We were only supposed to get glasses

Heyyoooooo
I was supposed to write this yesterday or earlier today, sadly I had a few hundred samples to run and report today so... I have been such a busy bee the moment I step foot in the lab, and I hate it.


At least yesterday, I had the freedom to touch grass and run in the field.


So about the title, well the trip to manila yesterday was seriously supposed to be only for getting new glasses made because all of us haven't been able to go out during pandemic to get new glasses made and since Christmas is upcoming, I thought, this could be my sisters' christmas gift from me since they really need a change of glasses. even I needed a change because my lens are full of scratches because I keep falling asleep with glasses on and they get scratched way too much.


So sunday morning, we set off to Carriedo station, which is somewhere in Manila city. In that area is a mall where they only sell eye-wear. Reading glasses, sun glasses, contact lenses, correction glasses, anything! even cosplay contacts! It's one of my best finds back in my college days and I have only been getting my glasses from there ever since.

This is just some stalls in that mall, but trust me, that mall has 2 levels and all the stores in there only sell eyewear. Like... you can get a pair of correction or reading glasses for just around $8 or so, and that's already multi-coated.

This is my choice of glasses. I went with a Harry potter styled frame then the lenses are blue lens and are also transition lenses and that cost me around $30 because I did a bit of bargaining, but also because I actually bought 3 pairs of glasses. One for me, and then for my 2 sisters. So yeah, I spent around $9 for everything because that's apparently as far as my bargaining power goes, but still a pretty big save because the original price for each pair of glasses was $40

Then something new that I learned is that in some countries, it takes days befor ethey can get their new pair while we only had to wait 3 minutes for them to complete our glasses.


We were supposed to go home after the glasses, I swear. Because I wanted to catch up on sleep since I've been pretty tired from all the training and analysis I had to do the previous week. Unfortunately, my sisters wouldn't say no for an answer. They wanted to go to intramuros and they even called mom just to make me say yes. In the end, I said yes but I had a huge cup of coffee with me. And I made them walk the walls of Intramuros


Yes, all that begging was to see intramuros because they both have never seen it fully like I have.

it actually took me a getting to intramuros to realize why my sisters were so overly dressed for just getting glasses, and also why they both wore sneakers. Usually they wore flats or sandals when we go out for that day, they wore sneakers and later on in that day, they told me that they were expecting a much longer walk than what we actually walked.

And I find that amusing because you can literally walk the entire walled city in just a dew minutes so I have no idea where the idea that intramuros was such a huge city came from. All I know is that, my sisters amuse me.

As their evil sister though, i made them walk all the way to Baluarte de Santiago (Fort Santiago). This was where our national hero was imprisoned before he was shot to death. And it's actually on the far end of the city. Near the port area, actually and I remember back in my uni days when that place was free to access, but for some reason, they put a blockade on one side of the wall so that the only entrance to the area would be the gate with the ticket booth XD


The ticket fee wasn't that bad, I mean, $1 per person so no complaints there.
And I greatly appreciated the fact that I got to nap a little in the grass.


This is the fort

It would have been cool if I we got to go to the port, sadly I was too sleepy and my sisters kept running around the field wile I was napping and until now, I have no idea why they ran. I also still did not understand how they still had the energy to walk to manila cathedral while I was on the verge of falling asleep for real

This is Manila Cathedral and it's one of the older churches in manila that they still managed to preserve nicely. Then next to it was a cafe so I had another coffee fix because as an introvert, I do not have enough energy to give my extroverted siblings ;;w;;


Then beside Manila Cathedral is this small cafe called Belfry cafe. It used to be a bell tower and the bells they used to chime are still in there. Well maintained and fully fnctional. And they still chime it every time for the angelus prayer. That's where we ended up having snacks then dinner.

So that's basically how my sunday went. My wallet cried and I was very sleep deprived, but at least my sisters enjoyed themselves UwU I am not ready to go out with them again, I swear XD

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That's all from me today. I need sleep now. Gotta preserve my brain for more mercury ores tomorrow ;;-;;