Mother's Day @ En-Naeem
Sunday, May 18, 2008 at 7:34 AM | 0 comments  
Last Saturday, I rushed from NYP to make myself present for this mother's day event. It was a lunch/charity/mother's day event. Mothers were presented with a rose upon entry. The whole family was there including our maternal grandmother and sis-in-law. Dad decided to attend and bought his ticket on the day itself, and ended up sitting at a table with the star-performer for the day, Didicazli.

But we were there to see our smallest one perform. Our littlest sister was performing a skit, together with some of her kindergarten2 classmates. She played the part of Alqamah's mother. Her teacher was saying how great she was at the role to mum prior to the performance, we had to see it ourselves.

I felt little sis could have done better with her facial expressions but she was able to deliver her lines well. She took her role seriously unlike some of her classmates... but of course, that is to be expected of most kids their age.

Once, while lying down in bed at home, she lamented that she preferred the role of Alqamah cause she would only need to lie down ~ then she pretended to have fits and pretended to die. LOL!

Other than the skit, there were performances in the form of nasyid and poetry by other students. I know nuts about the local malay music but the performance by Didicazli was pretty alright. However, in my opinion, the muazzin of En-Naeem Mosque sounded so much better. I was somewhat mesmerized. There was also a mini forum session towards the end.

We even got to bring back lucky draw prizes. Big bro and Dad were the lucky ones. The whole event has a warm feeling to it. It was a nice day out to celebrate the 2 mothers in our family.
Posted by Firdaus Labels: ,
Haggle
Saturday, May 3, 2008 at 2:53 AM | 2 comments  
Went to Sim Lim Square to get power supply for my computer and also some CD-Rs. I've been wanting to check out the prices of video cameras and decided to do so during this trip to Sim Lim Square. Checking out = Don't wanna buy yet

The first few shops I passed by sells video cameras. And so, I began asking how much the professional video cameras were. I ended up saying that I was looking for something in the thousand plus range. The salesman recommended a HD DV cam. He was saying that the DV cam was superior over the pro cameras since it uses it hard disk instead of tapes. When I asked how much it was, he took out a calculator and typed out 1250.

"What's the deal with salesman and calculators?... just say out the price lar."

He was keen to demonstrate the functions and I played along.

Talking. Demonstrating. Talking. Comparing with other models. Talking.

"I give you special price," he said. Took the calculator and entered 1100.

Talking. Demonstrating. Talking. Browse magazine. Talking.

"I give you complete set," With lens and tripod. I began to get tempted... alas, i was just checking out the prices. So I told him that I'll think about it. All these while, I wasn't the one haggling. He was the one who slashed the price. I was merely playing the hesitant buyer.

As I went out of the shop, he said 900. By this time, I was wondering to myself. "This guy is either too desperate or he marked up the price so high that he's able to slash the price by $350 and add stuffs to it."

It's probably a bit of both. I am not the type who would ask for a discount except for certain known places where you are an idiot if you don't do this haggling routine.

It's a common marketing ploy to mark up your prices and set the minimum that you are willing to sell. Of course, still at a profit. I suppose some people enjoy playing the haggling game. I personally find it a tad of an annoyance.

And what's with the calculator?? It's probably yet another ploy so that the haggling game remains between one prospective buyer and the salesman..... therefore not influencing another prospective buyer.

This incident proofs to me that perhaps, haggling is something that I have to engage in(like it or not)..... not because I am crazy for a bargain, but because I wanna get a reasonable deal and not be at the losing end.

I went on to get my power supply and CD-Rs. Before making the payment, with the incident still fresh in my mind... I said, "Can discount?"

I got a $5 discount. I could have pushed my luck and asked for more discount.... but haggling is not my thing.
Posted by Firdaus Labels:
Sooner or Later
Thursday, May 1, 2008 at 11:56 PM | 0 comments  
A secondary school teacher of mine,Mr MacDonald, tried to proof to us that it doesn't take long to write a journal entry. One of things I had to do for class. Basically he played Eric Clapton's Tear's a Heaven. A song he wrote about how his toddler fell down to his death from his apartment. So, we basically go on writing in our journal whatever was flowing in our mind be it in response to the song or not.

This is to the tune of Breaking Benjamin's Sooner or Later

I feeling kinda tired of my own blog. Mainly because it seems to speak a lot of negativity of late. I don't like it that way. Many times, I tried blogging something but got tired to continue and ended up abandoning the idea. Hence the idea of just filling up the blank of this page by the method that I remembered from secondary school.

Probably not going to make much sense reading this randomness. Sooner or later is the title of this song. Speaks a lot about life I suppose. Something happens sooner or later. Later seems more likely for me regarding certain things. Yar... all 3.38min is up.
Posted by Firdaus Labels: