catalogue, hotdog, school uniform

i went to ikea yesterday. leo and i want to give away some ikea furnitures we have at the other apartment. i didn't want to drive all the way there to take pictures but i wanted to show people which furnitures so i went to ikea to get the catalogue. i knew i shouldn't have discarded mine. i heard they are actually on sale in some countries. there was not one single catalogue in ikea yesterday. absurd. a staff said they are waiting for the new one to come. worst was i ended up buying a bagful of things that i wasn't even thinking of buying. paper napkins were on sale, 1.50. maybe i will need them for the house parties, never mind we only have one once a year. i still bought at least half a dozen of those napkins.

of course i had to grab a hotdog. there was no line. it's only a dollar. it's lunch time. the man before me grabbed his five hotdogs and said "these are to go. where are the containers for sauces?" the staff ignored him and took my order. i was relief.
hotdog is a spontaneous food. but we are not spontaneous. we don't really have spontaneous food. we don't walk in the park and grab a hotdog or a falafel. chang kee places your sotong stick in a plastic bag, which is placed into another plastic bag with handles so that we can carry it to someplace nice where we sit down properly to eat. the only spontaneous food in singapore i know is ice cream from the ice cream carts that are in most places. it's strange. we love food. why don't we have more spontaneous food?

david and vincent need new uniforms. their current uniforms have patches of stain everywhere. the sleeves, the collar, the pocket, left, right, center, everywhere. i feel the pressure of sending them to school with bright white uniforms but i don't want to use bleaches. i don't know much about saving the environment but i heard that whatever you use goes back to the ocean so i only use whatever is necessary. in fact, after watching 'perfect housewives' on discovery home channel, i plan to start making my own cleaning solution. it looks simple, most of them are combinations of vinegar, lemon juice, salt. i went to the school bookshop to buy uniforms. i had gone a few times but the uniforms were always sold out. again, they were sold out. the staff said, 'we had some yesterday.' i usually said thanks and walked out. this time i just lost it. i told her it is unacceptable that i have to go to the bookshop everyday to hunt for the uniforms. i asked her to take my order and call me when they arrive. i also asked for the telephone number of the supplier of the uniforms. i called the supplier. i introduced myself and before i could voice my unhappiness, she told me she would deliver the uniforms to me the next day. that was a nice surprise. but it left me wondering why i hadn't tried this approach in the first place. for two years, i would go to the school bookshop again and again trying to catch the arrival of the uniforms only to find out they were sold out. and i just accepted it. i hope i learn my lesson and take more initiative, be more aggressive? hm..