Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Got "Pasaway" Kids?

Better late than never. Just bought my copy last night ...

Please check out Goood Housekeeping magazine's March issue where my article "Pasaway!" appeared on pp. 40 and 41. Find out what the word really means and learn tips on how to deal with misbehaving children.

Monday, March 29, 2010

MyPhone Q22 Dual Sim Phone for P2990

I've been thinking of getting a dual sim phone for months now because we're considering getting a landline sim that I or hubby can bring along when one of us is out of the house. After seeing the announcement below, I've been seriously contemplating of having hubby fall in line this afternoon at Metrowalk :p

After all, we have a useless old phone here at home. Hmmmm .....

Myphone invites you to the much awaited part 3 of the Myphone QWERTY Invasion at Metrowalk, Ortigas, Pasig City on March 30, 2010 from 3:00pm to 2:00am of March 31, 2010. Bring in your working and non-working bar phone plus 2,990 to avail the hottest qwerty phone in town the Myphone Q22duo Pinoy phone.

To see what it looks like and to also find out what the specs are, visit the MyPhone website .

Got the news from a friend (thanks, Kaye!) whose aunt bought 10 units during the last QWERTY invasion in Greenhills. I also saw the announcement posted at the MyPhone Online Community a while ago.

UPDATE (11:41 PM)

So, hubby did fall in line earlier at the MyPhone event. He went there after lunch and got to buy a phone before it was even 3 p.m. He said he waited for about an hour and a half and maybe around 500 or more people were already in line when he got there. The area was open air so they had to stand under the heat of the sun. Poor guy :S Anyway, at least he says he's happy about the purchase.


Not surprisingly hubby chose the Pinoy Phone model (I like the Philippine map at the back!) instead of the New Moon one. Aside from the Q22 unit, he also bought the 2GB SD card worth P350 and a soft case for P200.


When he got home at around 6 p.m. we inserted his Globe sim and the Sun sim that I leave with the kids whenever hubby and I are both out. Smooth transition although I'm sure it would take him some time to get used to the qwerty keypad. He'll be the one using this phone and give his old phone to our eldest son after the phone contacts are transferred.  Finally, I would be able to call him more often using my Sun number instead of just texting using our Globe sims.

As for me, I still have to see in the coming months when I would switch to a dual sim phone. Maybe when we finally apply for a landline sim but I'm still weighing the pros and cons.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Turning Passion Into Profits

I have been blessed to be in the kind of job that I enjoy doing 99% of the time. As a work-at-home mom, I get to be with my kids more, oversee our household and continue to express myself through my writings.


Read about other people who have also found their work niches. Please check out a copy of MoneySense magazine's March-April issue. I wrote the cover story featuring Daphne Oseña-Paez as well as a feature on Chef Precious Jewel Aquino, one of the owners of Arla Restaurant, a fine-dining place in Los Baños, Laguna.

 The MoneySense team with Daphne 
after the interview and photo shoot 
at the Paez's home last February

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Funny Ellen Degeneres on Coffee

I'm not much of a coffee drinker. But I have lots of friends who are, my husband included. No offense intended but I just feel that regularly spending a lot of money on a cup of Starbucks, or other high-end coffees, is ridiculous.


So I found it really amusing when Ellen Degeneres gave her humorous take on coffee cup sizes and prices. Watch and laugh, too!


Thursday, March 18, 2010

Unwinding With Wine

Last March 5, I attended an exclusive event called Ladies Who Lunch: The BusinessWorld Female Forum, not as a guest, but as the writer to cover the event. It was organized by BusinessWorld and HerWord.com.


I enjoyed meeting influential women from various fields and learned a lot of new things about wine.


We were served appetizing food and got to sample different variants of Banrock Station wine courtesy of Wine Depot in Westgate, Alabang.




You can read more about the event here.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Google Translate is Cool!

Somebody left this comment in one of my blog posts: 向小善致敬,它使人生旅程較為平順。

Of course I wondered what that means. For all I know, the person who posted might already be cursing me! :p

So I visited Google Translate and copy pasted the characters. I set the parameters to translate from Chinese to English.

You know what came up? The message read: "Pay tribute to the small good, it makes life's journey, better times."

Nice!

Tuesday, March 09, 2010

New BPI Treats!

It's back! BPI has a new promo for those who use their cards for transactions. I'm glad I have saved two of my debit card's charge slips from the last two weeks. Just saw this announcement at the BPI website.



PROMO MECHANICS

The promo is open exclusively to the following:

* All existing BPI Express Credit cardholders (Classic, Blue MasterCard, Gold MasterCard, Petron-BPI MasterCard, Edge MasterCard, and BPI-WorldPerks MasterCard) of good credit standing. BPI Express Corporate Cards are not qualified.
* All existing BPI, BPI Family Savings Bank, BPI Direct cardholders (Express Teller, Jumpstart, BPinoy).

Promo period is from February 1, 2010 to April 15, 2010.

Cardholder should use his BPI Express Credit card or BPI Express Teller via Express Payment System (EPS) within the promo period for a minimum single purchase transaction of P1500, P3000 or P6000 at any merchant to qualify for redemption of the free Chowking meals. Transactions should be approved via Point-of-Sale terminal.

For BPI Express Credit, qualified cash advance transaction is eligible to redeem the corresponding Chowking meals.

Cardholder can redeem the featured Chowking meals at any Chowking branch nationwide. The redemption is valid for dine-in and take-out only. Redemption is not allowed for drive-thru orders.

The free Chowking meals are the following:

-- Choice of Chorizo Chao Fan, or Spicy Pork Mushroom Rice For a minimum single transaction of P1,500
-- Choice of Breaded Fish Lauriat or Breaded Pork Lauriat; Salo Dimsum Platter; or Halo-Halo Fiesta (w/o Ice Cream) For a minimum single transaction of P3,000
-- Chowking Sulit Salo Set (good for 3) For a minimum single transaction of P6,000

To redeem the free Chowking meals, cardholder must submit for verification the original charge slip or transaction receipt (minimum single transaction of P1500, P3000 or P6000) and present the BPI card used for the transaction to any authorized Jollibee personnel. Transaction date on the charge slip or transaction receipt should be within the promo period.

Cardholder must print name (as shown on the card) at the back of the corresponding charge slip or transaction receipt and submit to the authorized Jollibee personnel before release of the free food item.

Only one (1) free food item can be redeemed per charge slip or transaction receipt. A customer is allowed up to three (3) redemptions per day per store only.

A single purchase transaction requires only one approval. Splitting into smaller transaction sizes and consequently requiring multiple transaction approvals will not be allowed.

The free Chowking meals cannot be exchanged for cash, other products, or discounts.

Redemption period is until June 15, 2010.

Saturday, March 06, 2010

Nestea Bottle for Solo Drinking :p

Nestea once again bundled a pitcher each in every pack of iced tea. For two weeks now, we've been buying the big pack and already got two of the nice bottles.

The last time I went grocery-shopping, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that there's also a smaller version of the pitcher which comes with every 400g pack.

I thought the small bottle would be great for times when I want to drink iced tea and I'm too lazy to prepare a whole pitcher. The other day, I was not looking forward to eating lunch by myself. Hubby went to a meeting, the boys were at school and James was sleeping.

So I just brought out two slices of bread and the loaf of Tillamook cheese that my sister-in-law brought us from Guam last week. I grilled my cheese sandwich, made myself a small bottle of iced tea and plugged my iPod shuffle to a small speaker.


It turned out to be a nice lunch after all.

Friday, March 05, 2010

SNS Etiquette

I'm sure most of you who are reading this also belong to one or more social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Plurk, Friendster, etc. I also suspect that, like me, you also encounter irritating posts or comments every now and then. When you do, how do you deal with them?

I just read a post by Jim Paredes about his Twitter Etiquette in his Tumblr site. I completely agree with what he writes:

"I will not answer you if you are insulting or just looking for an argument.

I don’t care what political, social, sexual, religious position, station or orientation you are coming from. That does not bother me in any way. Banter is fun. Serious thoughts are great. Political preferences (even if they are not in agreement with mine) are welcome as much as real heartfelt reactions.

I will not answer though if you are plain annoying or a nagger."

Now those are good things to remember!

Thursday, March 04, 2010

Promos for the Ladies!

I like receiving PRODUCT SAMPLES. This way, I can try out the item first and see if I really like it before I buy a bigger size. Sometimes, if the product is really good, I end up becoming a loyal user.

I just found out that Kotex is giving free samples of their ultrathin pads. Check out the sign-up page here.

Kotex is also giving away free samples of their new Kotex Lux pads via the Cosmo website.

It's also nice to join ONLINE CONTESTS where people get a chance to win some fantastic items. Well, I haven't won anything yet but, hey, there are always new promos to sign up for. Here are some new ones:

Win a limited edition Evian Bottle designed by Paul Smith from femalenetwork.com

Win a My Pilipinas Moleskine Journal also from femalenetwork

Win Jing Monis by Propaganda GCs in FN’s Fab New Look promo

Win a free makeover from Pond's Flawless White (purchase required). Check the bottom of the link page as there is another promo (search for Cosmo Interns) on the top part.

Become a Cosmo intern and be awarded a trip to New York

Will be posting about other promos again when I hear about new ones soon.

Wednesday, March 03, 2010

I love stories behind songs!

I think there are only very few people who are not familiar with Jim Chappell's most famous composition "Gone". I have loved this piece since the late '80s when I first heard it. The music continues to touch my heart up to now.


Gone from Unspeakable Freedom Music on Vimeo.

I am glad that Jim has now taken to writing about the stories behind some of his songs. Wanna know how Gone came to be? Read the touching backgrounder here . You can find free downloads of his songs there too as well as the stories behind his other songs.

Jim's blog is where I go when I just want to enjoy listening to relaxing music and let the day's stresses melt away ...