Yellow Cab

In that fateful Saturday, me and Allan went to Salcedo Market in Makati City and shopped for baby stuff in Divisoria near Binondo in old Manila. Traffic was quite heavy that day while we were on our way to Divisoria. We passed by La Salle on our way as the South Super Highway was packed with motorist. It was almost noontime when we reached Juan Luna. We were quite lucky that we found an empty parking space in Juan Luna street, a good number of blocks from Divisoria.

It was a long walk through the crowded streets leading to Divisoria Mall as I let Allan shop for music CDs first before we hit the stalls in Ilaya. I quickly got interested in DVDs as well, at the top floor of the mall as they were selling the pirated stuff at Php40.00 (less than a dollar)for new movie releases. Being a fan of the Heroes series on TV, I purchased the DVD title for the complete season 1, Die Hard 4.0, Simpsons the Movie, Blades of Glory, Rush Hour 3 and another title I can't remember anymore. Allan found a shop that sells music CDs at Php100.00 for 5 CDs. Can you imagine the prices they were selling these pirated stuff? I wonder what the Optical Media Board is doing to stop this trade.

Having bought our movie and music disks, we took some browsing around for picture frames. Allan just came from a trip to the US and he's got some pictures that needed a permanent home and we were hunting for these at the mall. Allan failed to choose what he liked and we moved to the Ilaya side. I asked him to try out the Flea Market on the third floor which Grace had described as a haven for smart buyers where branded goods are sold at specially marked-down prices. Allan was game but we did not fancy anything worth buying.

We went through the stalls in Ilaya and looked for a baby shop. We found one and we never moved away from it until I got all that I've needed for the trip. I bought new born baby clothes, cloth diapers, flannels, mittens and socks, diaper bag and even a baby toy. I spent close to Php5,000.00 for the baby stuff and I was stopped by Allan from buying the crib beddings as well, as we were pretty packed already and it sure was a long walk back to where we parked our car. He volunteered to make it his baby gift instead and he is buying the beddings from a Makati mall.

It was a long journey back to our car. Droves of shoppers came into Divisoria as the weather was better compared to the wet and rainy early week that passed by. The foot traffic was slow and we can feel hunger already. I saw a Yellow Cab near the place where we parked the car and we agreed to have a late lunch.

We ordered a Charlie Chan pasta with chicken and a small pan pizza of pepperoni and mushroom. I loved Charlie Chan pasta, but Allan did not expect it to be hot and spicy. After the first serving, he moved to the pizza right away. I guess we were too tired to taste the pasta and pizza to form an opinion of whether it was a good lunch or not. But, for sure we could not eat a lot, we have to pack the rest of the pizza and past for take out. We consumed though our drinks to their last drop, mine was a Coke Light while Allan content himself with iced cold mineral water.

Allan would drop his laundry in Tayuman and take the long route from there back to Makati where I lived. We passed by the old Mola flat so I can feed the gold fish left in the acquarium. I reached home too exhausted to relate my ordeal for the day to my wife and mother in-law. However, they were excited to eat the pasta and pizza left-over from our lunch and to check out the shopping stuff I brought in from Divisoria.