A Day With Mama and Papa

I went shopping today with my grandparents in Shangri-La. It's been awhile since I went there and my grandparents aren't the type who go shopping all the time in those high end places. Papa who is now in his 70's I think, still works in the printing press as if he's one of the workers there. He comes home late at night with paint on his fingers and all over his shirt. Sometimes he'd slip and get wounded. But we've told him so many times not to work, he'll never listen because he's one hell of a workaholic. He'll even wake up in the middle of the night to go there and work! So our whole purpose of going there is to find him a good pair of shoes because according to Mama, his feet prefer Oleg Cassini and Bally. OKAY! So I went there with them thinking they're ready to spend money.

When we got there, we went straight to Rustan's to the men's section. First stop: Oleg Cassini. Papa saw a pair he liked but just looked at it. I asked him if he liked it and he said he did but he didn't think they had his size. Good thing I was there so I asked for the salesperson for his size. It took a while for the salesperson to get back. During that time, I told them to look for other pairs he might want to fit. But seeing the prices of those shoes, they were really intimidated. Those were expensive shoes. They almost wanted to walk away before the salesperson returned. But they didn't, thank goodness, but ungortunately, the shoes were too big. They didn't have his size. The people told me there we should check out Bass. But it's in the 3rd level. So we had to pass the 2nd floor, the ladies' section and of course, Mama would want to buy something and she did. 2 pairs of shoes and I got a pair too. The type that my mom would never give me in a million years! Hehehe.. and she got a terno outfit, bought especially for Jaja's birthday on Sunday, which I picked.

After Mama's splurging, time to buy Papa's shoes. We went to Bass, Marks and Spencer. He didn't see the one he wanted and they didn't have his size. He wanted the soles to be leather. So we went to Florsheim. Expensive shoes with leather soles, but he didn't see anything he liked or he found it too expensive. He said that people won't know anyway if he wore expensive shoes. And everytime we went inside a shop, the first thing he'll do is check the prices. I can see some judgmental people raising their eyebrows because Papa talks kinda loud. "Nako! Mahal naman neto!" Truthfully, I'm not embarrassed being with them. I enjoyed it the whole time actually. What I don't like about it is that Papa thinks it's too expensive for him to wear it. Here's what I think: Papa's old already and his a very successful man. He has established his own business all on his own, with his hard work, raised his children well and I think he deserves those expensive shoes. He says he has only 8 pairs of good shoes, all given by his children. Now, I think Mama and Papa should just be relaxing and have a good time, not to worry about anything because all is being taken care of.

I guess I think this way because my life is different. I've been given everything I need and want (sometimes! Gawwdd..what a brat!) on a silver platter. I'm spoiled I know (but I'm definitely not a brat) but I just think that they owe it to themselves. And they're not getting any younger, this is the time for them to enjoy life and buy everything they want because that's the fruit of their hardwork for years. It's not like they're buying 3,000 shoes using other people's money!

It's just fun to be with them and watching them. They're like kids seeing things for the first time. They're happy and content with simple things. They enjoy fastfood. This day has just been special to me. It's actually the first time that I'm with them, alone. I feel so lucky to have such cool grandparents. And they almost didn't argue like they usually do. So the lesson here is: Go shopping. It's therapeutic. Haha!