8 Year Old.

Grace and I went shopping last night at Gurney. Considering that both of us were free and the mall would be actually peaceful and quiet without teenagers (cause it's a school night), we decided to drive down to Gurney Plaza to look for a gift for Edmund's birthday. Edmund's birthday (23/4) falls on this Sunday. No celebration, due to kong kong's recent passing. It has been 49 days already today. Neither one of us are to celebrate our birthdays this year. It's like a period of mourning or rather, in respect of the dead that we do not celebrate anything this whole year. Chinese tradition. But getting him a gift for his 8th birthday doesn't sound all that bad.

A full hour of walking resulted in nothing. We just couldn't figure out a decent gift for that little git at home. Toys are a big no no for us because we think he's too grown up for those toys that'll probably break in his hands in about a month. Trying to get something educational sounds kind of ridiculous seeing that studies definitely doesn't come first on an 8 year old's list of wanted things! Then Grace suggested a watch. I was okay with it. As the matter of fact, I'm pretty ok with anything. As long as he likes it, I'll be happy. But Grace thinks otherwise. "Why get him something that he likes but is useless?" she says. I might just pick out a toy (I was having the thought of getting him a Bionicle!) that I could afford and make him happy. Grace insisted on a watch.

Roaming like a couple of lost souls in Gurney, searching for a watch shop, at night wasn't the best way to spend your weeknight. We didn't have trouble looking for a watch shop or two. But we did have trouble looking for a good and CHEAP (literally) one! hey, after all, we're living in Penang, everything IS suppose to fall in that category! All the children watches we saw ranges from RM70 - RM80. For one thing, we're no reach to people to afford such expensive watches. Second thing, he's just a kid! We can't trust fully him with an RM80 watch strapped to his wrist while he plays one of his ball games!! He'll probably break it. Third thing, with a responsibilty of an 8 year old, we gave him an account of 2 weeks before he loses the watch. Expensive watches are totally out of the question! We gave up and Grace said that she'll go to another watch shop that she knows and will try to find one for Edmund in time for his birthday.

We surrendered to our thirsts and went to get ice-creams before going up to the 7th floor car park to where our car was parked. I wasn't craving for an ice-cream that time, unlike Grace was. But I did have a sudden craving for root beer with a scoop of Vanilla ice-cream! A&W was te place! Although, I have to say, A&W in Gurney looks more like a hangout place for losers besides the fact that they make great floats! The atmosphere is close to the atmosphere of a funeral parlour, the colours in the restaurant are as dull as the colours of my skin and the s I got my float while Grace was halfway through her ice-cream, licking endlessly. I dug in on my root beer with Vanilla ice-cream topping while we made our way through the empty escalators in Gurney, listening to the soft music played.

We made it back home through the heavy traffic under the rain, empty handed. It's probably a usual thing for us both already by now when it comes to gift shopping. We can barely find a thing. Even if it's for Christmas or Birthdays. Grace and I are hopeless gift shoppers!