Bazaars and More...

Today, Ina reminded me that it's 23 days before Christmas. Oh my. I am happy to report though that I'm about 90% done with my Christmas shopping. Props to a focused shopping trip in Bangkok and years of shopping experience.

Friday was Jologz Bitchin day! After a relatively laid back day in the office, I met up with Macky and Mau in Serendra for a lot of catching up. The Minas just got back from their US vacay and they had a lot of stories to share! We first hung out at Backstage,where I met this super nice accessories designer. I just took in all her designs! She used the same semi-precious stones we did and it was interesting to see the creations of real artists. Hehe. Later, Mack, Mau, and I had dinner at Chelsea. We then went book shopping at Fully Booked where I got a copy of "Love at the Time of Cholera" (inspired by the movie "Serendipity"), and Meg Cabot's "Size 12 is not fat". One classic and one chick lit. How's that for a balanced book purchasing? Hehe. Mau wanted cupcakes, so we got some from Sonja and we ate them sneakily in A Different Bookstore, while sipping coffee we ordered. Karina, Irving, Chris, and Erik later joined us. Erik shared their super hilarious Bohol trip. It just felt awesome to laugh. We finished waaaay past 1 AM, and I got home at 2AM.

Sleeping in during the weekends is one of my absolute favorite things. I woke up at 12NN, after 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep. I got a surprisingly phone call from Mike a little past twelve. He thought we were joining the St. James Bazaar and he was all geared to try his hand at the bazaar selling scene. Hehe! So I just met up with him at 2pm to check out the good finds at the Cuenca Community Hall. Ate Love was sooo not kidding when she said most of the concessionaires who sold accessories meant serious business (with their set-up, tags and all). So many stalls were selling accessories! At competitive prices, might I add. I saw a couple of the stuff I saw in BKK. I couldn't help but smile when I hear the concessionaires' replies when I ask them how much some of their stuff were. Best part of the bazaar trip though was the food tripping. We were getting kinda hungry, so we took on the stalls with the freebie taste tests. Hehe. We sampled a lots of kinds of longganisas, pastries, dips, dilis... Ahhh... Through the sixteen(s) years of bazaar-ing, these small free taste tests never disappoint. Mike and I finally ate some real food after the sampling. We had two kinds of pasta from this stall which sold Italian dishes. The pesto creme pasta was well worth the wait. And it surprisingly went well with the pica-pica roasted calf. Then we saw Yas! Hehe! We were just talking about how Yas seemed to be omnipresent at bazaars, and there she was. We ended our St. James the Great bazaar with a cup of cheesecake for dessert and my telling of my new favorite commercial. This Jollibee commercial where the little boy bought his mom new glasses. Naturally, I couldn't tell the story straight because Mr. San Juan kept interjecting with his guesses of the story line. Hehe.

After Alabang, I went to pick up Micole at MOA. Ugh. The usual Saturday Alabang-Zapote Road traffic. I finally arrived at MOA past 7. I haven't seen Micole in such a long time! It was just nice to see her. We went back home to the auxiliary house for the prayer meeting. I played cupid that evening. Edrick and Micole have been textmates for the longest time and I think the two did a lot of catching up. Haha. Macky was also back from Dubai, so the cousins took another trip to our favorite BF tambayan, Tides! Haha! Aguirre rocks, I swear. Macky filled us in with his life in Dubai and how difficult it was for him at times. Haaay. A college diploma and a good education is really priceless, and it seems my cousin had to learn his lesson the hard way.

Sunday, Schmenten had three main items on her agenda. First was a shopping trip in Duty Free. Gotta buy our Christmas booze. So that I did with the boys (Pau, Mack, and Edrick). I can't believe though, that I went to Duty Free without taking a bath. Hehe. I actually just took a chance. I wasn't sure if I was still eligible, considering I had arrived from my trip more than 48 hours ago. Hehe. I was more than happy to treat Macky and the boys to a Pork extravaganza. I was able to also get stuff for my office-mates (I just need a nice pouch) and my manager. Nice! Second on the agenda was to meet Suzie and Paolo to discuss the Kumon Christmas party. Paolo was very amused with the Papaya MP3 I had sent him. After meeting with the DLRs, I went to Casa Marias, the kids house, for some beading action. Ate Love and I discussed what we plan to do for next week. I think it's up to fate now, if we will still be able to get a decent booth. Let's see.