Power Failure!!!
You can imagine how damn pissed I was. On the 1st day, the power failure lasted from 8.oo am to 5.30 pm and the 2nd bout came in the wee hours of the very next morning, i.e. for about 2 hours from about 3 to 5 am!!! And that's not the end, on that very same day, the power went off at about 10.30 am again and lasted all the way till late evening..it was only when Piggy went to meddle with the power switch (cuz he was so pissed off that I was so pissed off with the heat and stuffiness) that the power went on again. I m really amazed at how this is the normal way of life for the people here. Cuz in Singapore, the very last time that the power went off for a couple of hours, SP almost got sued! And yet, it's part and parcel of life here. Perhaps we have too good a life in Singapore, but that just makes me think even more of why we are here. With the power off, it was literally impossible to do anything or at least feel comfortable doing anything. I really hope this episode would not repeat again in the near future..
However, I was happy that on the first day that the power went off, I asked the maid to bring me to the sur
rounding areas to take a look. To me, since I m here, I might as well get to know the place a little, knowing that such things will never interest Apple. The maid brought me to the "jie1 shi4" to look at what the locals here sell. It was pretty interesting and despite the fact that it was stuffy, I was quite happy to get some good buys. I bought a few tops for only S$6 each. I could hardly believe it and it was not like the tops were ugly, infact they were quite nice! Then during one of the nights, Piggy's local friend brought us to this night market, where they sold lots of nice stuff too. Nice blouses and tops, which I could fit into and which were priced like between S$4 to SS$7.50!! I could hardly believe it. The blouses were so sweet, that if you were to buy them in Singapore, it would probably cost like 2 or 3 times more! So I was quite delighted with my find. But one thing is that the sizes here are really small, so it's harder for me to buy bottoms. Most of the ladies here are really thin, hence most of the stalls carry only small sizes. At best, I can fit into their largest size for the bottoms. I bought a 3/4 demin bottom for only S$12 and the good thing here is that you can still bargain..haha..I think the clothes here are pretty nice, if only I was slimmer, then I can buy even more..haha..and these clothes cost only a fraction of those Apple buys. 
And she still had the cheek to tell me off when I told her about my cheap find. She said that China also has such cheap buys but then to the people there, it's not cheap cuz they only get like S$700 - S$800 a month, so I shouldn't think it's so cheap. It's not like I didn't understand that but to us foreigners, such things are considered cheap. And Piggy was saying, since it's so cheap, then why Apple herself doesn't buy the cheap stuff and still likes to buy branded goods. One piece of her branded goods can probably buy 10 pieces of what normal people has!! And she still complained to me that she doesn't have many clothes!!!
Anyway, I feel that she is a very mecernary person. That day, I lent her some of my korean VCDs. One of it was about this girl who chose to marry her childhood sweeheart over a very rich guy despite the fact that her childhood sweetheart was very poor and probably couldn't give her as good a life as the rich guy. Then, she commented that the show was not very realistic, cuz she said "nowadays, where got people so stupid choose sweetheart over rich guy"...she continued"nowadays, people will surely choose a rich guy who can provide a good life then a poor guy". I feel that this clearly depicts her way of thinking and her values in life. Apparently, in her search for an ideal husband, the number one consideration is that the guy must be rich. Nothing else really matters. Really can't stand her sometimes. Almost everyday, she talks about money. I have seldom ever met a person so mercenary before.
And sometime ago, I was actually quite pissed with her for always trying to "tiao3 po1 li2 jian1" between Piggy and I. Actually, it was over long ago, but just talking about her brings back so many things that I wanna talk about. When I first came over to Vietnam, she told me that Piggy said that our room was very small and according to her, Piggy said that I should go and stay in the woman's hostel next door. I couldn't believe that Piggy said such things, so I verified with Piggy and he confirmed that he said nothing of the sort. Actually it was quite trivial but this was not the 1st time that Apple related something that Piggy said to me that was not true at all or at least, I felt that she always tried to twist it into another story. On another occasion, she told me something like she, Piggy and Piggy's brother all took 1st class airplane, so she said that Piggy said "it's better for me not to go to Vietnam since I would need to take economy class". Then when I asked Piggy, he told me that he didn't say anything like that and that he wouldn't have minded taking economy class with me. Anyway, Piggy usually takes economy class also, it's not like he always takes first class like her.
Then on another occasion, she was talking about how hard her life in China was, that she had to take train for 19 hours and that she only earned S$1000 plus per month or something like that. Then Piggy said to her "so now your life very good lah, no need to take train anymore, take aeroplane also take first class one". Then she was quite embarassed and said something like "no lah, not always first class, only when come to Singapore then take first class". I also think she should have nothing to complain about. Last time, she earned about S$1000 plus, now without doing anything, I think she "earns" more than that every month, still wanna complain...so Piggy and I have come to the conclusion that we should take whatever she says with a pinch of salt!
Kimmie scribbles
1:49 pm |