Showing his true colours

So Viv had been on a rather unsuccessful search for a collared white T-shirt with full sleeves that had no stupid text or motifs on them. Apparently, the cricket authorities only allow white collared T-shirts for playing. He had seen thousands and thousands of full-sleeved white T-shirts and rejected them all because they were not suitable.

Finally, he found an Adidas one in Dubai that he liked but the stripes on the shoulder and sleeves were blue and he wanted them in black. So even though he came out of the shop with a long face, I was doing an internal bhangra of sorts. I was absolutely thrilled to have (a) an assignment, and (b) an idea for a anniversary gift for a guy. (All girls who have ever torn their hair apart in frustration trying to think of what gift to get for a guy say "Aye!").

So when we got back to Singapore, I went to the Adidas outlet near my office to check up whether they had the T-shirt with black stripes. They did, but in size S. I asked the sales assistant if they were getting an M or an L anytime, and she didn't know. I went back a few days later just to check, and they still didn't have it. However, this time I had another shop assistant who was more helpful.

"Let me call up another outlet and check. Which one is nearest to your place?"

"Parkway Parade." I told him.

So he called up the Parkway Parade outlet, but no one picked up. He then wrote down the code number of the T-shirt on a piece of paper and gave it to me.

"You can call them later and quote this code number."

I was anyway going to pass by Parkway Parade on the way back from work so I decided to drop by the tiny Adidas outlet there and check. I was greeted by this guy whose nametag said Mingzhe (strange, considering Mingzhe in Mandarin means "name") who said that outlet didn't carry that item at all.

"Let me check the system for you anyway." He keyed the code into the computer.

"The system" turned out to be this ultra-cool thing because it apparently told him something critical.

"Hmmm..." He said. "Only one piece left in the whole of Singapore."

"What???? Where??????? Which outlet?????" I couldn't contain my excitement.

"Paragon. Orchard."

It was too late to go to Paragon that day, but I was paranoid.

"Do you think someone would have bought it by the time I get there, say tomorrow or on Saturday?" I asked.

"Possible. Why don't you reserve it?"

"Reserve it??? I can reserve it???"

"Yeah, I'll call them."

So the delightful Mingzhe called the Paragon branch and reserved the T-shirt for me. On Saturday, while Viv was at cricket, I went to Orchard and picked up the T-shirt. He was deliriously happy to see it.

He wore it for the match yesterday. The T-shirt was so white his white pants didn't match it!! Sheesh!

Anyway, so the dude comes back in the evening victorious and tells me how he scored the highest number of runs, hit two sixers and took six catches.

But of course, all good things come at a price.



















ps: If the above picture is a shocker, here's another one. The 'before' pic here is actually the 'after' (washing) pic. Safedi ki chamkaar! :D