Back in the glory days, where the fare was cheap and father was working under his cousins husband as a welder at Binondo Manila, we frequently do shopping at around the Divisoria Mall and area. I can vividly recall flashes of me with my mom and dad riding a "kalesa" and visiting my godparents every Christmas.
It has almost been two years now, since I last step put on the Divisoria area and asked for an "aguinaldo" (money given to a person every Christmas) to my father's former boss slash cousin's husband. I wasn't supposed to come since I was already 22 turning 23 next year, January 2, 2009 (This is me trying to remind you my birthday is fast approaching hehehe) and I am too old for an aguinaldo but mom insisted and father's cousin, our Tita 'Nits wanted to see us, so in the end I said yes (well, who doesn't want an additional money for Christmas anyway hehehe).
Our day started with mom waking my lazy butt up. We (all five of us) grabbed some Christmas feast leftovers from last night and prepare for the trip. We later took a jeep heading to Delpan to where Binondo Manila is at. What sure is surprising is that the ride only took around 45 minutes, I thought there is going to be a heavy traffic... good thing it didn't.
Our first drop off point is to the house of Tita Nits and Tatay Ramon where we will receive our "pamasko" or "aguinaldo". Tita Nits (like the usual) accomodated us with overpouring food like cupcakes, chocolates, cheesecakes and softdrinks which made our tummies full. Tatay Ramon later gave us our aguinaldos and were served again by a freshly cooked pancit canton (the real one). We all get to hang out with their two sons "aya" Richard and Raymond (nope they are not the celebrities). Richard (as usual) is playing computer games in his power pc, he showed me playstation 2 emulated which made me drool because I also wanted to play ps2 games on my pc only if the specs of my computer is much higher. He showed me some ps2 emulated games like Legend of Legaia 2(PS2), Final Fantasy X (PS2), Super Wobot Wars (PS2), NBA 2009 (PC), Call of Duty 4 (PC) and some old school console emulated games like Rockman 5 (NES), and some ninja game which was also a classic family game. Raymond on the other hand is a bit more serious and teased my sister about her boyfriend, he also showed us his blackberry (like woah! my first time to saw and touched one) where he let us watch Twilight which I didn't watch because i wanted to see it in a bigger screen, like our pc monitor hehehe. After a little while we bid farewell and said thanks to them for the aguinaldos.
We just hiked from Tatay Ramon Co's house at Lara Street all the way to Divisoria Mall where our parents will buy us some new sets of clothes (and we am not ashamed to wear one). While on the road we talked about some of the changes I've noticed in the streets to Divisoria. My brother and sister wanted to experience how to ride a kales and I bragged that I've recalled riding one and then they say... "and so?" haha this is just a normal humorous conversation between the three of us.
What a bustling street of Divisoria looks like. Photos from Philippines Night
We hiked the "reeking" yet survivable roads to Divisoria Mall. Once we got in the mall our nose got a bit of rest hahaha. We browsed for pants, tshirts, and other things like the "ampaw" (a small red enveloped with Chinese words and designs printed outside of it where one puts money on it to give to another person). I saw a body bag with a big blue Nike check design onto it, and bought it around Php 150 we already haggled it down to that amount. I swear I couldn't find the right pants for me in Divisoria and mom kept on insisting that Ijust wanted to buy "signature" and "branded" clothes, I reasoned out that "that" is not the case, if I saw something that would catch my interest then I would immediately avail it but as of that moment I haven't found one. Brother and sister bought some cheap yet fashionable t-shirts but those weren't enough so we decided to head to Tutuban Center Mall.
The Tutuban Center Mall, a haven for affordable yet fashionable clothes. Photos from Teh Other side of [Jin]
A view of people shopping at Tutuban from the second floor. Photos by HiramAbif
This is exactly how many consumers are there in Tutuban (maybe even more). Photos by Joelengs
It is welcome to the sewers time again, I am not complaining about how stinky the Divisoria area could get, heck... I'm even laughing... It is like the saying "beggars can't be choosers", if you are willing to avail a very cheap but stylish/comfortable fashion or merchandise then you have to endure what Divisoria and Tutuban Shopping Center has to oofer for you.
It is my second time to grazed the area of the acclaimed Tutuban Center and the path to that shopping center is filled with bustling consumers, merchandisers, and a funny aroma (or stench hahaha). Once we're in our nose was once again safe and started to browse the shops. what I've noticed about Tutuban is that there are more boutiques, and clothes store in it versus Divisoria. I've finally saw two of the polo type t-shirts that I would be wearing fashionably (or not) for the events for 2009. Ialso availed one slim fit jeans to complete the fashion.
After we got all what we've needed it is back to the jungle once more, back to the crwided streets and to the fragrant aroma... As we hiked backed to the Delpan van station, I started to get paranoid as noisy and dangerous firecrackers after the other started exploding left and right... it's not even New Year yet! And I thought there was this strict advisory and implementation against dangerous fireworks. I saw children as young as 8 laughing and giggling as they lit those infamous five stars (which I am not a patron of)... Luckily we evaded the last "Judas Belt" firecracker which was set to flare up the streets. We arrived at the Van/FX terminal to seee a farely long line of passengers. We waited for almost an hour for vans to pick us up (the passengers waiting). What I've noticed is that there are those "exceptional" number of people who can be as hard faced as the solid cold road floor. I am referring to those who have no discipline who instead of falling in line like the rest of us, they rather choose to sneak up in front and take the lead in the line. I saw two people who did this one from the other line heading to Cavite city (Yes! I am talking to you you sick old freaktard!) and to a "innocently shy" 20 something woman who was supposed to be on the last line but after the transportaion parked in, we found her sitting along us in the vehicle. People can really be so insensitive and hard faced some times. Well after that the fx left at around 4:30 in the afternoon. We kind of drifted in a short nap and have short awakening instances when we thought we are home but finds out that we haven't left the greater manila area. Man! the roads sure had a heavy traffic! We arrived home at around 8:00 in the evening only to find out that the electricity was out. The whole baranggay's power was out, plus the fact that rain started to drizzled Cavite (based on my fellow Cavite Bloggers). It made me say "What a Black December 25 - Christmas Day"... as the candles were lit I am having second thoughts to wether to go to Dan's house or to just move it to tomorrow. It was boring at home if there's no electricity... time passed at around 8:45 in the evening I've decided I'll just have to move it to tomorrow. Moments later, the electricity was up again and immediately plurked short statements to what I've done the whole day... and inally blogged about it and ended this blog at around 4:59 in the morning after watch 1:00 in the wee ours of the morning of December 26 after watching the latest episodes of One Piece and Shonen Jump's One Piece special "Romance Dawn" which I will provide in my new blog: CMAQUEST: An Infotainment and Magazine Blog (http://cmaquest.blogspot.com)
And that is what my Family Day at Christmas Day is Shopping Day of december 25, 2008 is all about. chris A, logging out!
