My bestfriend and I were supposed to meet up at this bridal fair at the Megamall this afternoon, but she had to cancel because she had to report to work. 🙁 I could still have gone to see her when she got back, but that would mean starting at around dinner time. Not a problem for me but I don’t want her to stay late with me and then have to leave for work again very early Monday morning. I mean that’s what happened the last time we went out and I’m sure being sleep-deprived wouldn’t be a good idea when she needs to face all the craziness at her work the next day.
So Sunday was spent at home. I guess that’s not a bad thing, at least I’m far from where I could do more damage to my bank account. 🙂
Valentine’s Day. Did you do anything special? Look here:
Pretty flowers no? None of them are mine though. Hehe. The yellow/pink ones are for Diane, my brother’s girl. The white roses are from my dad, for my mom. The boyfriend isn’t much of a Valentine. He did, however, go see me at my desk on Valentine’s evening. I didn’t have to look for him or ask him to come see me this time. He went down to my floor to visit all on his own.
This morning I was telling him, he could have given me anything that had flowers on it. That would at least have been funny. 🙂
I was so happy with the photos I took of the flowers yesterday because I finally figured out how the auto-focus functions work. See how there’s a blurred background? I never used to be able to do that with the Kodak.
If you’ve been following me around you probably know this about me already. I love shopping at malls, bazaars, corner shops, and even online looking for the best deals on technology or other unbeatable steal not to be passed up. I was actually surprised to see that my Shopping category for my blog posts don’t have the most number of posts in them. Surely, that must be a mistake! So I hopped on over to my Vox page, where I blogged for a brief period and found my shopping posts, those definitely brought back good memories 🙂 Too bad my Bravejournal doesn’t make it as easy to browse through posts…
I am such a shopaholic, in fact, I am currently downloading the digi goodness that I just shopped around for. Yes, you got that right, I made another online purchase and added to my ever growing stash of digital scrapbooking supplies. Alfred will probably have something to say about that. But it’s just so difficult to pass up, check out what I bought at The Daily Digi.
I come from a family of shopaholics. Perhaps the least shopaholic of us would be my brother – but only in the sense that he doesn’t shop as frequently as we do. Maybe because when he goes shopping – he really goes shopping, you know what I mean? My dad has got to be the most shopaholic of us, or at least he comes next after me. He and mom always go out on weekends and there were times, specially when he started his fitness conscious phase, when it seems as if he was always carrying a shopping bag home. So whenever he tells me that I do so much shopping, I kid him back – “I get it from you!”
These days, the only time we go shopping as a family is when somebody comes home from a trip abroad. Duty Free shopping, I tell you, could be a family event. Haha.
Lucky for me, I’ve found the perfect shopping partner. Okay, partners. I always have my foldable reusable shopping bag in my bag (wah too many bags in one sentence) and I whip it out whenever I buy small stuff, or even when I buy foodies at MiniStop or wherever. It is especially handy when shopping at Greenhills or Divisoria – sando bags are just so un-chic, eh? Hehe. And of course, the boyfriend is such a gem for a shopping buddy. Sometimes he acts like konsensya (you know, from those Safeguard ads?), but he actually enables the shopaholic in me. He loves shopping himself! In fact, it was his idea for us to brave the multitude of people at the recent three-day sale at SM City North Edsa.
His favorite item to shop for? Rubber shoes. How many times have we gone in and out Adidas/Nike shops in the past year alone? If you add pa The Shoe Salon and the shoe section at department stores, hay. Here’s a better question: how many times did we emerge from these shops carrying a box or two? Haha.
He’s also the perfect companion to Divisoria, not because he knows all the good shops, but because he will patiently do the rounds with me and he’s better at remembering where we’ve already been and where else we wanted to go. Lately, he’s also been practicing his bargaining skills, something I mastered while shopping in Bangkok (ah those were the beginnings of my shopaholic days). He’s not just good for carrying shopping bags around, he’s a true shopping companion.
Without a doubt, one of the reasons I look forward to the Christmas season is all the shopping it entails. Granted, I haven’t enjoyed it so much the past two seasons but I am gearing up for the next one. Haha. I’m serious. 🙂
Our favorite shopping digs now include Trinoma, Gateway, SM Cubao (yes, I just love their Plus Size section), Greenhills and Divisoria Mall and 168. Tiendesitas is up there if we’re looking for Zune(=dog) specific things. Actually, we’re game to shop anywhere, as long as it’s easy to get a cab home. SM North used to be a favorite destination, but after the horrifying transpo situation we had there last Christmas, we’re not too enthusiastic about going back (getting a taxi there during the recent Sale was a breeze though, or maybe it was just because we were there and left pretty early).
Shopping for bargain books is another aspect of my Shopaholic-ness. I used to be a regular at the previously owned books section at National BookStore (the Main branch at Cubao). I also used to frequently visit the Books for Less branch along Roces Ave. I spent hours browsing books at both locations, and spent good money on books too.
My current favorite bargain bookshop is Pick-a-Book at The Loop at ABS-CBN, both for it’s accessibility and for the selection of titles they have. They also let me put some books on reserve for up to a week. Last time I was there, I picked up two books, and snapped this photo.
Fully Booked has recently been added to my list of faves, because they have a hard-to-find titles too. It is a bit pricier than NBS though, but for some books, it’s worth it. It sometimes breaks my heart when we visit FB Greenhills and I’m on a budget. 🙁
Sometimes I do try to rein in my shopaholic tendencies so I don’t end up 6-feet in debt like Becky Bloomwood of Confessions of Shopaholic fame. But it’s so hard, isn’t it? Haha. Come to think of it, it wouldn’t be so bad to be like Becky – as long as you take away the part where she had to fall so deep into debt, haha. Wait, this actually reminds me that I intended to buy Shopaholic Ties the Knot last Christmas, it’s the third in the Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella. It’s been years since I got to know Becky, it’s about time for a follow up.
Oh and I can’t miss the movie! I’d have to say, pretty as she is, somehow Isla Fisher doesn’t fit the picture of Becky in my mind. So I also want to watch the movie so I can find out how she can change my mind. No doubt, a day out to see the movie would also mean some shopping on the side 😉
Catch “Confessions of a Shopaholic” in Cinemas on February 18, 2009!
I finished the level I was talking about yesterday! I didn’t get the Super Goal but I did breeze right through the next level, the mini game, and then the last one. So Grandpa has been rescued by Jill and I’m on to the next level. As it turns out, the Egypt level was only the second that I’ve finished, I’m off for the third!
I’m a little sad because my family is going on a picnic to my grandpa’s rice fields in Nueva Ecija tomorrow. I’ve never been there and it looks like I won’t be going with them tomorrow. My shift’s until 9am and I wasn’t able to ask my boss in advance for a leave. I could probably ask to render just a half day’s work but I’m not confident to ask. After all, there’s no emergency. I can’t just follow after shift because the place is at least three hours’ drive away from here. My cousins and their kids are all going. Of course gramps will be there too.
Oh well. Just imagine the photo ops I’d be missing…
I was wondering why any photo I upload with my posts were displaying as red x’s. I had thought that it was the directory specified in the Miscellaneous settings in WordPress, but when I checked it, I didn’t find anything unusual and I felt that it was correct. But days went by and the issue went unresolved, I resorted to uploading my photos via FTP instead and linking to them for the posts. I just read up about it in the WP forums and realized that the path for uploads may actually be wrong!
I just went in there to check, and yeah, the directory looks incorrect. So here’s testing if it works properly now..
Okay, the first attempt was unsuccessful. The directory I specified was wrong… Let’s change it again and see what happens…
Okay, that took about three or four tries but I finally figured it out! It was a problem with the path.
I took this photo using Frankie. This was where my mom’s family lived for years. I’m not sure how many years exactly but when I was born until I was around 7 years old, this to me was my grandparent’s home. This was the house we first referred to as sa baba or roughly translated – downstairs, down south, or just down. We called it that way because the house we lived in was located in the same community, but geographically ‘higher.’ The St. Andrew’s Seminary Compound has a geography that I’d call rolling hills, so you’d literally go up and down. Hehe. So Papa and Lola’s place was somewhere lower than ours.
Anyway, the house still stands and a priest who teaches at the Seminary and his family lives there now. The front door was moved to the side, and the pig pens are no longer out back. Aha, I just remembered, I should have shot the avocado tree too, if it’s still there…
I tried posting this via email, also to test if that feature really works. But I’ve waited more than 30 minutes and no new post has arrived.
Anyway, here’s a (bad) photo of Dad with his birthday guests.:
The kid up front, and the on the right-most are neighbors’ kids. The one on the left with the cutest smile is AJ, Esban’s right in front of dad, and then the remaining one is Adam. Cute boys, always up to no good. Haha. 🙂
Can you identify Zune at the back, behind his gate? He was jealous like crazy.
Anyway, did you see the Annular Solar Eclipse this afternoon? I didn’t. It could have been a good activity with the kids. Oh well.
Aside from Chinese New Year coinciding with dad’s birthday this year, I should mention that Daddy Abueva, or National Artist Napoloen Abueva, is also celebrating his birthday today. Happy Birthday Sir! 🙂
Lucky for me, I’ve found the perfect 
Shopping for bargain books is another aspect of my Shopaholic-ness. I used to be a regular at the previously owned books section at National BookStore (the Main branch at Cubao). I also used to frequently visit the Books for Less branch along Roces Ave. I spent hours browsing books at both locations, and spent good money on books too.
