What a day

Today was a scheduled shopping day for me, Lynn, Vien and Vans. We have been wanting to visit a factory outlet in Parramatta that sells winter clothes at a much cheaper price, almost 50% off the rack price.

Joyride
Parammatta is a suburb West of Sydney, and going there, I can either take the bus, train or ferry. I was looking forward to the ferry ride but the trip that will go direct to Parramatta from the City leaves after 12 noon, and I will be too late for my 1pm appointment with my friends. I ended up taking the bus --- it took me all of one hour and twenty minutes from Chatswood to Parramatta but I enjoyed the view. I got to see Macquarie University, the beautiful houses along the streets, great scenery, weird and funny people and so much more. It was my first time to travel that route and I would love to do it again. Too bad I didn’t have the camera with me.

Bargain
The Factory Outlet Building we went to was noticeably empty --- not a good sign. Most of the shops are close while those who have goods to sell are not really selling them at dirt-cheap prices. To top it all, Paddington Coat Factory is nowhere to be found!!! It was really a sad day for us coz we were so looking forward to our Winter shopping but we went home empty handed…almost.

There was an athletic store that had a vast inventory of shoes and other athletic gadgets that we chanced upon. I went directly to the pile of “1 for $3 or 2 for $5” shoes. I saw a size 5 Sketcher shoes in the pile but when I saw the price, it was marked down to $15 from the original $50 price. Since I am unsure of the exact price (if it was $15 or $3), I asked the cashier and he informed me it was for $3. Without hesitation, I gave him three dollars pronto to pay off the shoes. After punching the sale, he then told me that it was really a $15 shoes but he gave it to me for $3 --- “thank you Mr. Cashier!”, you made my day!

my $3 Sketchers

Near Accident
We concluded our shopping at around 5pm coz all stores are now closing (this is the downside here in Oz, shops close early… weekdays, shops close at 6pm, except for Thursday, which is a shopping night, where operating hours are until 9pm. Saturdays they trade until 5 pm, while Sunday is the worst when shopping is over by 4pm --- made me miss Manila where Midnight Madness happens every so often).

Going home, I took the train since it would be faster (took me about an hour) and safer as well.

When I alighted at Artarmon, I noticed that the train is a little far from the pathway, creating a gap. As I was walking towards the exit, a man suddenly shouted “No! No!” and another one started running towards the middle shouting “Stop! Stop!” --- signaling the conductor not to close the doors, lest the train will start moving. Another person run towards the driver and said stop. In all the commotion, I thought that someone must have fainted or tripped while alighting the train but it was worse than that --- a little girl, around 4 or 5 years old, actually fell down the train tracks. Good thing her father was quick enough to shout that people reacted and helped in notifying the train persons. The father scooped the girl from the tracks and she was just crying her heart out, her father just hugged her and everyone helped them to safety. I couldn’t imagine what could have happened to the girl if the train moved so quickly or if no one helped or if the father’s reflexes were not that good. I shudder at the thought… I felt really sad and teary eyed thinking of the worst case scenarios… The train, which normally departs a minute after arrival, departed after around 5 minutes. I just hope the little girl is now okay.

Earth Hour

Today, at 7:30 pm, we participated in 60 minutes of total darkness -- well not really total darkness coz my computer was turned on. :-)

At 7:30 pm on 31 March 2007, we are inviting Sydney to turn off its lights for just one hour - Earth Hour -to show that it's possible to take action on global warming.

WWF-Australia and The Sydney Morning Herald are asking all of Sydney - its companies, government departments, individuals and families - to turn off their lights for just one hour. It's a simple action if everyone takes aprt, sending a powerful message that we care about the future of the planet. Click http://earthhour.smh.com.au to read the rest of the story.

We took part in it and hope our little contribution will go a long way.

What a nice activity to wrap up my day. :-)