Pashmina Love

It's been raining for almost 2 weeks straight. Although I don't like getting wet in the rain, I love the cooler weather it brings. And so out comes the jackets and to me personally, pashminas!:)

I adore pashminas since the first time I tried one in HongKong, I believe around 2001. And that's when I bought my first pashmina, a black one, which also converts into a scarf. Then I got a brown one here in Manila after a few months. I use pashmina in the office, instead of the usual jacket. It's quite comfy and goes with either slacks, jeans or skirts. Perfect for me :)

I have more than a dozen pashminas. I only bought 2 for myself, the rest are gifts. A friend went to Nepal once and came home bearing 4 pashminas for me. Made of the softest and lightest silk, I only use them for special occasions, like parties or events. The hubs was assigned in India around 2007 and when he came home, got me the nicest pashminas in different colors and material, a total of 6!

And on Christmases, friends give me pashmina. One Christmas, I got 3 pashminas :D

So far in Manila, the best pashminas are from Anna Pashmina. I believe they have stalls in Powerplant and Shangri-La Mall.

Would you believe, I have 3 pashminas currently in the office with me? The picture is proof. I really heart pashminas. And I heart the people who give me pashminas :)

Mall rats, we are not

We're not a mall-going family. Which means we hardly visit the mall - for shopping, watching movies, eat out or doing grocery shopping. Not that we don't do any of those, we just don't do it in a mall. I do my shopping in shops around Makati or in Paseo de Sta Rosa. We watch movies in our own home, where we can pause the movie any time. We eat out at restaurants outside the mall, near our home or in Tagaytay. We do our groceries at the Rustan's Fresh.

We realized about a year ago that you can do all these things outside of the mall. So we shifted our minds and behavior, and we continue doing so. That decision wasn't born out of anything dramatic, we just don't like the mall crowd resulting in long lines, period. And hubs and I got tired of malls, when we were both single, we were practically camping out at malls (well, at least I was hehe).

We still go to malls once in a while. Maybe once a month or so. And when we do, the little one gets so excited. The other week, while we were on our way, he just suddenly blurted out "I'm so happy!". When asked why, he answered coz "We're going to SM!". Haha!

City's gate

While in Hong Kong a couple of weeks ago, we stayed at a friend’s place for just a night before flying back to Manila. My friend’s place is very near the City Gate mall at the last exit of the Tung Chung MTR line. It’s an outlet mall, much like the mall or stores in my dear Sta Rosa. City Gate had the best European stores, with wonderfully discounted stuff.

They had Burberry, Samsonite, Seven Jeans. Of course what would be an a mall in HK without Giordano, right? There were a few more stores but we didn’t have time to go into each as we arrived quite late on Valentines day no less.

We did spend time in Samsonite as I was looking for a nice enough hand carry luggage. The prices were superbly low. There was a spinner luggage, not quite the hand carry size though, at only about HK$1k (equivalent to PhP6k). Not bad for a Samsonite, right?

They also carried this really nice set of vintage luggage, in red mind you! Not just a favorite color of mine, but it’s the second to green. I know, too Christmassy, I’ve realized. Anyway, I did drool over that retro-style set. A bit on the pricey side, at about HK$3k (PhP 18k), but again, it’s a Samsonite. If you're curious about the vintage bag go to: http://www.samsoniteblacklabel.com/collections/vintage/duffel-on-wheels/prodVintageDuffelonwheels.html )

The Samsonite shop had Lacoste hand bags as well. Quite cheap compared to hand bags here in the Philippines. There was this amazingly brown hand bag, the size was just my size. Not on sale, it was about HK$2.5k but it was on sale, it was only HK$1.2k. I soooo wanted to get it, problem was I didn’t have HK$1k, only had the HK$200 LOL

Our second to the last stop was the Seven Jeans. Here at home, a Seven Jeans costs about PhP7k at the least. I tried it once in Rustan’s and it does have a great fit. I have trouble buying jeans with Filipino sizes coz I have a big butt, bigger than the average Filipino butt :P I only now own about 4 jeans in my closet and about 2 need to retire soon. Hence the search for good fitting jeans.

When we went to Seven Jeans. I saw a size that might have fit me, so off I went to the dressing room. And waddayaknow?! It was a perfect fit!!! Alleluya!!! The best part is, it was only for HK$120, from the original price of HK$890. I kid you not. It was one sale, only for the day. I loved it so much, I wore it the next day without washing it. That was the best part of my trip :)

Where is your playground?

Being in HK used to give me a high. Even with 10 million meetings the whole day and taking the crowded MTR to dash to the meetings, I would still be up for shopping and sight seeing the following night. One time, I had to purchase another luggage coz I just had too much shopping! haha So the following trips, I remember to always bring a just-in-case bag. The bag usually had a case to be used for! hahaha

HK was my playground. I loved the shopping, the pulse of the city, seeing people rush to work or out of work. I loved how fashion is so funky. I loved how no one cared if you're eating alone and there are actually a lot of people who eat alone. I loved looking at couples, young or old, totally into each other. The older ones still holding hands :)

Last year was a really fun trip. It was the first time I travelled to HK with Mom. She's a government employee in the Philippines, so she doesn't have an opportunity to travel overseas much. If and when she travels locally for work, she'd always find herself accomodated in these cheap hotels or pension houses. So it was a treat for her to stay in a really nice hotel, she enjoyed the wonderfully soft pillows, the big nice bath robe, the great food. Plus she finally believed me when I said my colleagues are nice hehe!

This year though, I found myself in a different HK. Maybe also because I'm missing my boys every single minute. But also because I realized that HK no longer gives me same high. On the career side, speaking face to face to clients is still very enriching. The insights and the knowledge that I get is still great.

Shopping for me isn't as exciting anymore. Plus I feel guilty if I shop for non-essentials when I hear of people losing their jobs both back home and even among my clients.

Come to think of it, maybe HK has changed too... but the one who changed more is me. HK is no longer my playground. My playground is home. Where my boys are. Where my loved ones are. And where I will hurry home to on Sunday.