sllɐqǝʎǝʎzznɟ

What was supposed to be a very busy weekend suddenly turned out pretty okay. Called off an outing with a friend yesterday to photograph his son and also didn’t attend a barbecue dinner because of bad weather. Ended up having some beer at the bar in the park opposite and today … as expected … a hangover. Haha. Perhaps I was just enjoying my last few hours of ‘freedom’ before our domestic helper left (this morning) for a 1 month holiday back in her country.

Brought Fitzand out to get him some new clothes and happened to see this build-a-bear thingie in United Square. He was very excited when he saw how they ‘made’ the bears and even ‘bathe’ them … until the final stage where they put on some cute clothes for the bears.

Since it doesn’t cost too much to get one done, I decided to get one for Fitzand and let him have fun going though the whole process. First we had to pick one of the teddy bear design and let the shop assistant know how much ‘stuffing’ we want them to fill the bear with. Hmm. Tough one. I’d like one that doesn’t look too much like my size but skinny teddy bears will be hell ugly eh? Okay, so I settled for a ‘medium’ one.Oh … and it was the first time I’m seeing ’empty’ teddy bears … they ain’t any cute!

The shop assistant proceeded to a pretty cool ‘machine’ nearby for the next process … filling up the teddy with cotton (or some white stuff that looks like cotton). The machine is pretty neat and you can see the cotton-like thingie inside spinning around. The lady shoved a tube into the back of the teddy (Stop grinning! It’s not that back you are thinking of. It’s the back of his upper body!). The tube that was attached to the machine and then she told Fitzand to step on a paddle. Whirlllll~~~ and soon … teddy had a big fat ass.

Next step … the stitching (ouch!). Not a pretty sight to see but the shop assistant first told us to randomly pick a ‘heart’ (a red heart-shaped thingie) from a plastic bag. Then she told Fitzand to hold the heart in his hands … close his eyes … and make a wish. Well he didn’t close his eyes and I was damn sure he wished daddy will buy him more toys. After that, she placed the ‘heart’ into the opening at the back of the teddy and proceeded to stitch up the opening. Ouch!

Next came Fitzand’s favourite part of the process … ‘bathing’ the bear! They will place the bear on a platform that has some shower head loooking thingie on top. We had to step on a paddle again and this time, those ‘shower heads’ will start blowing the bear and we were giving some brushes to clean the ‘newly born’ bear. Fitzand was so serious in brushing his new ‘baby’. Haha.

Once the ‘bath’ session is done, comes the final process of finding clothes for him/her. There are all sorts of clothings from tuxedos to bikinis! Woots! Haha. We settled on something simple … a simple tshirt with the words ‘Rock’ on it. Tried a couple of pants but they seemed to make the bear look too complicated (and less cute) to me. No … I am not a pervert!!!

Tada! A new bear baby is born! You’ll have to fill up some info on a PC nearby … give the bear a name … and they’ll give you a ‘birth certificate’ for the ‘newbord’. Hahaha. Asking me to pick a name for the bear in minutes was tough!!! Errm … I managed to ‘invent’ a name for the bear in less than a minute though. Since it’s Fitzand’s ‘baby’ … we shall call him … Fitzzy.

So that’s it. A new teddy bear is born!

More info on Build-a-bear.

I must say that I am pretty inspired by this build-a-bear thingie … and on the way home … I thought of an amazing business that is sure to work … make me richer than Bill Gates … satisfies every customer … and with products that I might even buy a couple myself!

While it might sound like a Build-a-bear ripoff … my build-a-wife business is definitely different and is targetted at different age groups. So just imagine … ok … pick your wife’s hairstyle … now the eyes … ok … you’re done … now enter the vital statistics required … do you want one that nags … or one that is hotter than hell?

Anyone interested to invest?