I just finished talking to Husband and I’m more excited to see him coz he’s giving me coffee cups from Portugal.

Babaw ba? For me, it isn’t really. One of the things I will make sure when we have a place of our own is that all the guests that will visit us at home will have a very good experience drinking coffee with us. Drinking coffee is very important to me, it’s an art. I want our guests to love the taste of coffee that we serve them and we want them to feel very special when they see the kind of coffee cups we let them use.

I saw the photos of the coffee cups online and they looked cute to me and they’re made in Portugal. So there goes my love for coffee and travel in one coffee cup–though we’ve never been to Portugal but still the thought that it was made there would give me a certain high while using those coffee cups. Maybe a lot of you won’t understand my passion when it comes to the art of drinking coffee, but my Husband surely knows me well to get me those coffee cups.

Those cups are also available here so the Husband told me, “So I don’t have to bring it pala, we can buy it there.” And I said, “No, those cups are mine, mine, mine.” At least yung bigay nya galing pa sa Dubai so it will always remind me of where it came from other than Portugal. MY coffee cups has a story to tell and for me that has more value.

And so I thought we’ll be using Starbucks coffee cups (which was the initial plan), hindi pala. We’ll be using a different brand now that Chris already got a set of those coffee cups he got for me. But I’m not closing my doors on having Starbucks coffee cups—maybe later. But for now, I can’t wait to get my hands on those cutie coffee cups.

I had a very nice day spent with cuzin Nicky whom I’ve missed so much since he’s been living in Japan for the last nine months. He’s only here for the Christmas break but the whole clan is so happy to see him.

In the Zurbano clan (my mom’s side), I have 9 cuzins all-in-all, all blood-related. Being the eldest granddaughter in the family, I was everyone’s Ate, and in return, all my cuzins are very special to me and they all have unique relationships with me.

As for Nicky, everyone in the family respects that other than being very close as cuzins, we are the bestest of friends. That’s why it is a common scenario that Nicky and I have dates–solo dates, with no other cuzins and/or our significant others with us.

And today was no different. Since Nicky is here for two weeks, everyone knew that one of these days, we would go out. And we did that today.

We had lunch at Pancakes, this time I treated him because before he was always treating me out. We shared Fish & Chips, Pizza and Pancakes. Iba daw kasi ang Fish and Chips sa Japan kaya I ordered that for him.

We talked about a lot of things, of how we were for the past nine months. He told me a lot of his adventures in Japan, their way of living there, how people are more respectful, the food that they eat at kung anu-ano pang mga kwentong-Japan that will make you want to go there. Nakakatuwa. Just hearing him talk about his life in Japan, makes me so proud of him because he was able to survive there even without his family and friends. Iba talaga ang nagagawang change sa pagkatao mo if you move to another country or you immerse yourself in travel.

In the course of our discussion, we both agreed that if one stays in their home country for the rest of their life or never even travel to other places, the person becomes complacent. And if you are complacent, not much growth happens in your life. When you travel and/or live in another country, even for just awhile, you will really change—you will be mature in some ways or grow in lots of ways and you’ll have a bigger perspective in life.

Nasabi ko tuloy sa kanya, “Now you know how it feels to move and be able to survive even if you start from zero again, such a nice feeling ‘no? The fullfillment is enormous.” And he agreed.

Anyway, after a lot of serious and not-so-serious conversations, we ended the day by hanging out in my room and fixing my computer (he’s our IT guy hehehe). The family will surely miss him again when he goes back to Japan but we’ll always be here for him no matter where he is. And the other thing we agree on—even if we love other countries, Sydney will always be home. 🙂

A lot of people are very happy today—including me—because clearance sales started in the suburbs this morning. Clearance sales is one of the most awaited events here in Australia. As in people wait as early at 7:30am outside the shops before opening because the sale can go up to 75% off the marked price (or even higher pa nga). And it’s really worth the effort to be early coz you get nice stuff and ones that you really really like in your size.

As early as 9:30am (we were hoping to be at the shops at 8:00am–que horror!), we were at Westpoint in Blacktown rummaging thru christmas decors, christmas wrappers, cooking wares, dining wares, bed sheets and clothes. Myer was the first store I went to and in less than an hour, I was able to buy a Tefal non-stick pan (for frying eggs–how specific can I get hehehe), 3 sets of bed sheets (quilt covers, fitted sheets, pillowcases), 2 white serving platters and christmas wrappers (will be used for next year).

A friend of mine (who wants to remain Anonymous) gave us a queen-size bed cushion as a gift (thank you talaga Anonymous) for no reason. So when Chris and I move in together, at least, we’ll just buy a bed frame. It’s really a big help to us who’s just starting from scratch. That’s why I bought bed sheets today, at least it was 40-50% off the marked price.

At one part of my home shopping, I was a bit bitchy coz I felt “bwisit” because it’s hard being a “single” wife. As some of you know, I’m petite, and I have a very small body frame. It is always hard for me to carry stuff really. My cuzin even heard me mumbling, “bwisit, bwisit, ang hirap nang walang asawa, wala akong taga-dala ng pinamili ko”. Take note that at the time, I was carrying diningwares and my tefal frying pan and I hope you know how heavy those stuff can be. Not to mention that I have Tendonitis too (inflammation of tendons on my wrist), so it really is an effort for me to carry heavy things. But inspite of my “bwisit” moments happy pa rin ako syempre. Worth it naman since super sale talaga. After paying, I just asked my cuzin Rachel to accompany me to the car and put my stuff there.

At eleven o’clock, I met up with my cuzin Dominic to have lunch and hang out for the rest fo the afternoon.

After lunch we went to another suburban mall this time in Castle Hill. I went to Myer again, this time to look for a trolley bag for travelling. The last trolley bag I used and abused for years (that trolley bag has been everywhere–Baguio, Laguna, Cebu, Bohol, Davao, Sydney, HK) died on me while I was on my way back here in February this year. As in it broke while I was in Changi Airport (Singapore stopover). So today I hoped to get a new one that I can use for next year. Good thing we saw this red trolley bag at 50% off. Yay!!!! And while looking around the at the Women’s section, I saw this black bag (I could use for work and lakwatsa) I’ve been lusting at since time immemorial and it was 40% off. Double yay!!!

Used to be that I hate going to clearance sales–I’m not a fan really. I hate lots of people in shops. Before, I’d rather stay home kung sale lang din, my philosophy is to buy even if it’s not on sale basta comfortable ako nung binili ko yung gusto ko. But it’s different now. I’m married and I need all the sale that I could get my hands on because my priority is to buy what our home will need and not what I want, especially that a lot of stuff here is expensive. And of course, I’d like to maximize the money that we have. My cuzin said “you’re so kuripot”, and i replied back to him “what’s the sense of buying something expensive when you can find something of the same quality in a cheaper price? kaya nga tayo nandito sa shops today ‘no?”

I have actually seen a change in me today and that is buying stuff for the house first and not thinking much about what I can buy for myself, even if what I bought is something of a need too. On the way to the shops this morning, my thoughts were of the bed sheets that I was aching to buy. I have that sense of urgency talaga to start buying sheets now. And I told myself too that I won’t buy stuff for myself not unless I’m able to buy stuff for the house first. That’s a good sign in lots of ways diba? Very wifely na ako. 🙂

And another thing, next year, other than having a Christmas Fund (budget for buying Christmas gifts and Noche Buena and Media Noche food), we’ll also have a Clearance Sale Fund so that when Clearance Sales begin, we’ll have more money to spend on those 40-50% off goodies.