Sumimasen!

haha. weird day today. rather freaky in retrospect.
so it started like any normal off shift day. i would go home. take a much needed hot shower and head out for my aimless but normally expensive wandering trips around singapore. so today i decided to go back to my roots.
ya know? cheena roots? cos like, i'm a chink?
so i get to chinatown, hop off the incredibly quick MRT ride. get to the place where they have the bunch of the stuff i wanna buy (hence forth called 'boys toys'). so the building i went to has about 4 shops selling boys toys. naturally i went into the one that displays most of the assembled boys toys so i wouldn't look like some dickhead just looking at the mountains of cardboard boxs pretending i know what i was doing. any way, after some window gazing, i vetured into the shop. the uncle was rather helpful. he seemed to know what he was doing. as expected of a veteran i suppose. i told him i was a beginner at this and asked for some recommendations. he pointed me to a rather medium sized one (i personally would have preferred something smaller cause it would be easier to travel with) and the medium one, for beginners costs..... SGD$500!
my gosh, i would have fallen off the chair, if i had sat on one. that's insane. it's not even some really professional looking ones that they use in those videos. i couldn't believe it. then the uncle, probably got the message by my stunned appearance, began ranting on how the price is competitive and how the other boys toys shops would have either cheaper knock-offs or have not as good parts. there is some truth in what he said, at least judging by the look of the thing, but i guess the best judge would be when it is really tested in a real live scenario.
so as you might expect. the famous shopping line people use when they have no real interest but are polite enough not to downright refuse you. "I'll think about it."

leaving the place, i ended up in vivocity, which was surprisingly only 6 bus stops away. haha. who knew?
bought myself a packet of tea. from what the tea salesperson recommended, this variety was for stressful people who need to relax. so it's pretty calming. took 2 cups after dinner, now i feel like sleeping already. the only downside - small 120g bag of tea mix cost SGD$35!
oh well. it was money well spent i suppose.

the funniest part of my day... the bus ride home.
i took the 188 bus from harbour front, as per normal. the only thing i didn't count on was the weather shifting from super hot at one point, to super heavy downpour at the next. given the perculiar change in weather, i fell fast asleep within minutes. one moment the bus was leaving the terminal pretty spartan, the next the bus was jammed pack full of school kids and 'older' school kids when i opened my eyes.
the weird part, however, was the seat next to me. i happened to find myself sitting at the emergency exit seat, which is slightly roomier than most normal seats. so i was shocked to find 2 small japanese school boys, 1 sitting on the other's lap and their female teacher standing in front of them in the seat next to mine.

l-------l l-------l <--- seats in front of mine
x
xx $
l------l l--------l <--- my seat

x - denotes the teacher in front of the 2 students

she looked like some psuedo-tour guide standing like that, with her hands holding onto the grab hold of the seat in front. anyway, it was just plain good manners that a guy would offer his seat when he sees a situation like that. so i asked (no no.. i didn't ask in nihongo, although i did say sumimasen, which i think caught her attention. LoL) whether she would like to take my seat. she politely refused and insisted that i should continuing sleeping.
*the sleepy me was soooo blur, i just nodded in agreement and fell asleep*
so the next time i woke up, the bus was even MORE crowded and i finally came to the realisation that she was just being polite to refuse my offer. how did i know this? i offered her the seat AGAIN, but this time... i took my butt of the seat while doing so. and the response? she gratefully sat immediately.
oh well, that's got to be my lesson learnt for the day.

ACTIONs speak LOUDER than WORDS.
especially to women. haha.
good day all.