If you buy digital scrapbooking kits regularly, then you’ll know that spending $10 dollars on a Sweet Shoppe Designer collab is money well spent. This month of April, there’s another reason to go kit buying – Kibou for Japan.
Here are the details from their shop:
On March 11, 2011, an earthquake struck off the coast of Japan, churning up a devastating tsunami that swept over cities and farmland in the northern part of the country leaving a tragic amount of destruction and devastation in its path. Recorded as 9.0 on the Richter scale, it was the most powerful quake ever to hit the country. As of March 31, the official death toll had been raised to more than 11,600, and more than 16,000 people were listed as missing. Although there may be some overlap between the two groups, the final toll is expected to reach nearly 20,000 lives lost. To help the people of Japan in our own way, Sweet Shoppe Designs has created a kit which 100% of the profits will be donated to the American Red Cross for their Japanese Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami fund. Kibou means ‘Hope’ in Japanese, and it is a very special kit jam packed with 3 dozen papers, more than 70 elements, 2 templates and more! It will be on sale for the month of April only, and is for such a great cause that we truly hope you will help us reach out the people of Japan in their time of need.
Personally, I think it’s a good buy. Donating ten dollars to help in the rehabilitation of the devastated areas is that one small thing we all can do to help. Getting this fabulous kit is just the icing on top.
The Carinderia Buffet is located in the corner of V.Luna and Mabilis Streets in Pinyahan, Quezon City. I have not been around that area so much in the last five years so I was surprised when a colleague at work told me about it. Since the boyfriend was away on Thursday, I got the chance to have lunch with a different group – King, one of my TLs, Patrick, a Trainer, and four other agents. They were going to Enchanted Kingdom after shift that day but decided to hook up with me for lunch before they set out for adventure land.
Carinderia Buffet boasts of a 99-peso Eat-all-you-can buffet of carinderia staples. A carinderia is a neighborhood/corner store or eatery that sells cooked meals at very low costs. People would eat at these places, or buy food to take home. Some people, mostly A/B crowds, try to stay away from eateries or carinderias though because these places are not subjected to government inspection for health/safety standards.
That’s what the Buffet is capitalizing on – they offer the usual carinderia fare while guaranteeing cleanliness. The price isn’t necessarily targeted for the C & D market, but for an eat-all-you-can arrangement, 99 pesos is very cheap.
Upon entering the establishment, I couldn’t help but note the roominess of the place. There were plenty of seating avaialable, and at around 1 that afternoon, there were very few empty tables. It was well-ventilated. No fancy furnishings or décor.
The second thing that caught my attention was this sign:
Well, with the number of people dining there, I wasn’t surprised that they had this rule. Besides, it was the only way they can regulate how much people could eat. Haha. Also no sharing of leftovers.
So how was the food? They had a lot of veggie dishes, but then not a lot of variety for the meat/fish section. On the set above, the left photo are all veggies, compared to all the ulam dishes to the right. One would think there should be more selections on the section to the right. I tried their por binagoongan (not special), pork sinigang (yummy, but very fatty), fried chicken (ok), adobong kangkong, ensaladang mangga/talong, and squash with string beans dish. Everything was okay, but non really WOW’ed me.
There was only one dish for dessert and we thought it was sweetened banana – it turned out to be sugared sweet potatoes.
Drinks are not part of the 99-peso fee. A refillable drink costs about 40-45 pesos.
Will I be back? If only so the boyfriend could sample the food, yes. But there’s really nothing there to pull me back.
Would I recommend it? Why not. It’s an experience. It’s affordable and you can eat-all-you-can for one hour. You can take your friends or colleagues here and treat them out to lunch without having to break the bank or taking out cash advance online. 🙂 They have clean toilets too, with tissue and running water.
Have you tried Carinderia Buffet? What’s your favorite restaurant?
While driving around Cebu, I could not help but notice these types found along the sidewalks:
At first, the boyfriend said that they were loading machines or something, but I didn’t believe him. They were everywhere! I tried snapping photos while inside a moving cab but I never got a clear shot – just a bunch of blurry ones. The driver (who doubled as our tour guide) finally told us what they were: ATMs – Automatic Tubig Machines!
Cebuanos need not go thirsty – there were water stations all over the place. I daresay there’s more of them than there are sari-sari stores. Hehe. You drop coins in, take a plastic cup, and have yourself some cool water. I didn’t get to try it though.
This particular ATM in the picture is located just outside the Matutinao Elementary School in Badian, south of Cebu. Even three hours away from the city, these ATMs exist!
Checkout the my yet-to-be-completed series on our Cebu 2011 trip!
I was a kid in a time when the world realized how important it was to protect children. In 1990, the UN and its member states ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child. That year was also the beginning of my being a child rights advocate. UNCRC is already 20 years old, I wish I could proudly say that I’d been a CRC advocate for the same number of years, but I could not. Sadly, when I left NGO work about 6 years ago, much of my advocacy stopped too. I don’t even remember the facts anymore.
Of course I hadn’t intended it to be that way. If anything, I thought that allowing myself the freedom to live a different life would afford me more free time and resources to be involved in other child-focused advocacies. I was wrong.
I’d like to think that I still carry it in me, that in some way I am still an advocate for children’s rights. The recent issue of Willing Willie and the accusations of Child Abuse thrown against them has reawakened that spirit.
The issue has gone the rounds of social media sites for over a week. I have reserved my comment though my blood boils every time I read or hear about it. For awhile, I resisted viewing the video of the 6-year-old – being contented with the description of how he was in tears as he danced for the crowd. I could already see him in my mind, and I could hear Willie’s voice prodding him on and adding more drama to what already was a very sad scene.
I refuse to post the Youtube video of the kid on my blog, I will not even tweet you a link to it.
Call me OA (over-acting), but I sincerely believe that leaving that video online for all to see is just the same as telling the boy to keep on dancing his sexy macho dance. It’s no different from what Willie, the production team, the network, and even the audience, did to the little boy. We take a stand against child pornography right? Saying that mere possession and viewing illicit content is a violation of the child’s rights. Well I say the same about the boy’s video.
But I did watch it. I saw the 1-minute video that was shared on Twitter. It was enough for me to form an opinion. I do not wish to see it again, and I do not think others need to watch it.
* The boy was crying as soon as he started dancing. Whether he was crying out of fear of Bonel Balingit (a towering giant who happened to be at the show that day), or out of humiliation for what he was being asked to do – he should not have been made to continue, much less repeat the dance. He could have cried out of stage fright and not because he was ashamed, nonetheless, he should have been asked to stop. Does he really have to dance? All he needs to do is answer a question correctly in order to win a prize. Yes, he might have joined up and said that his talent was dancing, but if he changed his mind and was suddenly all too shy to do it in front of millions of people – then he shouldn’t have had to continue.
* Last night, the boy and his family appeared on the show. I refused to tune in and watch. Whether the family intends to file a complaint against the show is irrelevant. Protecting the child’s rights is a State duty. Violation of children’s rights, Child abuse, is a crime. Just because the parents don’t know better doesn’t right a wrong.
* I do not understand WW’s and TV5’s apology. Neither do I accept it. There was no admission of wrongdoing. In fact, they have been trying to salvage the host and the show’s reputation. The timing of the awarding for their 7 millionaires and its feature in Paparazzi last weekend is very suspicious. TV5, and all other networks, should come up with very clear guidelines on children and minors appearing in their shows – whether as actors or show contestants.
Maybe we’re barking at the wrong tree. Willie has done other things that were met with public outrage and he has gone away with it. He earns 80,000USD a day doing Willing Willie (source: Cristy Fermin, Paparazzi 3/27/11). No doubt he feels that he is untouchable. Writing to TV5’s president is probably not going to work either – after all, Willie is currently the most bankable star in their roster. Would they risk losing him the way ABSCBN did by attempting to discipline him? I don’t think so.
But the advertisers should be different. It is their money funding the show. They should demand more from its hosts and from the network.
A few weeks ago, while checking out accessories for the Wii and scouting for speakers, we ended up buying a new printer – an Epson Stylus T13.
The Canon Pixma printer that came free with the Kodak point and shoot we bought two-three years ago had already broken down, and though I personally don’t print out a lot of stuff from home, I figured it was okay to get a new one.
We got the converted printer for PhP 3700. Yes, it’s been converted to use a continues ink system that will help me save from ink costs. The sales tech also gave us tips on how to care for the printer and perform basic troubleshooting.
Being converted and all, our new printer has this attachment on the side:
That’s where the ink goes and where you’ll squeeze in the refill when needed. Each bottle of refill costs 80 pesos so if all colors go out I’ll only have to spend 320 pesos for a complete refill. How much is it per cartridge? For sure, one cartridge costs more than twice as all four refill bottles combined.
The print looks fab too. I’ve printed a photo of our little boy and it’s now been framed and sits atop their dining table at San Benissa. I look forward to printing a lot more photos, specially for Project Life when I get my kit.
The only problem is that the printer is currently not working. I get an error that I’ve ran out of ink. I’ve done the troubleshooting that the sales tech advised but it hasn’t worked so far. We have 6 months warranty and I know this can be easily fixed (or replaced). So tomorrow we shall bring it back to the store.
I forgot the name of the store we got it from, but it’s at the lower ground level of SM Cubao where all the gadget shops are. Apart from Epson, they also carry Canon and Brother printers.
I didn’t get to try it though.
