Smiles for Sale

A few days ago I wanted to catch up with Ms. Jacqueline (my former tutor) but didn't manage to find her after her class in CELC. So to make my visit to the Arts worthwhile, I went into the Forum Co-op to catch up with the new manga section instead. ^___^ *excuses*

All there are the Mandarin editions. One section is for sale while another section is for rent, S$1 per book. Found this out from the salesgirl, who talked to me seeing I was the only customer there at that time. ^^ I was only browsing, as I didn't intend to buy and the rental fee felt a bit expensive (that was around 20% of the book price, I think?) so I wasn't really interested when she suggested some titles and told me about the membership scheme and such, but she was pretty and friendly so I listened and talked to her, sort of, for fun. =P Anyway I thought the info might be useful in the future too.

Also the other day I was trying on a necklace without intending to buy, but again the salesgirl was nice and talkative and I was feeling like trying out those things, so I "humored" both of us. Now that I think about it, maybe I was in fact wasting their time and effort? Huehuehue. But it's their job anyway so I don't have to feel guilty ya? Like, better than being bored when no customers come? =D I felt that way when I was doing poster presentations (equals selling ideas what) but maybe not everybody share the same opinion ah.

Felt a bit guilty anyway for my shopping companions who would have to go on the wild goose chase with me... More reasons for (window-)shopping alone. =P But I'll still drag my sister to buy clothes with me, ha.

But back to the topic... No matter if the smiles and friendliness are just for business, I'm still drawn to those. Luckily I'm stingy enough to balance that. (Er, or maybe not? =P) In my recent trip to the U.S. I found that the salespeople were very friendly -- the moment I walked into their field of view they put on a big smile and asked, "Everything okay?" (In this case they meant "Anything I can help you with?" but I think it is quite a common, general greeting that can also mean "How are you?" sort of thing.) In one particular art store the salesgirl was a "metal" kind of girl with torn jeans and everything, so when she asked in her raspy voice, "Everything okay?" it frightened me a little =D but all was fine.

On a more recent news... went to NUS Rag Day today... but as usual I'm lazy to relate an event that I share with friends (maybe because the experience is already shared so I don't have that need to "vent"). So just wait for Eka's blog to be updated, since I'm sure she will put it in her next entry, and she is a better reporter/movie critic than me. =D In short, I'm very happy that KR won a lot of awards this year! ^^

One thing I do want to vent about, is about this auntie who told us, as we squeezed our way to a better part of the audience area, that we couldn't stand in a particular spot as it would block her view. Hm, complicated yah, since where do rights end and selfishness begin? I mean, from her perspective it must be irritating that three girls came later than her and stood in front of her, so she couldn't watch it sitting down anymore. Another group of people did that to us earlier and we felt a little irritated ourselves. But in a crowd like that, I didn't think we could really expect convenience (not VIPs weh) so we bore with it. Then was it that we should be considerate and not block her view or she should be considerate and let us watch from there? I tried to squeeze away from her as a compromise, and asked if the position was okay, but she didn't want to look at me anymore, so I also took offense. =P Erm, not feeling good about that la, but what to do... heh.