Labor Day: The Pseudo-Sagada Adventure

Taking advantage of the recent long weekend, some of my book club book-geek-friends trekked to Sagada. They've returned since --- cluttering various social networking sites with a melange of pictures and blogs about their food binges, stopovers, museum visits and spelunking adventures (and misadventures). I'm not jealous. Even after looking at every single picture capturing breathtaking sunrises, of what looked like a rock face littered with coffins, a small waterfall at the side of the road, of colorful and inspiring local art. Even after reading every line about how they crawled, climbed, swam, slipped and tumbled their way through their 7-hour spelunking trip and how they reached what, from their re-telling, seemed like nirvana as they gasped for air in the cool darkness of their ancient surroundings. I wasn't even a tad envious. Really. After all, I had a mind-blowing weekend myself.

L, another book club book-geek-friend who didn't go to Sagada either, my husband D and I explored the wonders of a new store that opened at the Robinson's Galleria: (insert drumroll here) Saizen! L had read about it in one of the blogs she subscribes to and the three of us convinced ourselves it would be a comparable pseudo-Sagada. Saizen is located at the corner of the West Wing (or was it the East? I could never depend on my sense of direction... it wouldn't have helped me if I went spelunking guided only by the feeble light of a kerosene lamp, would it?). It's like Japan Home and Daiso, only better. The store has everything you can ever want --- kitchen items, school and office supplies, gardening tools, plasticware, ceramics, kids' toys and costumes, gift wrappers, zipper freezer bags, accessories, toilet paper and art materials. The place is so big it even has space for things you will most definitely have no use for in this lifetime like intricately designed ear picks, tiny aluminum pails that can hold 2 ounces of water, a monocle-and-mustache face sticker and bile-green glitter nail polish. We combed every aisle, every shelf, every item. We would squeal with delight at our discoveries (although D would never admit it) --- L at those glass stickers she plans to adorn her office cubicle with and I at the rolls of felt I don't know what I'll do with but I'm sure I'll think of something. D drooled at the dividers meant only for lilliputian houses, probably mentally furnishing his Yoville unit on facebook, but ended up buying more earphones than he has ears for.

The blogger who wrote about Saizen claims that it would take an hour to scour the entire store. He/She lied. It took us a couple of hours at least, and we had to stop because I was getting extremely low on caffeine. And we were way over budget.

So we're not sour-graping that we weren't able to join our other friends in Sagada. We had good food, good company, good conversation and a good hike around the mall, in cool artificial climate, just the way I like it. And there wasn't a drop of bat shit anywhere.

The whole glorious experience taught us two invaluable life lessons: never, ever take for granted the benefits of EPS, and choosing the right footwear is a skill that will sustain one through life, uncallused.