This author is currently on hiatus for the ignoble cause of mugging. The public is advised to remain calm, as this routine protocol has been shown to have no effect on one's violent tendencies in 96% of cases.
| Saturday, February 17, 2007 |
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With Chinese New Year just around the corner - yep, reunion dinner tonight! - Singaproeans are making a mad rush to stock up on rice and chocolate coins before the shops close for the fastive season. And it was on a fateful friday (ytd) that my mother took me to Fairprice Xtra at AMK Hub, probably as extra manpower to help her carry all her groceries and extra miscellanous items housewives are infamous for. And man, was it crowded. At least the escalators weren't jammed up like the last time, and there was still some space to move about, though hardly any. But taking a trolley was the wrong choice, cos there's hardly any space to move about. For the first time, i saw more baskets than trolleys lor. You could imagine the place to be like a system of cramped criss-crossing roads, except there's no traffic lights nor wardens at all. Oh, and you can park at the sides too. The traffic's so bad you have to wait at least 30 seconds at every junction. There's also no such thing as U-turning, unless you want to be be squashed head on by a mob. And thanks the sucky design, a lot of accidents occur often. Ramming the trolley into someone, running it over someone's toes or plain crashing is part and parcel of the visit. Even though its a hypermarket, the architects have the bloody sense to divide the already-narrow walkways even further by displaying a row of goods right in the centre. | | S| 0 | KEY H| 0 | 0 - Chenin Blanc's finest E|↑0 | red wine. Cheers. L|↑0 | Џ - Stupid trolley with V|↑0 | toddler girl inside. E| 0Џ| S| 0 | | | The kiasu Singaporeans just make it worse. I even met Bo Yan, who came from a land far far away with his father to buy groceries. God knows how many people from all over Singapore crammed into the hypermarket yesterday, just cos its new and everyone's gotta "join in the crowds". and the entire mall's not even open yet - most of the shops in the upper levels are still under renovation. In the end, I found the Hala section to be almost deserted (unsurprisingly) so i just stoned there with my brother playing in the trolley while my mum went to do her shopping. But we ended up buying just a carton of drink and some frozen roti prata, cos she got sick of the crowds too. I miss the old (and much smaller) NTUC outlet just outside my house. So convenient, and you can push the trolley (and your lil bro inside it) around at high speeds. No such thing as popping into NTUC to grab a packet or two of stuff anymore. =( But the show-stealer of the day was still the few units of FLABeLOS on display near the entrance. It supposedly helps the user lose weight through vibration of this platform which s/he stands on. And it looks absolutely GROSS when some obese auntie uses in, particularly in such a public area. Look at her rotund bum bobbing up and down, its like eeew. >< For the slim couples and little kids who went to try it out for fun, it gives you the ability of double-tonguing very quickly - or to be more onomatopheia-ic, "tsk-tsk-tsk-tsk-a-a-a-a-oomph" *falls off in laughter* xD I will never ever go CNY shopping again out of my own free will. Or buy a set of FLABeLOS, for that matter - though i probably won't need it. |
'Twas teh winnar at 1:16 pm.
