When you figure out love is all that matters after all

Courtesy of my poppy brother I have been hearing what I've since learnt is Carrie Underwood's So Small at the top of his music charts. The lyrics you see in the title of this post drilled itself into my head, and set me thinking, as if in silent collaboration with this day of love and shy flirting.

Now don't be so quick to say bugger off to those lyrics. That was my initial reaction, but pause to think, and how much more true can lyrics get? When you figure out love, it's all that matters after all. Now tell me if you actually can worry about other things when you are absolutely head over heels and panting over... you know, whatever other half you might have. Sure, people do think about their future, whether they will really really REALLY work out. Not when you're wasting extra SMSes by silent insistence that each SMS must open with 3 lines of mushy name-calling, you're not.

This Valentine's Day I had big plans to buy chocs from Chocolat Factory (Airport T3, Vivo, one more I forgot where). Apparently my mind didn't fully comprehend the utter madness of $18/100gm until then. CF were selling chocs of all three types (white, milk, dark) moulded in the shape of cute little cards from poker's Hearts suit, about 6cm x 3cm x 0.5cm. And just as I had wanted, they had ready-packed a card of each choc type in a lovely little packets of 3 for ease of distribution (I'd thought of having to do it myself...). And each packet cost, according to weight...

$5.05.

I gave chocs to about 15 people today. If I had gone ahead and bought those chocs, I would either have had a shortage, or spent $75.75.

Instead I got foil-wrapped little hearts from Cocoa Tree for $14.45. Bit on the cheapskate side, but definitely much more sensible than Chocolat Factory. Which reminds me then about my first visit there. The salesgirl's neglect to break the dark chocolate samples into smaller pieces allowed me to sample just about $2 worth of chocolate. It's good chocolate though. Definitely deserves due credit. It's just a little out of my league for like 4 more years to come.



On the receiving end, I got these lovely presents from my 3 bestest babes in SIM-UB (I'm not being possessive, it's just that to me they are babes la.) I felt quite horrible that I only gave them two tasty chocolate hearts each (others got only one heart lor) compared to what they gave me. An uber cute Cookie Monster handphone cushy holder from Eubegoh, a beautiful card from Maria, and a lovingly-wrapped package of really really interesting sweets from Cheilla baby. Thanks gals for making me feel so so loved! :D

It was a good thing my well-instilled filial piety (self-puffing will cease here) made me call my father to check if he wanted lunch. Turns out he went out somewhere. I went to the DBS branch between Tampines Mall and Century Square to take the house key from my mom, and when I complained that she gave me inaccurate information that dad would be at home the whole day, she said "I thought you were going to stay out late what, since you stayed out so late last night."

-_-"

I decided to walk through Century Square because I wanted to munchie on something, preferably Taiwan-style XXL fried chicken cutlet, but ended up poking around flowers on an impulse decision to give my mom a small surprise (don't you love these non-holiday Days when you suddenly feel that you have enough to spend on ridiculously-priced items?). I fell in love with the three-flower bouquet immediately when I saw it. Perhaps because it was small yet elegant. Also, the larger bouquets were sure impressive, but the three-flower bouquets because of its size had a certain stately neatness about its arrangements. I blanched when I found out it costs $39.50, not because it was expensive. It was, but I didn't mind. I just didn't have enough money with me a the moment, and the hell if I'm gonna walk home and back just to retrieve a blue note. And no I don't have a card of any sort. Except poker cards and mahjong cards.

So in search of alternative solutions I drilled the salesgirl, a cute enough gal not much older than me who fielded my questions with a cheeriness and helpfulness that could put some hotel staff to shame, and she directed me up to the 4th floor for more budget options. In the end I bought a single champagne rose stalk and a card from another gift shop, intending to use the thin vase that we have at home. And as luck would just have it, my mom used it to put floral offerings to the Buddha. I went into a slight panic mode looking for a suitable container (can you sincerely expect me to use an Ice Mountain bottle?), and luckily my aesthetic side prompted me to keep the exquisite purple teardrop-shaped bottle used to hold the relatively new Purence premium water that I bought some time back. For an improvisation, I think I'm quite pleased with the result.



Huh? What do you think? Nice right. The original files are hi-res by the way, just so you know. So don't be too surprised if you get a uber huge ass image when you click on the images above for a closer look.

In the spirit of giving and receiving, this is the best Valentine's Day of my life so far. And so to one and all, single or attached, Happy Valentine's Day to your attention-craving selves!