On a recent trip to Robinsons Supermarket, there were Great Taste coffee promodisers hawking GT's new coffee concoctions. And one of the concoctions was a little number they dubbed Valencia Mocha -- a mix of your usual mocha coffee with the twist of a Valencia orange.
Egad!!! I said to myself, somebody finally caught on to my idea of mixing coffee and orange juice together in one cup!!!
Remember my post on orange coffee? Hmmm, one product manager must be a regular of this blog for such a germ of an idea to come out ha ha ha!
crocked again!!!
Weng: Kuya, there's a big holiday season sale here in Dubai Duty Free for all departments except electronics and jewelry
Ram: Wow!
Weng: What do you want me to buy for you?
Ram: Crocs
Weng: Again?!
Ram: Yes, even if it's the same design and same color
Weng: What?!
Ram: Yes, because the ones you sent me last time are now pudpud (worn-out) :)
new noisy thingy
There's a new noisy thingy in the small apartment -- a Philips MCD 139B/98 Micro DVD Home Theater.Elvie and I saw the little beauty on a steep discount in SM Makati and decided to use the plastic to buy it right away with justification that we were planning to buy a new one anyway this December. From the original price of about PHP11K, they sold it for only PHP5,900 -- almost a 50 off!
It now sits on top of the TV cabinet and its compact size complements the smallness of the apartment. A single-disc player, it is able to play DVD+RW, DVD-Video, Picture CDs, Video CD/SVCD, DivX, DVD, WMA-CD, MP3-CD, most CDs, CD-R and CD-RW. It is however a bit choosy (mapili) and will not sometimes play interactive DVDs of the Captain Hook or Blackbeard type except for actually playing the movie. Nevertheless, its speakers (3" woofers with a passive sub-woofer) are more than enough to rumble the apartment. Its max volume is 40 but by the time your remote hits 15, the neighbors are sure to complain.
Too bad though that it doesn't have a USB port yet nor a microphone jack. But heck, you can't always have everything. But this sound machine is one spiffy addition to the appliance list.
it's christmas time in the city
The first real indication that I had that it's already the Christmas season is waking up on the morn of December 1st rather chilled. Now, that's a Christmas indicator for you -- the mornings now have a tinge of coolness that you that "it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas", so to speak.
The apartment is also now be-decked with some Christmas decors, all for our little Ikai, who will for the first time will most likely remember a teeny,weeny bit of Christmas on her second year. The Christmas wreath now hangs on the front door and two garlands dominate the wall - afilled with Christmas shiny-shinys -- balls, bells, and poinsettias. The highlight of the decors is our four-year old Christmas tree which is about a foot high, again decorated with shiny-shinys and in the evenings dazzling with lights.
Now, need to fix the bulbs of the three sets of Christmas lights that'll be decorating the window.
finger-lickin' good is now worth a "finger"
I just had to have KFC for lunch today.
I usually don't have the patience to wait a long line if the matter on hand is something gastronomic. So, it's really a craving that has caught that has gotten me patiently waiting in line and trying to avoid the rather pesky chub behind me in the line (kept on moving and chit-chatting with her friends and in the process, consistently hitting my back and side with her overly-large hand-bag) and order a two-piece original recipe fried chicken meal.
KFC has raised its prices though. Their Fully Loaded meal (2 piece) is now a mean PHP 185 whereas it was some PHP20 lower the last time I dined in. The meal I ordered which came with a regular-sized drink was PHP 135 which I swear is a price increase of 14%.
Egad!!! I thought fuel prices are going down so doesn't that mean cooking oils and other lards you use to fry KFC chicken with are also going down. LPG, which I assume you use, is going down as well, price-ly speaking. Is there a scarcity of chicken nowadays that you had to raise prices?
starbucks crazy
The cues are once anew a-winding in Starbucks as coffee crazy aficionados of the brand are once again consuming tons of SB stuff to get stickers to hopefully redeem the highly coveted Starbucks Limited Edition 2009 Planner.
In this age of PDAs, portable PCs, hybrid cellphones -- a planner is so, so, so your grandfather. One would think that in this so-called digital and personal consumerist age a thing like a planner will be obsolete and better off being synonymous with dinosaurs. But heck, people are forking over gazillions of pesos at SB to acquire one of these old-fashioned thingies.
Now, don't get me wrong. As I'm much hooked and amused with the idea as well. Currently, my SB card has four stickers on it ... 12 more to go before I get my planner!
But I do get the feeling that we're being led on by this craze and I totally understand it --- it's a brand-thing! It's a full, total brand experience with Starbucks and we're all gloriously hooked. Every time I make a bee line to SB for a cup, there are at least four people in front of me -- and I'm talking about getting coffee at around 8:30am or 2pm, the dead hours. I pass by lunch time or about 9-10am and shucks, the line at the SB counter here at their RCBC Plaza branch is snake-like.
Imagine, each one holding a promo card will need to buy 16 drinks -- 8 of the usual (mine would be Caffe Mocha), and 8 of the Holiday blends (Praline, Toffee Nut, and Dark Cherry Mocha). I made some simple calculations based on what I drink (size and type) and egad ... I will be spending at least PHP 1100 to complete the 16 stickers to collect one friggin' SB-branded planner that would cost somewhere around PHP100 each. Bulk orders mean lesser cost per piece and with the trend of people to go agoo-goo crazy over the SB planners annually, for sure SB will make another killing this season.
Merry Christmas Mr. Schultz.
Now, off to SB for a Dark Cherry Mocha, tall, hot, non-fat, no whip. And yes, another sticker :)
