I'm taking a rest from all the Christmas preps that kept me busy from sun up. Man, am I so tired. After preparing food, I scrubbed the kitchen clean (at least I think it's finally clean!) and cleaned the rest of the house. All those calories I burned from general cleaning would be back later anyway. Then I figured to drop in and write a quick blog post to, well, chat and wish you well. Let me tell you about my day yesterday.
I've experienced Christmas rush yesterday. I've always avoided going out so close to Christmas, but I had two appointments yesterday. I took Yuri and my sister with me to brave the traffic.
Taken at the restaurant where we would be eating later
First, there was no taxi available anywhere (#nocarproblems). So we walked from our village to a neighboring village where jeepneys are available to take our chances. Fortunately, a taxi passed by with a passenger, and we made a signal for the driver to come back. Buti nalang he did come back for us when he passed by many other waiting passengers. Thank you Lord!
But the traffic was worse. Actually, I would choose getting stuck in traffic than getting stuck in the road with no taxi, but you get the point. Anyway, the ride to the mall that would normally take us 15-20 minutes took us an hour. I'm sorry, Manila friends, but I'm just not used to traffic jams. But, surprise, surprise, the taxi fare only cost less than P10 more than the usual!
Upon arriving at the mall, finally, we went straight to the ATMs. I wasn't surprised to see long lines, and I immediately took my place at the nearest line. Then I saw the first customers taking too long; it turns out the ATM processed cards veeery slooowly. It also didn't release cash. So I hopped on to the adjacent line. When I was third in line, I carefully watched the first person while trying not to look creepy. When I saw the words "Transaction Failed," I immediately transferred to the 3rd ATM. In fairness, it was working, and in fairness, the people withdrew their cash briskly. I was done more quickly than I thought. I was afraid that the ATM would run out of cash by the time I take my turn!
After that, I met the person I needed to have a transaction with, which was done in no time. Then we looked for a place to eat. Fast food restaurants were out of the question since they were jampacked, while expensive restaurants were not an option, too, for obvious reasons. We spotted an empty table at Euro Cafe (Gaisano Mall) and hurriedly took our seats.
We have never tried eating there before, but we were pleasantly surprised to see affordable prices and, later on, actually good food. The Wi-Fi was fast, too!
I was only able to take a photo of one menu page. Sorry, I wasn't on vigilant blogging mode!
I didn't have my camera with me, too. This is Filipino Brunch 3, and it may not look like much, but there's actually too much food on the plate. The tocino was very soft and tasty!
Dark lang the lighting on our table
We had 2 orders of the Filipino Brunch 3. After emptying our plates, we called for the menu and, guess what, had 2 orders of giant burgers and more juice. #RatedPG as in patay-gutom
They're Euro burgers (P99) and I think they're yummy.
After eating, we went to the grocery to buy some ingredients for a dish I was planning to make. There weren't long lines so I thought we were safe. We were choosing chocolates near the entrance when I noticed the sudden surge of people! We decided to just buy the chocolates and quickly get out; I wasn't in the mood to wait in line.
Getting a taxi was not uneventful, though we did have to wait for a while to get one. I planned to go to my old office (one of Yuri's ninangs had a gift for him), stay, and then go home. But given the taxi-situation, I just told the driver if he could drive us to the office, let me go down and pick up something, and then drive us home. He agreed, no questions asked! He agreed even before I told him na pasosobrahan ko ang bayad. It was a super good thing that we had a really nice driver. He was new to driving and didn't know how to go anywhere haha but I was thankful that we didn't get to ride a taxi with a rude driver.
And we got a big box from Yuri's ninang! I have an idea of what it contains, but I'm still excited to see Yuri open it (along with his other gifts) later tonight!
All in all, my Christmas rush was a very tiresome experience (I was with a toddler), but I surely experienced God's favor because the different points in the day were not as bad as I had expected. Thank you, Lord!
And for that, I hope you will all experience God's blessings and favor in your life. I hope that God blesses you more than you could ever imagine. Merry Christmas!
By the way, I received a letter from one of my sponsored kids from World Vision. Best Christmas present yet!
Are you kidding me? I don't deserve this!
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