Monday, October 31, 2011

Podium Opens at Noon on November 1

Paseo de Roxas corner dela Rosa St., 10/26, Wednesday, 11:55 am.
Ortigas Avenue corner Santolan Road today, 1:58 pm.
In Mag:net Gallery's Fb group, Rock Drilon posted this:
Daybreak. Migs Villanueva.
'we're closed today and tomorrow. happy halloween!'
 Happy Halloween too to everyone!  Thought you'd want to see how traffic today compares to weekdays in San Juan.

Galerie Joaquin sent me this email along with Migs Villanueva painting photos, including the two posted here:

Ortigas Avenue, San Juan. October 28, Friday, 11:02 am
'Gallery Friends,
Here are some works of MIGS VILLANUEVA, in her 2nd One man show, To be held on the 3rd of November.

In case you have questions with the pieces, please let us know as soon as possible.

Thanks and happy viewing!'
Blue Mist.  Migs Villanueva.
 Galerie Joaquin-Podium told me that the mall will open at 12 noon on All Saints' Day:
Ortigas Avenue corner Roosevelt today, 1:55 pm.


All Saints' Day Schedules






Establishment/Date 31-Oct 1-Nov 2-Nov
BDO-V-Mall closed closed open
Freska Tagaytay open
Greenhills Shopping Center 12-9 pm
Mag:net Gallery closed closed open
Podium opens at 12 nn
Robinsons Galleria regular hours
Via Mare St. Luke's Global 10 am-8 pm
Via Mare: other outlets open







































BDO V-Mall Closed Tomorrow

Sunday, October 30, 2011

BDO V-Mall Closed Tomorrow

Patisserie Caroline fruit cake.
October 31 and November 1 will be special non-working holidays.
And on November 1.

As expected, Patisserie Caroline will be closed on November 1.  This I found out the other day when I dropped by to get Calamansi Dacquoise and Cafe Mocha cakes for balikbayansJK and BB.

A customer said that she couldn't imagine the taste of the Calamansi Dacquoise.

She told me that the fruit cake is good.  I haven't tried it yet, so I got a free sample, which was good, not too sweet and without the artificial fruit taste that I dislike.  Comparable to the defunct Delifrance Insular's, which also gave me a free sample.  Thanks, Caroline's!

I'm not sure, but maybe Delifrance has more flavor/s.  It's been years since I had their fruit cake.

In an Fb chat message, HK Tan of Nasi Lemak, Robinsons Galleria will be open on November 1, but he is not sure what the exact hours will be, as there has been no definite advice from the mall.

Caroline's packaging for brownies is the same.
So, in sum, below is my All Saints' info:

Establishment/Date 31-Oct 1-Nov 2-Nov
BDO-V-Mall closed closed open
Freska Tagaytay open
Greenhills Shopping Center 12-9 pm
Robinsons Galleria open
Via Mare St. Luke's Global 10 am-8 pm
Via Mare: other outlets open

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Hotel Kimberly Tagaytay

I made reservations at Marcia Adams.
This was my only glimpse of sheep ever, anywhere.
Team-building is available for big groups.
OT is going to Tagaytay and a Nasugbu beach this weekend with her batch mates.  One of her batch mates has a place in Canyon Woods.

Cafe at K washroom was smelly when I went.
I suggested that she try Hotel Kimberly, as it is owned by a friend.

There is a promo rate of P 3,500 (including taxes) for a superior room next weekend.

This October, the room rate is P 4,500 plus
P 2,500 for the second night, and includes the following freebies:

Taal Lake pica-pica
mini bar
breakfast for 2

When I went there for a visit, I had a tour of the rooms courtesy of Al, the right hand man of the Executive Director.

My first comment was that the lobby felt even more relaxing than how it looked in the website.  It is also more spacious.

I went around by myself at first.  I took photos of some chickens.  When I looked at my photo, I saw a white thing in the background, and assumed that it was a chick.  When I checked out the white animal, it turned out to be sheep.  That's when I got stuck following them. :)

When I showed the photos of the pool to my friend, she asked me if you could play basketball in the pool, since there was a basket.  It was only then that I realized that the pool had a basket. :)

If I were to stay there, I can just imagine myself playing ping pong and another game which I can't name now, the one with moving men on sticks.

When I went to Lima Park Hotel early this year, I was yearning for a ping pong table, as I'm not actually a gym person (Hotel Kimberly also has a gym).


When I went to Taiwan decades ago, the hotel had only one ping pong table.  The guests lined up to play.

When Al showed me the balcony of one of the rooms, the sliding door fell.  Someone overheard Al's reprimand later.

On the Cafe washroom's smell, I was told that Hotel Kimberly had been having a hard time getting a plumber or contractor to fix it, as Tagaytay is far from Metro Manila.

I also pointed out that there was a chair in the path to the pool from the rooms.  A waiter was asked to move a chair.

I wish the path to the pool had more plants, like the rest of the lot.

All these are fixable, especially with Hotel Kimberly's friendly, eager-to-please employees.  What would be difficult to fix, in any building, is the architecture.  This is what I appreciated in Hotel Kimberly, and in Lima Park Hotel.

The stairs split the floor into two, so that the farthest room is not so far away from the main stairway.

The huts near the Balite Falls were not clean. 
And because of the path to the pool, there are two ways out of every corridor, making it firesafe, something you don't get in most restaurants (especially, say, Savory at Theater Mall) and condos, and even at Astoria Boracay, unless you count jumping into the pool, and climbing over the rails and dropping to the ground floor from the second floor, which I guess most people can do without getting hurt.

Although only the rooms--and I suppose, the function rooms, are air-conditioned, on September 23 when I went, it was comfortable from morning to lunch.

Our lunch was gising-gising (better than Metro Megamall), which I selected from the menu, a sweet Oreo shake that the waiter recommended, and sotanghon soup (standard) for a restless tummy, leftovers of the buffet of the DENR group that was there at the time.

Where have I seen pool basketball before?  Josie and the Pussycats?
 Incidentally, the wi-fi at Cafe at K is excellent.

When I went to Balai Isabel on November 2009, the internet access was through a pay lounge.

Lima Park has internet access which I didn't use because I didn't bring my laptop.

After lunch, we went to Balite Falls, which has a decent function area upstairs.  Guests need to bring their own food.

We also went to Marcia Adams, near Residence Inn.  I got to meet Marcia Adams' husband Neil Adams and their cat, who understands British English.  He said that the minimum per person is P 700.  Plus 10% service charge, that makes P 770.  I do not look forward to cancelling this reservation.

I'd like to take photos of Marcia Adams' Tuscany garden outside, too.
I got coffee from Cafe Amadeo, which I haven't tried yet.

Then we went to the famous Mahogany Market, which grossed us out because there were horns and beef on the floor.  We did not see any extraordinary fruit or any other foodstuff.

The driver said that it had been moved from the main road as it was causing traffic.

The market had enough parking, more than I had expected.

My friend said that her dad gets inexpensive 'Batangus' beef here.

We were back in Makati before 5.  Even though it was a Friday, I was still surprised at how short the travel time was.
Go straight to bed after partying all night long.
Anyway, back to Hotel Kimberly.  They have bridal packages, which my friend said would make it convenient for the guests to book there.

My friend says that there are two kinds of hotels that she would look at when staying in Tagaytay.  One is high-end, the likes of Taal Vista with the view,  and the no-frills MC Hotel at P 2,500 a night including breakfast, for sleeping over after a wedding instead of driving all the way back to Metro Manila.

At P 3,500 she finds Hotel Kimberly attractive.

At P 4,500, Hotel Kimberly might not be as attractive (excluding the October freebies) as Balai Isabel (P 5,500) with its giant pools and other sports facilities, mountain climbing tours, Taal Lake view, Church.

I guess it also depends on how near the hotel is to the other places that you are going to.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Dillier

Yes.
Not yet.
Are 'dillier' and 'mellowy' words?  No, says blogspot and Lexpert.  Yes, says Fb Scrabble.

Lexpert: 'Mellowy' is not a word.
Incidentally,  blogspot underlines 'blogspot' and 'Fb' in red, in Edit Mode.  'Scrabble' is acceptable to blogspot.

'Dillier' is a word that my opponent played.  'Mellowy' is one of the few bingos that I came up with, without the usual help of Lexpert.

Incidentally, another word that blogspot doesn't recognize as a word is 'bingos.'

Yes.

More new words.


Saturday, October 22, 2011

Via Mare Open on November 1

In reply to my email asking if all outlets will have regular hours, Via Mare sent me this email yesterday:

Via Mare St. Luke's Global City. 7/5/11
'Yes, except for St. lukes branch which is 10-8pm opertaion [sic] hours only.'

So far these places are open on All Saints:

Freska Tagaytay
Greenhills Shopping Center - 12-9 pm

Via Mare-- regular hours for all outlets except St. Luke's: 10 am-8 pm.






 I also asked Midnight Mercato if it will open on November 4.


So I guess it follows that the places where Via Mare has an outlet are also open, like Eastwood Mall, Greenbelt (1 is good), Landmarks Trinoma (bad) and Glorietta (good), Medical City (ok), Shangri-La Plaza (good), Rockwell (good).

Friday, October 21, 2011

Freska Tagaytay Open on All Saints'

Got this email yesterday:
'Dear Sir / Maam,

So far, our Freska-Tagaytay branch is sure to open during All Saints. We have yet to receive Memo from our top management if our other branches will be open at that time.

Thank you.
Regards,

JONNALYN A. SARMIENTO
Admin. Officer
Freska Group
Main Office: 2nd Level EDSA Arcade, EDSA, Mandaluyong City
T. +632. 535-1828 / 703-4140
E. mail@freskagroup.com
Website:  www.freskagroup.com'

Via Mare emailed me today to say that all outlets will be open on All Saints'.  I emailed them back to ask if the hours will the same as the regular hours.


So, so far the following are open on November 1:

I wonder what BDO V-Mall's hours are on November 1. 8-30-11.
Freska Tagaytay
Greenhills Shopping Center - 12-9 pm

Via Mare--all outlets


Thursday, October 20, 2011

Greenhills Open Till 9 on November 1

Benedict N. Sandejas emailed me today:
Greenhills shoe tiangge. Today.

'Yes Maam. It was just finalized this morning. The schedule on November 1 will be up to 9PM. The November 2 schedule is still the same.'


 

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Greenhills Opens at Noon on All Saints' Day

Lifestyle Center parking building. 9-10-11.
Of all the establishments that I emailed, only Greenhills Shopping Center has replied to me:

'Hi Amity,

The tentative schedule is as follows:

Date
Opening
Closing
November 1, 2011
12NN
8PM
November 2, 2011
10AM
8PM

In case there are any changes to the schedule, i will just send you an email.

Thanks,

Benedict'

Thanks, Benedict.  Do you realize that your map page is down? 

Mann Hann at Shoppesville.9-8-11
Feel free to post your holiday skeds and other announcements either in the comments section of this post or in Classiifieds.

I also told Benedict that a tiangge tindera (tianggera?)  told me this afternoon that they will open from 12 to 9 pm on November 1

So what to do in the morning, before 12 pm, aside from maybe homemade ginataan for breakfast?

I emailed Via Mare to ask which outlets will be open on November 1.  As it has outlets in Landmark, Rockwell, Eastwood Mall, Shangri-La Plaza, Greenbelts 1 and 3 and Morato, it would tell me which places will be open on All Saints' Day.

I'm most interested in something like lato, one of their new dishes.
Via Mare St. Luke's Global. 5-4-11.

While googling for lato salad, I chanced upon Freska, one of the restos that JK and I had been to and declared not that interesting.  

But for the sake of lato, I'm willing to check it out for maybe the third time.

The reason why lato is so special is that DK said that there's nothing quite like it anywhere else.  We went to Ortigas Home Depot--twice--to eat lato salad.  The market is not exactly the cleanest place, but we enjoyed our meals both times.  One was at a resto beside the market, and another at a resto behind the market.

The more recent trip was at the resto beside the market, because my friend had recommended it to me.  Aside from lato, we had fresh whole buko, which EK said was not something you could get everywhere.

We also had grilled scallop, even though our waiter was pushing for baked scallop with cheese, which I thought was not so interesting for Canadians.

We also had mango shake and another drink which I don't remember.

Now how is lato different from Abe Restaurant's paco fern?

Casa Veneracion has a photo of paco, which I might not have tried before.

So what is the difference between a fern and a seaweed?

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Places Open on All Saints' Day

What are the malls and other places open on Novembers 1 and 2?

Sakura, Glorietta, 9/4/11
 According to Budget Travel Philippines, SM and Ayala Malls were open last All Saints' Day.

I emailed SM Megamall, Ayala Museum and Greenhills Shopping Center to find out if they will open on November 1.

I'm hopeful that Ayala Museum will be open on All Saints' since it was open for Easter the other year. 

I tried to email Ayala Malls but their contact form was unwieldy.

I asked the question at the Robinsons Malls Fb page.

In the past years, I found myself in Tequila Joe's at El Pueblo, Ateneo, Shell Select Ortigas Avenue and EDSA Shang on November 1 as these were the only places I could find that were open then.  Rockwell and Glorietta were closed.
I doubt if Maimee's Garden Cafe will be open.

It seems that all that has changed.

I'm glad because balikbayans JK and BB want to go out on November 1 and 2.

I want to bring the balikbayans to Market! Market! for native delicacies, Greenhills for Mr. Quickie to replace the heel of a Clark's shoe that's too expensive to repair in Canada, and Maimee's Garden Cafe for kare-kare.

Thanks to my friend for recommending Mr. Quickie over Besa's, the quality of which she was not happy with, on top of the price.

Anyway, back to the possible places where I can bring my friends.

American Cemetery's out since it was closed around 6 pm when Dk and I tried to go in on a regular day.

If I can figure out how to go to Libingan ng mga Bayani, I'd like to bring them there.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

3 Tickets Left for Outlet and Travel Sale

My deadline for submitting my guest list is today.  For those in my guest list, just ask for Amity Young's guest list at the front desk.

Urbanears is a product of Digital Walker, sister company of Digital Hub.
Outlet and Travel Sale

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Upto 90% Off at Outlet and Travel Sale

Jean has confirmed that all items at the Sale will be marked down, before I reread the poster which stated that selected items are at 90% off and at Real 0% off.  What does that mean?  That BPI will not charge any interest for installments?  And there won't be cash discounts?

My Crumpler.  Available at Digital Walker.
Anyway, has anyone been to Megatent?  It's on the left side coming from Julia Vargas, after Renaissance, before St. Paul.

I was just in the area last week and I didn't notice it. Where and how is the parking?  Is this Malibu Enterprise's first sale?

Are the items on sale the slow-moving ones?

The discount that matters is for the item that we want to buy.

Another way to get free entrance is to present your BPI card and your ID.

The sale is from October 14 to 16, 10 am to 9 pm.

I see that Accel is one of the participating brands.  I have an Accel skort that I wear frequently, which I got from Robinsons Galleria Sports Loop.  Now I'm wondering if there's a fitting room.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Outlet and Travel Sale Tickets Worth P 50

Jean tells me that each ticket is worth P 50.

At the Outlet Sale, I hope to look at a bargain Adidas shirt, socks, skorts or shoes

I'm in the market for a camera, but I don't need to go to the Sale for Digital Walker or Crumpler, as there's a Digital Walker in V-Mall where I usually go.

I've asked Jean if we can expect marked down prices at the sale.

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