All the kids in the marketplace say

[austin_dern]

Saturday began with a frightfully early day because I had a final exam to give. This was pretty routine, except for figuring out how to unlock the room, since turning the key in the lock didn't move any tumblers or anything, just made it so the tap card would let the door open. This took longer than I expected; then a heavy rain cancelled vague plans to take in the Tiger Balm Gardens.

So we went off to Funan, formerly the IT Mall, which recently changed its title to the Digitalife mall, at a cost of only 795 billion dignity points. The goal was a spare battery for my guest's camera, since we were thinking of getting to the zoo soon. We also got dinner at the ramen restaurant where spaceroo and I thought we might have gotten food poisoning a few months back, and were fine, so we're inclined to think the restaurant wasn't the problem last time. If I'd gotten sick a second time I'd have seriously held it against them. We also saw a music DVD for sale, of the Bangles' greatest hits, both of them.

But at the camera store I happened to mention my camera and the vague ideas I've had towards buying a polarized filter; the clerk overheard (he'd been dashing off to get the battery from storage somewhere else in the universe) and was from there determined to sell me something. It began with just the adaptor for my lens, and then the clerk ran off to ... somewhere else in the universe (it's a small storefront, with storage hidden away) to get a wide-angle lens, which he showed off by taking pictures of his water bottle with and without the lens. And he showed the polarizing filter I was looking at.

We got to the question of cost, and got the answer in the traditional local form: a number punched into a calculator and shown. Happily my guest was cagier about negotiating than me (my approach to negotiating is to glance quickly at a price, then run away without buying anything), so we got the adaptor, wide-angle lens, and polarizing filter for the stated price of the first two. The clerk also cleaned my camera lens, which needed it. I never thought to use lens cleaning solution, since I don't (yet) wear glasses.

Trivia: The (successful) 1865 transatlantic telegraph cable weighed approximately 3,575 pounds per mile. Source: A Thread Across the Ocean, John Steele Gordon.

Currently Reading: Explorers of the Infinite, Sam Moskowitz.

Comments

[patchoblack.livejournal.com]

o/` Ay oh whey oh, ay oh whey oh o/`

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

They also had DVDs featuring America, mind you.

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

Is that where tiger balm originated..?

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

The Tiger Balm Gardens were founded by the brothers who first made and sold Tiger Balm; they wanted to use some of their fortune to teach Chinese children their culture.