Pandora Bracelet v1.3

Yet another two beads have been recently added to my Pandora bracelet.  We dropped by the counter at SOGO when we were in Taipei, and I ended up getting two charms – one to represent this trip to Taiwan and one to collectively represent all the trips I’ve made specifically for Super Junior’s concerts.  All in all, that’s a total of 10 concerts in 5 trips over the past 2 years.

The newest additions are the two charms at the two extreme ends.  The flower on the charm (extreme left) is the plum blossom, the national flower of Taiwan.  The charm on the extreme right spells an ‘S’.  Given a choice, I would have wanted a charm associated with the number ’13′ or something in sapphire blue to represent Super Junior, but nothing appropriate showed up when I was shopping at the counter.  The other alternatives were to buy a ’1′ and a ’3′ charm, or a ‘S’ and a ‘J’ charm.  Eventually I settled for ‘S’; ‘S’ for Superman – The Last Man Standing (if you know the song), ‘S’ for Team Super Junior (the ment during SS4 where they played ice hockey) and ‘S’ for Siwon my number one bias.

Something interesting happened at the Tax Rebate counter when I was about to leave Taipei.  Since the two beads I bought were more than NTD3,000, I was entitled to tax rebate.  The officers (in airports all over the world) don’t always ask to see the merchandise although we travellers are required to carry the purchases along with us to the counter.  I had already removed the charms from the package and added them to my bracelet, half-expecting the tax officers to not ask to see the charms.  But in any case, I could always point out the specific charms I bought in Taipei should they wished to see my purchases.  The officer asked to see my merchandise, and I sheepishly took out the whole bracelet, pointing out the two charms to her.  She got really curious about the charm bracelet, and I ended up explaining to her and her fellow colleague the concept of my charm bracelet.  They were really interested, and I won’t be surprised if they themselves go get a bracelet each, in the near future.

I think Pandora should pay me advertising fees.

Effectively, I’m one bead away from completing the whole bracelet (not counting the 4 coloured glass beads and two stoppers I will get for the two sections during my birthday this year).  It took me less than a year to complete this bracelet, which translates into a new bracelet after the next trip.  That shouldn’t take place till 2013, unless the hubby himself breaks the ban he sets for me.

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