Proudly Pinoy Organic Products

I rarely go to Market Market but today, my friend and I had dinner there and we passed by this organic store called ECO MARKET. They sell locally-made organic products from detergent, cleaning agents to beauty products. Here are some of the products I decided to try:

Roach Wars< Php75 (left). The saleslady said you just have to put some of this powder into an open container and it will attract roaches and kill them. At least it doesn’t smell like your typical insecticide. Messy Bessy Disinfectant Aroma Spray, Php245 (right). I was really supposed to get a can of Lysol Disinfectant today so good thing, I found this organic alternative. Pricier than your commercially available disinfectant but at least it doesn’t have harmful chemicals. Plus, you can buy just the refill next time so it might be more practical in the long-run.

Human Nature Hand and Foot salve, Php99.75 (left). Burt’s Bees Hand Salve was also on my shopping list but I decided to try this local version when I saw it at the Eco Store. If this works, that’s a lot of savings - it only costs a fifth of a fraction of Burt’s Bees. Indigo Shoo Fly Insect Repellant, Php65 (right).

Human Nature Peppermint, Pearl Powder & Aloe Vera Shampoo and Body Wash, Php99.75 (left). Contains no SLS/SLES, parabens and pthalates – chemicals that are commonly used by commercially available shampoo which have been reportedly harmful. Plus it’s shampoo and body wash in one – nice to bring along when traveling. :) Thrifty Dishwashing Liquid, P75 (right).

The EcoMarket Store is located at the Ground Floor Main Entrance of Market-Market, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig. You may also want to check out their products online at www.ecomarket.multiply.com or contact them at ecomarket.ph@gmail.com or (0915)5147534.

Foodtrip: Mesa, Greenbelt5

Mesa is one of my favorite restaurants serving Filipino food. Nice ambiance and reasonable price. It even has a function room which you can reserve for big group get-togethers (accommodates up to about 12 pax).

On our recent lunch get-together, we only spent about Php4,500 for a group of 8pax considering we ordered multiple servings of the dishes below PLUS a small serving of prichon, appetizers and shakes. I forgot take a photo of the prichon though. I was so excited to eat that I forgot to! Haha...

Pomelo Salad (left) and Laing (right). I don’t usually crave for laing but theirs is really yummy.)

I forgot the name of the dish on the left, sorry. On the right is crispy tilapia served with 4 different sauces.

Adobong Pusit (left) and Crispy Fried Squid (right).

And just a little trivia – read from somewhere that it is co-owned by Sen. Kiko Pangilinan. No Megastar-sighting yet though. Haha…

Mesa is located at the Ground Floor of Greenbelt 5 just outside the entrance/exit nearest to the Omega and Rolex stores (yep, that Rolex store in Greenbelt 5). But no worries, security is so tight now. In addition to the regular security guards per store, there are also security personnel outside each store now plus roving guards inside and outside the perimeter of Greenbelt. Anyway, to make reservations at Mesa, you may call +632 7280886.

Fun Shoot Series at Hidden Valley

My friend and I joined the Fun Shoot Series of the Ayala Foundation held at the Hidden Valley in Laguna yesterday. Purely for fun since I don’t even own an SLR. In fact, it was actually my first time to attend a photography session. When the other participants started talking about polarizer and apertures, I couldn’t understand a thing! Haha… And when they started taking out their SLRs, zoom lenses and other accessories, it was time to take out my point & shoot camera! Haha…

Here are some of the photos that I took (too bad though I don’t have a nice shot of the falls).

And when our teacher asked us to submit at least one photo for the critique session, here’s what I submitted -

and I was so happy when he said that it was a very good shot. The colors are vivid, he said, and the spider gives a scale of how big the flowers are really are. Whew, I survived with my plain point & shoot camera! Haha…

Mama Mary relic in the Philippines

My mom and I went to visit the Marian Exhibit yesterday at the Mall of Asia (MOA), Pasay City, which features different statues of the Virgin Mary - a lot of which are original and miraculous statues that were flown from various parts of the Philippines. Sorry I didn’t bother to remember the names since though each statue looked different, they all represented Mama Mary and that is what mattered to me. (That, plus I really have a poor memory. Haha...).

Anyway, we were lucky to have seen a relic of Mama Mary – a tiny piece of Mama Mary’s veil given by the Vatican to Fr. Suarez. The relic is housed inside the cross in the photo below.

One of the statues that I was really delighted to see was Bambi Maria (hope I remembered this right!) – a statue of Mama Mary as a baby which came from Italy and given to the Salesian priests. “Bambina” in Italian means baby girl and it’s only once a year that this statue is exposed for public viewing which happens every September 8 at the Don Bosco Church along Pasay Road, Makati City.

The exhibit runs until October 21, 2009 (Wed) at the Ground Floor of the SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City (just beside the skating rink). Hope you make time to visit. :)

Life's challenges - blessing or a curse?

I got a copy of "50 Prosperity Classics", a collection of key messages and excerpts from the classic and best books on prosperity and abundance (a way to save time on reading! Haha...). By prosperity, it's not just about financial abundance but about well-being and giving back. Thus, the book is divided into 4 sections - Attracting Prosperity, Creating it, Managing it and Sharing it.

I just started reading a few pages and came across insightful messages from James Allen's Path to Prosperity. He knew of 2 men who lost their hard-earned savings while still young. The first fell into hopelessness and regret while the other said "worry won't bring it back, but hard work will". The first man continued to mourn his loss and bad luck which snowballed into even worse circumstances. The second one started anew, worked really hard and eventually regained his worth. To one, the loss was a curse. To the other, it was a blessing.

Allen says, "If circumstances had the power to bless or harm, they would bless and harm all men alike, but the fact that the same circumstances will be alike good and bad to different souls proves that good or bad is not in the circumstance, but only in the mind of him that encounters it."

So when faced with life's challenges, just ask yourself - blessing or a curse? Move on or wallow in regret?

What's "dolphin" in Filipino?

A friend asked us this question today and we all thought it was a joke. We all blurted out, "Is there really a Filipino term for dolphin?" trying to decipher if there was a punchline to his question. When he said there's really a Tagalog term for it, we guessed dolpin, dolpen... Of course, all our guesses were wrong. Haha...

And the answer is - Dolphin is Lumbang lumbang in Filipino! It's my first time to hear the term. What a shame!

Here are some more to test how good you are with the Filipino language. What are the Filipino translations for -

Bag?

Wallet?

Dike?

Falcon?

Give up? Here are the answers:

Bag - Tampipi

Wallet - Kalupi

Dike - Pilapil

Falcon - Bagwis

Don't worry, I didn't get anything correct either! Tsk...tsk...

Farming and Farmville

In the past couple of months, I've been hearing friends and acquaintances discussing about harvesting crops and raving about their cows and barns and so out of curiosity, while we were at the San Benito Farm weeks ago, I finally decided to install Farmville in FB (I created a virtual farm while in a real farm! Haha...).

Other than curiosity, I am really also interested in farming. In fact, around that time, I was trying to convince my friend to accompany me in an upcoming organic farming seminar but she wasn't interested.:( She said that I should probably test my farming skills in Farmville first. Haha... Expectedly, since I rarely open my FB account, the initial batches of crops I planted just withered! Then the patches of land that I plowed weren't aligned and had gaps in between! Total chaos! Haha...But I did have some kind of strategy - maximize land utilization. I spent all my money on plowing and planting - down to single digit every time (after all, ROI is always guaranteed). Then I put cows, goats and sheep within the gaps. My farm looked like a mess but I can't complain, the strat worked pretty well in growing it.

It's fun playing Farmville. And if you're like me who's hesitant at first because you rarely check on FB, you can choose crops which you can harvest in 3 to 4 days. My favorites are wheat, artichokes and now, watermelon. :)

This is how my farm looks like now. I just finished organizing it a bit. The patches of land look like nothing is planted because I planted watermelon and it means, I don't need to log in to FB until Monday night! :)

Foodtrip: Canteen

Here's my new discovery in Makati. I've actually passed by this place along Rada St. in Legaspi Village before but I initially thought it was just a clothing shop (because of the mannequins on the window display). Ok, I didn't bother to check the signage that says Canteen simple+good food. Haha... So it's a restaurant cum shop. Here's what I had when my colleagues and I tried the place:

Grilled Fish with Greek salad

Warm chocolate le souffle with ice cream (Super yummy! Highly recommended.)

Canteen also sells a lot of interesting items - graphic tees, books, Lomo cameras, Andy Warhol watches - pop art-sy stuff.

Foodtrip: Flying Pig

I seldom go in the Eastwood area but recently, we had a going away lunch for a friend who's going on a sabbatical for 6 months to do volunteer work in Africa. We tried Flying Pig in the new Eastwood Mall.

One of my friends and I shared the house's bestseller - Frying Cuchi Frito. I know it's cholesterol-packed but it's super yummy! A quarter serving costs Php785 and it comes with soup and 1 side dish.

French Onion Soup

Frying Cuchi Frito. Deep fried suckling pig served with balsamic liver sauce.

Back to using mind-mappping

Five or six years ago,I bought a book in Malaysia called Mind-Mapping by Tony Bunzan. It’s basically a technique to organize and/or generate ideas coming from one central theme using colored pens and blank sheets (no lines). I so loved the technique that I used it for meetings and even my task lists. But at that time, only a few knew about mind-mapping and when I used it during meetings, people thought I wasn’t taking them seriously because I looked like I was doodling! Haha… I stopped using it then. :(

About three weeks ago, I was in a meeting and noticed that the person I was meeting with was using mind maps to take notes and I couldn’t help but make a comment. Apparently, that person is behind all the mind-mapping workshops here and I luckily got invited to attend a mind-mapping workshop. How cool can that be?:)

So in the last 2 days, I learned a lot not just about the different applications of mind-mapping but how the mind works. Plus a lot of fun activities to challenge the way we think! Really sometimes, we like to think so complicated that we miss out on the most obvious and simple solutions (which are usually the best).

Anyway, I’m now back to using the mind-mapping technique. At least hopefully now, as more people use it, I wouldn’t be seen like I am just doodling (although ok, sometimes I do! Haha…).

If you want to learn more about mind-mapping, you may visit the Salt & Light Ventures website. They regularly conduct workshops and they also carry Tony Bunzan's books.