OBSERVATION DAY

 

The subject (James Ting) is Genevieve’s friend. He is currently doing his internship now and is also a competitive pole vaulter. He has preference for brands such as Ted Baker and puts in effort to look good. He was aware that he was being observed, however the observation was to be treated like a normal activity with his friend and he had no clue of the brand Genevieve was studying.



​Saturday, 26th January 2013

James started his day exceptionally early this Saturday as he had a pole-vaulting competition at 8am at Bukit Gombak stadium. He dashed out of his house grabbing a piece of toast and consuming it while driving to the stadium. He did not want to be late as it was the Inter-Varsity Program (IVP), which he has been gearing up for in the past few months. His passion for pole-vaulting began at the age of 14 and he played competitively in his schooling days.

 

We met up at the stadium and James was gleaming with excitement. He then exchanged handshakes with his competitors’ from NUS and NTU. The atmosphere was amiable despite the competition, as the participants had known one another arising from past practices.
After a quick warm up, the competition began. I sat by the side, observing the match as I have never tried this sport. The participants took turns to jump and they were scored based on the heights they were able to clear. They encouraged one another and it was a friendly competition. It finished around 11am and James managed to clinch 2nd place, earning his school a significant lead in the IVP. We then proceeded to lunch together and James was in high spirits throughout.



After which, we headed home for a quick shower and made our way to Raffles City Shopping Centre to begin his Chinese New Year shopping. It was approximately 2pm and James wandered throughout the mall to find something nice.



Tommy Hilfiger’s store grabbed his attention and he entered to browse their new collection. He picked out 4 shirts he found suitable and the sales assistant approached him to recommend trying them on. He found out there was an additional 20% on top of the 15% membership discount, this made him more inclined to purchase. He took approximately 20 minutes to try various shirts and consulted my opinion throughout. We narrowed it down to 2 shirts – a maroon-striped one and an anchor-patterned one. He eventually purchased the anchor-patterned one as he felt it was unique and he does not own any as yet. He spent approximately 40 minutes in the store.



He proceeded to Brook Brothers to browse for tops but found nothing as satisfying as his Hilfiger shirt. Then he entered Zara to check out their new season. He did not feel as comfortable in Zara as it was crowded owing to a mega sale. Still he browsed the shelves, landing his eyes on a black leather belt. He checked its price and found that it was reasonable. Next, he searched for his size. To his dismay, it was not available due to limited stocks left. He continued browsing though with less interest. He gradually left the mall at 630pm as he had a dinner appointment to catch at 7pm at Thai Pan on East Coast Road.

 

We arrived around 7pm and most of his buddies had already reached. He commented that this group of friends was the punctual sort and they were his buddies from Victoria School. The guys ordered massive throngs of food and gladly exchanged laughter over food. Most of whom had just returned from their international exchange program or were planning on embarking on it. Hence, the conversations mainly surrounded travel and living abroad. Dinner proceeded till about 9pm and we headed to a friend’s house along Bayshore Road to eat ice cream and watch soccer.



Time flew past quickly as they watched the game and chatter away. It was around midnight that we decided to grab supper at Kembangan. They drove over to the coffee shop and ate.

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At approximately 2am, James headed home as a close to his day.