Two Blogs In One

I went on my first day trip since returning from summer holiday. Remember hearing about Imelda Marcos and her many pairs of shoes? It made quite an impression on me when I was a teen. Well, they have several museums dedicated to displaying her shoes. That’s right; I went to a shoe museum. The Marikina Shoe Museum holds 800 of the 3,000 pairs of Imelda Marcos’s shoes.  Along with her shoes, the museum also has on display shoes from many Filipino dignitaries. I found it a bit odd (and smelly), but kind of fascinating. Eight hundred shoes on display was mind blowing. I can’t even imagine why someone would want 800, much less 3,000 pairs of shoes! They were worn, too. I would see a nasty pair and think, “You have 100 pairs of red shoes, couldn’t those have gone to Goodwill?”

Along with the shoe museum, we toured a hat factory, soap factory, shoe factory, and purse store (there may have been a factory along with this one, but I didn’t see it). I bought something from each place, except for the soap factory. Yeah, gross. They wouldn’t let us take pictures inside, and I know why. It WAS amazing to see how they filled each soap mold by hand. It WASN’T amazing to see the workers wipe them down by hand in the finishing room with what looked like an old t-shirt.

Let the fun begin!

First stop...Lucban Hat Factory

 

She made this hat faster than my mind could comprehend what she was doing! It was like a magic trick: Let me see that ONE more time!

 

She started with this...

 

...and in no time had this!

 

Then we shopped!

 

And shopped!

 

This photo of a crate of beer was taken inside the purse shop. I am pretty sure they needed it after we all went through!

 

Of course, we had to squeeze in a lunch!

 

First floor of Imelda's shoe display

 

Check out the crusty pink slippers on the top shelf. Why would she even admit to having that pair?

 

I mean, really, she couldn't have donated these?

 

It's not like she didn't have another pair to choose from!

 

I titled this “two blogs in one” because I just had to include some photos from last Thursday. The HR department at FLUOR Manila doesn’t mess around. Currently there is a competition going on to help raise money for charity. On Thursday night, we went to a local venue to watch several bands compete. Money is raised by purchasing tickets to vote for your favorite band. The bands are completely made up of FLUOR workers. Thursday night, five bands performed, but this is an ongoing competition. I believe there are two more weeks of competition. A favorite band is chosen from each week to then perform in the finals later in October. I was impressed that they could get five bands together that actually sounded pretty good.  I can’t wait to see the performances in the coming weeks!

They had quite the turnout to listen and vote.

Emile, Angus and Tony: Front and center! Check out the "paparazzi" in front of the stage.

 

The acts were quite entertaining!