9th Day In Ningbo, China

Date : 101106
Time : 10:30 AM

Mom cooked spaghetti today, yumz. hhaah plan for today was game shop - tailor - Tianyi Square(buy dvds) and home.

Time : 12:00 PM

Went out to the game shop, which was a 10 min drive from our place. To the best of my mom's knowledge, there were only 3 shops which sold anime/console games stuff and all 3 were along the same stretch of shophouses. Arrived at the shophouses and surveyed the 3 game shops for toys that would interest me. 1st shop was disappointing with very limited amount of toys, only weird lookin bootleg anime gashapons (mini figures). The selection of games weren't that much either so we quickly went to the another one 2 shops away. This one was a bit better with more toys, even had a Final Fantasy V box set. Didnt really interest me either so went on to the 3rd and final one. Now this shop was mor eorganized and once i went in, i spotted a whole cabinet full of figures. It showcased mostly Gundam stuff with Anime Figures as well, Saint Seiya toys and even a newly released Transformers Masterpiece Edition Optimus Prime. Definitely someone in the shop was a toy collector. Anyhoos swept through the place not finding any Spawn figurines so walked out, just as i looked through the cabinet one last time, alas, a spawn figure was seen hiding in a corner. I was uber stoked and i more meticulously searched the place. Then when i went out to look into the window showcases, i saw a 12inch Spawn displayed right next to the Game shop's name, which was ironically called G A M E. haha Looked around that cabinet and alas, a small bottom portion of the showcase had Mcfarlane figures. Went in and my mom asked how much the figures cost, however the man who owned them wasn't in and they asked us to come back later in the afternoon. just before leaving, i looked up at the counter and saw 4 Mcfarlane's Dragons Series 2 hung. Asked the lady how much they cost and each was 75 RMB, about 16 dollars. Didn't buy them though as didnt fancy any of them. Left the store excited as i was hoping they would be selling the spawn figures for cheap as well, and maybe i'd be able to find the ones i really want the most.

Time : 12:45 PM

Left for HY MALL in Tian Yi Square, after doin some stuff, went to the tailor's to collect my mom's clothes. Met one of Nat's friend's moms, Mrs Rosa, who was Mexican. Funny how she spoke just enough mandarin to explain stuff to the tailor. Sometimes asked my mom's help to translate what she was trying to say. Anyways, there were these 2 Chinese ladies who were there to collect their cheongsams, and they had full of complaints. The tailor's husband got sick of their complaints and suggested to his wife to give them their money back and not do the cheongsams anymore, preparing to rip up the receipt. His wife snatched it away from him, insisting she will go through with it. Man, pretty scary how the argument was. In this country, women are fierce creatures hahah. My stepdad came down from work to meet us and then we went to Z place for lunch.

Time : 2:30 PM

Left Z Place, and after sending my stepdad off at his office, went back to Tian Yi Square, HY Mall. Went to the Video store to pick up moreeee DVDS. Spent about 15-20 mins going through the selection, which was pretty wide. Finally bought Silence Of the lambs, Hannibal, Red Dragon and 12 Monkeys(my mom's), Legally Blonde 2 for the kids and V For Vendetta for myself. You wouldn't believe how much all of that totalled to. A meagre 76 RMB - 15 dollars!!!!!!!!!! And all apparently original. Quality is as gd as the originals, probably the only downside is that some Special Features on the disc dont work and some has Chinese menus. But, a stealll nonetheless woohoo, planning to go there and check out other DVDs too. After that we went into the HY MALL store which looked like Carrefour Suntec City. Bought a shirt for my paps back home and my mom bought groceries and necessities as well. There was one part of the store where they sold live seafood. mom bought 2 crabs but in the midst of it all, i spotted Splinter's students being sold. Yes live, moving turtles. There was a tub full of terrapins and bunches of netted turtles(the soft shelled ones) One of them had flipped over and was struggling and my mom pitied it so she popped him back up on his belly haha. Here are the pics of that whole sequence.

Mom choosing them crabs

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Pity those turtles actually, but it's just another source of food for people here i guess.

Time : 4:00 PM-ish

Left HY-MALL and proceeded back to the G A M E shop, to check if the toy seller was there. Arrived there after ard 15 mins and was told he would be coming soonish. Asked the lady attendant if i could look at the display shelf. She duly agreed and pushed some stuff away and opened the small glass sliding door. WOOOOOOOO They had 2 series of spawn in there and one of the series had 2 figures i was looking for. Slowly i took them out and to my excitement, i found one ive been looking for. Wings Of Redemption Spawn with bat wings from Spawn Reborn Series 1. OMgomogmogmg. Was thinking to pick up a few more but this was the ultimate i had to get and as long as it was for a reasonable price i wouldn't let it go. Waited for the seller to come and finally he did. My mom made some small talk with him and then asked him how much the one i wanted was selling for. 180RMB-36 dollars , no bargaining, he said. YAY! Currently in Singapore it would fetch a price of 50 dollars or more and i can't find it anywhere in SG! He quoted the other figures' prices and they were pretty on par with Singapore shop prices so I passed on the rest and got this beauty! wooohoo And to think i thought China would be the last place it would be found at. Apparently, he said he had brought in Mcfarlane stocks from Hong Kong some time back. Asked if he was going to bring in any other new stuff and he said no coz there's no market in Ningbo to sell these items. true dat. I consider myself pretty lucky to have pulled off this unexpected coup haha. Anyways got back home after all that excitement and drama at about 5 40PM.

The G A M E shop

Time : 7:30 PM

Had crab and other stuff for dinner. Uber psyched of my new buy and decided to take pictures of the day's HAUL!

Haul for the day totalling S$50

My precious

Still cant believe how lucky i was to find that hard-to-find-for-a-reasonable-price figure haha. Went on the net at nite to do my daily checks on events and stuff happening. Went to sleep at about 12:00AM. Whoopies!