when everyone is hurrying to grab themselves a cup of joe (or frappe) at Starbucks to get their cards stamped!  The Christmas promo for the 2010 Limited Edition Starbucks planner starts today (and ends on the 6th of January 2010) at all Starbucks branches in the Philippines.  Like the previous years, you get a free sticker if you get your cards early during the promo.

Accumulate 17 stickers and get your 2010 planner when you surrender your promo card.  You need 9 Holiday Featured Beverages (Dark Cherry Mocha, Toffee Nut Latte and Peppermint Mocha) and 8 regular beverages to complete the card.  Remember that bottled drinks, juices and bottled water are NOT included in the promo.

If you’re into collecting Starbucks Limited Edition Planners, I strongly suggest you to start getting those stickers now.  Enjoy your coffee!

I just wanted to share with you what my Mom received from Dad just last Sunday:

Mom got her very own Acer Aspire One ZA3 in red!!!! It looks a lot cuter compared to these pictures, and you can see that none of the plastic’s been removed yet.  At the time of this writing, Mom is getting a little more used to using a netbook instead of a desktop and she’s REALLY enjoying her online radio and online games.

I can’t believe how high tech my Mom’s become!

***Specs for the Acer Aspire One:

Intel Atom processor Z520

11.6″ HD Acer LED LCD

RAM: 2GB DDR2

Storage: 250 GB

Multi-in-1 card reader

LAN: 10/100 base T BT

Wireless: 802.11b/g WLAN

Windows Vista Home Basic

Since the release of Sims 3, I’ve been having trouble detaching myself from our computer.  I’ve already made two households, one for each of the two towns I have in the game.  I primarily play the family I have in Riverview as part of my ongoing Sims story.  Not a lot of people know that one of the reasons I love playing the Sims series is because I make up stories involving the Sims I create.

Now, I’m not going to continue talking about my amateur attempts on Sims storytelling, and would rather introduce to you one of the best Sims 3 stories I’ve read on the net.  It’s entitled Alice and Kev and was made by a Games Design student in the UK named Robin Burkinshaw.  The story focuses on the lives of Kev and his daughter Alice, both of whom are homeless and struggling to go through their daily lives.

Alice and Kev is very popular among the Sims community and was even featured in the Sims 3 news section.  It’s really very well written and there will be a number of times when the story will touch your heart.  I suggest you try reading it yourselves.  Click here to go to the site.

Hello girls and boys, I do apologize for not being able to update this blog for the past few weeks.  There were days wherein I was feeling under the weather and then there were days when I was just busy preparing for an out of town trip my friends and I had last week.

Anyway, enough with the mindless chatter.  I haven’t been able to cook and/or dine out at any amazing restaurants for the past few weeks so I’ll just show you some of the goodies an Aunt of ours brought us from Canada.  My Auntie Julie is my mom’s best friend since high school and she’s living in Canada for the past 23 years.  She does come home to Manila once in a while to visit and she’s always been the one to introduce us to delightful snacks that would eventually find their way to our own supermarkets’ inventories (a good example was a nougat product from Canada that was nonexistent in Manila until The Landmark started selling them in their grocery; I apologize for forgetting the name of the product).  This time around, Auntie Julie brought us the following items:

Walkers Pure Butter Shortbread, Breton Whole Wheat Crackers, Milkfuls caramel candies with milky centers

Planters salted Macadamia nuts and Dare’s Vinta crackers

We have yet to try each of these items and see which ones become our favorites, but I have to say that Pointyman and I are taken by those caramel candies simply because they come in the cutest packaging!

And of course, who can forget about the stuff for the girly girls in the family?

Victoria’s Secret Love Spell hydrating body lotion and La Senza’s Heart Song body butter

My Mom and I love the smell of these lotions and we’ve started wondering where we could score these in Manila.  I have to tell you that I’m already satisfied with using my handy Jergen’s Original Scent lotion for everyday, but sometimes I admit on going a little extra and these two products from Auntie Julie’s definitely fit the bill!  The only problem is once they’re both emptied, where will I be able to get them?  I don’t see the Love Spell when I take a look at Victoria’s Secret products and I haven’t seen the local La Senza shop sell anything else apart from lingerie and pajama sets.  But who knows? I might chance upon them one of these days!

Thank you very much, Auntie Julie!

I spent the last few days of the Holy Week in Subic with The Boyfriend and his family.  I had a great time at the beach as there were not a lot of people during our stay and it was a newly opened resort.  My companions also did a bit of shopping here and there, purchasing souvenirs and clothing.  There was one pair of shoes at the Freeport that I really liked, but they didn’t carry my size.  =(

However, things took a turn for the better when I managed to buy these delicious chocolates at The Royal Subic Duty Free.  They cost a bit less than what I would’ve paid if I bought them here in Manila, and since I was already there in Subic, I just couldn’t resist!

Note: That Swedish chocolate Daim (red bag) is my personal favorite!

0 ~ 0 ~ 0

I would also like to share that Open Game Table: The Anth0logy of Roleplaying Game Blogs, Vol.1 is now available for purchase.  It costs $22.95 if you purchase it through Amazon.com.  I’m just not entirely sure if a bookstore or a hobby store will be selling the book here in Manila.

Congratulations to my brother, Pointyman, whose article is featured in Open Game Table Vol.1.  One of your other literary pieces was in Philippine Speculative Fiction, and now this?  You make us proud.

One Sunday a couple of weeks ago, I went to Starbucks with my brother Mons, and The Boyfriend.  We spotted this tumbler, which resembled a Venti container for Starbuck’s iced drinks, that were for sale.  I wanted one for myself just because I found it ridiculously cute (okay fine, and because I’m in love with their iced caramel macchiato).

The three of us went back to the same Starbucks branch last Sunday and I noticed that the tumbler was no longer on display.  We thought they were already sold out, and I felt a little sad.  No more tumbler for me.

Guess what?  Mons surprised me with a package this morning and it contained this:

Nyahahahaha!  The Starbucks tumbler is now mine!  It looks a lot like the regular ones they use to serve the iced beverages, but wait until you actually hold it between your beautiful hands….this tumbler is seriously way better than those!  Look at the screw on lid:

Thank you for this, Mons!

…..Oh, the glorious perks of having older brothers!

The Boyfriend and his family went to Bohol (in Central Visayas, Philippines) a couple of weeks ago and came home with a couple of treats for me and my family.  One of which was this box of Peanut Kisses:

These little things are freakishly good!  I don’t remember eating them before, so I was pleasantly surprised when I popped one in my mouth today.  Peanut Kisses are made out of peanuts, cane sugar, egg whites and vanilla.  I know they don’t look very appetizing, but they’re really good.  No wonder they’re one of Bohol’s delicacies.

Thanks again Boyfriend and family!

0 ~ 0 ~ 0

Oh, and to my good friend Mikey:  THANK YOU (again) for teaching me how to use Adobe Photoshop the other day!

The first twelve days of 2009 has been nothing but GREAT!  Apart from being able to catch up with a lot of my old friends’ lives and my dogs returning to their best forms, I’ve also been lucky enough to get some of the things that I have on my 2009 “wishlist” this early.

On top of my wishlist was a copy of Westlife’s Live at Wembley 2006 concert in DVD.  I was able to watch Westlife perform live in Manila during their 2006 World Tour, and this DVD definitely helps me remember that evening.  I’ve been looking for a copy of this concert for such a long time, and I FINALLY HAVE IT! (photo below courtesy of amazon.com)

I also decided to splurge and get myself these shoes from Possibility at The Ramp, TriNoMa last week while I was out with Mom and Brother Dear.  I’ve been eyeing these shoes for weeks, and I’m so thrilled to have them!  These shoes are pretty comfortable, mind you, but the true test is when I wear them to the mall once Dad comes home in a few days!  We’ll see!

Another pair of footwear that I’ve been contemplating for some time are these Sanük slippers in black.  I already have a pair of “shoes” (or sandals as the brand insists) from Sanük and they were extremely comfortable that I decided to get these slippers as well!  Sanük products are a little on the pricey end of the scale, but the way they make you feel like you can walk the whole day without taking a break definitely makes it worth every cent.  And don’t you just love that smiley/umlaut staring back at you?

Just imagine my surprise when I tried a bit of Philosophy’s the Supernatural foundation primer yesterday and seriously considered getting myself a tube!

The little tube contains a tinted primer which acts as a bit of sunscreen (SPF15) and claims to even out your skin tone and smooths fine lines and wrinkles.   I guess apart from these, the thing I liked about the Supernatural was the fact that when I rubbed it on my skin, it only felt sticky during the first few circular motions.  After that, it blended so well and felt so light that I could not keep myself from smiling!

The only drawback?  A small 1.6 ounce tube costs almost Php2,000.  Ouch.  I’ve asked my Best Friend to check it out when she flies to Hong Kong in a couple of days and hopefully, when it’s a lot cheaper there, I can ask her or my Dad to get me a a tube or two.  My Dad’s almost always there anyway!

***Visit Philosophy’s website here to read more about their other products.  Photo above was taken from their website.

With Christmas Day here again, we’re all aware that the year 2008 is coming to a close soon.  For most of us, 2008 hasn’t exactly been the best year and for some, even the year 2009 doesn’t look very promising.   Despite these, I hope that you receive the gifts you wanted from Santa and get to enjoy spending the holidays with your closest friends and family.

Let’s all look forward to a more adventurous year ahead.  HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

I took this photo back in 2007 when I was still at Xiamen, China taking up a short course.  This is just one small part of the beach, which is located right across the university I went to.