Becoming a mall rat

Suman.  This one's for you, Nick

Tuesday we went to a huge 5 storey mall to get some business cards printed and wound up ordering several T-shirts decorated with some of our paintings, as well. We were told to come back in an hour, so we decided to give them two and had lunch.  Upon our return, we learned that theshop had only had two sheets of transfer film and that their regular supplier was out of stock as well.  Bukas is manana so we wandered around looking for an evening bag to go with Is' gown.  5 hours down, no joy.

Wednesday we found that the shirts were done, approved the set-up on the cards (six different versions) and were told that they'd be done by 1600 on Thursday.  Bueno, as Is had a fitting at 1400 relatively near the mall.  Continuation of bag-search with added task of finding AO Sept solution for my contact lenses.  Another 6 hours gone and all I found was that Pollo Loco is nothing like that  which Joe fed me in L.A.  I did get to experience rush hour in Manila, since we queued up for a cab at about 1730.  After at least 45 minutes in line, we were spit out into inchworm-paced traffic for an half hour trip that usually takes fifteen minutes.  That proved to me that Monday's two hour ride from the vicinity of the US Embassy to Russ' house, a distance of no more than 15 km. was not an anomaly.

True to our luck, the seamstress never showed and we wasted half an hour waiting; only to be told that she would come to our place tonight at whatever time.  That screws up Thursday evening.  The cards weren't ready both times we checked...

BUT, we had the good fortune to reach the fourth floor where the art galleries lurk.  We spent two hours killing time visiting most of them and viewing some really interesting pieces.  We were warmly welcomed at ART CIRCLE by it's proprietor Allan Caspe who, upon learning that we are painters, was most helpful with our queries about authentication, pricing and the art scene in general.  He gave us an exposition brochure in which we located Rafael Paderna, one of Is' former art teachers who now has a studio/gallery in Bacolod.

Finally, here's a photo of a really interesting scuplture by Ral Arrogante, called Horseman Figure: