i haven't done any serious shopping for a really really really (this gets 3 really-s instead of the usual 2 'cos it truly has been almost 2 years since) long time...
today's trip to the malls wasn't really to buy stuff, but more to get acquainted with what's on sale, what new arrivals there are and what stores appeal most to me, and spending 6 hours doing that was retail therapy at its best...
it reminded me of 2 things - the long year-end shopping trips with javier from 2000 to 2005, and that period in the second half of 2005 where i was experiencing for the first time in my secondary school life what a "free weekend" was (i had previously been inundated on a weekly basis my the myriad of ccas and other stuff i was committed to), so not knowing what to do with my time, i did "the orchard thing": walking the entire orchard stretch from plaza sing to far east plaza, stopping at almost every mall to take a look...
the best way to survive long shopping trips across 3 major shopping districts is to do so after lots of sleep (i've had way too much of that in recent days) and making regular pit stops to refuel...

met deon/sean/yewjin/gen at vivocity's Sushi Tei for an early lunch before beginning our hunt for sean's bag...
we paid visits to Ted Baker, Topman, Pull & Bear, Zara, Esprit, Armani Exchange, Tangs, Guardian and The Face Shop (for some health products) and Diesel before heading to town for drinks at starbucks... gen left soon after...
then it was off to the heeren's Carhartt (a little hidden gem of the store behind Vil'age) and Fossil, followed by Paragon's Projectshop, Muji, Crumpler, Nike and Metro, with a little surprise christmas present for sean from paul, sam and myself since he will be away for christmas...
taka's Ted Baker and wisma's Beetlebug were next, before yewjin went off and the 3 of us remaining headed to marina square to find the larger Projectshop whicch had unfortunately closed down...
(we bumped into asykin going to K Box)
commiserating over food at the food loft about the options we'd seen, the final decision now is the Ted Baker bag which we're making a day of buying it probably this friday, as well as watching Across The Universe...

speaking of movies this week, that would definitely be my top choice...
the 4 major films showing are Jerry Seinfeld's Bee Movie (with Renee Zelleweger), Beowulf (i must watch this if only for Ray Winstone and Angelina Jolie), Hitman (poorly rated because of the storyline and the strange casting of TImothy Olyphant) and The Golden Compass (with all its supposedly heretical allusions)...
there are of course others, like the silly Vince Vaughn flick Fred Claus, but the one i do hope makes it to Singapore is This Christmas, starring Loretta Divine and Chris Brown...

to think that your heart now belongs to another,
John.