Fill me up

Today we went out to treat Vicks. It's her birthday tomorrow, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY VICKS! Nice outfit today! The best I've seen from you so far. Very memorable. Musa, you MUST send me the pics we took today. For everyone's information Vicks appeared today in a red and white top (red shirt, white long sleeves), wearing a Santa Hat. Dai Wei was the first one to spot her. We were looking around for her and then suddenly he saw her standing at with her back to the MRT signboard. So we hurried behind the board to hide, and then she turned this way, so we hurried to the other side, and then she turned back, so we hurried back. Then we crept up and surprised her. End of story.

Haha, but no, we had lunch later at swensen's. And we got her this book. Books as gifts. The darndest things in the world. I can't even believe I'm saying this! But I guess all gifts are darned things when you're looking for the right one.

And now, I'm feeling the sting of spending so much so recently. Musa found this wallet in the Wallet Shop that says on its front "Fill me up". I think its very appropriate for Musa. And I think for me too. I mean, I'm not really broke, but I don't like the sinking feeling of watching the money in my bank account go down. And it's going down quite fast. I like to imagine what I could do with big money. Invest in shares, place some in fixed deposit, buy property and rent it out, and then sit back and enjoy the dividends. Then I can really do what I once joked about: sitting in bus or MRT yakking away into my phone, "Ah yes, Sam, I want you to sell all 50 000 of my shares in so-and-so company. Buy up a 100 000 in this-and-that. Yes, sell. What? Their rates just went down? Hmm, okay nevermind, just sell the rest and we'll wait and see." or something along those lines. Such silly imaginings.

It's interesting to see how different a picture of yesterday Beni has painted. She says it's a heavenly experience, I say it was tortuous. And I thought you were the one who didn't want to walk around so much. But you did raise a good point about fiction. I think it's been too long since I've invested in a good fiction book. I've been reading a lot of CS Lewis and other non-fiction, think-deep, kind of books. Those are good, and Lewis is as usual fantastic. But there's always something special about delving into a good, captivating story that can transport me to another time or place. Like LOTR, or Artemis Fowl, or Narnia. I see a trend in the fiction books I like. I like mainly fantasy novels, like the ones above. But much of the fantasy genre is crap, so I read the classics. I also like Michael Crichton. Basically my books must have a certain amount of fantasy in them, not necessarily the magical kind. Sci-fi elements are perfectly acceptable too. But there must always be a balance. Plot is absolutely critical to the story. Too much of the other-worldly elements and you end up with garbage. When I do read general fiction the plots, although based on the real world, must be slightly removed from reality. For example the Life of Pi. Perhaps my genre could be described as the surreal.

And, beni, you don't CON me into ALMOST buying a book. If I do so, it's out of the exceeding benevolence of my heart, ha. And you probably will get another anyway... I don't like my presents to be un-liked.