(I don't remember them coming unsharpened. My right arm was really tired after sharpening the entire box. Some are visibly shorter because the lead kept breaking. I was a little upset because the orange/yellows were particularly weak and broke more than once, hence their dwarf-like appearance despite being unused. The quality is not what it used to be.)
Somewhere in a cosy Taiwanese eatery yesterday, two heads were bent intently over a 60-colour box of Colleen colour pencils. The patrons scattered around the table would think the two girls were having a highly thoughtful and serious conversation about the colour pencils, given the way they were stroking, pointing and staring at the individual pencils. And they would be right.
I think the lawyer and I probably did that for at least a good five to ten minutes before I suddenly remarked that we looked seriously like oddballs.
When I was a kid, I longed for a box of 60-colour Colleen colour pencils. I had the smaller one (36 or 48, I forget) and was enormously envious of my classmate who has the 60, and would borrow from her the colours that were missing or rather, non-existent, in my box. If you remember how it is being a child, you would know how tormenting it is to have to be jealous of a classmate who has a larger box of colour pencils than you do.
Well. I decided to fulfil that long-forgotten dream and went traipsing around Bras Basah Complex to get the box.
So obviously, I pulled it out with a flourish to show the lawyer over dinner, because what's the point of all that colour if you can't show anyone, right? That was when we had the highly serious conversation, which also included this portion:
Me: You didn't use to put them back in their respective slots, right? (Phrased such because I already knew the answer.)
Lawyer: No. Did you?
Me: Yah.
Lawyer: (Stares somewhat with disbelief) Really?
Me: Although sometimes I would let it get messy...
Lawyer: So that you can arrange them back in order?
Me: Yah.
Lawyer: Okay that sounded freakily like something AK would say. (Pause.) Although she would never let it get messy in the first place.
So. Do you arrange your colour pencils back where they belong?
16 comments:
Congrats on the 60-colour box! One of the few great things about growing up is that you can earn money and buy whatever the heck you've been longing for when you were a little kid huh.
Great post and pictures.
And to answer your question: nope, I don't put them back where they belonged :)
of course you have to put them back where they belonged. And i hated it when some went missing, cos then the box won't be full and they'll be rolling around loosely... Tsk. - tfg
Thanks, Ellen! Totally. And the best part is that you feel just as satisfied owning these things as a grown-up. =D
And tfg, just like how I knew the lawyer wldn't hav arranged hers, I know you wouldn't have let it gone messy. I am also certain that the mathematician didn't arrange hers.
actually u are wrong. i always arrange mine. though not in the order they come in, but in the correct gradient of colour as i feel they should be.. and i'll keep it that way.
and ya, tfg, i hate it when one goes missing.. or when it becomes too short. so i always ration the use of my favourite green.
haha which is your fave green?
it's this pastel candy looking green.very... sweet but mildly so kind of colour. from ur pic... it should be the one opposite the (lighter) pink. (no.11 frm left) that whole combi just looks so.... sweet doesn't it?
btw.. on studying ur pic more carefully... that centre blob of browns mixed into your pinks n reds.. not cool.
ooohhhh my goddddd! i rationed my favourite colours too!!! haha! - turtle/lawyer
ok, so did i...
you just can't let them run out too fast. i mean, what do you do after that? can't possibly buy another box for that colour right?
i think somewhere along the way, i found out that they actually sell individual sticks, but i don't think i ever bought any. so maybe it's a figment of my imagination. haha.
-tfg
yah i don't quite like some of the arrangement decisions they made too. but i don really want to shift them.
i don't think they sold indiv sticks of colleen pencils...
does everyone do this or are we weird?
don't recall there being individual colours for sale leh..
well. the lawyer wants to go buy a box of colour pencils so tt she can go have this conversation with other ppl and check out their reactions. now, that's fairly weird.
i suppose this is kind of odd, but i'm sure there're a lot of ppl out there like that. so not too worried. ha.
haha... yes, lawyer is weird..
they used to sell individual sticks of colleen on an ad hoc basis - like as and when they have colours to spare or when they decide to break a set.. f.castell and the brand with the blue box with red borders that came with a picture of a swan in front were a lot more popular by the time we were in sec school and watercolour pencils became the "norm" - turtle/lawyer
who is "they"?? i've never seen them sold individually.
the bookstore near where i used to stay - turtle pretending to be a lawyer
oh good, so i didn't make it up. haha.
i never liked the other brand of colour pencils though. they just didn't look as nice and the colours just didn't come out right.
-tfg
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