The Price of Everything

"You are not going to make it."
"Yes, I am!"
"No, you are not."
"Yes, I am!"

That was the "ever-encouraging" husband telling me to give up hopes of losing my undesired pudgy tummy. Undaunted by his realism, I held up my bottle of freshly made apple and cinnamon drink, making another resolute stand. 

The bottle slipped through my fingers.

"Argh! Hubby, get me a rag. The bottle has cracked."

"See, I told you, even your bottle is saying you won't make it!"

What an omen!

That happened more than a week ago. Few days later, while waiting for my Mama who was undergoing a minor day surgery, I checked out some water bottles for sale at a store in the hospital. They came in nice slender designs that would fit in the cup holder in the car. Just nice, I thought. I looked at the price tag, "$8.90", hmm, is that a tad pricey? Well, perhaps, being the only store in the entire hospital that sells water bottles, it can exercise a bit of monopoly? 

Looking at my watch, I realised I still had to while away some time, so I browsed around the store. There were pricey stationery for children and lots of Chinese recipe books, targetting at various health problems. A lady patron was studying intently at one of those books, while clutching to another pile she had selected. I'm sure those books would sell well, after all, it's in a hospital. I myself had picked up a book on recipes for diabetics patients at another hospital. And yes, I bought it, read it and never applied it. 

Then, I caught sight of this interesting book cover, with a frog as an illustration. No, it's not "The Frog Prince". It's "The Book of Everything". Not thick, but hardcover. I read the blurb, the first few lines and I knew I had to get it. I turned it over, it's only $7.90. Hey, that's cheaper than a water bottle! Wow, reading "everything" was going to be cheaper than a water bottle.

I gleefully took the book to the cashier. 

That day, I left the store with "Everything", except the water bottle. 

Additional Note: "The Book of Everything" by Guus Kuijer is a worthwhile read, I would have posted a picture of the book cover, but because Google has disapproved my Adsense account without telling me the exact reasons, I decided not to post the picture of the book, in case their Google specialists think I'm trying to put up my own advertisements. I'm really not an Amazon wannabe... :'(