If you have not been a good boy and now desperate to buy some Christmas gifts for your overseas friends and relatives, what should you do? I have three words for you: duty free shops. The cost of air fare (about S$250) taking me from Singapore to Hong Kong seems so inexpensive compares to how much I have spent in the airport (close to three times the cost of air fare).

One of the most delightful discovery when I was inside a bookstore hunting for a good book to read – it has been a ritual every time I fly – was a signed copy of Jeffrey Archer’s A Prison Diary: From Hell to Heaven. It was hidden on the top shelf and I could not believe it when I first took it down. It is hardcopy and yes, it has Jeffrey Archer’s elegant signature. I have read many of his classics like Kane and Abel, The Prodigal Daughter, Not a Penny More Not a Penny Less – just to name a few. Archer is (or was) a politician and is (or was) one of the Lords of the Commons in UK. He was sentenced for four years for committing perjury and he claimed that the trial was unfair. This particular hardcopy has 3 books in one.

As I walked up to the cashier, I chatted with the Executive (as stated in the name tag) and inquired how the bookstore managed to get Archer to sign the book. According to him, Archer stopped by Singapore and he was signing the books away as part of the promotion. He told me that Archer was very arrogant before he was jailed and now he is a changed man. Insightful it is.