Yesterday (or at least the latter half of yesterday) was what people would call a time where everything went right.

I was hell-bent on getting a certain pair of shoes that kept on evading me… and it seems like last night was my lucky night. One couldn’t appreciate yesterday’s experience without being properly informed of the events that led to it.

Backstory

A couple of months ago, my sister and I were canvassing for some costumes to be used for our choir’s album launch. Naturally, one would put stores like Folded & Hung, Topman, People are People, etc. on the list of “go to” stores. Anyways I saw a pair of Camper white casual shoes on People are People (PrP) which I was really tempted to buy but didn’t because of the 8k+ price tag.

Now, people who know me know that I am not a shopper, but when I find myself in a mall, there are certain shops that I immediately enter should I see them. It’s a feeling akin to finding a Sharper Image store in a US mall; you just feel compelled to take a look at the stuff even if you know you ain’t buying anything.

Anyways, in the succeeding months, when Cris and I would go in the store, I always found myself gravitating towards the shoe, trying it on, etc. Little by little, the sheer beauty of it eclipsed any hesitation I had. I finally succumbed and decided to invest in those shoes when I saw them in the PrP store in Megamall

Alas, they didn’t have a size 42 🙁 Since Cris and I were basically just killing time that day, I said that we’d stop by Shangri-la to check out PrP there (which incidentally, was the first time I saw the shoes). We went, and again, no size. In fact, the 42s of that model were sold out everywhere… at least that’s what the guy said.

So I resorted to the internetz… and after much scouring, I ended up finding them in the official Camper website and was ready to have Mom order them immediately. ¹ We’d figure out how to get them to me afterwards.

The “experience”

Yesterday, Cris called me up and told me that she thinks she may have found my shoe in PrP, Robinsons Galleria. So we went through the motions (verifying the model name/number ² Which if you’re interested, it’s a “Camper Peu 17959-001.” If you check the official Camper site, you’ll know that those numbers are extremely important. ) and indeed, it was the shoe. Big deal right, I saw them on all PrP stores, and the problem wasn’t the model, but the size.

But [and this is where all the good luck started] the saleslady seemed to be extra helpful this time around and offered to call their Ermita branch to confirm a feeling she had. Turns out, there was a size 42!

So my next problems we’re to find out if Mom had already ordered it in the states and see if I could actually make it to Ermita given the time. The latter was particularly a problem because.

1. I didn’t know where Robinsons Place Ermita was, all I knew it was in Manila – I’m in Pasig
2. It was 6:30pm the time Cris called. Stores close at 9:00pm on weekdays.
3. The “safest” directions we were given was to enter Manila from the south (right before the Mall of Asia area). It was basically going around the perimiter, which is an “extreme long-cut.”
4. Ortigas dinner traffic + EDSA dinner traffic + Manila dinner traffic + Find mall, park, and find store = too scary a thought to contemplate

But I decided to take the risk. I informed Cris to tell the girl, to call Ermita and have them reserve the shoe. I’d deal with the fallout later.

Left a few minutes after I got the call, got to Galleria to pick Cris up at 7:00pm; hopped on EDSA from Shaw (southbound) at 7:30pm… a whole hour just to get around the Ortigas area! Things were looking grim.

But luckily, EDSA was slow, but constantly moving… and we found the landmarks from the instructions quite easily. There was no traffic on Roxas Blvd we found the turn to Pedro Gil Ave. without incident. It was quite disconcerting to realize that the combined traffic of these two “traffic prone” areas were similar to Ortigas traffic alone, but for this particular night, I wasn’t complaining.

Another pleasant surprise is that the Mall has been renovated (actually extended would be the more appropriate term). It’s actually very pretty. Reminiscent of Podium mixed with Shangri-la. ³ The extension is pretty empty as of this moment, which is probably why it’s bright and clean. In time I’m sure it too, will eventually have the EDSA-Central-ish “feel” which the original mall area [still] has. If it wasn’t so damn far, I’d say I wouldn’t mind checking going there once in a while out the shops there.

Next wave of luck was the empty parking lot of the extension, which we were able to park directly beside the entrance to the mall. We officially stepped foot on the mall at about 8:30pm, what luck!

Another lucky break was when we were talking to the customer service/information desk. Just for kicks, we asked if there was a Camper store (even if we were really looking for PrP); and apparently there was… and not so far from us! So we decided to check that out first.

Turns out, the Camper store was the store which the girl called; so my reserved shoe was already there! Now that was a semi-serendipitous moment right there!

So we got the shoes, ate dinner in Recipes then went home. Everything went on without a hitch!

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Suffice to say, all this was all over a goddamn shoe. While we were driving to the mall, I couldn’t help but be amused [and a bit concerned] by my inner-self saying:

Dude, you’re going through all of this for a pair of shoes. Oh, and not just any shoe; white shoes!

That’s some gay shit right there.

To that, I have just this to say (as Third once told me): That’s not gay shit ok?… that’s man shit!