It was a weekend and, just like any other weekend, we made our way to either side of our families. Mon wanted to buy some of those Buy 1, Take 1 mirrors and make those DIY paneled mirrors. Naturally, our first stop was All Home.
Upon arriving, we were shocked to see the whole entrance was already full of Christmas decors! While I understand that Christmas season in the country starts way early as soon as September 1, I was just shocked to see THIS much decors more than two weeks before the -ber months.
This one really takes the cake.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Pangilinan group has already decided for all of us. Mid-August is the new September 1. =)
Our first view of Christmas decors for 2022
We eventually managed to buy 4 pairs of mirros, and 2 sticks of Bostik No More Nails so as not to drill any hole into the wall.
There’s not much that happened when we visited Mon’s family, except for the usual lunch. And perhaps I was also able to watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 2 with his nephews. They were visibly amazed with the movie, especially the Fiendfyre scene at the room of requirement.
I believe they have not watched any of the Harry Potter films and the last of the 8 installments may have been too dark for 6 and 9 year olds.
By the late afternoon, we eventually went back to Makati as we had to buy a couple of things for our home. As soon as we entered Glorietta, the mall was uncharacteristically full of people, mostly kids. It did not immediately hit us until a couple of paces why: kids will be back in school on Monday.
School supplies rush for 2022 at National Bookstore in Glorietta
I was not so used to seeing that much people inside the mall anymore. National Bookstore, of course, would harbor most of the crowd and the queue was very pre-pandemic level.
I felt a bit uncomfortable, especially with a lot of kids running around in an airconditioned space. We did our best to quickly do what we needed to do both at Glorietta and SM before deciding to go to Greenbelt instead. Anywhere with no school supplies, there’ll be less people.
We were supposed to drop by Marks & Spencer in Glorietta. Mon mentioned there was one in Greenbelt. I did not even recall there was one there, considering I used to work near there. I was not even sure if all the things we needed to buy (e.g. Digestive biscuits, tea and a particular dark chocolate I was fond of) were available there.
As we were picking up things from the shelves, Mon suddenly shouted loudly. It happened so fast as someone was trying to forcefully get my bag from my shoulder. It took a couple of seconds for me to realize that I knew this person pranking me.
With Sir Roland after giving us the scare of our lives
Sir Roland was a former colleague of mine for 2 years from ICRC. Specifically, he was the Political Adviser at the time (I am unsure if he still holds the same role). I used to hang out for lunch at a different floor because I loved the usual discussions we have during lunchtime with people from their floor. He specifically had a lot of insights on local politics, some interesting (and fly on the wall) stories.
We laughed very hard on the incident. We were all mortified of the ruckus we caused at Greenbelt 5 — of all places! Perhaps he just did not expect Mon to react that way, as he was not as preoccupied as me at the time.
Anyway, we had a bit of chat, checking up how were things with me, and also with the Delegation. He mentioned that he was at a nearby hotel because there was an Etat major in the office that has been taking place for days. We eventually said our farewells, but not without a quick snap together to document the funny encounter.
We quickly dropped by the nearby Anello store, as Mon was to check something (not sure what it was, but he did not buy anything). I, on the other hand, took the chance to snap a quick photo by the mirror because the lights were really good. ^_^
Mirror selfie at Anello
