see, this morning I was supposed to meet a friend to go for the H&M opening here in the little red dot. I remember telling her last night that whoever wakes up first should call the other person so that we can all get ready and go and if we cannot make it on time, we then do not need to rush.

My work requires lots of physical activity and the fatigue spills over to my off days. I do not presume and purposely want my friend to know this. But the least I hope my friend could do is to stick to what was agreed upon. I woke up at 9am. We were scheduled to meet 9.30am. She did not call me and so I called her instead. She did not pick up her phone and I presumed that she was sleeping.

Turned out that she was bathing and could not pick up the call and called me at only about 9.15am or 9.20am there about. As I left a comment on my Facebook account, telling my other friend that if I did not manage to get in, that I will go for plan B, which was to go to Kinokuniya @ Bugis Junction, my friend (whom I was supposed to meet) lashed out and commented something like, "Guess who was the one who woke up late?".

After explaining to her that because I did not hear from her after I called her, I had presumed she was still asleep and went back to bed. I was dead tired. Nevertheless, I had already bathed and brushed my teeth. All that was left for me to do was to change and go.

She then replied to my comment implying that it was my fault and that I should not be blaming her (her exact words: "huh? is that my fault?"). I do not know whether it was PMS or whether it was too early in the morning but that comment hurt coz it was like my fault, then? In fact, at that point of time, I did not even remember what we agreed upon but was already starting to blame myself for all the unfortunate turn of events.

To tell you the truth though, even though I was so-called late, I still arrived at Somerset station before my friend. Says a lot doesn't it? I just felt like it was the pot calling the kettle black.

The queue was long and again, there was this air of impatience surrounding my friend. We collected the catalogue, took a bottle of oxygenated water and went off for breakfast. We rejoined the queue once breakfast was done. I felt the urgent need to go to the ladies and so I went. When I came back, my friend told me that her appointment in the evening had moved till mid-afternoon. I suggested we queue till a certain time before giving up and going over to Kinokuniya. She refused and said she would be on her way.

I queued alone but felt more at ease for at least, I don't feel such awkward silences and all those body language that I really did not need on my off day. I was halfway through the queue when she called me and asked where I was. I was pretty near the entrance already by then. She said she would rush back and join me in the queue and it was after hanging up that I saw her message for me to SMS her when I am inside.

That was what I did! I messaged her once I got in and she just reached the Somerset MRT (or outside, I do not know) but she was cursing and swearing over SMS that she had made a wasted trip. Just wondering though, how can it be totally wasted when you ARE headed towards the Yishun direction anyway? The only waste is the extra energy and time needed to walk over to H&M.

I suppose I was bitchy in not messaging her before I got in, but you know, there were lots of security. I do not know if they would have allowed her to just come in like that. Perhaps I was a coward and did not want to be embarrassed or perhaps, I just had enough from her for the day.

I can take a lot of things and not say anything coz I know no matter what I say, there would be some form of cleverer 'retaliation'. I sometimes even think that I bend backwards (or is it forwards?) too much for people but even this, I think I should say with caution, for fear that some other friends might lash out at me and say that THEY are the ones bending backwards for me.

This is not the first time this friend has lashed out at me. She is usually the one who is late and she used to be very late, even during our schooling days. When she is late, we cannot say much. But if WE were the ones that were late, gosh! We would get hell. Why are we still friends? I guess friends are hard to come by and being friends, to me, means to try to accept the good and bad sides of theirs.

I would not be surprised if I was yet again labelled bitchy for writing this post, but I just need to spill it out somewhere so that I can feel better inside.

Lovely day

Met up with some girlfriends to have tea and we ended up having such a nice, arty kind of afternoon. First stop: K.Ki at Ann Siang Hill. Quaint little place with nice environment and nice people. Here are some pics:

 Then we went to this place called Stevie General Store. They sell second hand almost everything and they have got quite a nice selection of retro clothes. Not that cheap though but the owners are really nice.

The owners also sell a collection of second hand books, which they themselves have read and like. They were very humorous and so was their way of tagging their items. There was a bust of Bruce Lee which they labelled as "One of Ip Man's disciples". Thought it rather witty. Just that I cannot remember the rest.

We then hopped over to Books Actually which was diagonally across the road. This shop is now 3 stories high and if I wanted old typewriters and those toy baby grand pianos made in China, I would know where to buy them.

All in all, it was a lazy afternoon, spent with 3 ladies and rounded up with very good dinner at Spizza's.

Correction (hopefully the last) and updates

Don't need to wait for Monday to unravel the mystery about Sunny Bookshop. Indeed, I was right the first time round. They are NO LONGER at Far East Plaza.

I could not wait till tomorrow to get fresh supplies of story books and thought I would go to EMF (another secondhand bookshop) at Plaza Singapura. When I reached the 6th floor, surprise, surprise!!! I see those big familiar words with that screw driver on the letter "S": Sunny Bookshop. EMF is gone, for good!

I plunged into the sea of books and started looking and searching. It is still quite messy, not the sort of organisation I am used to while working in the library, but this would suffice as I satisfied my hunger for books and pleasurable reading.

Halfway through searching, a local celebrity of the theatrical kind even popped by to look for a certain book! It was Karen Tan and I do so admire her works as an actor with the theatre. She could not find what she wanted but thanked the staff and told her not to worry if she could not find the book, as she simply just loves the feel of a secondhand bookshop. How nice, so do I!

At first, I only took 3 books but the girl told me that if I took one more, my loan period would be extended to two and a half months per book! What a bonus! Finally, not one to miss out on such great opportunity, I lugged 4 books around town with me.

The old shop was indeed on Level 3 (so my memory did not fail me)and the present shop at Plaza Singapura, Level 6 is the only store they have, i.e. they have shifted there permanently. Bliss for me still, as it is still not too far away from home.

Bookworm

Just this Monday, I was off work early, doing the opening shift and all. I had just finished one storybook which I had bought from Books Kinokuniya quite some time back and was craving for another.Reading was another way of keeping myself busy and off the shopping malls. It was an economical yet good old fashion way to pass time, without being too useless at all.

I am a slow reader and borrowing books from public libraries never really did work for me. I would be too stressed up about the due date to be able to enjoy the book completely and in the end, I would still be late in returning them anyway.

My bus takes me through Orchard Road and the nearest bookshop I could think of was Prologue at ION@Orchard. Then I had a better idea! Recently, I had thought I saw Sunny Bookshop still in business at Far East Plaza and I quickly rang the bell and hopped off. Sunny is a second-hand bookshop that was tres popular during my school days. You bought a book at one price and if you returned it on time, you would get back a certain amount which was lower than that of what you paid for. The difference was that the due date was like a month or so and that did not sound so bad to me. I know, strange isn't it? 3 weeks is not OK but 4 weeks is fine. Maybe it has got to do with the fact that if I did not return a book from a second-hand book store in time, I could still keep it for myself.

I was wrong about Sunny though, for it was no longer there. Luckily, there were two other second-hand bookstores for me to peer into and the first one did not look at all appealing. The collection was in a bit of a mess and there did not seem to be much selection and variety to begin with. I decided to consult the directory and found ANA Book Store on Level 5.

The arrangement of the collections were still quite messy but at least this fella had the popular authors and books displayed upfront, which was so much easier. I did not have too much cash with me at that time though and was too lazy to go all the way back down to the basement to get money. I was also running a little short of time and there was still dinner to settle.

I think sometimes with books, it is also fate. I picked out this unassuming book called Hunting and Gathering by Anna Gavalda. Amazingly, this was a French translated book and little did I realise that it was filmed into a French movie, Ensemble, c'est tout and was acted by Audrey Tautou! I am quite sure that I have seen the film title before as it was one of those French Film Festival screenings.

Well, it felt like I was back in my Uni days where I went to bookshops, picked up books and trotted off to cafes along the cappucino strip in Fremantle. Except that now, I stay in the comfort of my own room until the wee hours of one, two o'clock in the morning and devour the book some more during my lunch break.

This book was that good! I paid $9 for it and will get back $6 when I return it. Technically speaking, the book just cost me $3, but everyone (including the shop owner) knows that one does not stop there. Once you are hooked on it, you would go back for more and the $6 will be rolled over to your next purchase of books, which is just as well in my opinion. After all, one still has to read anyway.

By the way, I really liked how the owner told me after he had given me change, "Now you can feed your mind with knowledge" or was it "Now you can feed your mind with all that reading". Anyhow, I was in a hurry but I was really happy.

On the way, I saw Wasabi Tei serving its first customers. Made a mental note to self that this could be another Monday early dinner place in future. For usually, there would be a long queue for this place. Once it's bar tables are filled up (and there are only bar-table-styled seating, one would have to obediently queue up for like...forever (when one is very hungry).

p/s: Right now, my mind is all messed up with all that emotional shit after reading the book. The author really knows how to bring one right up to the roller coaster and come down with a big bang. Will probably do a book review of sorts later when I get my emo self sorted out.