There is something about giving myself a gift. It stemmed from the very young days when each birthday wish was to hope to have a birthday gift given by someone, just like other kids, on my next birthday. There was once in Pri 4 or 5, when after I left school, I was surprised to find my 3rd aunt waiting at the BLK 140 void deck with my father. She then asked me to choose an ice-cream from that mama shop and told me it was my birthday gift.
It was the 1st birthday gift I ever received, as far as my memory goes (because according to verbal anecdotes and photos, I did have birthday celebrations when I was a few years old).
So please pardon the birthday-gift deprived me for buying myself 2 birthday gifts, if not including a shopping spree for new clothes lol Although, yes, yes, I do buy myself big-ticket items every now and then now that I am financially capable, but it’s the tradition, you know. Tradition…
The 1st gift that I bought for myself about a week before the big day was the red Ink bag (although some argued that it was orange). I was in between the Hep B booster jab and insurance body check up when I decided to pop by Hougang Mall to while my time away and taking a look at a bag that I eyed a few weeks back.
I looked around and around and saw another one that caught my eyes literally (too bright to be concealed) and found this bag that had a lot of compartments. ya… That was the main reason why I bought it, and it made me overlook the fact that it was not designed for me to put my fresh uniform in without crumpling them.
So I ended up having to bring my uniform in a separate shoe bag. So I decided to buy myself another bag this coming X’mas.
My next purchase was an even ‘longer’ purchase. In between June and July, the squad were always shuttling between malls while waiting for our medical check ups for the Nepal trip, as well as meeting up even on weekends cos we just had no lives then.
One of our favourite pastimes was to go look at watches. OK, I was influenced by MM who was looking to buy a new expensive watch, so we were looking through watch galleries every time we passed by one. I remembered one morning when we spent our time at this big watch gallery in IMM and I saw this watch that caught my eye (finally, after endless mindless browsing through dozens of shops). It had a flaw, and I told MM straight away about that.
‘Too bad there was this date, or else the clock face looked simple and cool.”
Alas! The image of the watch stuck in my head so long after that, that I knew it was THE ONE watch I had to buy. After seeing it again at The Heeren again, I told myself I would get it as a birthday gift this year. After all, who knows I might see another that I fancied?
2 months later, I am still thinking of this watch, and so, on the day of my birthday, I happened to knock off early, and I was loitering in White Sands (I didn’t want to spend my birthday just at work and at home) and I decided to drop by the watch gallery there. Lo and behold! The hard-to-find watch was in that small space!
I had to choose between the black face and white face, of which, I immediately chose the black one the moment I put it on my wrist and looked at myself in the mirror. I was so mesmerized that I was even willing to wait for half an hour just to wait for a new one to come from the warehouse.
So guys, here is The Watch that I aimed for so long…










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