Monday, May 23, 2005
sim lim trooper for a day
Joining the army of Sim Lim Troopers, I made a hesitant foray into Sim Lim Square this afternoon.
It technically wasn't my first trip there, but I made sure that previous experiences were brief (under 10 minutes) and distant (standing outside the building with a cold drink).
Today, however, was the real McCoy. We went there because the boyfriend needed a new harddisk for his cranky notebook.
The basement carpark was full, as it turned out. But it took less than 10 minutes for us to get in and find a lot. It reminds me of Plaza Singapura's perpetually-full parking facility and extremely high turnround rate.
Sim Lim Square on a Public Holiday afternoon was chaotic, to say the least. It overturned my prior impressions of Sim Lim Troopers - not only were there geeky technie guys, but also entire 3-generation extended families and young couples on awkward dates.
If Orchard Towers is known as 4 floors of whores, then Sim Lim Square must be 6 floors of hawking. The first vision I had of each floor was that of a flutter of paper. More specifically, a barrage of pamphlets - largely tacky A4-sized black-and-white photocopied pricelists - that were crudely chucked, stuffed and forced onto innocent victims.
Elbowing through this first line of offense, we came to an unitdy row of shop units, each hawking their similiar wares in similar fashion. As we ventured into shop after shop, I quickly came to realise the Golden Phrase of Sim Lim Square. Just as "sale" works on women, "best price" works on Sim Lim Troopers.
"Dis bland famous for dis ploduct one! I give you best price, boss! Best price!"
"Dis one $xxx. Cheap! Best price, best price!"
"$xxx best price already lah. Cannot lower, I lose money liao."
We finally managed to find the harddisk the boyfriend was looking for, and hastily made off.
It's tiring being a Sim Lim Trooper, I tell you.
::
Afternote: I realise the words are choppy and the paragraphs, disjointed. Take it was a pseudo-stream of consciousness entry then; I'm rather distracted watching the Cowherd and Fairy Weaver Hongkie drama on cable now. heh.
// posted by the commentator @ 10:24 pm 
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