Trip to UK

My sister Ellen and I decided to go to the UK today. We’ve been thinking about it through the first week of 2008 just before my sister Ken returned to her plain and country life in Cavite. Ken would love to come with us but she has to return to work next week. We felt sad that she couldn’t be with us in our UK trip.

We did not go to London or to Manchester though because we didn’t go to England. We just went to a few blocks here in downtown Cebu City for another ukay-ukay experience. Yes Ellen and I left the house early Sunday morning to look for interesting items at the ukay-ukay store.

I’ve been wishing to go visit the shops again because I was a bit bothered by prices of the RTWs lately. If you’d go to the mall or to some popular boutiques, clothing items usually cost higher than 500 pesos. Men’s clothes have become expensive and in my opinion, the price of most of these items is not convincing.

So last week, during my self-declared lunch break, I sneaked inside one of the ukay-ukay stalls along Jakosalem street and searched through the clothes on display. A sign was posted on the door which said 3 for 100 pesos. I had one particular item on my mind that I want to find in the neatly ‘hangered’ clothes. I was looking for knitted vests that I could wear to work.

Just a tip about bargain clothes though, normally the ukay-ukay shops have price schemes that are based on the length of time the clothes have been on display. Every stall posts a price scheme in one of the walls, usually in a tabulated form. When you get inside any of these stalls, search for the sign that reads “new arrival” or “25%” or ‘3 for 100 pesos’ or ‘All Items 50 pesos.” Then you look for the pricelist and determine the corresponding prices for the particular type of RTWs that you are looking.

I suggest that you ask from store attendants the day and time the new batch of clothes would arrive for this would be the best time to go to the ukay-ukay shops. If you want to find wonderful bargain clothes, wait for the “new arrival” sign on the shops.

Last week, the stall had a 50% sign on its glass wall and so I decided to stop searching. I told myself to comeback this weekend. New batches of ukay-ukay usually arrive on a Sunday.

Today, I found myself 6 knitted vests from several ukay-ukay shops in downtown and uptown Cebu. I got fixated with vests lately. I just didn’t know why but I like the thought of wearing layers and layers of clothes when I go to work. I keep on forgetting that I live in a tropical country and that the temperature in Cebu is always above 30 degrees. Ellen bought some nice tops for mom, Karen and for herself. We spent about 3 hours in UK.

Also today, I got a HIP HOP ABS DVD, the pirated kind, which I bought at Fuente Osmeña. This workout video of Shaun T. has been a big hit among the health-conscious and the wanna-have-abs people. It was my dealer who told me about the Hip Hop Abs. They got the DVD last Christmas break but they haven’t used it yet. I got curious about the disc. I want to have one too.

Since I’ve gone back to the gym last December, part of my goal is to trim down my waist. It’s a common knowledge that the abdominal muscle exercises are one of the most difficult routines. Shaun T’s hip hop moves looked so easy but once you start doing the routines, you realized that they were nowhere near easy at all.

On the side though, from Shaun T’s myspace, it says that he’s a sports science graduate, minor in dance education. He’s fond of Celine Dion, Beyonce and Mariah’s ring tones and he watches Desperate Housewives and PrisonBreak. The man is about my age but we were six packs and a dozen flabs different from each other.

I watched the DVD first. There were eight segments of the exercise. One segment takes about 25 minutes of workout consisting of several hip hop steps. After scanning all the segments, I put on my training shoes and re-positioned the mirror in the living room. I played the DVD again and started the hip hop abs training just this afternoon and I managed to finish two of the segments. I was quite shocked that the exercise made me sweat like a pig and that it completely drained me.

I am quite happy that my Sunday was very gratifying. I was able to go to UK, purchased a DVD and put it to good use by watching Shaun T and following his every hip hop step. At the end of the day, I was happier because I lost 2 more pounds.