As a waiting-in-the-wings-SAHM, time is an ever-abundant commodity. I have read the antenatal books, attended the antenatal classes, still attending antenatal yoga sessions, reading in-preparation-of-baby books and doing my daily walks and stretches... basically, am feeling I have a bit of an overkill of the waiting time! ... which basically means this blog-writing has come at a good time :)
But I digress... while I have surrounded myself with books and even lugged my 1000 piece puzzle down from the games room to the living room, I have found myself still unsatisfied and unfulfilled by these distractions. And sheepishly I have found myself drawn to the trivial, superficial things of life - the cheap thrills (well, actually, not exactly cheap) of online shopping (yes, I confess, I love Amazon!) and the mindlessness of reality shows... and not to mention an inexplicable, ridiculous pride in completing household chore after chore... at least, I can excuse myself for my last obsession by hiding behind the nesting instinct of mothers-to-be!
The Joys of Online Shopping
It started off as a curiosity, since it would be my first encounter with online shopping. Of course, there was the worry of how to ensure the products I order would be of standard and that I would not be "cheated" in my transactions. And as I became bigger and outgrew the maternity clothes given me by friends, I naturally started with maternity clothes shopping. I checked out Verbaudet, la Redoute, Marks & Spencer, Asos and Next. Asos and Next ended up being the only 2 online retailers I bought from and I was addicted for a while. The free-returns policy from Asos and the return-at-your-nearest-Next-store-and-pay-only-for-what-you-keep policy from Next made a loyal fan out of me ... not to mention Asos's variety of beautiful styles, Next's customers' reviews of each item and simply the sheer comfort and great prices of the products from both retailers (Singapore's retailers kill you with their maternity clothes' price tags)! For a few weeks, I live in a bubble of euphoric consumerism, just soaking in the satisfaction of being able to track my orders and the exciting anticipation every time a delivery is due. And when I grew weary of my maternity-clothes buying spree, Henry and I moved on to the convenience and shopper-friendly services of Amazon and Ocado grocery shopping. Happily, I have outgrown the maternity clothes shopping phase. And on a serious note, I am pleasantly surprised and impressed by Amazon and Ocado's excellent service and return-and-refund policy. We have consistently found lower prices on Amazon and love Ocado's price match with Tesco on many items... plus Ocado's ability to finetune their deliveries to an amazing 1 hour time slot, complete with sms reminders of your deliveries and a clear invoice detailing the expiry dates of the different groceries. And who can be unhappy with their deliveryman's service of bringing all your bags right to the kitchen table or wherever you want them?! All hail online shopping!
Now, we also have a twice weekly delivery of fresh cow's milk from the nearby farm and we are going to try out the online fishmonger's services next! Perhaps, I sound "suaku" (like a country bumpkin) here, but hey, I did start off as an online shopping virgin! =>
The Nonsense and Sense of Reality Shows
When you have too much time and you are suddenly bombarded by hundreds of TV channels with endless offerings of reality shows, it is hard to ignore this latest media phenomenon. After viewing so many, I can say that there are reality shows and there are REALITY SHOWS. The worst I have come across is Paris Hilton's New BFF (Best Friend Forever). How people can put themselves up for a, in my opinion, self-absorbed rich girl to judge and decide if they are worth her time (I can't bring myself to say "friendship") defies belief and imagination. In the show, candidates are told that their fashion sense or way of carrying themselves are not good enough for Paris to bring them along to red carpet events, and these poor participants stand there meekly, looking guilty and apologetic for their unforgivable, catastrophic flaws while being pronounced judgement...
Then, there are the ones I watch for pure entertainment - Come Dine with Me, 4 Weddings, Britain's Next Top Model, Supernanny just to name a few. I guess with the first 2, it is always interesting to see how the participants judge the other contestants and bitch about the flaws of their hosting/weddings, especially when it can all be so personal and arbitrary! (I mean... a girl marked down a wedding, cos the guest list was too long and she believes in small, cosy weddings?! And another said the wedding dress is nice and looks nice on the bride, but she just can't give it high marks, because it is not her taste?!) Still, I am a sucker for them and follow them religiously :)
I reserve my comments about New Dating in the Dark for the last, because I do have a soft spot for this reality show. When I watched the first episode, I was raving about it to Henry and saying how it does pose the interesting question of whether appearances are important. (Henry is unmoved and replied that it is all about editing..but what the heck?!) Contestants basically have a series of dates in pitch darkness (starting with a group date, followed by a couple of one-to-one dates with someone of their choice), followed by a compatibility rating based on science (apparently a psychological survey), before seeing the person of their choice in a light review and then finally deciding if they want to meet in the flesh. It is interesting how the participants generally start off saying that they hope the other party doesn't judge them for their looks, but almost everyone inevitably indulges in some curious touching of facial features etc to try to guess how the other party looks like, how tall he/she is, how fat/thin etc. But no matter how superficial, how laughable some of the participants are (my favourite is the Britney Spears impersonator girl - she is hilarious!), it always makes me smile and celebrate with the happy couples that do manage to find each other (my favourite is Sammy and Charlene from Episode 3 - they like each other because they are both quirky!). And even better still, when couples say in their post-one-week interviews how the person they end up seeing from the show is not someone, whom they would have gone out with in real life! One can find love through reality shows after all! =>
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