Diamonds are a girl's bestfriend

Now, now, how deep is that title? Duh? Some say that it's the most emotional purchase one will ever make (to me, it's ouch in the pockets). A symbolic meaning behind that standard solitaire is as profound as a 'new beginning' or 'infinite possibility' of everlasting love. Sure, go out and interview them ladies who own / wear them, and men who bought them, and you'll find different answers all the time. Even to this day, you see women showing off their rock of ages (some even lament that the need an upgraded ring - smack them!), and at the same time, you see also wrinkled ladies who no longer shine have a nice eye-searing rock on their finger (now, that's everlasting love!). Errr... it's a status?

Anyway, over the weekend that I was back in Sabah, both Marianne and I wandered off to Sutra harbour for a little afternoon tea but we got distracted by the Magellan diamond fair! We couldn't resist ourselves but to sign up and registere ourselves to have a little 'look-see' of what's going on in there (it's an excuse). Though, we made a pact to kick each other if we were ever tempted to purchase any jewelry, we still failed miserably! lol

We strolled into the heavily guarded hall, to be greeted by many, many desperate sales persons who were trying to get us to their booths. Flyers were pushed our ways, and a sea of people were hopping from one booth to the next, bargaining away - almost 'pasar malam' like (night market) ... it was that way everywhere in the hall. From time to time as we walked down the little aisles between booths, a sales person would shove an eye-searing diamond this and that under our noses. We were tempted like mad, and even checked out a few loose stones to see what kind of prices they'd quote us. All in great and affordable prices ... Everytime I look away from the stone, my eyes went bling-bling. Yes, nice, nice, nice but frivolous! If money grows on mango trees, I'd buy up every diamond I see hahaha. This brought me to think of Marilyn Monroe's song: "Diamonds are a girl's best friend" (sung in 'Gentlemen prefer blondes'). What does she mean by diamonds being a girl's best friend? Never in my life did I see myself talking to my diamonds, nor do I know of anyone who ever did confide in diamonds or made them bosom buddies (pun intended).

Needless to say, both Marianne and I are not blonde, but could still succumb to the temptations and walked out with a pair of diamond earrings each lol. It's good to have both the freedom and the earning power to purchase our own diamonds and not be dependant on men to buy us these pretty lil' sparkly things hahaha. We happily trot out of the hall, and finally sat down for our tea, but it didn't calm us, we ordered a beer later on with lots of oily prawn crackers - yes, to fuel the guilt lol.

I went home to show off to Mommy dearest (add on the sound effects of ooohs and ahhhs), and she had to try them on and admire it on herself before she took it off again to clip it back to my ears. Of course, all these were done behind Dad's back, as we don't want to hear him talk of us being frivolous and comparing us to kids in ethiopia. Afterall, he did get a nice flawless rock for mommy, and he got us three wonderful children after that lol.

Nevertheless, this brought to my mind of what Mom told me and sis ages ago... Mom related to us that when she had only us girls then (before bro was born) some of my Dad's sisters and sister-in-laws (the ones who didn't have daughters - stupid old traditional Chinese mentality that only sons are good) hinted to my mom that it's a pity that she couldn't give birth to a son... and mom's hurtful retort to them, "Daughters are great, they'll grow up and buy diamonds for their mommies". There goes the 'diamond' word again.

Now that we girls have finally grown up, and we really did buy diamonds for mommy - this is not to spite our aunties, but to give what mommy loves. During family gatherings these days, my aunts would come up and say to mommy, "I've never seen that before, such a nice pair of earrings / pendant", and mom would quickly add, "My daughters bought this and that for me, only daughters would do that". Yeah, yeah, indeed, that's very true. Both sis and I have bought so much jewelry for mommy over the past years.

Indeed, it's daughters who will always come home and bring gifts for their parents and even bathe their parents when they are sick, what would the sons bring or do? lol It's funny that Chinese parents still want to live with their sons and give everything to 'him' when it's the daughters who have been more filial and loyal and the a long list of good goes on... hmmm? Anyway, food for thoughts.

Mommy had always told me and sis, "When you marry next time, make sure that you get a diamond ring from him before your wedding day... after the wedding, he'll never buy you one". I guess that's the underlying meaning to what Marilyn Monroe's song all about! Errr... interesting... and I looked at all my married friends and even cousins / aunts ... they all have an eye-searing rock to show off (all from their hubbies). Hmmm.... are men pressured to present a diamond for their women to show that it's true love? Or could it be a man's ego at play as well to show that he's able to provide? Well, that's another big story all together - the love and providence thing. Let's not get into it (we want the blog to end soon if all ye out there find this is boring you to tears). It dates back to age old traditions that could even be modernised to this day's materialistic ways.... bla bla bla Tricky, aye?

Now, back to men getting diamonds for their gals - another example that's vivid in my mind is of an old friend of mine, Ramani. Now, good ol' Ramani recently proposed to his long-time gal pal, and he was said to have spent about RM16,000 for a diamond ring. I got the word from John and Jason that Ramani was lamenting that he's bloody broke from buying it. Why go through the troubles when it actually brought more worries? That's the question. Let's do without the diamonds and let the girls get it themselves (I know I'm inviting other girls to throw stones at me for saying that - but hey, girls, if you want your freedom and live a life obligation-free, it's best to get your own diamonds!). Anyway, back to Ramani dearest again, we (old friends), in our little gathering at a bowling alley a month or two ago, everyone was trying to look for Lillian's eye-searing rock... yup, we spotted it, that rock which impoverished poor Ramani! lol Lillian was of course, really proud of the gem, and was flicking her 'ringed' finger across her bangs all the time... glitter*flash*glimmer*blinding.... lol Nice, by the way! We all snickered quietly - nah, don't read this as if we're a jealous lot - we're glad for both Ramani and Lillian.

Anyway, both sis and I have discussed this whole diamond thing before, that we have enough diamonds for ourselves and don't agree to getting a man to get us things, as not only we can afford our own diamonds, grandma and mommy will pass down more to us in time to come. I'd say that diamonds are not merely a girl's best friend in both sis and my case (sorry, Marilyn Monroe!), as we see more gems in personalities than that hard, cold rock that'll not withstand the heat of fire. So, why do I still purchase diamonds? Well, it's because they are pretty to look at and I feel good that I can purchase them for myself - it's to bolster my woman ego! As for them being best friends? No, never.