Tuesday, July 21, 2009

places to go, things to do

I think one thing good about the state of the economy is that it has helped me to try to save, psychologically.

Thinking of ways and means to save on your usual purchases is not easy; seeing this retail environ we live in, and … sometimes it’s more worth it to buy the more expensive stuff. All nods in agreement. Regretting after buying a cheap and no-good piece of clothing/makeup/whatever, it’s not worth the frustration. But I try to note down things, like GainCity has a discount on digital cameras, saving some dough… and other places some things can buy it cheaper, too.

I buy most of my books second-hand, a wise decision because I can read 2 books in a week. I still like going to The Bookshops in Raffles City, Wheelock; and Vivocity, but now, I plan for my book purchases, and buy them at Bras Basah. Kind Indian man already recognizes me, always having the same question. ‘Any Nicholas Sparks’ books?’ Once I like one author I have to read most of his books. So I’ve read most of Jostein Gaarder’s, Agatha Christie’s, Nicholas Sparks’. Got a Paulo Coelho book and it was my first, a pleasant read.

Stumbled upon this shop, ‘Cat Socrates’, near the 2nd hand bookstore, it sells everything I like. Tin Robots. Notebooks of brown paper and vintage prints. Lomo prints in small, small pieces – I bought to paste on my Office wall.

http://home.catsocrates.com.sg/

We bought a notebook (his idea!) and wanted to write down all our little memories. Listed down places we wanted to go – so many nice places to go, and eat at, and just relax at… the night-places we can go to, it’s hard-pressed to find a decent location at night to just cosy up and talk.

There are the too-dark and isolated places like parks which does not bode well for having a quality conversation, plus I have a dread fear of mossies since I had dengue before, (Really. We always bring tealight candles when we go to the beach at night. People think it’s for the romance feel but actually to chase away mossies, and ants too we discovered, and it works 100%.)

So on a dating session last Saturday night, we found ourselves at T3, Changi Airport. On the signboard at the lift area the shops at B1, B2, B3 etc were listed. Mr A. thought that the ‘24H’ notation at the back of the restaurant’s name meant the area it was located, and puzzledly said, ‘Eh, where’s area 24H’? I was hysterical.

The book Pastor recommended ‘5 love languages’ is really beneficial to us in this stage of our relationship. I had quite a hard time determining which is mine, I guess I feel loved so much that I don’t really know what is lacking or what I would like more? But it turns out that an obvious one for me would be quality time. (Him, even without reading he insists it is ‘touch’.) It’s really fun to find out the different dialects we will have in our love language. As a ‘thinker’, I enjoy a quality conversation, talking about things that are conjecturally interesting, talking analytically about people and people’s relationships and what we would do in that situation.

He likes simple massages… and I happen to be able to give massages really well! I think for couples who don’t speak each other’s love languages fluently, it may pose some difficulties. I actually know of guys who don’t like to be touched… but I’m sure every couples likes to spend time together, right… We keep up a daily conversation through email, so it’s nice to have a message pop up, sometimes about funny stuff, about how lunch was, about how was our work like, the interesting places I filmed, the things he did, like singing ‘beat it’ last Friday to the ire of his colleagues.

And so each day passes, happily.