BER MONTHS IN THE PHILIPPINES

Ber month finally kicks in... and so is the busy holiday season! Yes baby! Its holiday season. Back when I was younger... when September kicks in, you would already hear firecrackers and the start of Christmass rush, you would already hear Christmass songs and children starts thier Christmass Carolling.

I dont hear firecracker very often nowadays in September but I am sure hearing people start talking about Christmass and New Year.

So let me start my blog a very early HAPPY HOLLIDAYS my dear readers.

Now, the real holiday shopping rush here in the Philippines will start in the later week of November up until last week of December.

So for now here are some few tips for you my dear readers to avoid being in a terrible shopping rush and terrible traffic.

GIFTS AND GIVEAWAYS

Since Filipinoys by nature love gifts and giveaways might as well start your preparations there since this is tedious and definitely time consuming plus of course it can drain your budget most especially if you dont plan it in advance.

1. List down everyone whom you intend in giving a gift this Holiday Season. Categories them wether they are a family, a friend, or a god-children. Categorizing them would be easier for you to identify and ensure you are not forgetting someone in the list.

2. Plan your gifts. Its easier to have a generic item for kids, boys and girls, family member and or a friend. In this way it is easier to pre-determine your approximate budget for each category plus you can buy by bulk and have more chances of getting a bigger discount. BUY by bulk its always cheaper that way.

3. Scout for a store. Since you already have a list start scouting for a store who could give you better prices. Avoid buying stuff in a mall. Mall merchants are way more expensive so either you resort to buying online or visiting Divisoria or Baclaran and finding the best gift and giveaways this Holiday Season.

CHRISTMAS DECORS

Its high time for you to start checking the decorations you had last year. I hope you had preserve those decorations. So go ahead and unbox them and start checking for those decorations that are still re-usable. There will be decorations that needs repainting and a little repair needed. If you need to buy some you might start buying now as the prices are still quite cheap. For major items I would suggest you have them listed and buy them when it is out of season or in Janaury and the prices will drastically go as low as 70% off during peak season. Example a five foot Christmass tree is worth more than 3 or 4 thousand pesos during peak season but that would go down to as low as 1 thousand in Janaury in time for bext years holiday decoration. So for now, recycle the old one and repair them if needed then a new one in Janaury when the holiday rush dies down.

DONT SPEND ALL YOUR MONEY!

The best gift you can give yourself this Christmass season is your savings and security at old age. This is the time of the year where you will have your bonuses. So instead of having this all be spent for bruhahaha during the holiday you might want to have the 50% of it if not all in a time deposit for your emergency fund or start building your mutual fund.

Having an eight month emergency fund, mutual fund, or stock investment will at least help you when you can no longer work. When your old or when your kids go to college. Have your kids educational plan insured in a reputable company. OR get ab insurance policy so if anything goes wrong then at least your family will not end up misserable. All these will help you in the future.

In the coming months I will try to feature best stores to buy for your Christmass giveaways.

See you all next time!

The Long Wait is Over

Its been a while since I've updated my blog. I kept looking for something that interest me or inspire to write about problem is I havent found anything interesting or something that inspires me.

I have been busy lurking around to a new found metier around Alabang area. Its a totally different ball game comparing it to the previous I had. Good thing is I am learning so much in so many ways. There will always be struggle I know that for sure but learning about the business, about the people behind the success of the business, the type of leaders who leads its people are all worth it.

I only have one left in my dream board and I was thinking, will this be the enterprise who can bestow my most covetted dream listed at the top of my dream board? Maybe. This could be company that gives me the success I ever wanted and dreamed for.

My thoughts leads me to how I measure success. Maybe success is not only measured by the achievements we have. Success has evolve in my system from promotion to developing something or someone and flourish to a beautiful experience.

I will have a different demographic of success. I always thought of success as climbing up the ladder of the corporate clichè. I was wrong! It is the experience that will make someone successful. Instead of putting all my might and my strength being someone I actually am not, I would rather just feel and explore opportunities of being part of the company.

Employees are of course measured by the numbers and the so called metrics and it is good if you nail all of it. But behind all those numbers lies the mighty learning and sharing.

It is time to impart the knowledge accumulated through the years to someone who is willing. Success is not all about numbers but rather it is more of your qualities and maturity is above and beyond.

I am more than ever fueled up to bring out the best of me. I am more than ever inspired. I am excited with the new tasks ahead.

My Pokemon Go

I wasnt never a fan of the pokemon serries while growing up but of course even though I was never a fan of the cartoon serries I still got to watch them once in a while so pretty much I have that idea as to whats going on.

Nevertheles when this POKEMON GO grew big and really became very popular to teenagers upto the working class, I got too curious too.

So I started downloading and started playing it. Little did I know that I will be so into it.

Then I realize this could be so great in my fitness experience. So every day off I gear up for my usual running/Brisk walking while collecting pokemons, dropping by at the pokestop near by, and of course hatching eggs.

Now I had a whole new motivation to wake up and go for a long distance walk and having fun while getting fit.

So guys wake up early wear your shoes and go out for brisk walking dont forget to turn on your GPS and start walking, gettig fit, and of course collecting pokemon, poke eggs and hatching eggs.

Just as I thought... after kilometers of walking... I finally caught my first Pikachu!

My Kind of Great Place to Work

I've been swooning and wallooping status in social media about experiences of great place to work. In deed it is mind blowing and inspiring to see such status of being and having a place to work in such working environment.

All companies and institutions are great places to work because all of them provides a bread and butter for everyone. Everyone gets to go home and have a milk in the table.

So the first in my list if I am going to qualify a company for a Great Place to Work are the Benifits. It is something an employee got to take home extra aside from of course the take home pay. It is the mere reason why an employee signs up the contract in the first place because that employee because it is that benifit that differs from one company to the next.

The moment that employee signs up, then their experience within the company becomes super important. Benifits are useless if we have very bad executors. Leaders or the managers should be a very good executors.

What makes an employee happy basically is when they feel that the company they are working for feel the care. For the employee the company is represented by the managers.

Trust plays a significant role in making sure that the company is indeed a great place to work and the essential element for an employee is when the benifits and laws are properly executed by the executor that is when a trust is built.

As an employee, the moment I trusted the leaders in the company, I see better performance in me and so as the other employees. I take pride of what I do and I flourish a smiling customers.

Employees take pride of what they do and they enjoy doing what they are supposed to do plus other activities that go beyond expectation. Employees exceeds the expectation because they trust the leaders, that they are treated fairly.

For example in a very well known company had a very good compensation package and definitely mind blowing benifits. They surpass the benifits and went above and beyond the problem was the executors.

They have favoritism, unfair judgement, and employee relations is very very poor.

Here's the story:

There were two kinds of employee both are hard working but have different areas of oppurtunity. The other one has the highest number of events executed for the past year there were misses along the way, had a very bad situation in the family, still manages to go to work everyday and conduct the usual routine and goes back home and helps in a family matters.

On the otherhand, there's these one who have very or rarely commits mistake at work, had one of fewest events executed for the year and almost non-existent as either on maternity leave, sick leave and had to attend school activities.

The later gets the highest increase by year end assesment.

In this situation, the company is fantastic, a very good benifits but very very poor leadership they have a terrible executors.

The employees are the face of the company but for the employees the leaders is the company. A well taken cared employee definitely radiates and affects others creating a great culture and values radiates outside and bring forth a happier customer a better performance.

To end, I agree that a great place to work is one in which employees trust the people they work for resulting to take pride of what they do and further resulting to enjoying working with the people they work with.

My Fashionable Cross Pendants

I always had this fascination on crystals... it inspires me to do so many things from bracelets to pendants.

This time around I ended up making cross pendants that I think is cool looking and definitely wearable (at least in my nutshell they are wearable).

So I ofcourse started it with crystal beads and I definitely loving them and since I tend to wear plain shirts or polo's I am sure these cross pendants are awesome whatever I choose to wear.

Thats the best thing about wearing plain colored shirts and polos you can easily match it up with accessories and you would look great.

So here are my creations.

 First off is the disco ball beads with pink cats eye crystal beads... I so love this as it litterary sparkle when struck by sunlight. It basically lightens up my day.

Then an officemate saw my design and wanted a black cross made of course with these black crystal beads and I totally loving it. It does look good and definitely can rock whatever clothese you wear.

Then one of my favorite... the blue crystal beads cross pendant... it is rockingly crazy beautiful.

I get feedback that most of what I sell are quite expensive... is because of the materials used...so i decided to use a light material, it still sparkle and it is equally beautiful... I used red plastic beads and a black plastic flower at the center to add drama and design to it... and they are awesome!.

I Was Treated Well

In the field of customer service, your knowledge comes only after emotions. People do not care about what you know. They do not care if you are precise and concise in providing instruction. They do not care if you have memorized and understood everything in the conpanies procedure and practices.

What matters most is how they felt after talking to you. Their feeling will determine how well you are as a customer service representative. If they felt and treated right thier response will definitely and will always be positive. Its either they woulf say, "the representative I have spoken with answered and understood my situation" or they would say, "the representative keeps putting me on hold to find an answer to my question and I appreciate that".

The point of the matter is, I knew for a fact that Starbucks barista when it comes to dealing with their customer it is always above and beyond and so I am already expecting that when I visit their coffe shop they will talk to me and serve me well. However, when I was feeling exhausted, tired, worried and devastated I happen to drop by at STARBUCKS SHAW Boulevard WORLDWIDE CORP CENTER just to have a coffee just to ease these negativities its just like my stress food. I went in and of course the usual greetings and good smile. So I just ordered an paid my coffee.

I went ahead the table and lighted my cigarette and started drinking my coffee and puffing my cigarette.

I noticed in my cup the barrista had wrote: "HELLO CHARLTON and a smiley." It made me smile and it made my day. I then look back at the counter and saw him doing stuff and keeping himself busy while there are no customer around. I noticed his work attitude, his passion in what he do... I noticed he is damn good looking too... and I remembered the name in his tag... His name is CARLO.

See... just like me, I will soon realize how good the customer service representative after I felt good, I felt I was treated right. A simple Hello Charlton and a smiley ib my cup made me feel good because I wasnt expecting it. It is because a barista named Carlo went the extra mile in giving customer service.

THANK YOU CARLO! YOU MADE MY DAY!

KUYA J HALOHALO

Its my day off and my birthday month as well. So just for a quick getaway of my usual daily routine, I decided to finally splurge myself with just a little treat.

As I continue to explore the beauty of Filipino food and desserts. I decided to experience KUYA J's Halohalo. Kuya J is a newly opened restaurant in near my house (a few kilometers away to be exact). They I suppose specializes in Filipino cusine basing my judgement to their menu.

So I am so excited to once try thier halohalo. Halohalo is one of my favorite Filipino desert. Its one thing I usually devulge when humidity spikes up.

I must say that Kuya J's halohalo is one of the best halohalo I ever tasted. I must say that it scores really high on my standard of a very good Halohalo.

I think it is called halohalo because you have to mix all the ingredients together before eating it.

However Kuya J's halohalo is serve ready to it. Its creaminess and sweatness is highly commendable. Truly a must try dessert when visiting Kuya J's halohalo.

Have you tried dinning at Kuya J? Let me know your experience and the food you ordered? What do you recommend in thier menu?

Phenomenal Love Team ALDUB Celebrates First Year Anniversary

AlDub turns one!

Photo from GMA 7 official Twitter account

July 16, 2015 is the day where magic sparks and made the whole Filipino community go gaga over Alden Richards and Maine Mendoza. An accidental segment in a noontime show that no one has ever thought it will rule the twitter world and the ratings.

I must say that this is the only FANDOM in the Philippine Showbiz that is so diverse that it includes all genders, every proffession from doctors to politicians to call center agents to doctors and nurses to overseas Filipino workers and lawyers; name it and I am sure it is well represented.

It has been one year where this segment of a NOONTIME show EAT BULAGA has been rocking the twitter world for one year with one million tweets each day.

The celebration was still crazy and lovely. The feeling from when it started is still the same for the fans.

As a proof everyone brings their support in twitter and started twitting about what was happening on that day. In exactly 24 hours, the hashtag for the day ended with more than six million tweets.

Not only Local celebrities are being hooked with ALDUB but this include some International celebrity like Bryan White who sang the Official love song for ALDUB, "GOD GAVE ME YOU". Ask a fan and I am sure they know God Gave Me You by heart.

Bryan White, a country singer in the US flew all the way from the US to the Philippines to be part of getting stronger Love Team of ALDEN RICHARDS and MAINE MENDOZA  ALDUB's 1st ANNIVERSARY Celebration. (Click here to visit Bryan White website)

To wrap it all up, the launching of their first movie together entitled Imagine You and Me is also well loved. Ticket sales and movie houses are definitely over flowing.

This two are definitely well loved by the fans. They get all the support they needed. The most talked about love team. The most active fandom worldwide.

The latest post of Maine Mendoza in instagram was also being shared and being talked about in twitter.

Why are these tandem so loved many Filipinos? Why is their audience so wide from toddlers to grandparents name it I am sure everyone knows them. Is their love simply for the show? Is the love story for real or reel? The so called "kilig" factor of their love story blew the roof of the biggest arena in the Philippines. Was it true love that makes it so believable that will make someone of all ages swoon and wish theyll have their own prince/princes charming woulf show up in a very mysterious way?

No matter what their secret is, it is working perfectly fine that no one can deny that their love is felt in every episode of KALYESERYE and or their movie/s. If you havent watched the movie yet, I encourage you I am sure you would be blown away as they transpire the love right to next to your heart.

Robert and His Piggy Bank

Cling! Clang! Cling! Clang!

“Sorbetes! Come have a piece of this delicious ice cream,” shouted the ice cream man!

“YEY!!!” chorus the kids.

“Mom! Buy me an ice cream!” says another kid. “Petra can we just skip that for now, you just ate sandwich and soda,” replied Petra’s mom.

“Mom, my playmates are eating their sorbetes,” Petra cried.

“OK!” Petra’s mother exclaimed.

“What about you Robert? Do you want some sorbetes?” Aling Martha asked her son Robert.

“Oh mom! Its ok I still have some money in my pocket and I don’t want to be spending on things I actually don’t need’” Robert replied.

“Waaaaahhhh Robert doesn’t have ice cream!” Robert’s playmate teases him. “Meh meh  meh meh, Robert doesn’t have an ice cream!”

“Come on Robert, I will buy you one,” said his mom Aling Martha.

“It’s ok mom, I already ate my lunch and I also made some sandwich at home,” Robert replied.

“So where do you spend your money that I am giving you every day?” asked her mom

“I buy water or juice when I already drank all the juice that I brought from home or I buy some candies as well when I felt like eating one. But I make sure I don’t spend everything I always drop a portion of my daily allowance in my piggy bank,” Robert’s long answer to his mom.

“Are you not jealous with your playmates, when they are eating candies, ice cream, drinking soda or buying some toys at Ms Bebang’s store?” asked his mom.

“Ma, I have sandwich, I brought with me my lunch and I have toys at home, I am also already full and I don’t need to eat all those every day,” Robert replied.

“Ok”, replied his mom.
Days and months have passed. Robert continued dropping a portion of his allowance in his piggy bank. He was able to fill up three large piggy bank. Robert is excited to count how much he was able save. Excitedly he broke his piggy bank open and counted all the coins.

“AHA!”, Robert exclaimed. “Its my mom’s birthday tomorrow, I think I can buy her a new dress! I will surprise her, she has been working all day and I think I can just simply give her something.”

The following morning, Robert woke up and as usual his mother is rushing cooking while doing the dishes.

“Mom!”, called Robert!

“What! Come on you’ll be late. And I will be late at my work too.”, she exclaimed.

“Just come here mom I have something to show you!” Robert exclaimed.

Robert’s mom rushed at Robert’s room very worried. When she arrives at Robert’s room.

“Surprise!!!!! Happy Birthday Mom! I broke one of my piggy bank because so I could buy you a gift!”

“Oh I love you my son! Thank you so much!” Robert’s my cried. “You saved a portion of your money so you can buy me a gift on my birthday, you should just buy some toys for yourself” she continued.

“Oh mom! I still have more don’t worry and I will just a toy when I already broke some of the toys,” Robert answered.

“Wow! You really surprised me Robert. I have a suggestion to you my son, let’s open a bank account for you so every time you filled up your piggy bank, let’s deposit it from there in that way when you need something in the future you would have something to use. Plus it won’t get stolen or lost because the bank will take good care of your money,” Aling Martha told her son Robert.

“Sure! I would love to do that mom”, Robert replied.

“Look mom I also bought a new bag and it’s my favorite super hero SUPERMAN”, Robert happily showed his mom his new bag that he bought.

Robert and his mom happily had their breakfast. After they had their breakfast, Aling Martha walked Robert to his school.

On their way to school, Robert saw his classmate playing.

“Wow! Robert you had a new bag and it’s Superman!”, exclaimed Alex. “Look guys Robert had a new bag!”

Robert proudly smiled to Alex!

All the children gathered around Robert to check on the new bag.

“I will ask my mom to buy me one too!” said another children

“Me too!” said another.

“Aling Martha, where did you buy Robert’s bag?” asked Marvin

“I did not buy the bag, Robert did and he bought me a dress too for my birthday,” Aling Martha answered.

“Wow! Robert where did you get your money. I saw that bag at the mall and its pretty expensive,” asked Greg.

“I am saving a portion of my allowance in my piggy bank so I can buy something when I needed something to buy. My mom also said she will open a bank account for me so I could put my money that I saved in my piggy bank every time it gets full,” Robert explained.

From then on, Robert continued saving a portion of his allowances in his piggy bank and every time it gets filled up, his mother accompanies Robert in the bank.

Also, his classmates’ gets so inspired since Robert can buy expensive things by simply saving a portion of their allowance in their own piggy bank.

***End***

DAY 6: MY FILIPINO FOOD CHALLENGE

This is already my sixth Filipino food in my blog. It is best to have all these must try Filipino food. The foods I have in my list in any case you are planning to have one in your bucket list when travelling around the Philippines.

Of course this is always the all time favorite when visiting areas in the Southern part of the Philippines.

They are rather known in their spicy food cooked in coconut milk. It is guaranteed that this is definitely a must try.

Bicol Region and most part in thr Visayas Region are rather known in foods cooked in milk coconut as their main ingredients. I am definitely inlove with how they cook almost everything in coconut milk. Something I cannot replicate myself.