The Shopping Bag

Well I figure I’ll keep all my purchases in one place so I can keep track of how much I’ve bought and spent.

I’m too lazy to add the exact conversion for all the items but the exchange rate is:

$1 AUD = PHP 42.3 or PHP 100 = $2.36

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Monster – Analog Soul – PHP 287.50

Cameras – Analog Soul – PHP 399.00

Polarioid – Analog Soul – PHP 399.00

Popsicle Monsters – Analog Soul – PHP 399.00

Sushi – David & Goliath – PHP 995.00

Pencils – David & Goliath – PHP 995.00

Evo 8 – Remix – PHP 350.00

Purple/Black Polo – Human – PHP 499.75

Blue/Grey Polo – Human – PHP 499.75

Black/Grey Stripe Shorts – Ego – PHP 607.29

Chocolate Brown Shorts – Bench/ – PHP 639.75

Sport Jacket – Adidas – PHP 1746.50

Sport Singlet – Adidas – PHP 486.50

Bball Shoes – Adidas – PHP 2397.00

:D

Day 5: Mega Mall

Doesn’t Mega Mall just sound like the most wonderful generic American shopping mall where dreams come true?? Full of smiles, fluffy toys and a 12 pack of toilet rolls for 99c! Well Mega Mall was where I was headed this fine day with my aunties, Emily, Esther and Elizabeth along with my little cousin Nicole :D

We started off with some lunch at a bubble tea (BBT) place called….well… ‘Bubble Tea’. Unlike most of the BBT places in Perth, many stores in Manila also have some food selections to go along with the tea. This particular one had a Japanese menu and so I got myself a stewed beef udon soup with a melon BBT. Neither items were the best I’ve ever tasted but I was still happy to have a full tummy and sit with my aunties.

  

After lunch it was shopping time but to be honest, I’ve gotten through most of my shopping list so from now on I’ll be more focused on getting stuff for the rest of the family. Since I had Auntie Elizabeth walking around with me, I thought it’d be a prime opportunity to look for a gift for my cousin Rebecca who is a similar size to auntie. We went in and out of the female shops and with each new store I became more and more concerned that people would think i’m looking for an outfit for myself for a night of drag in the town. Eventually I settled an item for Rebecca as well as items for Chris and Rob (for those that don’t know who they are, you only need to know they are family members related to me in some way).

Victory mode was upon me and there was apparently a little anime convention upstairs that happens randomly about once a month so I headed up there for some casual browsing. There was some nice merch there that was super cheap too including some animal felt beanies for only 50P (about $1) and yet I still couldn’t bring myself to buy it when I knew I’d probably never wear it… damn my monetary conscience! I did however purchase a little something for a certain someone who will be receiving it in the mail very soon :)

The day went by really fast and suddenly I was running late for a concert Uncle Wayne had got tickets for. I didn’t know what exactly it was before going there and I wasn’t that hyped about it but as it turns out, I had a really good time. It was a christian music festival/concert that included several (about 8) different bands who rocked out the stadium packed with jumping and singing. I’m not the most religious person in the world these days but I’m certainly no hater for those that do. I found myself getting back into the swing of things as I really felt the music and presence in that place. The standout performers of the night I thought were the New Zealand, Parachute Band and Canadian, Starfield.

For the past few days my auntie has insisted that I have some midnight snacks since I’m so full at dinner (and every waking hour for that matter) and I had never taken her up on that offer but tonight I came back around 1am and demolished a piece of cake before heading straight to bed. It’s going straight to my thighs! :))

Day 4: Market, Market!

It was a slow start to the day since I was busy writing up these blogs for you all, not that I don’t enjoy it otherwise I wouldn’t be writing. We left the house around 2pm to Market Market! (a shopping centre on the other side of no where) and I discovered that there ARE civilized places in Manila. We passed through Rockwell, Fort and various other neighbourhoods where the roads were flat, the buildings looked new with underground power lines and the people even drove relatively safely.

It was quite a long drive to the mall but it was all for the Adidas outlet which apparently has super good mark downs…. and it certainly was true! While unfortunately there wasn’t a great deal of range there, I managed to find a pair of basketball shoes I liked and purchased them at 40% off! (as well as a jacket and singlet). Oh I think I failed to mention that Philippines for some odd reason idolises America… but who can complain when it means that they also have crazy Thanksgiving sales! Woop woop! Love cheap stuff :D

Anyway, so I visited Conti’s again with my sister-in-crime/sweets  and got a strawberry cheesecake which was suuuuuuuper dooper yummy. Apparently we were in a pretty upper class area and I found out first hand when I visited the bathroom and found some toilet roll origami :D We went for a browse in the bookstore (David near a book???) and found myself at the music level (all is right in the world again :P ). We then headed back closer to home through dense traffic for dinner at Amici’s for pizza and pasta. All the food was really nice but I think the wood fire oven pizza in particular was very good. We rounded off dinner with some choc and pistachio gelato, or so I thought…. because right after we headed over to Banapple for more cake! I heard it was better than Conti’s so I was expecting true greatness though the Snicker Chocolate Cheesecake I ordered didn’t quite live up to the hype. While it really was delicious for the first few bites, it became a chore to eat after half way through but I still can’t believe how cheap cake is over here! For the price of what we pay for a slice of cake in Perth (~$5-6) you can buy an entire cake in Manila and a dayum good one at that!

 

We hobbled back to the car with ultra full stomachs and went home where I got to spend some more wonderful time with shobe (Chinese for ‘little sister’ and refers to Andrea). We had lots of story time and ended the night playing with a pretty awesome Angry Birds playset.

Day 3: A Viking Feast

Well it was a pretty massive day and it all started with some good ole fashion eatin’

Uncle Julius took us out to an all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant called Vikings. Now if you’re thinking of something like Sizzlers, you’re on the right track but you are miles away from the destination! For one all inclusive price of PHP 688 (~$16) you get access to EVERYTHING (mains/dessert/drinks). The mains includes roast meats, chips, sushi, sashimi, dim sum, tempura, kebab sticks, shabu shabu, noodles, pasta and much much more. Drinks bar had soft drinks, tea, coffee, ice tea, free made-to-order milk shakes and even beer on tap. Everyone’s favourite the dessert bar had LOADS to choose from including frozen yoghurt, ice cream, fruits, fondue fountain, black forest cake, mango cake, various shot glass desserts and best of all a rich chocolate roll.

OM NOM NOM NOM!

While I wouldn’t say the food was the best I’ve ever tasted, it was still very delicious and in terms of food I say Quantity OVER Quality :P I left the restaurant feeling quite sick from over eating but that’s a good sign in my book, it means great value for money xD

Oh right and remember that coincidence on day 1? It happened again with my Auntie Angel (not pictured below) who just so happened to also be at Vikings with some other relatives! The luck kept on coming as my cousin who was working at the car convention we were going to by chance was on his way back from lunch as well and we met up just outside the show. I’m not quite sure what the convention was called but there was lots of nice cars (a lot of orange ones!) so we walked off lunch as we had a look, took pictures and I even managed to buy a nice shirt.

Continued shopping at Mall of Asia to find some shorts for myself which I managed to succeed and got two pairs. While it’s nice that everything is cheaper here, it makes me sad that I have to buy Large T-Shirts and Extra Large pants when I’m a Small/Medium in Australia. Oh the shame :(

The drive home was a looooooooong ride with Manila peak hour traffic but it was a welcomed sit down after lots of walking. Today was the first day that little Andrea warmed up to me but BY GOSH SHE IS SOOOO ADORABLE! AIYAH. So tempted to steal her back to Australia xD I got some hugs and kisses and at home I played with both her and John Andrew. I was sitting cross-legged on the floor and there were all these books scattered around, she was walking around picking them up and bringing them over to me to sit on my lap and “read” with her HIHIHI! It made me so so so so so happy! That’d be my highlight of the trip so far, I love kids :) I can’t wait until Jennifer (my brother’s baby daughter) gets a bit older so I can play with her like that.

Day 2: Trinomanomanoma

After a pleasant 12 hour sleep it was Day 2 and the first day of the shopping bonanza! Last time in my shopping journey in January, there was a particular brand that I liked called analog soul that was sold at SM however it seems it was only at a select few of them and there wasn’t a whole lot in my size. To my great excitement, uncle Wayne had found an actual analog soul shop at Trinoma shopping centre so aunty Annabelle took me along for the day.

While there was a big range of designs at this shop, there still weren’t too many in my size. SADFACE. Not all was lost though because I soon found out you are able to pick out most of the designs and get it printed on any shirt colour of your choosing! Yay! So I picked out a few designs that I liked and got them printed. There was one shirt I really liked but unfortunately it wasn’t one that I could get done in store :(

Moving across two shops and we came across a store called David & Goliath, apparently a popular American brand which I’d never heard of but they were very nice! The shirts all had some sort of pun on it and I liked them a lot. They were quite expensive (by Philippino standards anyway) but I just had to have them. I couldn’t get my favourite one since it was a girl’s shirt (orange) but I did get another awesome one which was indeed for men (green).

 

We moved on to lunch and went to the forever beloved KFC and the meal of my dreams was there: the bun-less, double patty burger with chips and gravy; the Double Down meal

Oh yeah did I mention they have the gravy on the pump? You just grab a plate and keep on squirting as much gravy as you want for free. BOOYAH! Notice the chips in the second pic, that’s two portions on the one plate and still about only half of a regular Australian serve. It mattered not, the chips were really crunchy and yummy :D

We did a lot more browsing around and aunty bought some things as well but there were no other purchases for me that day. On the way home we went past a cafe called Conti’s for some cake but apparently have very yummy regular food too. I got a ‘Choc Overload’ cake which really was an exaggeration, it was just the right amount of chocolatey goodness xD SOOOO YUMMEH!

You know shopping and eating cake is a lot of hard work so to round off the day, we went to get a nice and relaxing full body massage. I’m totally a pro at getting a massage now.. unlike last time…