There is only one reason why the kids love going Chinatown - besides getting to eat fishball noodles and drink Ribena, they get to go to OG after the meals, heading straight to the 4th floor to get new toys. Why do I absolutely condone such behaviour, because I enjoy buying toys as much as they do.

Ultraman Mebius Phoenix Brave and Zero

And the next day, I found this adorable Scooby Doo metal candy box at Candylicious. Couldn’t resist not owing this silly dog.

Couldn’t believe my eyes when I opened it. $5 for that tiny packet of candy that couldn’t even fill one tenth of the tin, luckily I still got to keep that tin.

While I wanted to get either the cakes or strawberry for Zeeyau and the school bus for 弟弟, they went against my wish and wanted the black cat and the green frogie.

I know Zeeyau likes black cat and it does look cute, so I agreed. However, I think 弟弟 choice of the frog bag is really bad, so I manged to convince him to choose another frogie backpack instead.

However, they were both out of stock.

So in the end, I bought an elephant bag for Zeeyau, which happened to be her first choice bag before discovering the black cat.

Need a small lunch box for Zeeyau as well, so I thought the strawberry box is lovely to have. Out of stock too, and have to settle for the blue school bus. Not a bad idea, both the kids like it and 弟弟 could use it in future as well.

So, these are the two items I got in the end. I am still waiting for the green frogie bag to be back in stock.

I have put my well loved (and hated too) Nokia 8800 to rest since coming to Shanghai. It was very inconvenient to carry two mobile phones around since most foreigner like me will have at least 2 numbers.  So, I was given this 山寨 Nokia 8800, which has dual sim card feature. My 山寨机 belongs to the lower end one, though the design and exterior looks similar to the real one. I have seen the more expensive model, the 手感 and finishing is even more 正点。

And while I was in 阿里旺旺 (the chatting platform for alibaba.com and taobao.com), I received an advertisement to browse a store boasting new stock of 外贸正品 branded POLO T-shirts.  Ah, my favourite - cheaper and like the real thing. However, the featured item seems to exhibit dual identity. The branding and logo say POLO, but the tartan details shouted Burberry.

I have wasted a great deal of time browsing online shopping site lately looking for cute, interesting, pretty or cheap deals. I also spent a great number of time trying to figure out the meaning of various terms like 山寨，正品，原单，尾单 etc, so as not to fall prey into buying imitations thinking they are the real thing, or paying exorbitant prices for fake goods.

So, after some reading up, this is what I have found out:

外贸原单（也叫余单、尾单）： 国外大品牌提供面料、版型，到国内寻找厂家生产。那些质量合格的，就是专卖店里的”正品”。 The order placed by foreign big brands commissioning local factory to manufacture their merchandise. The big brands will normally provide the design, pattern or even raw materials. The finished products that passed QC will be sold in boutiques or departmental stores, with the tags and branding intact.

跟单：”原版”面料，搭配一批国内辅料（如扣子、拉链、衬里等），采用和正品一样的版型做出原来的款式，就是”跟单货”。Orders manufactured using similar mold, design and material (eg: fabric) like the original item, however, some finishing or parts are different from the original item.

仿单： 与原厂没有任何关系的厂商模仿正单的原料、款式生产。质量参差不齐，没有保证。因没有商标授权厂家为了便于上市销售，经常换以自己现有的品牌商标。imitation

真品：指合法大牌专卖店出售，带有真品化验单，标签，挂牌等的商品。The legitimate real thing that passed quality control, have tags and are sold in boutiques or departmental stores.

正品：质量符合规定标准的就叫正品。真品原厂原模生产,和真品生产原料，款式，设计，品质一样，但少化验报告单，或商标被剪，或有少许瑕疵。The illegitimate merchandise manufactured by the original factory that doesn’t posses/pass QC or have had their branding tags removed.

原单货，正品尾单，外贸尾单，尾货：因生产量过大（超出客户要求数量）或海关原因剩余、滞留的部分，以及生产环节中出现轻微瑕疵部分的统称。庶出也。The illegitimate merchandise resulting from factory excesses, custom problem or manufacturing hiccups.

A、B品 ：正品之下，还分A品，B品。A品，B品纯属质量上的分类。只要是通过正规检测的A品，就成了可以送往各地上市销售的正品。那些不通过检测的，就是B品。这些B品或被销毁，或通过各种渠道流入市场。After manufacturing the legitimate real thing, they will be rated into A grade or B grade. The Aces have passed QC and are now promoted to the rank of  “branded stuff” and will be distributed to the various boutiques. The B graders failed QC and will be destroyed, or flow into the mass market thru some special avenues.

仿货，仿品：模仿正单的原料、款式生产的商品。imitations, fakes.

超A货、A货、B货、C货：仿货本身也有分级。超A（或特 A，AA）当然是仿货中最好的（质量，手工可能和正品不相上下，几乎可以以假乱真），C货就不用多说了。Different gradings of imitation goods. “A+”, “AA” being the top tier that is comparable to the real legitimate ones. The lower grades one can be real trash.

That was what I have learnt recently, and the terms can still be confusing and overlapping in certain areas. Different goods have their own set of definition too. Well, still have a lot to pick up.

 
Really, there is a listing for selling dead mosquitoes on the web, at 1rmb +5rmb shipping cost.

And the seller is advertising it as “纯天然产品，保证是天然蚊子，人造不出来的。保证亲手拍死 本人售出的蚊子标本，一律全手工不借助任何工具”！

Got this set of ultra scale world of warcraft action figures from Pacific Square Mall yesterday.  The shop was asking for 450rmb for the set of 3. We managed to seal the deal at 300rmb, though I think it could go lower. Anyway, I was extremely happy with my new toys and asked the shop to keep me updated on the other action figures the next time they go to the factory to source for goods.

The figurines were from SOTA and should already have been discontinued. But I guess the factory here still continue churning out these 9″ tall action figures since there is demand out there.

Though these figures looks much sturdier, I am not going to let the children play or touch them freely anymore. 弟弟 has already broken the leg of my Valeera Sanguinar collector figure.

One of the super time wasting activity that I engage in is browsing through the online shopping site. I haven’t get my internet banking working properly yet and haven’t started figuring out how to make payments, but I have already bookmarked tonnes of merchandises on 淘宝 so I could start shopping once the online transaction problem is solved。

I was really amazed by the huge varieties of items i could find over at taobao. So far, I have only step foot on the fashion section. As we know China is the factory of the world, and also famous for things like factory rejects, imitation, pirates and whatever (you name it, they have it), the range of design is incredibly huge and the prices are unbelievably low.  Of course, there are risk of inferior quality or 货不对办，but the pretty models, attractive product photos, well designed online shops sites and tempting bargains seem pretty much took away the worries and reassures you to shop.

Here is one interesting item I found yesterday - maternity clothing that are supposed to protect the expecting mom from harmful UV rays and radiation (防辐射孕妇装). The special protective fabric is supposed to sheild/minimise harmful radiation from electronic gadgets and devices, electronic medical equipments, telecommunications equipments and etc.They also provide infomation on how to test out the effectiveness of their products. Well, children and expecting moms are both well protected in here.

Oh, if you have more time to spare or waste, taobao’s 女人频道 is also an alternative place to explore.

We don’t have a private driver or own a car here, so we mostly rely on the service of a freelance driver. He drives what is known as 黑车，which is like an unlicensed cab. However, this 马师傅 is actually a fruit seller, which also explains why we never run out of quality fruits at home.

It is rather sad to find out from him that top graded fruits are meant for export here, leaving behind mostly the lower grade ones for the local market. However, with a guru fruit seller around, he always supply us with the best recommendation. How the hell would I know to choose from china fuji apples, 延安 apples, 新疆 apples or some other variety of apples from another area unless I try a different kind each time.

And despite the general advice to choose strawberries that are bright red looking with a shiny exterior, we were told to keep away from those pretty looking bright red berries, 马师傅 said those are just good looking but very sour, only for people who don’t know the good stuff . He gave us a big bag of really ugly strawberries that looks quite mutated and deformed. True enough, they were absolutely crunchy and sweet. The only unknown worries is the amount of chemicals present, I heard they are quite generous about that.

I have managed to find the toy animals again, this time much cheaper then the high class Scheich ones I bought earlier. The animals come in a few series, like Zoo Babies, Farm animals, Dinosaurs and creepy crawlies, etc. Safari is the brand, and one box of about 12 animals cost $12.90. Not exactly making me chirping cheap cheap cheap, but $1 per figurine compared to $6 for a piece? No complain unless I can find better ones. Though not as well made, it is a sure more affordable.

I got it at a place which I am sure I would never drop by if not because of mother’s day. That’s it, OG (Albert), the department store we associate our mother’s generation with. Hey, it is not that auntie after all (or maybe because I have joined the auntie gang to think like that), and it has a rather big children section where I found the animals.

I am beginning to picture going there again. The husband can enjoy himself at Sim Lim Square without my ultra black black face bothering him (it is in my hate list), while I cross over to OG to kill time. A convenient place which will probably please the two of us.

I also need to go back for more of my favourite LOTTE cream cakes that I happened to find at OG too. A weird section of Korean and Japanese food that was set up in the middle of the children section.

My insistence to hunt down the original toasted whole grain oat cheerios has worn out. I decided that Tangling Mall’s Market Place will be the place I end my search. Luck wasn’t on my side, I didn’t manage to get one there too. Well, there were lots of Multi Grain Cheerios though. Daunted, but determined not to return empty handed, I convinced myself to give the Multi Grain Cheerios a try. After all, the packaging described its content as “lightly sweetened”.

I took a closer look at the label to verify. The sugar content is 6g. I thought 6g seems to be a negligible single digit. It turned out to be too sweet for little children. I was blinded by the “lightly sweetened” and failed to realise that it is actually 6 times sweeter then the 1g sugar content original Cheerios.

Not too sure if the sugary Cheerios was the culprit, but the kid turned hyper after eating a handful of the snack at the restaurant just now. She was almost running wild in the department store after we released her from our hands.

Though I failed miserably in my search for Cheerios, I found my prize in something else. There is this toy shop in the upper floor of Ngee Ann City that carries very pretty toys. Not those fanciful or buttonful electronics type of toys, but mainly soft puppets, wooden toys, doll house etc. If I am loaded, I think I will sweep every item from it.

I have more or less done with Yauyau fruit basket and am looking for animals. It is kind of weird that most toys shops sells plastic bags full of scary looking sea creatures, dinosaurs, spiders or horses/dogs of different breeds. Where are those farm, forest or savannah animals that we are more familiar with? Anyway, this shop carries animal figurines from Schleich. They are pricey, but extremely well made. I wouldn’t leave without adopting a few of them. A check with foreign shopping sites shows that we are definitely paying much more. But until I manage to find ways to get it from overseas, I will go back for more slowly so as to minimise the pinch. My urge to start my collection is biting me again.

This toy is for me, not the kid, but I will let her play with it if she doesn’t break the animals’ legs or head.