Thursday, October 04, 2007

They must think I'm crazy --

Last Sunday, I woke up with a monstrous migraine -- I really didn't think much of it because I slept late the night before.

But as the day progressed and after a tablet of Biogesic didn't do anything, I started to see it as a more serious problem.

The next day, I went to an optical shop to have my glasses fixed because they were tilting one way (Seth grabbed them) and to have my eyes checked.

After the check-up, the doctor told me that my grade had gone up by 25, which is very low. He suggested that I wait a week to see if the migraine would go away.

When I told the shop assistant that I would not be buying glasses that day, she had this look on her face -- surprise, disappointment, and maybe even irritation that I had wasted her time.

Tuesday, I still had a migraine so I decided to go back to the optical shop to get a new pair made. When I arrived and asked for my record, a different shop assistant looked for it and couldn't find it so she asked me to take the eye test again. It was a different doctor and was more thorough --

The result was different. Only the grade of my right eye went up (by 25) and I also had astigmatism in that eye.

Now, here's something you should know about me: I'm very good at spending for little things but, when it comes to the big things, I waffle and waffle until Johann or my sister decide for me.

I saw this as an opportunity to waffle so I told the doctor I would be back on Saturday during his shift to take the eye test again -- just to confirm the latest result.

I walked out of the store, leaving another shop assistant with the glasses that I picked out but hadn't bought.

On my way out, I realized that the people at that optical shop must think I'm some crazy woman/compulsive eye test taker --

* * *

Booksale Iloilo --

Last weekend, SM City-Iloilo had its 3-day sale. We didn't have work last Friday so we decided to go early in the morning. We paid our bills and stopped by Booksale, which is (seriously) the only place in Iloilo to get decent books (our National Bookstore branches sell mostly school and office supplies).

When I went in, there were three sisters there and between them was a stack of books -- the mother lode. They were all the romance titles that I've been looking for --

And they had gotten to it first.

I was quietly and discreetly moving about them, hoping they would leave one or two books but they didn't.

They took the stack and went straight to the counter.

I was able to buy some books -- and, in hindsight, I realized I didn't have enough money to buy the stack of books those sisters bought.

The next day, we decided to go to Booksale in Robinson's --

They didn't get a restock because that week's shipment was all diverted to SM City (where there was a sale) --

I found a really good copy of Philippa Gregory's The Other Boleyn Girl and Johann was able to find a hardcover version of Jonathan Carroll's White Apples.

When I went to SM on Tuesday (*points to entry above*), I stopped by Booksale again. They were putting new books on their shelves -- mostly hardcovers and coffee table books. I was told by the shop assistant that they didn't get a lot of new paperbacks.

I was able to find a copy of Susan Vreeland's Girl in Hyacinth Blue, which I bought. ^_^

* * *

I meant to blog about this earlier but I kept forgetting --

What happened to National Bookstore-Cubao?

It was one of our stops when we were in Manila last month. It went through a massive renovation (which I knew about) but I was surprised to see that the layout had changed drastically.

We went directly to the 4th floor, which used to hold the "bargain" books but were surprised to see that they weren't there anymore.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Tin!

The bargain books are still there. Though they only occupy half of fourth floor (window side).

;-)
-Jay

jymdrn said...

whoa. I haven't been to NBS Cubao for a year. Didn't know about the changes hahaha.

Tin (ni Johann) said...

Jay, thankies for that information. ^_^ I'll make sure to check it out the next time I'm there.

Hi, Jayme! Yeah, they went through renovations (a year in the making) -- when I was in Manila in early September, it was sparkly new na. ^_^

Lex (mrshobbes) said...

oh my gosh, they renovated? i think the last time i was there was before I got married (eep).

also, how funny: after almost two years, *my* astigmatism acted up again so i'm wearing my almost-three-year-old glasses! Hope you get to the bottom of your eyesight mystery.