Entering a supermarket this afternoon, I was appalled to see a group of housewives shamelessly ruining the Mandarin oranges on sale. The essential CNY fruits had been pre-packed into boxes for convenience, and there they were, opening the cartons, selecting the better ones and chucking less favorable ones. And it seemed that almost every box had been opened with an uneven number of oranges in each container. I shook my head and decided to buy my oranges elsewhere.

The queues weren’t as long as I expected. A lady approached me as I was waiting to pay, and informed me in a most joyful manner that I was entitled to receive eight bowls for buying eight cans of abalone. I was stumped momentarily, “Huh? What do I do with eight bowls? I don’t need so many bowls!” I politely declined and immediately heard gasps all around. Ah, it must have meant, “Got free gift why don’t want?! Stupid ah?!”.

As I approached the counter, the cashier displayed a look of panic and called for her colleague. Apparently I could receive a bag for every two cans purchased- which meant I could walk away with four bags. Uh huh. Well, I don’t need those bags too.

Come on, I just want my abalone. Hurry already.

As she packed my stuff and glanced at the figures, she further announced that she was going to give me four $25 vouchers based on the total amount spent.

What?! More freebies?! I was slightly horrified.

“But I only have three vouchers here. You wait a while ok?”

Right. I didn’t turn that down. Hahaha.

P/S: A gift is defined as ‘a thing given willingly to someone without payment’. Hence the word ‘free’ is redundant. Say ‘gift’, not ‘free gift’.

在北京的一個星期，我走了三遍故宮。加上之前的兩次，我想我差不多​​可以當導遊了。回來後的幾天內，看完三十多集的「步步驚心」，難怪那幾天一直夢見「太和殿」、「養心殿」、「乾清宮」⋯⋯

I could totally relate to Cowboy Caleb‘s entry on his spanking new blog. “I pledge to blog on a regular basis and this time use the ‘old style circa 2002-2006′”

Yup, the emergence of Facebook, Twitter, Weibo, Instagram, and the rather promising Path (note the deliberate omission of Google+), forever changed the way content is shared.

He churned out seven entries within fifty hours, something which I could easily parallel if not for the fact that I’ll be away for a while.

I had to clarify earlier this afternoon that I’m not “always on leave” ok? Rewind to the last quarter of the year. Full attendance for October and November. And in December, I was absent in the first week for Resonance. Then it was two weeks of “National Service Leave”, followed by a week in Beijing. Regardless of how much fun I had with my listeners, it was still technically a working trip and recorded in the leave system as “Outstation”. So. This is my first “Annual Leave” since September.

The original plan was to do NOTHING at home for a week.

And then, I realized I couldn’t sit still.

So my itchy fingers did some clicking, and I got myself an air ticket to Hong Kong within minutes. There were some complications with the accommodation though. It took at least six people to make multiple calls before they managed to secure a corporate discount for the hotel. This is what happens when you make bookings less than sixteen hours before you fly.

And it’s not that I’m “always travelling”. It is afterall, the first trip of the year! Haha. Lunch and dinner appointments have been made for the next two days. WOOHOO!

My Facebook feed is full of pictures of little children. Some of them are going to kindergarten/ preschool/ nursery/ whatever for the first time, while others are attending a new primary or secondary school. Hey, no one took any pictures of me when I went to a new school!

Hi kids, this is your Uncle Cruz. Have fun ok? You will probably forget what’s printed in the textbooks years from now, but you will always remember playing catching (or whatever’s trendy at the moment) before, during and after lessons, friending and unfriending people, getting into scuffles, or perhaps intruding into toilets meant for the opposite gender. You might want to refrain from buying up all the food in the tuckshop, cos you’ll be so tempted to bring home the entire stationery store. There’s no need to explain to your parents why you need 200 mechanical pencils, 500 highlighters, and 800 erasers. They will totally understand.

And parents, stop fretting. We went to school and we survived. The real horror awaits when they graduate.