Army of Salvation vs Suntech Family Gangsters

We spent the weekend thrift shopping at The Salvation Army, at Upper Bukit Timah, near the Dairy Farm. I got myself 3 pairs of 'old skool' pants, $20 Levis 501, a thin neck tie, a raincoat and a book. Sab got herself a nice blue top that looked like Jackie Onassis's leftover clothes, we spent close to 4 hours, till which I got to a point of exhaustion from tedious browsing of goods. I have been a big friend of thrift shopping since my college days, and I have cultivated this strange habit of religious visitation to these places. For there are so many assortment of strange/weird collections of stuff; where can you find a violin still in mint condition for $30.

The other half of the day, we went to Suntec to look for a pair of sandals for my sister. Sab has been my reliable gift assistant when it comes to situation like this. I am bad at buying gifts, but I am good at making them. I used to paint portraits of people for their birthday gifts till I reached to a certain stage of 'busy-ness' I gave up completely.

At Carrefour, the catastrophe of families, children running around aimlessly were so apparent, that I felt a complete lost in space. The sound were close to being in an industrial estate, flat plasmatic tv screens screaming their visuals, with retail assistants shoving the new Beckham shavers, the new Jay Zhou Live VCDs and French Fair was going on. Intermittent and irregular eavesdropped caught my ears.

There's this old man who was offered a cup of sparkling water with lemon, he asked the salesgirl what the hell was in the cup. She said it was a cup of new sparkling mineral water with lemon. The man said nice. Then I saw this giant Perrier mineral water bottle behind the girl, then I thought, what so new about Perrier, I drank this when I was 5 years old. The dishonesty of the girl made me think about consumerism and their attributes.

Oh uncle, how I'd wish you knew more about Perrier, but you know Pierre Png more than Perrier....