How do you cap a stressful week?

In my case, I had first planned on going to the URBAN BAZAAR at the Rockwell Tent on Saturday afternoon, before heading home from work. But in the car, after only less than 15 minutes of travel, I began to feel so sleepy and tired from working til midnight the night before. I decided to forego my original plan and instead called up NAILS AT HOME (with fingers crossed), hoping I could still get an appointment for the same day. MIRACLES DO HAPPEN hahaha!!! I was able to get one at 5:30 and told them to please note that aside from my usual mani-pedi, I badly needed a 30-minute Tension Release massage on my legs and feet, which had been complaining from the previous day.

Yesterday though, I thought of dropping by the bazaar anyway since Sabine was to take her afternoon nap and I had nothing else to do. So while she slept, I "escaped" and drove off to Rockwell (wow, it's been a while since I was last behind the wheel...it felt so good especially on a Sunday when there's zero traffic). The bazaar was packed so I only made one round and promised myself I'd get the first thing I liked. So...I ended up with these!

From a stall called SUMMERSAULT. The shoes are supposedly Korea-made and they were dirt cheap at P900! I scrutinized the leather, stitching and espadrille detailing and almost immediately after they found my size, I shouted SOLD! I left right after and proceeded to Rustan's Supermarket (where I ended up with more bags).
It felt really, really good to have gone around by myself. No pressure whatsoever. I plopped in bed as soon as I got home, woke up at 8pm just in time for dinner and slept again at 11pm hehehe!

Today's even better because I didn't have to wake up at 5:30am! Hope you're all enjoying the long weekend!!!

I hate being flat footed!

I don't normally dwell on this...except when I'm reminded of it. Throughout my 40 years, I've had some accidents that can be blamed on this inborn "defect", if I can call it that. I won't go into detail because while it may sound funny to a lot of people (how I've fallen in the most public of places), I hate to sometimes recall how these things happened because of the embarassment these past experiences have caused (more painful on the pride than on the body, is what I mean). To put it bluntly, I am probably the most LAMPA person on the planet!

My latest "escapade" involving my flat feet happened last Friday at work. I had never been to the property site, the one which my office is developing right across our corporate building. It was a Friday and I was dressed casually (note : flat thong sandals) so I figured it was the best time to go and check things out. The place is still dusty, with lots of things scattered on the floor and construction materials just about everywhere. I managed to grab a face mask, couldn't find a hard hat (apparently, the law is not very strict about that here unlike in the States) but proceeded anyway. I hadn't been there for 10 minutes when it all happened. It was so quick! Before I knew it, I was sprawled on the floor with a bloody left arm. Apparently, I tripped over a steel bar. My right foot got caught while walking so I literally flew a few inches above floor-level and landed on uneven cement. In fact, the floor was still very rough, which is why my arm took quite a beating. It felt more like sliding into homebase. Everyone moved quickly, helped me up and took me to the nurses on the ground floor. I had to sit there for about 10 minutes because there was ringing in my ears and my vision became blurry --- surely I knew I was going to faint. Fortunately, because I chose to stay still, it didn't happen.

Back in my office, the nurse accompanied me so she could clean up my wound and that's where I realized how bad it was. Near my left elbow was a gigantic scrape. I surveyed it to see the real extent of the wound and I almost fainted again when I did. The nurse proceeded to clean it and I sat there, quietly wincing in pain. She refused to dress it at first, saying it would heal much faster uncovered. But I insisted because it looked too gross to expose. My knee was also badly hurt. Good thing I was wearing jeans (which were not damaged at all === hurrah for F21!!!), which prevented abrasions BUT my right knee took quite a beating as well. It's swollen as I type and I can't put too much pressure on it when walking up and down the stairs.

I'm really worried that the wound might leave a nasty scar. But I guess I'll worry about that later. Meantime, it's been such hard work just to shower and I really hate it everytime I need to clean and re-dress it. This will be part of my daily get up from now on, until I can manage to be without it...

Bummer, right?

9 years!!!

We originally planned on celebrating in Cafe Juanita, one of our favorite "date" places. We would always have lunch at this cozy, quaint place in Bo. Kapitolyo Pasig when we were just starting out But Sabine had other plans! She was totally insistent and wanted to buy a dollhouse. She simply didn't stop until she got what she wanted. We ended up in Shang Mall so we could get her toy from Rustan's and had to deal with the payday weekend crowd. Settled for another favorite, C2 on the 6th level.

There you go, Sabine! NOW can we have dinner???

My default PINOY drink

Seared Tilapia with Coconut Emulsion

Lumpiang Lucena

My favorite at C2 : Crispy Kare Kare!

9 years and counting!!!
(crappy photos courtesy of my Nokia E71 because I forgot to bring the camera)