The EMF Book Store at Holland Village is Closing Down

On Friday I ran into Jia Min at work briefly before she disappeared off to some mysterious place. Later when I asked Gail if she knew where JM had went, Gail told me that she and some of the other curriculum planning girls had gone to the EMF Book Store in Holland Village to buy books because the store was closing down and they were having a sale. Today, finding myself with extra time after going for a manicure (yes I enjoy bimbotic things), I decided to go there and check it out. The store was crowded with old regulars and I ended up sitting on the floor of the fiction section and poring over all the book titles. Although I was never a regular at the store, I did buy things from them from time to time. Sitting on the floor I thought about how sad it was that the one book place that was closest to my house was closing. Though of course that being said, the place I bought the most books from nowadays was bookdepository.com, exactly the sort of place that was contributing to the demise of brick and mortar shops. That and landlords who raise rents to $8,000.

I ended up buying quite a few books, some books that I honestly would not have considered if it wasn't for the sheer sentimentality of the place closing. It's almost as if I got into some sort of irrational frenzy and tried to make up for the business I had never quite given them all at one go. Still all in all, it was a bargain with 50% off used books and 20% off new books.

I bought:
I Don't Know How She Does It - Allison Pearson (I figure my Mum will like reading it, and I can read it if I want something light and fluffy)
The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver (something my Dad might be interested in)
An Object of Beauty - Steve Martin (on the Art World, maybe for Jia and/or HM)
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet - David Mitchell
The Middlesteins - Jami Attenberg
The Burden - Agatha Christie
A Daughter's a Daughter - Agatha Christie
The Rose and the Yew Tree - Agatha Christie
Archie Comics
Trashy Romance Novels

All for $83!

On the way home I also saw a poster for the Eric Clapton concert. I almost forgot that it's just a week away + I took leave for that occasion too. Looking forward to it :)

As an aside, I'm reading Winter's Tale now by Mark Helprin. It is quite a peculiar and fat book. Still I'm reading it much faster than For Whom The Bell Tolls. Later, I'll be going for my first driving lesson. Feeling kind of apprehensive and excited about even turning the key in the ignition. I wonder if I'll even be allowed to make the car move. 

3 Movies

Today, purely by accident, I ended up watching 3 movies. The first was August: Osage County which I watched in the morning with my Mum at Orchard Cineleisure, the next was some daft movie called How She Move, and the last Princess Mononoke. I had intended to watch August for some time cause I saw the trailers of the star-studded cast and read all the movie reviews/Meryl Steep's nominations. Friends like Jia who had seen it had loved it too, and recommended it strongly. I really liked, and left the cinema feeling happy.

The next movie, How She Move, however, was unintentional. I had bought a groupon for a manicure and a pedicure, and when I entered, one of the nail girls started playing it on the TV. It was an incredibly daft movie, but hey I had nothing else to do and had time to kill, and expected to not finish watching it. Man oh man was I wrong. Mainly cause they assigned a trainee to me. A normal manicure and pedicure takes 1 hour. I ended up sitting in that chair and not moving for 2 and a half hours. That's 2.5x the time a mani and pedi takes normally. OH MY GOD. Needless to say I finished the movie (they win the dance contest, surprise) and after I walked out I was left feeling incredibly frustrated and irritated from not being able to move around for over two hours. I'm not the kind that can sit still unless I am mentally occupied.

The last movie I watched today was Princess Mononoke. Why? 'Cause when I got home, I realised all that sitting had been in vain. The nail polish that had been painstakingly applied by the trainee to my toes (and she did put a lot of care into things) had smudged on the way home. ARGHHHHH. I had to remove it and as I re-did my toes again, I had to occupy myself with something, so I watched Princess Mononoke, which was OK. Definitely not my favourite Studio Ghibli movie.

Even though by all means I had a fairly successful and productive day - watched a good movie in the cinema, had lunch with my Mum, bought gifts and a new pillow, did my nails - I am left feeling annoyed with today. Not that things can get much better though, cause tomorrow it's back to work with even more Situational Writing pieces to mark. Ye gads. Well, maybe I'll feel better about tomorrow.