CHINESE NEW YEAR 2019

XIN NIAN KUAI LE! Ever since celebrating my first legit Chinese New Year in Singapore, I’ve come to appreciate Chinese New Year as more than a day off work and have actually looked forward to CNY season. However, being back in Manila and not being Chinese (although my 6.4% Mainland China Chinese and 7.1% Broadly Chinese and South East Asian ancestry begs to differ, haha!) is a different story. There was no lo hei, no hong baos, no 2-day holiday BUT there was tikoy, a TUESDAY holiday (my favorite day), no traffic, and lots and lots of books. Definitely not complaining coz it was still pretty cool! I mean, who am I kidding, I had a GREAT day! And because of that, and my renewed fervor in practicing The Secret, I figured I’d share a “day in the life of” kind of post (pretty much how heyrocketgirl started)

I woke up fairly early for a holiday, but I like getting the most of weekends/holidays.  Lazed around for a bit and read my fortune for the coming year – which is cool coz it wasn’t the beginning of 2019 that got the better of me, it was the tail end of the Year of the Dog! I mean, not that we should let horoscope dictate our lives or anything, it’s just the confirmation bias from selective reading that I admit I like. Good vibes! Good vibes! GOOD VIIIBES!!!

Wore something red to keep up with tradition and my current favourite pair of earrings for a touch of gold. Let’s attract prosperity, wealth, and abundance this Year of the Pig!

Kept make up to a minimum (my favourite concealer in Sand under my eyes, Cloud Paint on my cheeks, and Saint Germain on my lips) coz trying out products was part of my agenda – eyebrows + eyes particularly.

Super happy coz there’s no traffic! Makati Ave to Shang in under 10 minutes!

Ended up much happier when I lucked out on parking on the first level which was also just across the entrance! (Something that would take on a higher meaning later on, haha!)

Chinese Lanterns on display

First order of business was getting my bracelet fixed. The clasp broke when we were in the States and I thought I’d lost it forever coz it was suddenly just missing from my wrist. Luckily, I found it inside my purse later that night, huhu Anyway! Turns out they’re under new management (much nicer staff, I daresay, hoho) and getting it fixed would take about 6 months coz they have to consolidate items before sending it to Hong Kong. I did get a new clasp though but I’d have to find my own way of having the metal melted. Any leads?

Aren’t the orchids sooo pretty? White flowers = current favorite

The Main Event- The Power Books Clearance Sale. BELIEVE THE HYPE PEOPLE! Super worth it!

I spent 2 hours roaming around the shelves, picking up books, getting it priced checked (they said they haven’t finished putting the stickers yet so you have to check prices for those without discount labels), roaming some more, picking up more books, having it scanned, repeating above steps to ensure I didn’t miss anything, and then finally going on that final sorting of which ones I’ll take. The only item I picked up that wasn’t on sale – that I put back down huhu – was Alain Ducasse’s Cooking School. Newer titles were 20% off, while everything else was 60-80% off.

As much as I wanted to try out make up, at that point I was already hungry, carrying 2 heavy bags, and importantly, excited to dive into my books. I hurriedly grabbed cleansing oil from Beauty Bar and made my way back to the car (which was luckily, just across the mall exit in Basement 1, huhu)

But then I saw the Lion Dance and had to take photos. Not sure if you can see it, but there’s a lady in red filling out raffle tickets at the back – I became that person shortly after, haha! Was really feeling lucky!

I got home, made carbonara, which I was too hungry to even bother thinking about taking a photo of. Lined up my books and discovered how much I really saved. Total listed price was Php 13,648.00 but I got everything for Php 4,394.50. TWENTY TWO (!!!) freaking books for four thousand pesos. AAAAGH! There goes my social life. If you need me, I’ll have my nose buried under a book.

I spent the afternoon on the couch, reading. This one’s a chapter from Tough Calls from the Corners Office which I got at last year’s Big Bad Wolf. Fun fact, I’m usually reading more than 1 book at any given time. 1 “main book” which is either a novel or a non-fiction book that has a main focus and a bunch of “chapter books” like anthologies or random information books that you can take in bites. I know people say you shouldn’t, but I think of it as just being back in school where you’re learning about several subjects 

To keep up with Chinese New Year, dinner was take out Yang Zhou Fried Rice from the night before (Paradise Dynasty is the best guys) and fried siomai. Fried, much? Haha! Would normally steam dimsum, but that would be harder to clean up #practicalities

Ended my night with ginger + longan tea I got from Taiwan (which is not only yummy but also good for the throat) and my journal(ssss). Written under February 5 was “WHAT A GOOD DAY!”

PS- Still attracting LO HEI in my life
PPS- HONG BAO YI KE LAIIII!!!