At last, I've managed to find a Swatch watch today that's cheap and look fairly decent. Yay!!! one less item on the to-buy list; and I bought another one (cheaper of course lol) for M's coming 21st birthday present. roughly another additional 200 bucks gone just like that sigh... but its worth it. at least the present part's settled. hopefully would be able to meet the army guys up next week; been a long time since we've last gathered. wonder how's e gg for everyone man.

and it seems that since the horrible london tube bomb blast, singapore has beefed up security to high-alert by stationing policemen at MRTs everywhere.i even saw one of them walking around with a leashed dog. cant help but question if it really serves as an effective deterrence. surely the terrorists' plans ( if any, hopefully zilch) are not gonna be thwarted that easily by parading men-in-blue with weapons that are most probably not even loaded? the detonation of a bomb would be done through and through by the time they see something/one, rush over to it/him, and carry out some action. and if its a terrorist, surely he's not gonna wait for them to issue the mandatory warning ( stop! stop! stop or i'll shoot!) before carrying out his deed? and its highly unlikely the police will open fire immediately considering the heavy people traffic and costs of damage to the surrounding property. now, say its a bomb instead that has already been planted in some bin, unless by some fortuitous timing of discovery by the sniffing canines or meticulous routine checks before timed explosion, chances are we'd be left high and dry while the culprits get away yet again. of course, all these are just some very pessimistic speculations; but after having done several POIs for ops bacinet and witnessed the lackadaisical attitudes most people have when carrying out their duties ( including the policemen* themselves at changi airport that time), its quite hard to ignore the doubts generated. nonetheless, it is a laudable effort by the govt, detractors like me and wet blankets alike should just shut up.

*: brings to mind this pri sch textbook entitled 'Dear Mr Policeman' thats full of rubbish abt how to keep our neighbourhood safe, safeguarding our valuables etc...


anyway, here's another reason why expenditure would hit sky-high this month:



after such a long wait, the half-blood prince would finally be out in less than a week's time! am still vacillating between getting the book or not. it wld surely keep me riveted for 1-2 days but the book's not exactly cheap. any fellow muggles planning to get it? perhaps i can borrow it when you're done haha. if not, perhaps i'd do the same thing that i did before with sheldon lol; albeit this time round, hopefully theres no need to be as 'tactical' and discreet considering the huge fan base that would most likely crowd round the books too.

the week's coming to an end soon, how fast... next week py and roy are gonna leave, think it must be worse for them. feeling the blues whenever i think about it. shall go eat some chocs now to cheer myself up.