Coffee and Blunder.

I love cupcakes! I was so happy Phoebe gave me one when I drove her home last night after our usual coffee date at BoNa. Her cupcake is rich and tasty. delicioso!

I like it better than Sonja’s, I mean Sonja’s cupcakes are too sweet and I like my sweets not too sweet. But hey, that’s just me. I’d still buy at Sonja’s though because the Reese flavored cupcake is to die for, just to satisfy my craving.  Despite being pricey for a mere cupcake, it is worth it! Warning, they are calorie-filled though.

The best thing about Phoebe’s cupcake, less sugar… less carbs!

I just turned 24. I’m happy I can still say 24!!!

Quiet afternoon at BoNa Coffee BF Homes

After going to church, I spent a quiet afternoon alone at BoNa. You know how it is when you’re alone, you think more and like you’re forced to pay attention to your feelings, a self reflection of sorts. I thought about areas in which I would like to grow for the next 12 months…

Mint Chocolate Blended Coffee and a Chocolate Orange Muffin.

BoNa Coffee Membership Night with geeks, Phoebe and Jayvee.

I’ve known Phoebe since grade school and it meant a lot to spend the night with her (and the boyfriend) at one of my favorite places on earth, BoNa Coffee! The coffee shop is like my home away from home. I love the concoctions and muffins, plus the baristas are very friendly and they know their stuff. Geeks unite, free WiFi access all day everyday!

Phoebe had so many ’shots’ that night and she was fast too!

Jayvee excused himself and plurked!

…and they gave me a head massager called “accupleasure” which for a moment I thought was a whisk. loved it, thanks!!!

On my way home I passed by the newly opened Ted’s at BF Homes and had a bowl of Special La Paz Batchoy. Cheers to all my Ilonggo cousins and friends! hehe.

I had my room repainted (finally!)

I had my room repainted by professional painters. I wanted to paint it myself initially but everyone said its gonna be a disaster. Mother hired 2 professional painters to paint my room and my lil’ sister’s. They were the same guys who painted my computer shop 3 years ago. It’s not completely finished yet, the red wall still needs 2nd coating. Oh and too bad the coffee color that I wanted turned out mocha but its all good.

Lastly and most especially, someone sent me flowers! They don’t look so photogenic but they are lovely. It was a lil’ wet when I received it cuz it was raining when it was delivered. Aren’t they beautiful? I love it!!! Thank YOU!

When I was still working in corporate Makati, I’d often go to 7-11 for a Goya Dark Chocolate before shift. Whilst my co-workers were drinking red bull or extra joss to keep them up all night, I was drinking coffee and eating dark choco. Goya’s chocolates has a distinct taste and texture that is way different from imported Belgian or Swiss, fine-or-extra-fine-or-very dark chocolates. I’ve read a lot of plurk updates about THE Goya Dark Mint, almost everyone is raving about it. I was intrigued, the dark chocolate was already heavenly but with mint? …I think I’m going to reach nirvana! And so I went on a mission in search for The Dark Mint. I went to 2 7-11s and 3 mini-stops, nada. When I saw one at Mercury Drug and checked the price tag, OMG it was like Christmas!

First bite… Ah, yes… yuuummmmy! Just the right blend of mint and bitterness. I’d buy me a box almost every other day. I couldn’t resist not to buy one, hellooooo its dark chocolate for just 25 bucks!

I had a date with Phoebe on Thursday night, she fed me with her tira-tira from school and gave me a present. Sweet!

Thanks Phoebe!

Then yesterday, we went to Salcedo Market and I was so happy because my favorite Symphony Sweets is now selling Chocolate Mint Cake! Its so yummmy!!!

Dark chocolate if you don’t know yet is actually good for you. Yes, ITS GOOOOOD! I could go on and on with reasons why its good and healthy but simply put its all because dark chocolates have healthy antioxidants. That can…

• Can help lower blood pressure
• Can help improve cholesterol level
• Can help prevent diabetes by improving function of the hormone insulin, which helps regulate blood sugar
• Helps lower risk of heart disease

Ok, a little dark choco is good but a lot is not better. The bad boy is still loaded with calories so cut back if you want to indulge.

I’ve been blogging ever since High School and for years I did it kinda manually yes, like I’d do HTML every time I post an entry. I had a few web gigs here and there, ‘was MIA for a few months and started blogging again early this year with a vengeance. Goodbye HTML, HELLO WORDPRESS! I bought another domain and installed WP and am surprised how easy it is to use not to mention the lovely themes I found online. I love WP that I bid blogger goodbye and started using WP for IyaVillania.com as well. Its easier to update and maintain because of the template system and you can assign logins to people who can update the pages of the website or post a blog entry. I also installed it for my brother’s website and soon for NikkiGil.Org.

I got this text when I was sick in bed last week…

(English translation: Let’s attend the Wordpress bootcamp.)

If only I was feeling a lot better I could’ve registered earlier. I was busy trying to catch up after a few days of MIA due to a bad case of tonsillitis until last night on plurk, phoebe responded to my plurk update that I just upgraded to WP 2.6 and reminded me to register.

Yes, I just realized I’m the first ISM blogger (or so Phoebe and I think) ever and I’m happy to have influenced some friends to start blogging like Raimon and Mother Rain and Phoebe too??? hehe. So I really really want to attend the WordCamp and learn more about WP and influence more people to blog and use Wordpress. Yay!

OK, so here are the details boys and girls…

6 September 2008
DLS - College of St. Benilde
Taft Avenue, Manila

You can go visit the official site of the WordCamp Philippines 2008. Much love and thanks to the Mindanao Bloggers and the official sponsors for putting up the WordCamp in our country. (Yessss!)

• i.PH: the Domain for Individuals
• Free Online Flash Games
• Wazzup Manila Philippines
• Real Estate CRM
• Real Estate Website Designers
• Orange County Real Estate
• Auto Insurance Quotes
• Lane Systems Inc.
• RedMedia

See ya’ll on September!

(at least the rice noodle company is formal and respectful, in a Filipino sense.)

I admit, I am guilty of pronouncing it before as ‘fo’ ’til I was corrected just a few months back. When I saw this delivery van about 2 weeks ago parked in harbor view, I had such a silly grin on my face and felt a sort of relief knowing that I am not the only Filipino guilty of pronouncing PHO as FO let alone PO.

The Vietnamese girl who swore to hunt me down in my own country if I mess up with ‘the powers that be’ said that its properly pronounced as “fuh” (like ‘duh’).

OK children, repeat after me, ‘FUH’. agaaaaaaaain, ‘FUH’.

It was my first time to attend a blogger event. I don’t have THAT much online blogger friends like I used to, most of them “retired” from blogging years ago. Reminds me, I was hoping I’d see Ricky in the event but he wasn’t there. I’ve known him online since I was 16 and we haven’t met in person. (I swear!) My brother accompanied me to the event since he also blogs and I didn’t want to look oh-so-lonely. I was introduced to some guys like Juned and some other bloggers. Its good to see the faces behind the blogs. We were with Phoebe most of the time, she was sharing some beauty tips (and Jayvee’s “beauty” secret), her first day in culinary school and I was able to take a peek inside her kikay kit err, lunch box?

Food was great, I like that they had fruits and my peyborit Reyes Barbeque, hehe… and of course FREE COKE ZERO! Too bad we had to leave early that my brother and I didn’t get to take home our free case of Coke Zero. (but we did grab 4 cans each before leaving. buahaha!) My brother enjoyed the overlfowing beer too! He had 4 bottles of San Mig before we left the event for Float Fridays at Club Ascend with some friends.

As a self confessed Pepsi addict, I can tell if I’m drinking Pepsi or Coke but between Pepsi Max and Coke Zero, I couldn’t. I tried drinking both drinks iced, there wasn’t any taste difference. But COKE ZERO is more catchy than Pepsi Max in terms of packaging and the ‘name’, plus the former is also more affordable. From now on I guess I’ll go ZERO SUGAR!

My brother just got back from Australia last Friday. After complaining about how humid and hot it is here in Manila he then requested for us to go the nearest Jollibee and enjoyed 3 servings of his favorite Jollibee Spaghetti!

Being the BoNa Java Junkie that I am, I got a kick out of seeing this Van yesterday when I got my Pink Panther fix. Its an old Volkswagen Transporter Van painted black then stamped with a huge BoNa Logo. It also reminded me of those art cars back in the hippie era as I’ve seen in some films. I heard those ‘art cars’ are sought after collector’s item. Cool, vintage! I love its simplicity really. See, I am a huge Jewel fan back in High School and I remember reading that for a time she was poverty-stricken and lived in her van whilst traveling. Yes, I thought it was a cool idea to also live in an artsy-van…

I’ve only seen a Starbucks van once here in the Philippines (see blue van picture below) during an AC fair I think. I just thought its cool but I wasn’t like OH WOW STARBUCKS VAAAAN! like my friends were. I googled to see what a US Starbucks van would look like and there…

To be honest, its like an ice cream truck, covered with lots’a graphics. Kinda like Pimp My Ride but with lack of style. So, which one do you think is better?