First Visit to Lee Hwa

It was 31st January 2007 and that marked my first ever visit to Lee Hwa Jewellery. Kinda obvious, isn't it? Yeah, I went to the retail outlet at Plaza Singapura to buy an engagement ring for Rebecca!

Since this year started, I have been seriously planning how I intend to propose to Rebecca. Not that I have never thought about this before, coz I did... just that perhaps I haven't got to that level of intensity when this year began.

It has been quite a lot of 'bumps' for us in our relationship... from having to wait for 5 years (excluding 1 year of friendship before courtship) before her parents became open enough to acknowledge me as her boyfriend... followed by attending the pre-marital counseling course at church... then evaluated by the OFL leaders... then speaking to her parents... then assessed by our church paster & his wife... then speaking to her parents again two weeks ago... then finally reaching the stage where I proposed to Rebecca last week. So you see, it really has been a rough 5 months where all these happened!

But I am glad to have survived through this series of experiential events that mark history in my life. I will share about how I proposed to Rebecca in another Blog entry.

Anyway, even before I took my first step into a jewellery retail shop, I have been occasionally researched the Internet for various brands of diamond rings, so as to learn how to choose and buy a good one for Rebecca. In fact, there were times when I tried to quietly ask Rebecca which ring is nice, whenever we pass by jewellery shops when we are out at shopping centres.

My decision to choose Lee Hwa came as a confirmation when out-of-the-blue, I decided to send an SMS to my youth pastor on 28th Jan 07 (Sunday night), asking what I should look out for when buying an engagement ring. My first SMS led to a series of SMSes between Pastor Edwin and I... leading to a confirmation of my decision when he offered to lend me his Lee Hwa card. Both of us didn't know whether its a discount card or whatever kind of card, but I decided to arrange to meet up to borrow his card anyway.

It was 3 days later, on 31st Jan 07 when I met up with Pastor Edwin after I left my office that Wednesday. We had a short chat before I left for Plaza Singapura to check out that Lee Hwa retail outlet. Apparently, my decision was confirmed again during my conversation with Pastor Edwin because I had initially decided to check out both the Parkway Parade and Plaza Singapura retail outlets... and Pastor Edwin mentioned both retail outlets during our conversation! Wow! It was like a sign to me...

Oh, I forgot... even before all this happened that week, I have been praying that God would give me wisdom and help me to choose a ring for Rebecca (something like that, I can't exactly recall my exact words that I prayed).

So there I was, arrived at the front entrance of the Lee Hwa retail outlet at PS. I saw this female salesperson standing outside the shop, but as usual, I didn't want to appear overly enthusiastic or anxious... so I nonchalantly spoke with her when she approached me to ask if I was interested in buying jewellery. After a few sentences, I said that I was looking for an engagement ring and asked if I could see the collection available here. So she brought me into the shop and showed me a few of the engagement rings on display.

As I was acting nonchalant about this whole thing, I didn't really notice how she looked like, until we actually started talking about the variety of engagement rings that she showed to me. She has a cute face and nice smile... and I noticed that her name tag stated 'trainee'. My first thought was - "Ok, she's a trainee... but its ok... let's see how much she knows..."

It turned out that she was quite knowledgeable and after spending like 30 mins in the shop (occasionally praying in my mind), I decided to purchase this 0.38 carat round brilliant solitaire diamond ring for Rebecca. It has a 'thin to medium' girdle, classic 57 cut sides, very good polish and excellent symmetry. In other words, its a 0.38 carat round brilliant solitaire diamond that is rated 'F' for colour grade and 'WS2' for clarity grade. I shan't mention about the price here, but it was the best that I could find... I liked it... and I wanted to give Rebecca the best that I could.

Thinking back, I was surprised how detailed I was when comparing between the variety of diamond rings that she showed to me. By the method of elimination, I shortened my choice list to three... two... then finally one. I had the chance to see the diamond upclose using a 10x zoom microscope, so as to check that the laser inscription registered number tally with the registered number on the certificate card. Aiyah... what to do... this is such an costly and important thing that I am buying... and in essence, I am proposing leh!

So I went home after that, feeling relieved after finally managing to find an a nice diamond ring for Rebecca. It felt weird though, coz I have never bought a ring before in my life! And oh yes, Pastor Edwin's card is not a discount card, but rather somewhat like a loyalty card that stores points which he can offset from his next purchase at Lee Hwa. Nonetheless, I was happy!