the weekend never ends

i haven't been staying in since dec. 29, imagine that.

so far it's been: (29) night out with karl, (30) day out with karl/night out with family, (31) day out with family, (1) night out with karl, (2) day out with family, (3) night out with holy girls, (3) night out with karl.

we went to cubao yesterday and visited three nice shops at the marikina shoe expo.

(1) Vintage Pop, which has kitschy furniture and accessories for the home. very cute. i'd like to buy some stuff there if i had a new home. we met the owner, who also makes the furniture and buys the vintage stuff from other places. i specifically wanted to see his place after reading a feature on the store in real living magazine. so maybe karl can write about it too.

(2) Bellini's, good homemade italian food in the 150-200+ range. italian owner/pinay wife, a plump daughter and a tantrum-throwing son. crude (not exactly rude, just unrefined) waiters and a blaring TV to round up the family-restaurant feel. i liked the pizza. pasta was good, but serving too big.

(3) Dateline, a small book shop owned by karl's friends iris and joe. quite homey with benches and a banig and a very attentive owner. we kind of manned the place with her for the rest of the night, and closed up at 9. there were a couple of girls who entered and kept asking about the stuff around the place, like the furniture and the kris ("huh, what's that" said the fake-boobed girl in pink terrycloth sweats and a itty-bitty bikini underneath). the smarter, taller gal bought two old-school storybooks. iris said they may have been a lesbian couple (ooh!). karl came away with a free book from a journalist who wanted other writers to have his book for free. we rode with iris to quezon ave on the way home.

an art gallery will be opening beside them, so the place might end up as a crowded house kind of place (which, incidentally, karl knows the owner. hardly a surprise anymore, hehe), so iris might try to get help getting more books and other things. so it'll be a strip with the gallery, the bookshop, the furniture and accessories, coffee in one of the three, and bellini's for the extremely hungry. and events like launches and poetry and small performances if they can handle it once a month. quite cool. quite. =)

tonight, we're going to hobbes at gb3 to play boardgames and puzzles. if ayala museum is open till late, maybe we could go there too.

i think, for now, it stops here. ;)