Sunday, September 14, 2008
It was such a coincidence yesterday when I met Fiona at the Forum Shopping Mall at a bookshop for kids at 2 something pm. In the first place, Forum is not like the most happening place along Orchard Rd and neither is the children's bookshop. We're actually doing an English assignment together and are supposed to settle on a fiction which we think will be suitable for Primary 2 pupils after which each of us got to think of a different teaching point from the book. It can be nouns, verbs, adjectives, punctuation... U got the idea... It's just such a funny thing to meet my partner there but it probably happened for a reason because we managed to narrow down to a particular book (still keeping options open) and she decided to do the purchasing since she still had leftover funds to claim from.
Anyway, for such children's bookshops, if for some reason you need to buy a book for kids, you can get any friend who happens to be from NIE to help you get since there's 10% discount. Not much but well, it makes a difference since a book can cost at least $15 for a soft cover version (and twice the price for those hard covered ones).
This brings me to the next point. I've never really believed in hard covered books. To pay double the price for the same contents just so that I can whack the cover and it'll still be good as new? No way. Even if I have a young child, I don't think buying books with hard covers really do the trick. It's not about preserving the book this way just because your kid likes to be rough towards books. It's a matter of teaching him/ her to take care of books and treat them more lovingly (I even try to wrap my books with protective plastic cover and I'm an adult @_@). Of course, kids will be kids, they may end up with torn covers after some time but that will also teach them to take better care of the books right?
Yesterday was bookstore day for me. I even went to kino to look see if there were any suitable picture books. The section there was better than the sight I saw at Borders a couple of weeks back. At Borders, all I saw was the remains of a hurricane, many human survivors but books seemed to be lying on the ground taking their last breaths. May they rest in peace too.
One reason could be that kino staff probably tidy up the place often. However, maybe at the children's section, kino should consider covering the parquet flooring with carpet. Or maybe wrap children who run around like a mummy and then push them into the storerooms until their dimwitted parents finally realise that their gems are missing? Haha.. ok this part sounds really mean. But no apologies.
A father allowed his son to run all over the place stamping on the floor all the while he was happily trying to select picture books for him. The son's 6 years old btw since I overheard the father saying he's preparing books for him for Primary 1 next year. I don't blame the child. In fact, I don't ever blame children who run around and make themselves a public nuisance. However, I'm sure the parents are educated enough (only educated parents will go to such bookshops to buy books for their children right?) to know that not everyone is deaf like them. Or maybe such parents should be slapped awake to see the light.
Such people will defend themselves by telling me, "You not even a parent so what gives you the right to judge?" Well, one doesn't need to be a parent to see that a parent doesn't even open his/her golden mouth when the kid is making a nuisance of himself. At least if you try to reprimand your child, I will still give you credit for it.
Another case was when I was at Wheelock's Place and when I was passing by a rather posh restaurant, a family with a kid sitting on baby chair was waiting for their food and their child was using chopsticks to hit the edge of the table machiam like he's in a band or something. It creatd a lot of noise. The parents were still happily talking away and smiling, highly oblivious to the fact that their child was misbehaving. Worst, I think it's the parents who gave the child the chopsticks to entertain himself just so that they can chat among themselves.
The above 2 cases are Chinese families by the way. Shame shame...
Serendipity believed today at 12:18 PM
