Filipina Soul

13 days before Christmas…

Except for our normal trip to the grocery store on weekends, I haven’t done any “Christmas Shopping” yet. Well, except for the toy guitar and a set of plastic dinosaurs that I got for my (almost 3-yo) son Raine. (I unfortunately was too slow to hide the items. Raine couldn’t wait for Christmas anymore!)

Here in Los Baños, one doesn’t have to go to Manila to feel the holiday shopping rush, we too have town malls (Robinson’s and Olivarez Plaza) that never run out of midnight sale especially at this time of year.

Personally, I’m no shoppaholic. I can never remember buying gifts (even for Christmas) that is of no practical use to the recipient. Even for myself (especially these days), I tend to cover the necessities first (and then usually runs out of cash already) before I can indulge on luxuries. I’ve always bought a new pair of shorts (for example, for my father and brothers or a pair of slippers for my mother) for their birthdays or Christmas or souvenir shirts for each of them when I go on a trip. I’ve read somewhere that the stuff that you’ll buy anyway (because it’s needed) is not supposed to be a gift. But hey, I can’t remember a time that I’ve been floating with cash. So I’m more the kind that believes in the cliché “it’s the thought that counts”.

Shopping I guess is one department where I am in touch with my masculine side. I’m no good at haggling for a bargain price and I hate the crowd at flea markets. I’ve only been to Tutuban Mall once in my life (in 1998) and I haven’t felt the urge to go back there. I’m one woman who when given so many options of dresses to choose from, I’ll go home without buying one. I hate browsing every alley of a supermarket or a department store. I just do not have the time and the energy. So before I go to one, I already have a list on paper (most of the time in my head) of the things to buy and I know already where to find each one of them (unless the grocery suddenly rearranges their displays). You won’t believe me, but I can breeze through a store in 15 minutes, sometimes even less! Yeah, I don’t window shop either. That activity me gives me more heartache than pleasure.

Fashion-wise, I am the kind that mix-matches the clothes that I have. Fortunately, we only have two seasons in the Philippines (dry and wet), so I always tend to buy the kinds of clothes that never run out of style. (I have stuff bought five years ago, that I still can wear now.) I always make sure to have 2-3 kinds of footwear at hand: rubber shoes for rugged (normal day) attire, a mid-heeled slip-on for casual Fridays and weekends and a high heeled (usually strappy, dainty) shoe for those days I want a real lady like get-up.

In this trying times, majority of the Filipinos will still be rushing to beat the deadline in their Christmas shopping as most of us only get our Christmas bonuses at the end of this week.Ahh, fashion and shopping, PinoyExpats’ latest offering is I guess two of the things in life that makes me less of a woman.

Photo Credit: Manila Times.Net

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