Yuletide Consumerism

If you haven't done any Christmas shopping yet then you're fucked. I did a little of that once again today and just when I thought I'm done... Well, I basically gave my friend a book she already has so I have to look for a replacement.

I had dinner/Christmas party with good friends from work Robbie and Jules at Italianni's The Fort this evening. We exchanged gifts and caught up with individual updates. Too bad H and Ellese couldn't come. It was still fun though.

Anyway, I had a major dilemma at Puma earlier. There was a bag I was dying to get. I actually got as far as withdrawing money but alas, the girls were able to convince me not to get it because (a) it was too big, and (b) I already have something else in mind to burn my cash on.

Meanwhile, here's some gift ideas and other good deals in Manila this season:

• Mango - I was in the Robinson's Manila branch the other day and you know I got uber excited upon finding out most of their stuff were discounted with up to 50% off. I wonder if Mango is ever going to have a men's line. Anyway, since I don't cross dress, I just bought a gift for my sister.
  
  
• Marks and Spencer - From wines and spirits (and biscuits!), to clothes and colognes; eveything's here at reasonable prices.

• Team Manila - Give a little support to the local artists. Team Manila has shirts, totes, caps, etc. with the unmistakable Filipino spunk. These items would make great gifts especially for relatives abroad. What I've been looking for though are their cool gift wrappers. I went to their Crossings Glorietta branch today to buy a roll but unfortunately they only have shirts there. I got really disappointed because I love wrapping presents and I've been planning on using Team Manila wrappers since I saw this entry from Chuvaness.

• Powerbooks - This gift hub saved me a lot of time and energy. Books are always great gifts. If he/she doesn't read then perhaps a hard bound notebook or DVD's would be good gifts as well.
  

Enough about consumerism talk for now. I've been spending left and right lately I don't even know what will become of my bank account by the new year.

Okay one more. There's this local brand Dean & Trent that I plan to do more "research" on. I checked out a few of their pieces at Crossings Glorietta today and I tried on these jackets that are really cool. They're not very expensive either so I got really interested. But alas, they didn't have my size so maybe I'll visit their other outlets soon. Check out Dean & Trent here.

It's 5 am. Good night and good morning.

UPDATE: It's 7 am and still no sleep. I'm out of Claritin and apparently antihistamine is no match to frappucino. Help.