I was shopping in Chinatown on the early early 16 Feb, Wednesday, morning. At 3am. Yes, I am looking for cheap stuffs. For those who do not know, 16 Feb 2005, Wednesday, is the 1st day of the Chinese New Year. Few weeks before the CNY, there will be alotta stalls in Chinatown selling new year stuffs until the 1st day of CNY. Therefore if u go in the wee hours of the 1st day, the sellers will be trying to get rid of their last stock as there would be no demand for those stuff for another year. I wanted to buy a artificial plum blossoms tree. A small tree normally cost abt $100. But my budget is less than $30.

Anyway, I was walking around the streets looking at the stuffs there. I spotted a nie plum blossoms tree. Let's call it size 4. The bigger the number the bigger the tree. Anyway, the seller quoted me $78. It's quite cheap, but still outta my budget, so i rejected him. The man ask me to give him a price that I am comfortable with, but I can't bring myself to say $25. Too embarrassin. So I just walk off.

Then I spotted another stalls selling tree. They have 3 sizes. Size 1, 2 and 3. They cost $28, $38, $48 respectively. Size 1 looks pretty small. I am more insterested in size 3, but I thought I'll settle for size 2 as it's closer to my budget. I bargained for $25. The seller refused to settle for less. Only when I tried to leave, do he offer $35. It is still over my budget.

As I am prepared to leave empty handed, I saw another stall, selling a size 5 tree at $48. This is the cheapest so far and i saw an old couple bargaining with the seller. They don't look very interested though, but the seller said that he just wanted to get rid of it and he's prepared to take a lost. He offered them $38, they refused and walk away. I walk up to the seller and offerred him $25. He tried to get me to buy it at $30 and we settled at $28.

I bring it to my office building and left it in