Retail therapy. How theurapatic is that? People go on a senseless snob splurge, pick random objects of desire and blame the damage on their adolescent mood swings. How apt. But, alright i admit lah, it feels kinda shiok. It works. To a tee.

Speaking of tees, Abercrombie and Fitch's totally rocks. Got a steal at 2 tees for less than 50 moolah. Beat that. Had a hard time scouting around this flimsy island just to get myself one lousy crew top. But hey, now I have in my hands two. TWO leh. And I shouldn't be even flaunting it.

Today, a lesson was taught to me and a bud of mine. And could you have imagined? Of all places, in a CAB. At first, here's two lazy lame buggers hovering around a shopping mall, in a futile attempt to have to wait in a ridiculous taxi queue filled with over-sized-pooh-bear-in-sequined-plastic-wrap-carrying delinquents and loud, uncouth aunties / uncles with over-sized-pooh-bear-decked-baby prams. Fifteen minutes into it, we decided to hit the road and try our luck elsewhere. A careful thought gave us the notion that maybe if we just walked down the street, we'd might just hail one along the way. A few cigs and minutes later, there it was - this shiny piece of metal we'd call our chariot towards solace. Albeit we had to beat a group of ang moh kids a few feet before us whom we reckoned must have had a hell of a wait. Heck.

Turns out the cabbie's stopped a few feet before them for US to board DELIBERATELY. Hmm. Why? we pondered. He went on frivolously to explain that he detested expats. Admittedly, a few. It appears he has had a couple of run-ins with the bad eggs of the kwai lou community a few days back when they tried to swindle their way out of a fare. His story made sense. He seemed like a nice guy. I personally don't have a habit of chatting cabbies up but this uncle was...sincere in his anecdotes. And so we listened. He went on to relate a few incidents when he didn't accept any fare from the elderly, the financially strickened (true or not dunno lah), the rude and impervious, the disabled and this taiwanese guy who has been to Singapula for over 30 times, has never been to the Zoo and actually believes our local primates eats Big Macs for breakfast and drinks Tiger for tea. We chuckled our acknowlegement.

Thing is, he's shown a side (again, dunno true or not ah) that many of us have failed in. That's subjective you might pout. The lesson is in his stories, not the authenticity of them. Look at ourselves - the fillial peity, courtesy and respect our highly educated population, especially the young, thoroughly lack. When was the last time you stopped and bought tissues from the old lady scurrying around in your local hawker centres? When was the last time besides when the campaigns are held that u dialled 1900-XXX-XXXX for some $5/10/25 donation? Or even just as simple as saying hi to your neighbour?

So, the next time you embark on some theurapatical international brand killing spree , take a fraction of your time and think.

Oooh...doesn't that make me oh-so-so magnanimous? 2 ciggies, a fruit punch and 500 odd words later, I've decided to lay out my meditating tatami and reflect on my shopping sins. Ouch.

::Moods and muses::
New Order - Regret

"Somebody has to do something, and its just incredibly pathetic it has to be us." - Jerry Garcia (Grateful Dead)