Hanging Out

Went out with my friend today. She wanted to do some shopping, and in the end, we did - window shopping. It's kinda funny because we're polar opposites when it comes to shopping. She goes for the wants, I go for the needs. But at least we can both agree on one thing - we're very picky. So much so that we can take a long time to select the right thing and we end up not buying anything, which is good for our pockets. I'll take that as good training for resisting temptation.

These are the questions I ask myself when selecting the right product:

1. Is this the item you need? If you went shopping for ________, then why are you looking at _*insert unrelated good*_?
2. Is it within your budget? (Sidenote: Personally, I find that carrying very little cash with you really helps to cut down on spending. Don't bring your credit cards either. You can't spend much if you don't have enough money with you. P.S. It's also a good trollin' excuse when some persistent seller keeps persuading you to buy their expensive products. Bonus points if you pretend to be interested, try/sample the goods, gasp at the price and walk away. Good times, good times. :P)
3. Is it made of good quality/durable materials? Why buy a cheap product made in _____ that will not last a month when you can buy something slightly more expensive but will last you a couple of years?
4. Do you really like it? A simple yet very important question.
5. If you answered no to any of the above, either look at another item or get out of the store. If you answered yes to all of the above, pick a similar item of another design or colour and compare which you'd prefer.
6. Check out other stores and compare the prices of similar-looking goods.
7. Repeat.

You can see why I usually come out of malls empty-handed. By the way, I also go through a similar process when buying food, but not all of the above questions apply. Qn 1 usually doesn't apply to food, because food is a need, but if you're the type to splurge on food, you might want to ask yourself that question too. Qn 3 can be tweaked to ask "Does it have a variety of ingredients? Will it keep you full for long?"

Soupy dishes, by the way, keeps you feeling full longer rather than dry solid meals. I saw an episode of Brainiac: Science Abuse and the Brainiacs made 1 guy eat spaghetti normally and the other guy had to drink blended spaghetti *gross*. After which, they had to go for a long drive to see how long it took before they had to stop for another meal. Guess what? The blended spaghetti guy lasted longer. You may also want to read this article.

Just so you know, we shared lasagne bolognese, calzone pizza and mushroom soup for dinner at an Italian restaurant. And they were amazing. The only problem was the hygiene. My cup had leftover lipstick stains on it. I'm not telling which outlet it was, though. Because the problem is caused by the negligence of that 1 dishwasher in that outlet. I doubt the other outlets hire the same person. Besides, I'm there for the food. And the Italians invented pizza. So of course they make the best pizzas in the world! Would I dare to miss it?

Anyway, on a sidenote, while strolling the malls, a little something caught my inner fangirl ear. I overheard (unintentionally, of course) a bf/gf couple on the escalators behind me. The guy commented on something about the girl's shoes, and she replied, "Oh, you noticed~~ :)" Man, he's good. Looks like he picked up some brownie points there. This actually sounds like a good idea for a Royai drabble, fellow Royai shippers. For some reason, the conversation reminded me of a certain moment in a certain chapter. *cough*"Thanks for noticing the eye signal."*cough*"We've known each other for a long time."*cough*

Music to my ears. ♫♪ ۶(̾̃•̮̮̾̃●̾)٩