carol finds

The consumer's rights

2012-01-19T08:10:00.008+08:00

We were approaching the sale shoe rack in Rustan's Gateway when Cara showed me this:

Leather thong sandals from Libby Edelman (jowa ni Sam Edelman pero mas affordable ang mga shoeses ni misis). It had a red tag on the sole and was on sale at 50% off. "Game!," I said. We looked at another pair then asked the sales girl for our size.

The salesgirl came back with the second pair, which didn't quite fit our feet well. Then we had to wait a bit for the Libby Edelman pair. When it came, we took turns fitting it (sharing shoes always justifies the price). Then we paid for it using EPS (Express Payment System). While processing the payment, the salesgirl even told the cashier, "Ang laki ng nabawas 'no?"

We had gone around the store for a good 15 minutes when the salesgirl approached us and asked us to come with her to the sales counter. There, the cashier said that the shoes we got were not really on sale.

What the...? I protested. We all saw the red sticker on the sole. They called their manager who verified what happened and stated that the style did not belong to the sale rack. By this time, I saw the original one already placed on another table. I got it and showed her where I first saw it, as well as the red tag. She made an attempt to remove it. Then she apologized and said it's really not on sale. The salesgirl also said she had already debited my card.

Calmly but firmly (I was boiling mad inside but I had to be cool and authoritative), I said, "Sige. Isosoli ko yan. Pero ire-report ko kayo sa DTI. Kasi, according to DTI rules*, the customer should only pay the price that is on the tag. Kukunan ko 'to ng picture."

I took out my phone. And then I dropped the bomb. "Pati kayong lahat, kukunan ko ng picture."

They all looked at each other and then the manager said, "Sige, ma'm. Ok na. Kami na lang bahalang mag-ayos."

The shoes were not on sale??? Eh may red tag? At nasa sale rack? And what if we had left the store immediately after we paid for the shoes?

We walked away not feeling a hundred percent happy, knowing that the manager will make the clueless salesgirl absorb the price difference. But it felt good that I had stood my ground, and taught my daughter an important lesson in 'consumership'.

I feel an extra spring in my step wearing these sandals today.

* The provision on Price Tag, under R.A. 7394, requires that all consumer products sold in retail to the public shall bear an appropriate price tag, label, or marking indicating the price of the article. Such consumer products shall not be sold at a price higher than that stated in the price tag.

*As stated in Republic Act 71 and Articles 81 to 83 of the Consumer Act of the Philippines or R.A. No. 7394, "It shall be unlawful to offer any consumer product for retail sale to the public without an appropriate price tag, label or marking publicly displayed to indicate the price of each article and said products shall not be sold at a price higher than that stated therein and without discrimination to all buyers."

DTI Assistant Secretary Angel L. Pelayo emphasized the significance of the Price Tag and reiterated that "consumers should not pay any amount higher than the price tag or price list displayed."

Learn more about The 8 Basic Consumer rights here.

My dream junk!

2011-12-26T13:44:00.005+08:00

Do you not crave something sweet after eating something salty, and vice versa? Continuously, endlessly, parang gulong ng buhay?

On a holiday trip to Rustan's, I found this:

Eat this when you crave something sweet. Or something salty. The good thing is you don't have to keep on switching between chocolates and potato chips. Let's say it's the perfect alternative to Royce's Chocolate Covered Potato Chips. Cheaper. Easier to pop in your mouth. And impossible to stop eating.

On the 'bright' side, this could be 'more nutritious'! ZERO cholesterol, hahaha! :D

My Trip to Paris

2011-12-24T10:28:00.007+08:00

... happened in Hong Kong. In about 12 bites.

A year after I first saw the La Maison du Chocolat store in IFC Mall, I was itching to finally give in. But after going around in circles, I couldn't locate the shop. Then serendipity (an experimental MTR stop) led me to Elements Mall.

I took a deep breath and picked six precious flavors of French macarons. Then I took a deeper breath as I paid for them.

I just had to put the treasure inside this

And that completes my Paris experience... for now!

Origami you can wear

2011-03-27T11:12:00.015+08:00

This post spans eight months and three countries.

In July last year, I got this at the crafts shelf of Kinokuniya in Bangkok.

I have long been looking for new ways to take my craft forward. I wanted to do something unique and beautiful. Inspiration (and directions) in hand, I searched for materials here in Manila. I found none. None in bookstores, none in Japanese surplus shops. The closest I found was handmade paper. But the texture was not crisp enough for folding.

And then my friend went to Tokyo so I asked her to get me these.

But before she could come back, I went to Singapore and found these.

Then I got really busy with work. It took some time before I could go into a folding frenzy.

Paper folding is not as easy as it sounds, especially when you want to make it a wearable art. I went through a long trial and error phase. The fragile paper kept tearing where it was held by a head pin so I needed to place a flat but sizable stopper inside. To avoid crumpling and getting wet, I sprayed it with Polyurethane (which was more expensive than a pack of paper). To keep the pendant in place, it had to lay flat on the chest so I put a sturdy plastic lining inside the inner wing. Leather cords look perfect but they're too light to hold the paper down.

And now that everything seems ok, I am ready to show this to the world.

11 random things my mother did in her lifetime

2011-01-11T22:00:00.000+08:00

Today, 1/11/11, is my mother's birthday. She would have been 81.

My mother was the Martha Stewart of my youth. She was a Home Ec teacher who had magic hands that could cook, bake, sew, plant, type, embroider, crochet and above everything else, care for her small family.

Mommy...
1. Made kamias candy. She harvested a palanggana of kamias from the tree in the backyard, dried them out in the sun in a bilao, boiled them in sugared syrup, wrapped them in white cellophane and amazed everyone who tasted them.

2. Bottled and canned tomatoes. She bought tens of kilos of large tomatoes, peeled them, brined them, and stuffed them in sterilized jars.

3. Molded chocolates, long before it became a fad. She tapped the molds continuously on the table until the air bubbles rose to the surface.

4. Ground her own peanuts for Kare-kare. She inherited a heavy metal grinder from my lola, which she also used to grind meat for longganisa.

5. Learned to play the guitar at 40. One day, from out of the blue, she asked my father to drive her to Sta. Mesa to buy a Lumanog guitar.

6. Wove yarn into doormats. Thick yarn bought in Divisoria were cut into short strips then hooked with a large crochet needle onto a mesh, then knotted to stay in place.

7. Cut out dainty, multi-petaled flowers from carrot slices to make the prettiest jars of achara.

8. Cultured nata de coco in wide-mouthed jars in the cold, dark spot under the stairs.

9. Made coffee and cheese-flavored pastillas when everyone else only made pastillas de leche.

10. Raised golden kuhol in a garden pond and was thrilled with the raspberry-like eggs they'd lay on its side.

11. Turned our garage into a walk-in birdcage and raised doves, strawberry finch, bato-bato, mayas, lovebirds and a peacock.

I can continue this list until it reaches 1,111 and it may still not include every crazy yet creative thing my mother did in her lifetime – all of 72 well-lived years by this woman who is 1-1-1-of a kind.

Pad Thai

2010-07-17T18:53:00.004+08:00

I don't remember exactly when I had my first Pad Thai; it must have been in that purpl-y Thai place in Mile Long in the 80's (Taste of Thailand?). It awakened a dormant taste bud in my tongue, and confused the rest: how can any dish taste so savory and yet so fresh? And sweet? And spicy?

On my first trip to Bangkok in the 9o's, I made sure I tried the real one. On the trips that followed, I had Pad Thai in every food hall I visited. I swear I never met a Pad Thai I didn't like.

Early this month, my entire family went on a Pad Thai trip, and by this time, our Thai connection had gone beyond noodles. My sister-in-law had married a Thai, and had given birth to two cute little Thai-Pi's.

Who could lead us to the best Pad Thai but my Thai brother-in-law Tony? On the way home from the airport, he asked us what we wanted for a late dinner. Our combined thought and dialog balloons said, "Pad Thai." He gladly stopped by a stall in his neighborhood, and came back with three treasure chests. "Two ordinary noodles, one glass noodles," he smiled as he walked back to this hungry Pinoy gang, glassy-eyed from the midnight budget flight we just took.

Stir-fried on a manang's wok, sprinkled with a Tuk Tuk's dust, sprayed with roadside germs, it was the best Pad Thai we ever had. They've always said Thai street food was the best. How true! The succeeding ones we had paled in comparison: at the Food loft in Central Silom, at the Food Hall in Paragon, at a roadside restaurant, and the last one at the airport lounge.

The flavors of this Pad Thai will remain in our hearts and tongues for a very long time. Just as it will always remind us of the Thai ties we have forever!

Saving (it) for a rainy day

2010-05-09T00:00:00.001+08:00

I was in a bookstore browsing through a table of items on sale when a stack of magnets caught my attention:

What lovely illustrations of great writers, too pretty to stick a take-out menu on a ref door with! Plus I'd need to buy a new ref for these lovely magnets. Not. As I continued browsing, I found something that made me gasp: The loveliest umbrella with the same great women writers! My knees weakened. I MUST have this. But then I saw another umbrella in green and purple, but it was wrapped in plastic and I couldn't open it. I got confused. Will I get the blue one or the green one? Or both? I couldn't decide so I panicked. I went out of the store without buying anything.

Oh, did I tell you that the items were all marked 60% off?

I could not sleep that night. I confessed to my stupidity to my family and then made up my mind to go call the store in the morning. But not before I searched the Internet for photos of the stuff. I found out that the green umbrella only had Virginia Woolf on all panels. Now, I want the blue one. No, I really really want the blue one.
PS. If you see someone singing and dancing in the rain under a pretty umbrella, you don't have to wonder who it is :-)

Totem Clay

2010-03-01T16:49:00.004+08:00

Remember my friend, the Madonnaro?

Joel Yau is up to yet another amazing new 'hobby':

Clay totem poles! As totem poles go, this one is six feet tall and took about two months to make... and bake. Playful and whimsical, it looks like a delightful kebob of all things fun!

Here's a detail of the totem clay, which he intends to install in his front yard soon. Well, there's room in my front yard for this, too, Joel!

L'occitaine hand creme

2010-02-26T13:58:00.008+08:00

My good friend gave me this for my trip last year, in anticipation of the bitter cold I was up for. This little tube saved my hands from looking like crocodile skin and feeling like the Sahara. To this day, I use it even at the onset of summer. Apparently the root of dry skin is not just the weather... it's age! :-( which reminds me...
-------
J: Mom, you have lotion on your face.
Me: It's not lotion, it's anti-aging cream...
J: Good luck!

OMG Origami

2010-02-25T17:40:00.002+08:00

Have you ever seen anything like these at all? Incredible creativity, patience, imagination, precision, etc. Someday, I want to grow up to be an origamista :D

Found at Narita Airport, Dec. 2009

My new favorite snack

2010-02-06T17:00:00.002+08:00

Healthy, non fattening, fiber rich, with an incredible crunch. Been munching on these for weeks now and I have happily converted many!

I'd like to equate its cost to a bag of Lay's – without the calories!

Available at S&R (P99) and at Hypermart and Shopwise (P100). But I believe the ones in S&R are fresher and therefore crunchier.

Go try them now, hunny bunnies!

Copco Eco-First Acadia Mug

2010-01-19T23:12:00.005+08:00

Take a disposable idea and turn it into a recyclable one – that's what this Copco mug is all about. Inspired by those iconic Starbucks paper cups, this awesome mug is made of BPA-free plastic and is washable, microwavable, reusable, affordable and most definitely... lovable!

Found at Bed, Bath & Beyond.

When in Tokyo...

2010-01-05T08:19:00.006+08:00

My fight to the US had a brief stop over at the Narita Airport and it was enough to get me excited. My friend had fallen asleep throughout the flight from Manila and had completely missed all her meals, so she wanted to grab a bite at McDonalds. I was mortified at the thought and insisted on getting a 'proper' Japanese meal. After all, it was going to be my first meal in Japan... it's got to be the real deal, kahit fast food lang noh!

My Chirasi up close.

And on top.

A wrong order mistakenly served to my friend.

My friend's Japanese steak.

I spent the rest of the three hour-stop over ogling at Japanese goodies and marveling at the intricate origami... photos in the next post!

I bagged it!

2010-01-03T23:07:00.002+08:00

I didn't like it that I had to wait till my last day in the US to go to Barnes & Noble. Sadly, a trip to the bookstore was not on the priority list of my companions. But I could not leave without visiting one. And so I kindly asked a good friend to take me. And I was not disappointed.

I scream

2010-01-01T18:54:00.009+08:00

...for an ice cream maker!

I got this on my recent US trip, packed it in a balikbayan box and is now on its way to my kitchen! Been wanting this for the past five years. I can't wait!

Now I badly need to get a copy of David Lebovitz' The Perfect Scoop.

The Ukay-Ukay Adventures of the Shopaholic Twins

2009-07-19T09:08:00.011+08:00

It all began with Candy Magazine. Their friend Jasmine came out in several spreads in the July issue. Jas, 15, a student in Melbourne and younger sister of actress Anne Curtis, was Budget Babe, with clothes scored for P100 from a Cubao ukay - ukay. Inspiration! Lust! Envy!

And so Cara nagged me endlessly to take her and shopping twin Bea there. After a night of surfing for Cubao ukays, we finally knew where to go. Sus, dun lang pala. Off 'thrifting' we went – as Jane of seaofshoes calls this fascination.

(Senior shopaholic's note: these juniors have recently discovered the highs of shopping and together can be a very dangerous combination: so full of energy yet so nonchalant about cost, oh well, they knew it was dirt cheap anyway.)

A strange, musky smell greeted us the moment we entered the cavernous hall – literally filled to the rafters with previously owned clothes. And bags. And shoes.
The girls had a single-minded search objective: boots. They attacked the racks and were quickly disappointed to discover that absolutely no pair fit their gigantic feet (size 9 for Cara and 10 for Bea). And so they vented their passion on the jackets instead.

One hour and four stores later, we had a haul of eight jackets and sweaters, 1 hoodie, 1 blouse and one bag among the three of us – everything for less then three thousand pesos.

The most fab find of the day – Bea's cropped red leather jacket: P250 from Fashion Delight.

Cara's Gossip Girl top: P250 from Dezibel.

Now, bring out the Lysol :-)

The Sampalok Tree – a story of giving back

2009-04-22T01:27:00.011+08:00

Rewind. On my first trip to Bangkok in 2002, I brought home a few kilos of sweet and juicy sampalok for my Mom to enjoy. I remember the sharp look I got when I offered some to my Titas. "Akin yan," her eyes firmly said.

Fast Forward. Seven years later (and six years after my mother died), I am almost surprised to see a graceful sampalok tree standing right by her old bedroom window. Unknown to me, she had planted a seed from that bunch, and it has grown and propagated not just the fruit, but the memory of that day, her joy and her generosity as well.

Pause. Seven years ago, I brought my mother a pasalubong. Seven years later, she gave it back to me.

All dressed up

2009-03-13T12:57:00.006+08:00

After months of going around
a) naked
b) in an ill-fitting striped red distressed bag
c) in a no nonsense reversible green and brown sleeve...

I am excited to announce that my MacBook has found the perfect outfit!!!

She now sashays around wearing a zebra patterned sleeve in pink and black. No, it didn't come from a high tech Apple store or a designer techie boutique.

I got it at SM Department store for P299.75. Eyeloveit!!!

Becoming them – an update

2009-02-27T23:18:00.002+08:00

Yay! I'm giddy with excitement:

• J won as Department Representative in his college's student council elections. He actually ran unopposed – the two other parties (both of which asked him to be their rep before he announced his candidacy) were not able to find suitable candidates.

• C was named "Rookie of the Year" of her volleyball team in the Varsity Dinner at her school tonight.

Priceless.

The perfect time

2009-02-09T10:18:00.014+08:00

Under my pillow lies a rosary. Every night in the recent years, I have made it a ritual to pray until sleep dictates what comes next.

I once read a priest's advice to someone who said she'd fall asleep while praying: "If that's how the rosary comforts you, then let it be..." And so, I took it to heart.

That's because these days, I go to bed only when my eyes begin to see double. My prayers have since become shorter and shorter, the decades unfinished, the words garbled, jumbled, mentally mumbled. I'd always wake up feeling guilty and promising to pray longer the next evening.

But yesterday's homily during mass at the Holy Family Chapel in Eastwood changed it all.

The priest talked about not waiting for the last minute to say your prayers. He said that at night, after spending the day doing everything we have to, it is normal that the only thing our body wants to do is sleep. And so he suggested that we say our prayers in the morning. "It will energize you," he promised.

It was one of the first things I remembered as I woke up. As my hand crept under my pillow in search of the beads, I also anticipated the extra minutes I could spend in bed.

Moments later, I felt like I've splashed my face with faith, or even taken a quick shower of blessings.

I AM ready to begin my day.

Becoming them

2009-02-01T11:00:00.003+08:00

As our children grow, we parents become amazed spectators to their transformation as their own person – each one a unique blend of our own genes yet perfectly different from the other and from who we are.

This year is an awesome time for us, seeing J & C carve their own path to find out what makes them whole and happy.

J, 19, is running for a slot in his college's student council. It gives him (and his party) a tremendous boost of confidence that he was recruited by ALL three parties to be their representative. The campaign preparations are intense and tedious, so we are ready to support him 100%. This thing is quite new to us, but we are basking in the joy of seeing this shy boy emerge from his sheltered Jesuit upbringing to become a charming, self-assured young man who is deeply admired by his university peers for his intelligence and sincerity.

C, 14, has found her own comfy place in her new school. The adjustment

period was not as difficult as we had expected. She is in the Math enrichment program, to which she had always belonged in her old school. She has above average grades and enjoys being with her new-found friends. And now, as part of the volleyball varsity team, she

is competing in three simultaneous tournaments. Training and games rob her of weekends but she enthusiastically prepares for them, making sure she is ready, never late and her gear, always complete. Gradually yet consistently, as her playing time increases and as they notch more wins, so will her discipline, confidence and competitiveness.

All these mean waking up earlier, watching less DVDs in bed and practically having no meals eaten together. But this an exciting time for our small family, as we watch our children grow into the wonderful persons they're shaping up to be.

You are what you write

2009-01-28T16:18:00.009+08:00

My career as a writer has been defined by my journey as a woman. Let me show you how.

I started in advertising as a chic gym rat with long permed hair who wore Esprit and Anne Klein jeans in every color. I wrote product claims for brands like Lux, Sunsilk and Creamsilk and lines for celebrities like Sharon Cuneta, Kuh Ledesma, Kris Aquino, and international hairstylists Allen Edwards and Tovar.

A few years later, I had gotten married and had a child. Giddy with the joys of motherhood, I plunged deep into kurot sa puso moments for Kodak, Gerber, Ovaltine, Tang, Cheez Wiz, Kraft Cheese, and fun and games with Chippy, Jack n Jill Pretzels, Piattos and a whole bunch of snacks.

Motherhood sucks you in, and it's all up to you if you'll end up either a hip mama or a hip manang. Somehow, I got caught in between, and so while I dabbled in the techi-ness of Dream Satellite, Samsung, Nextel, iAcademy, StarWorld and American Eye Center, I also hit the kusina with Payless Instant Noodles, 555 Carne Norte, Angel Condensada and Blue Bay Sardines, plus the labahan with Budget Bareta and Winrox Bleach.

Hitting midlife and limping past it a few years later, the connection seems totally lost, the concept suddenly off-strat.

This is because during the past year, I have written, or am now in the process of writing for: Monark-CAT Heavy Equipment, the Philippine Military Academy (PMA), the Maritime Academy of Asia and the Pacific (MAAP), Shell, Quezon Power Ltd., Sagittarius Mines, the Department of Energy and the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Sometimes it's brainless but at times it's a struggle – for insights, for familiarity, for words.

Did I cross the gender boundary unknowingly... while I was texting on my cellphone or updating my blog? Did I get a testosterone transfusion? How did I become macho overnight?

Discussing this realization with a friend over Yahoo Messenger this morning, I asked, "Did I become flexible or desperate?" He said he was sure I had grown flexible or else I would be writing for taho instead. But hey, I can do that!

On my first month on my first job, my boss said, "to be a good writer, one should NOT have a style," I didn't believe her then but now I know that she did know what she was talking about. Even if it seems I'd need a lifetime of learning not to have a style.

Calamansi Therapy

2009-01-15T08:00:00.002+08:00

Calamansi Nip, that's how my Mom called it about two decades ago – long before eager entrepreneurs started bottling them commercially and calling them Calamansi Concentrate. But these bottled wannabes on supermarket shelves were either bitter, laden with preservatives or were too watered down to capture the real, the pure, the unique flavor so distinct to calamansi.

Of course to me, they were no way near what good old Mom used to make – instant, no-squeeze calamansi joy you just mixed with water by the tablespoonful. Naturally, it would entail hours of hard work at first – squeezing mounds of ripe and juicy calamansi fruits in the peak of ripeness, doubling its volume with the exact amount of sugar, stirring patiently until no visible sugar has settled at the bottom and then waiting a day to remove the bitter residue that has formed on top of the mixture. Simple, yes. Sweet, absolutely.

The rewards last for many weeks after that. When the craving arises, all you'd have to do is pour a dollop onto a glass, add cold water plus a handful of ice cubes to enjoy a refreshing and tingly beverage. Or on a cold and coughy morning like today, one or two spoonfuls stirred into a cup of hot water will warm you like a hug. Better yet, have a warm potful by your side.

Calming my day, soothing my throat, warming my heart with memories of my mother... this is my comfort drink. What's yours?

Our little Thai boys

2009-01-13T09:32:00.000+08:00

Twice a year, two little boys leave their spacious new home in Bangkok to hypnotize and entrance what can be called, in their miniscule standards, a box office crowd: two grandparents, eight aunts & uncles and ten cousins. Lovingly called the Choknut Boys, shortcut for their tongue twister of a surname, they are the children of my husband's youngest sister and her Thai husband.

As the boys babble in what must be tri-lingual baby talk (ThaiTagLish?), everyone is on the alert for a possible bump, an insect bite, a whine, a whimper. As the two tiniest leaves in the family tree, they are likely to be our babies for a very long time.

Food for thought

2009-01-11T13:04:00.011+08:00

The books are piling up, like cans of Spam on a pantry shelf, waiting to be devoured all at once, or nibbled bit by bit. It's a growing stack of food lit old and new, a bit thin yet worth a buffet spread to a now occasional reader like me.

While I write for a living, the balance between reading and writing is no longer the way it used to be. But it is the reading that feeds the writing – the source of information, ideas, inspiration. And so a huge part of of my day is spent snacking on blogs, and in the process gaining pounds of knowledge while discovering a world wide web range of flavors I never knew existed before.

Back to the books, I do hope to do more nourishing reading this year. To me, it's eating vicariously: snooping into kitchens, stalking personalities, digesting their words yet avoiding impatso.

PS. It's my Mom's birthday today... she would have been 79. The third book from the top was a present I gave her a few years before she passed on.