New home, new markets

You know I just moved house.  With that novelty comes a change in lifestyle or something that feels like it.  For one thing your shopping areas change.  I used to do my groceries in Makati and now I’m doing it elsewhere, but precisely where I have not decided.  I have tried three, find myself partial to one, though I’ve still found it a little incomplete.  But I like that it’s in a not-so-crowded mall and the traffic is not bad going there. So maybe I will explore that place more instead of just going to the store I need, buying what I want and rushing out, as I used to do when I was still getting settled.

  Am I not settled yet? No, not yet. Since March 11, today is the first day my dining room table is clear. But I have not finished setting up my new home although I am enjoying this settling in immensely.

 Last Saturday one of my new friends whisked me off on a tour of Divisoria as she knows it. We went, I think, to the mall called 999. I think that’s what it’s called.  I just know that almost all the newer malls there are numbers  — 168, 999, something like that. I followed them around like an obedient puppy my eyes getting bigger when I saw something I had not seen before, like ready-made dresses for an entire bridal entourage, or fake expensive slippers like the ones I love to wear but I’ll bet they are not so comfortable.

The first new thing I tried were hard-boiled eggs cooked in tea. Very tasty, very good, not as boring as regular hard-boiled eggs. We went to an accessory store with goods from Mainland China where I could buy a funky earring for P60. Then we went up to the fifth floor, got ourselves a grocery cart and went from room to room looking at everything under the sun.

The thing about Divisoria is there is so much to look at, so much to choose from that sometimes you are just overwhelmed by everything. That’s the way I felt looking through the rooms full of clothes.  In the end I got two pairs of pants and four blouses and paid around P700 for everything, which to me was dirt cheap.

As I walked into a room a lady looked at me and said, Barbara Gonzalez?  Yes, I said.  Oh you’re my favorite writer. I read you all the time. Can we have our picture taken?  She surprised me.  Imagine to go to shop in Divisoria and run into someone who reads you!

We had a delicious lunch at King Chef at the new Lucky China Mall in Binondo.   My friends wanted me to get a taste of the old Chinatown. No, I know the taste of the old Chinatown from my childhood into my 30s. This time I met the new Chinatown.  One thing I noticed is that it is so much cleaner today than it was when I was young.  But I had to get back home early and by the time I got home I had a headache, I guess from the heat and the variety of choices that confronted me in a rush.  I would like to do that again one day, leisurely, when I can take my time and poke around.

Early the next morning we went to Centris to look at the market there. Omigod it is at least four times as big as the Makati markets and so much cheaper.  Again I went with my new friend who was into buying plants.  I wanted to buy food and explore the place more.  Anyway we compromised and got both things done.  I bought cooked talangka, which I love and never cook for myself and a few plants and she bought herself many plants and garden soil and a little bit of food. I promised myself I would return to Centris and explore that market alone until I knew it by heart.

There was a man who was trying to sell us snake oil, literally snake oil, for massage into painful body parts.  I shuddered thinking I would probably die if I used that not because it would poison me but because it would scare me to death. But I found radish relish that I love from my childhood and bought it. All the time I told myself I need to return to this market alone to get to know it better.

This is part of changing residence. You move districts you must develop new shopping habits.  You make new friends. My flat now is so different from what it used to be.  It is bright and it has a wonderful view. Day or night the breeze is terrific.  Dried leaves from my terrace fly into my living room. I am very happy here, very happy that I have moved.

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