along orchard road today

i finally decided to spend after dittering for the last month. i bought another pair of pants from zara going at 60 dollars in anticipation of my journalistic internship. i also bought a gravis bag after all my usable bags had either their zip broken (my yellow/black nike backpack i bought from taiwan in dec 2002) or the insides corroding (my orange deuter bag i bought back when i was in J2 in 2000) or the ledges torn (my black fourskin sling bag). i also bought 120 american dollars and 200,000 indonesian rupiah for my week-long trip to jakarta this tuesday.

i had time to do all this on a sunday afternoon because i decided not to have cell. the whole cluster was going to play games, but my cell people made it known to me last week that "they were too old" to play those games. besides, after what happened this week with a few of them, i decided i should take a break and not appear to be coming down so hard on them.

so in the end, i spent time agonising whether to buy a direct replacement for my torn fourskin sling bag, or in a new backpack. i went to check out the price for a crumpler backpack, but when i found out it was 200 dollars, i retreated into my pauper's shell once again - 200 dollars could get me the gravis bag which i eventually bought and a replacement fourskin sling bag, which i kindda k.i.v-ed.

which was what i was agonising over. along the way, a nicer and better designed sling bag caught my eye at fourskin. but in the end, i decided i shouldn't shop on impulse and buy what i need first. i need advice from daniel tham or vicky or vincent, all of whom weren't with me then.

so the grey gravis bag became my purchase for the day.

but as i was just walking around heeren today, i found so many nice labels that have sprouted out all over the place. and the best thing is that they are quite affordable - but only when i start getting my own money.

some random thoughts for the day.

1. today i wondered how come all the youths i deal with in church seem like imps when compared to the ones my counterparts handle.

2. and then i wondered whether am i still trying to do too much, especially with some of my juniors whom i try to help as friends whenever i can.

3. i saw 6-year-old ethan ong played the drums along orchard road, to some hillsongs praise song. by the way, ethan ong is probably the youngest drummer we have because he started at age 2. he played with ear plugs in his ears and his sense of rhythm is impeccable and his technical ability is simple astounding for his age. a down side though was his expression less face. but i smiled because it was his form of christian outreach.

4. i felt poor. i hated not being able to buy clothes and stuff i want. which led me to reprimand myself about the kind of consumer lifestyle i have been taken over by.

5. i saw some blatantly sexually explicit images on the cineleisure screen and i got reminded of the things i studied in school. after all that i have studied and made aware of, and after how much we have deconstructed these type of media images and deem them to be harmful, what do we do about it? academia seems like a whole bunch of hot air now because even though we are made aware, we cannot do anything about it and continue to be influenced by it. must things be so inevitable?

6. shucks. i haven't talked to some people for a long while. people i am supposed to be mentoring. and i am leaving for jakarta for a week tuesday.

7. shucks. the book of jeremiah. preparation for Bible study at the conference. i feel very lazy to do anything about it. it looks so intimidating already.

8. reminder to self: email pastor ian and ailing the minutes for the leaders meeting i took on thursday.

bah! i got to start packing now.