In
this post I mentioned going out with my friends, and the lovely snake ring I bought, and my regret that I hadn't been able to buy the angel wing earrings as well. Yesterday afternoon, after Kinokuniya called to inform me I was hired, my sister texted me asking if I wanted to meet her at Plaza Singapura (I knew she'd been planning to go there to get some stuff for her fish tank). I said sure, showered, dressed and went to meet her.
I was walking past some of the shops in Plaza Sing, looking for her (she wasn't answering her phone) and then I saw her coming towards me, and after the greetings and the complaints that she wasn't answering her phone, she showed me a beautiful set of blue rings she'd bought at Diva. I showed her the snake ring I was wearing, saying I'd gotten it at Diva the day before. She said, "I figured as much. By the way, I got you something." And then she handed me the
same pair of angel earrings I'd been eyeing the previous day.
I think my initial reaction was "??!? OH MY GOD, YOU SAW MY BLOG POST?" and then I hugged the stuffing out of her. XD I honestly hadn't been expecting it; the most I'd expected was walking past Diva, having to pull
her into it, and getting myself the earrings.


My iMac webcam's flash is a bit bright; the earrings don't actually shine quite
that brightly, but they're gorgeous.
We had a delicious meal at PastaMania (their mushroom baked rice is amazing), walked around a bit and laughed at some stuff in Times (although I was also drooling over a Hellblazer graphic novel); they have spoof books like
The Dragon with a Girl Tattoo. XD Then we went to the aquarium shop to get her pump and new fish and stuff, and took a cab home.
Now, on to the book meme.
3. Your favourite book aged 9 ½, or 13 ¾, whichever you remember best.
That's an easy one, as I remember both clearly. XD At the age of 9 ½, my favourite books (I couldn't choose at the time) were
the first three Harry Potter books. :D
About a week before my ninth birthday in July 2001, my dad, his younger sister, his younger brother, my cousin (dad's sister's son) and I were seated at a table in a nursing home with my dozing paternal grandfather; my dad and I, and the others, went to see him every Sunday afternoon. My aunt handed me a nicely wrapped package, saying it was an early birthday gift. I opened it immediately (I was eight going on nine!) and was quite gleeful to find new books; they were
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
I remember stretching out on my stomach on the living room sofa at home and reading
Philosopher's Stone. I remember flipping to the back cover to look at the artwork of Dumbledore when he was described in the book. It was a wonderful new world for me, and I fell in love. I was half-living in Harry's world, so much so that when I was telling my mother and sister that my primary school principal was leaving to work at the Ministry of Education, it accidentally came out as "Ministry of Magic" before I realised it.
Philosopher's Stone also spawned my current reading habit when it comes to new books that are really good; I speed-read the first time through, enthralled by the plot, though I don't miss out on much. (I do read, write and talk very fast.) After I finish reading it the first time I immediately re-read the book; this time I take my time with the descriptions, the nuances of character interaction etc, taking in details I may have missed out now that I'm no longer in a hurry to see what comes next. This is how I read most new books unless they're not that amazing or really thick (though LotR was an exception, I think I read it three times straight), this is how I read the entire HP series, and it started with the first HP book.
I also remember what my favourite book at the age 13 ¾ of was:
JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. I had found it in the school library the previous year, when I was still 12 ¾, and since I was already a huge fan of all three movies I looked forward to finally reading the souce material. And I was utterly blown away, in love all over again.
I renewed and returned and re-borrowed and renewed my loan of the book, tattered and torn as it already was (though I took care of it, it was already very old when I found it), so that it was in my possession for more than a year, taking up lots of space on my school desk (there were multiple copies in the library, so I felt no guilt). A teacher eventually confiscated and returned it since I couldn't keep my hands and eyes off it for long. XD Two years later, considering that it was literally in pieces (the cover separate from the books, the pages themselves torn into two thick sections, pages missing) the library condemned it to be shredded and I rescued it, using copious amounts of scotch tape to put it back together and photocopying the missing pages from other copies, cutting them out, gluing them back to back, and pasting them into the book so that it was whole again. I took it home and today it is still on my top shelf, together with all the other Tolkien books I own. And to this day, despite all the other authors I've fallen for,
The Lord of the Rings remains my all-time favourite book and Tolkien my favourite and most respected author.
What about you, friends-list? What spawned your first fandom obsessions?