new year, new slippers

A long, long time ago… I’ve dreamt of having over-priced paired rubber foot cushion called Havaianas. This so-called slippers of the elite (I made that up) was considered to be a social status thing to have here in Manila. I’m not really good at dates, so let’s pretend that eons ago, since the

the world before Havaianas

Brazilian company conquered our nation, the socialites, konyos and kids from the higher end of the spectrum clamored for it like it was the end of the world. Summer was the time the blasted thing was hottest.  It was really scorching! From Bataan to Palawan, people flocked the world-class bitches beaches of the Philippines, and guess what the mightiest of the mighty was wearing? You guessed it right. Bikinis Havaianas…

Where was I, oh right…. This afternoon, my sister skipped classes today because of a teacher’s meeting of some sort and since we weren’t doing anything special today, they decided to get one of these glorious inventions made by man.

We arrived at the Trinoma Mall in North EDSA, just opposite the place I worked my ass out for nearly two years. Anyway, we went to the store, and since I’m a bum, I only looked around for about a minute or two, deciding that it was crazy for a guy like me with only four thousand bucks in my wallet to get a pair worth a quarter of my life line. (I call my savings my life line.) It was such a sight to behold! Though pairs cost about 700 ++ for old stocks, and about 900++ for new ones, the shop we were in was still flocked by customers: two college guys, three female high-school students, a hot chick, a weird looking girl with another weird looking girl, my mom, my sister, a mother with her son not counting the security guard, three sales clerks, a cashier and a supervisor. (Whew!) I thought we are experiencing the GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS?? How can companies close and lay-off poor employees when they still earn tons of money? (Or I’m just an under-informed fool.)

Unfortunately, the ones my sister was interested in was out of stock. (they were too small.) She was depressed for a while, saddened at the thought that she couldn’t obtain the Holy Grail of slippers. After that, we went out of the store to get some grub since we were kinda starving. My older brother joined in on the fun right after.

Since depression and a sugar rush was flooding our veins (except me), we went to the department store to look around. My sister was in luck that we were in smack middle of the shoes/ slippers department. You should’ve seen her face light up when the brand names such as: Ipanema, Dupe, Islander (Filipino brand), Flojo and many more flashed before her eyes. Yes, I wasn’t surprised that the gloom in her face disappeared like magic. Twaaaanng!!!! (Corny.)

nope, not the one on the right.

She found a pair of  silver colored Spartan-looking slippers for a much cheaper price and immediately wearing it after paying at the counter, stuffing her old, decaying (not really) pair inside a shopping store bag. I actually got to be sponsored by my mom (I was a bum remember?) and ordered a sleek looking pair, but to my dismay, there was none left for my size. Geez… I was left to look again for another one, but guess what? After 15 minutes of waiting, no more size 9? C’mon? Why is this department store still operating?! (Just kidding.)

I stumbled on this Dupe stall and found these very cool pair. It has my size on it (US 9), has this super-ultra cool gel cushion for my poor sole (no pun intended) and most of all, it’s BLACK. Period. On more thing, I got it for  free.

January 30, 2009 | Categories: Events, Shopping | Tags: black, bob, crisis, cube, Dupe, financial, flip-flops, flipflops, flojos, global, Havaianas, how, ipanema, islander, ong, rubik's, shopping, slipper, slippers, solve, the, to, trinoma | Leave a comment