There is another round of home clutter clearing for me to do in December.  I just marvel at the amount of things a.k.a. junk that I managed to accumulate in my room over the year.  Buying in stuff is so ‘convenient’ but clearing the unwanted, un-useful, unloved and unsuitable items from the home is such a tedious task. 

I’ve been through many rounds of clutter clearing this year and it’s a seemingly never-ending process, all because of the habit called “consumerism” that we have all been so conditioned to embrace, so as to drive our economy etc.  Most of the time, it was due more to ‘impulse buying’ that satisfied the immediate ‘want’ emotion, rather than the longer term ‘need’ logic. 

Well, humans are generally more driven by their emotions rather than by their logic.  That is how the marketers play on our dominant emotional thoughts, and manage to sell us stuff that we tend to regret buying soon after.  Sometimes it feels like we were being possessed at the point of purchase.  Only a very tight budget can help reduce the frequencies of ‘impulse buying’.  Leaving our credit cards at home helps too.

I went out window shopping at Orchard Road today and kept it that way, though I was so tempted to pick up some impulse purchase items that were on massive sale.  I’m keeping my purse strings tight for now, to see if even better deals appear in the December weeks before Christmas.

Today is “Black Friday” in the US, the Friday that follows the US Thanksgiving Day (which falls on the 4th Thursday of every November).  The US retailers have prepared to bombard the festive shoppers with massive discounts in their last ditched efforts to prop up their sales for the year.  (Sad to note that the 100 year old UK retail giant Woolsworth has just collapsed before Christmas).

Even the US equity markets will only open till 1pm (US Eastern Time), after which I believe the staff will mostly head for the malls to check out the heavily discounted items there.  The analysts and retailers will be watching the consumer spending and revenue statistics closely to make their economic conclusions for 2008 and forecasts for early next year. 

So what do all these mean to us here in Singapore?  Well, our Asian economy is closely linked to those of the US and the rest of the world, whether we like it or not.  Our year end Christmas shopping season has started too and many of the departmental stores have already put up their Christmas sale ads in the papers.  I see some good deals there and feel tempted to check them all out this weekend.

The external Christmas decorations put by the various shopping malls and hotels have been vastly scaled down over the years, especially now that there isn’t a competition for the mall and hotel with the best Christmas decorations.  How I miss those days, but then times now are not like before.

Anyway, immerse yourselves in the coming Christmas mood, even though you might likely have to scale down your Christmas shopping budget this year.  The safest bet is to focus on what you need, versus what you want but can actually do without.  Happy shopping!

In Singapore we don’t officially celebrate Thanksgiving Day but the western expatriates who live here do.  Anyway what’s more important is tomorrow.  Thanksgiving in the US falls on the 4th Thursday of every November and the Friday following every Thanksgiving Day is known as “Black Friday” in the US.  It also marks the start of the Christmas shopping season there.

Black Friday retail sales is used by the analysts and retailers there to gauge the potential consumer spending and festive revenues, and hence the overall economic performance for the 4th quarter and the entire year.  They then make forecasts for next year’s economy, stock market performances etc.

The US equity markets will be closed today for Thanksgiving Day and they will only be opened for half a day tomorrow to ‘kickstart’ Black Friday.  I first observed this trend in the calendar last year when I picked up equities and options trading.  Well, when you develop the habit of watching CNBC during US market hours, you can’t help but get acquainted with Thanksgiving and other US public holidays.

Last year I watched President Bush give a Thanksgiving speech on CNBC.  He even gave a “Presidential Pardon” to a particular turkey to be spared from the dinner table.  Anyway, I won’t be home this evening to catch his speech and the pardoning of another turkey.  (I’ve tasted roast turkey some years back.  It tasted a bit like chicken but a little tougher).

I’m still waiting for a My Little Pony package to arrive from the US and that will be the final of my self-imported collectible toys for the year 2008.  My 2 close pony collector pals here have already received theirs around 2 weeks ago. 

It makes me kind of anxious that mine has not reached me yet.  I ordered my ponies from the same seller early this month, but a little later than my 2 friends.  I can’t wait to lay eyes on my latest pony acquisitions.  Hopefully I get to receive them by this weekend!

I may have missed the recent Anime Festival Asia 2008 held over the weekend at Suntec City, Singapore.  Fortunately a fellow toy blogger, Kenny visited the Fest and posted about it on his blog.  He has posted lots of photos plus his review of the event.  Thank you Kenny for sharing with us on your visit to the Anime Fest!

I missed out Singapore’s inaugural Anime Festival Asia held at Suntec City Convention over the weekend.  I had to attend another convention elsewhere over those 2 days.  It was an unfortunate clash of events for me.

One of my pony collector pals went there on those 2 days and told me it was so-so.  He was there to check out the prospects of working in the anime industry.  He found the school fees (about SGD 8,000 per semester, for 4 years) for a graphic design diploma course being offered by one of the exhibitors there, really high.

My other pony collector friend, (known as “Yuanie” on MLP Arena) also was there to participate in the Cosplay competition on Sunday and her team won!  Congratulations to her once more!  She has her own Cosplay website and matching Cosplay blog too.  Check them out to view Cosplay costumes made and worn by her!

According to the local papers, the turnout of the Anime Fest was about 80,000, as compared to the 140,000 crowd during the Singapore Toy and Comic Convention (STCC) held there in June 2008.  The Anime Fest charged SGD 5.00 per entry (or SGD 8.00 for 2 days entry) while the STCC was free entry.  As the visitors’ demographic for both events were quite similar, there was talk that the 2 events might be merged next year.

I hope that whatever the organisers decided for next year, they will not charge for entry to both events.  That should encourage more visitors to come and shop.  I would feel reluctant to enter if I had to pay for it.  After all I’m not that a hardcore fan that I must enter.  

No blogging today.  Go out and have fun on a Sunday!  Go help to boost our economy, but please do so prudently within your budget and means of course!

I’ll be away for the weekend for a convention so I take a break from blogging over these 2 days.  Happy toy collecting!

Yes it’s that time of the week where many people do not have to work, so where to they go?  Well in Singapore, most of us dislike being outdoors where it is very hot and humid under the sun.  Hence we tend to flock to the shopping malls which are air-conditioned and inevitably, very crowded with people during the weekends as well. 

The year-end school holidays had already started this week, so expect to see more families with their kids and maids in tow, plus teenagers and students who are also having their year-end school holidays, out in full forces at many shopping places. 

I feel more and more clautophobic whenever I visit the shopping malls and departmental stores during the weekends in the past 2 years.  Some of the most highly congested walking spaces happen to be inside CityLink and Suntec City!  Some parts of Orchard Road are also equally filled with human traffic.  It doesn’t help that the festive season of Christmas is just round the corner…