Not moving

There are days when you’re actually pretty free for a while and could choose to go somewhere and do stuff that you wouldn’t ordinarily get to do at that kind of time. Today is one of those days for me. The Fruit Farm actually held a doctors’ lunch at Prive and let everyone who attended knock off early - which is why I’m writing this at 5:01 p.m. – and I could have gone and met Corona for some shopping, followed by dinner and drinks after… but I just didn’t want to. Didn’t have the energy. All I want to do is to stay home, shower, have instant noodles for dinner and go to bed early. There are days like this.

Rebecca Minkoff Nikki Hobo is coming to town

After nine blissful hours of sleep (Friday night feels so good after two calls and before a free weekend!), I woke up to check my email and was most excited to find that my Rebecca Minkoff Nikki Hobo had arrived at Viaddress and that it has already been picked up by Fedex.

This is a Rebecca Minkoff Nikki Hobo in Cloud Grey; mine is in Jam Purple. Making something in Jam Purple is a surefire way of getting me interested in it.

And it’s slated to arrive on Christmas Eve at about six in the evening. Merry Christmas to me, hohoho!

The skater

They like to put up this dinky little skating rink in Novena Square at this time of year, and get in some skaters to show their stuff in the middle of the shopping centre. I couldn’t help particularly liking this photo that I took on my Ixus. I’ll do more justice to it when I get some time with Photoshop on my home computer. But here it is in its slapdash form.

In the arsenal of this online bag-shopper

After my first few weeks as an online bag-shopper, I thought I’d share some of my experiences. I’ve come to think that online shopping is da bomb when it comes to bags. Unlike clothes or shoes, there are no worries about quirks of fit. There’s no such rubbish as one country’s size 8 being another’s size 12, or if the object runs true to size or not.  Of course, you don’t get to see the bag’s exact colour, or feel how smooshy it is, or try how it looks in proportion to your frame, but you can always Google up some info and pictures.

But the very best thing, in my opinion, is that online shopping lets you enjoy some pretty amazing discounts on designer bags. Here are a couple of sites I’ve been visiting:

Reebonz - this is a Singapore-based site that holds two-day sales of various luxury goods and events, such as Prada, Miu Miu and Gucci bags, at up to 60% off. Payment is by Paypal or major credit cards. Being a local site, they’ll get the goods to you a week after the end of sale, maybe a bit more if it’s peak period. And they do deliver. I’ve had two bags from them already – a red Kate Spade Carlsbad Vanessa and a brown Coach full-leather shoulder bag, both at sub-S$400. Both were new and full of that magical leather smell, and had original prices of S$600-700ish. Very yummy. I recommend heartily.

Gilt Groupe - this is a US site. It offers a better variety than Reebonz - bags, clothes, shoes, wines, jewellery, watches – also in two-day sales. I like that it stocks odder brands (to a Singaporean, that is; an American might disagree – whaddaya say, Vric?) like Rebecca Minkoff, Francesca Biasia, Lauren Merkin and Botkier, also at significant discounts. For example, I ordered a Rebecca Minkoff Nikki Hobo, which goes for US$595 on the RM site, but which went for US$298 on GG. I read that RM bags are available in Singapore, at a place called Quintessential, but I have heard that prices begin at about S$900. The main problem with ordering from US sites when you’re in Singapore is that these sites 1) don’t ship outside the US and 2) only accept US-based credit cards. So how is it done?

Answer: delivery sites that give you a US address and concierge services, then ship your stuff to you in Singapore.

Viaddress - you can choose to pay either S$4.95 per package or S$9.95 a month for unlimited packages. The (free!) concierge service is pretty good so far. They ordered the RM Nikki from Gilt Groupe for me. My favourite part is that they process the order within twelve hours of submission. That is vitally important in sales that last only two days. Furthermore, they send emails telling you when your order has been accepted, or is being shipped, by the merchant. Also, the cap on each free-concierged package is US$1000, which is pretty generous unless you’re buying diamonds or furniture. The one thing I definitely dislike about Viaddress so far is their website, which comes in annoying rainbow colours and is not very user-friendly. I cannot comment about the shipping charges or speed of delivery yet, but I will when my Nikki arrives.

Borderlinx - a site that only Citibank members are eligible to use. Same principle as Viaddress, but loses because 1) the (also free) concierge service only operates during US office hours and takes up to three days to place your order, making it perfectly useless for two-day sales, particularly those that take place over the weekend (and that, Kel, was how that Lauren Merkin clutch and I parted ways); 2) the cap on each free-concierged package is only US$500, which would have worked out to 5/6 of a full-priced Rebecca Minkoff Nikki. Hmm. Still, it is usable for non-time-limited discounted items, such as the Kate Spade Boerum Hill Brennan I ordered. However, they sent no emails updating me on the status of the order processing; I had to log in obsessively to check. Let’s see how it does on shipping charges and speed.

Thus equipped, are you game to give it a try? I’m happy for you to use this link to Reebonz and this link to Gilt Groupe to take a spin (that’s the only way to obtain access to the treasure trove). But now that you also know how to snag your preciouses back to Singapore, gals, it ain’t just hypothetical anymore.

Metal staples ain’t for eating, boys n’ girls

Now that I’m back to civilization, here’s a few pictures that I took while waiting for my op.

My room, with the magic touch-screen terminal. It lets you surf the Internet, watch TV, listen to the radio and talk to your nurse who’s five metres outside your door. The wonders of modern technology.

My first time in hospital PJs. You do not get to see my face because it looked terrible.

The robe I was gonna wear to go for the op. Yes, the kind that is open at the back. No, there are no pictures of me in it.

My very first intravenous plug. It is a TERRIBLE thing. The back of my left hand is still green.

And what was it that was causing all the hoo-ha? It was indeed a metal staple-like thing, black and two centimetres long. Observe:

My souvenir of the day. It makes a tinkly sound when you shake the bottle.

Evidently I need to chew my food better.

The process of getting the awful thing out remains a mystery to me, because I had to go under general anesthesia (i.e. sleep) to do a rigid scope to locate and remove it. I’d never been under GA before, but now I can tell you that it feels like this: one moment you’re blinking up at the OT lights; the next, instantaneous fast forward by some two hours.

And then I realized that while I was sans staple-like thing, I was also sans tip of right upper canine.

AIIIIEEEEEE!!!

So I spent most of Friday still hanging around the hospital, waiting to see the dentist. He filled in the chipped-off portion nicely, but told me that because the canine is a load-bearing tooth, and the filling was basically clinging to the tooth like the tip of an icicle, there was a good chance that it would fall off one day.

Big sigh. So much crap just because of one small staple-like thing.

In other news, Mr. Manx’s vehicle, in a remarkable display of empathic camaraderie, picked up a nail in its left front tire yesterday. It, too, required a procedure to extract the offending metal prong.

Patient for the day

I can hardly believe that this has happened, but I have managed to land myself in hospital today. As a patient.

It started like any other day. I got up, went to work, did the ward round, terrorized my medical student, scolded a particularly blur nurse. Then I went out for lunch with my friends, and that was when the problem started. I ordered rice with curried pork and was just getting done with it, when I felt something hard and thin in the mouthful of rice I was swallowing. The next thing I know, the object was definitely going down the absolute wrong way, and very very painfully. I took a gulp of my iced lemon tea. No help. I took another mouthful of rice to try to shove it down. Much worse. I started to gag and tear, and yelped to my friends, “Argh! Bone! Bone!”

Very quickly, my good friend Cornetto drove me down to the emergency department at Changi General Hospital. Both of us are spatially challenged in the extreme, but we got there after just a couple of wrong turns, and he dropped me off at the A&E.

Again quite quickly, they did a neck X-ray in preparation for my medical consult. After it was done, the X-ray technicians stopped me with an odd expression and said, “Excuse me, miss, but were you wearing a necklace or maybe earrings when you did the X-ray?”

I was not. I rarely wear jewellery and I don’t even have pierced ears. I asked why they said that.

“Because there’s something in your throat and it looks like a metal staple.”

AIIIEEEEEEEE!!!

I KNEW that sliced pork doesn’t usually come with sharp edges.

The doc I saw after that happened to be my classmate from medical school and he quickly referred me to the ENT clinic upstairs. The registrar there did a nasal scope (a yucky experience) and pronounced the staple-like object too deep for immediate extraction. I thought, “F.”

He said, “We need to get you to do a rigid scope for a better look. Under GA. Which means you need to be admitted now.”

I thought, “FFFFFFFF.”

I should not have worn my red underwear today. Red underwear is unlucky.

So here I am in my A-class room, where, to my delight, exists a computer terminal with Internet access. It’s quite fancy, really. I’d plug in a picture here, but I don’t know how.

My little op will take place at about seven tonight. It’s now a little past five. The wait is necessary because I need to digest the lunch that caused all this trouble in the first place. It would be great to have this damn staple out because it hurts like a bitch right now.

Testing testing: the Borderlinx concierge service

One of the drawbacks of online shopping is when you see something you like and click ‘Add To Cart’, and after you’ve painstakingly typed in your name, address and credit card number, they tell you that they’re sorry, but “this item can only be shipped to destinations within the United States”. Then comes the time for choice expletives. Worse, this usually serves to increase your desire for the unattainable object.

Familiar, yes? This happened to me over this clutch below.

That’s a Lauren Merkin Tatum clutch, in dark brown serpent-embossed lambskin, which I found on the Gilt Groupe site, but GG is another story for another day. Thanks to Chanel, I find that the word ‘lambskin’ now oozes buttery-soft, supple decadence, about on par on the swank scale with ‘foie gras entier’ or ‘Godiva couverture’. And Lauren Merkin - that’s a brand that makes bags and accessories. I’m very drawn to it because it uses rich and sometimes unexpected materials to create bags in clean, simple and classic styles. In addition to the usual lizard and croc prints, there are also metallic and woven leathers, in gridded, tiled or marbled patterns, as well as fabrics like silk, crochet and even raffia. Every girl needs a timeless and match-everything baggie that she’d proudly wear to leisurely lunches and weekend high teas, non?

Furthermore, Gilt Groupe has a sale on this particular clutch. Its original price was US$325, but it is now US$138. When I saw that, the Finding Nemo seagulls flocked into my head - y’know, the ones that go, “Mine? Mine?” 

So of course this had to be one of those sites that do not deliver outside the US. Not only that, they do not even accept credit cards with billing addresses outside the US. Grrr.

Enter Borderlinx, which is just the thing to combat this problem. This is a site that gives you a US, as well as a UK, shipping address, so that your favourite ang moh sites will have an address that they can send your stuff to. Then Borderlinx DHLs your purchases back to Singapore. Registration is free, and they charge only if and when you actually use their services. Furthermore, Borderlinx has a concierge service that acts as middleman if your card doesn’t have a US/UK billing address. You just leave details of the site and your object of desire, and they will process it for you.

There are caveats: first and foremost, only Citibank card members get to register on Borderlinx. Secondly, the concierge service only operates during office hours, so there is a chance that the apple of your eye might still slip away.

Still, that’s better than nothing, eh?

So, in the new Home Of The Manx style of bold bag-related adventures, I have actually placed an order with the Borderlinx concierge services for this Lauren Merkin Tatum clutch. I have no idea if it will come to fruition, because the sale started on the weekend, and I am crossing my fingers that Borderlinx gets there before the last piece runs out. It doesn’t help that the time difference between there and here makes things pretty much the other way around. Brrr.

Let’s see what happens.

Kate Spade sale on NOW

Hear ye, hear ye – Kate Spade is having a sale now. I found out when I was at Takashimaya yesterday.

Not on new arrivals (like the Tutti Fruitti, Gold Coast and Hanover series), of course, but some of the offerings are pretty good. For example, the Boerum Hill Brennan I was eyeing was originally well over S$500 (I think it was S$560); it’s now about S$390 (I have to resort to approximations because I have a mind like a sieve). Unfortunately, the colour I wanted (Dijon, in case anyone’s interested) was already at the last-piece-and-it’s-on-display stage, and it was pretty beat-up. If anyone’s going to beat up my bag, it’s gonna be me.

Other pieces I saw on sale included the Islington series, the Lincoln Road series and the Roland Park Kirks.

I am unspeakably glad that I have managed to refrain from ordering the Brennan online for now. Maybe I will head to the Raffles City outlet on my Wednesday half-day to see if it’s meant to be mine. Mwahahaha. 

Ode to the family

This post is written about and because of my family and its shenanigans over the past week.

My grandma – the grande dame of the family who raised me to speak fluent Teochew and helped me believe that I was not stupid, despite much evidence to the contrary at many times during my life. At the age of 95, she reads the Chinese news highlights faster than I can and has opinions on the cost of living in most countries. She was admitted to hospital a week ago with abdominal pain and, frankly, I think most of us, herself included, feared that that would be it. Thank God, it turned out to be acalculous cholecystitis (translation: gallbladder inflammation in the absence of stones) which resolved on antibiotics. When she got to the point of making loud comments on which other patients in the ward had just come in, or were going for an X-ray, or had what number of visitors, she was discharged.

My dad – who, after the kind docs at the hospital saved my grandma’s life and gave me detailed updates, proceeded to launch a bloody complaint because he felt that they discharged her too soon. Instead of talking to them when he learnt of the discharge plan, he sent me a non-specific, FYI-sorta SMS. Then when I went to the hospital on the morning of discharge, he was uncontactable till past noon, then called me to ask why I hadn’t gotten the discharge postponed. Then he asked me who the best person was to lodge a strong complaint with. I’m still not bloody speaking to him.

My bro-bro – who generally turns out to be the highlight of my visits home. He’s Down Under at the moment, and made my day with his observation that the adult urinals there were too high for him. He’s due back on his birthday and it will be good to see him again.

This week has been more eventful than I would have liked. I hope the next will be more peaceful.

Reebonz has delivered!!!

The Kate Spade Carlsbad Vanessa has landed! And at a most opportune time. I am on call today, and my phone rang sometime after eight p.m. to the tune of a male Malay voice mangling my name and asking me if I was at the Fruit Farm, taking it for my home address. How opportune is that? After all, I’d expected the delivery to happen next week, during office hours. So if I hadn’t been on call today, my phone could have been off and I certainly wouldn’t have been at the Fruit Farm to receive my new baby. My dictum that everything happens for a reason has once again been reinforced.

And now – pictures.

Looks like a cake, but is better. It was pretty funky to see this in the hands of a van driver reeking of cigarettes. Here it is now, against the backdrop of my messy table.

Ribbon untied and lid opened. I can hardly wait.

Ta-dahhh! MY VERY FIRST KATE SPADE! And there was that smell - that smell of new leather which makes men's hearts pound when they open the door of their new car for the first time. IT IS THE SAME SMELL.

Verdict: now I have a zingy red baggie that will spice up any outfit. My first Kate Spade *tear of joy leaks from one eye*. And Reebonz delivers. I am now most happy to provide this link for anyone who’d like to sign up and take a look. Knock yourself out. :)