Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Happy 5th Birthday, Nuffnang!


Just when I thought that after Valentine's Day, February is just another month that will end without any more flare.

But wait! There's more!

Nuffnang will turn 5 before the end of the month!

So here's the most creative greeting that I can think of at 8 o'clock in the morning after I slept past 2am due to some reasons (Temple Run, movies, FB, etc.)...

Happy Birthday, Nuffnang! God bless and more power to all Nuffies and Nuffnangers!  May you have more birthdays to come.  Please watch this VTR...
                                         

There will be a party (which I am hoping to be a part of) at The Podium Mall in Ortigas Center on February 27, 2012 with the support of these great and generous sponsors:



Friday, February 10, 2012

One Sbarro Night


It was quite a busy Tuesday like no other. 

I had a meeting in the office in the morning and another one in Makati in the afternoon.  I got some stuff put on hold for tomorrow so I can accommodate the two appointments.  What added to toxic moments was the traffic jam that I encountered in EDSA and Ayala.

Well, I was just glad I capped the day with a get-together with fellow bloggers at Sbarro in Glorietta 5. Thanks to the great people of this popular pizza restaurant chain for organizing an event, my Tuesday was saved from being  a forgettable one.


Aside from the great food that was served, we were treated to an exciting trip down the memory lane on how Sbarro started.  In 1972, a Kapampangan named Jaime “Jimmy” Salvador joined the Sbarro family in New York.  He worked alongside the original founders and their sons, preserving the family brand Sbarro was known for.  He worked in operations as a store manager and eventually served as Sbarro’s first Area Manager.

Then, after 17 years of living in New York and working with Sbarro, Jimmy returned to the Philippines — carrying the Sbarro brand with him.  Along with Ma. Teresa Rodriguez and her family, he opened the first Sbarro Philippines branch at the Annex in SM North Edsa in 1990 — the first Sbarro in all of Asia.  Years later, Sbarro Philippines expanded to the Visayas, thanks to a partnership with Gerardo Luzuriaga and Marcelino Florete, Jr.

 


Listening to the stories of Sbarro was a treat since we were served with their signature dishes --- Ziti, white pizza and more! Yum yum!  Everyone can only sing praises for the generous feast.  But the best is yet to come.  Later that night, one of us took home a brand new iPad 2.  And that was after Sbarro raffled P10,000 worth of gift certificates.  Which could have been an added woohoo for me if only I won something.



But as I said, the generosity that we received that night was more than enough to make our day. Talking about generosity, you might want to try this new promo from Sbarro.


To know more about their latest promotions, you may visit Sbarro Philippines on Facebook.

Photo credits: Mr. Rain de Ocampo

Friday, February 3, 2012

Soyami is so yummy, I am so happy

 

What do you get if you put a buffet of healthy food, fun-loving people, loot bags, and Marc Nelson all in one place?

Satisfied tummies and happy faces!

It happened last January 25 at Tourne by Chef Sandralyn at The Fort Strip in Taguig City.  I was invited to the Healthy Night with Soyami where one of the highlights is the awarding ceremonies for the Snacking Without the Guilt blogging contest to which I joined.  And boy, the occasion was indeed a blogger's delight.

One of the yummy and healthy food delight served in the event
Aside from the fact that I was able to mingle with my friends in the blogging community, I also met new faces and had the privilege of being Marc Nelson's "ad-lib guy."  You see, there were eight  Richards who attended the event.  During the first round of raffling some prizes, Marc mentioned the name of the first winner who happen to be a Richard.  Our table became a little rowdy where almost everyone in our group already congratulating me for winning.  It turns out that it was Richard Santos who won and not me. A Wow, Mali! moment.

Two more Richards where called but unfortunately not with my surname. So in the next round of drawing of names, Marc would look at me first before he takes a name from the fish bowl but still no luck... the next closest name he got was Ricky.

I am not very lucky in raffle draw so I just told him I am used to it.  But later in the night, I got a little treat from this model/ host hunk when he announced that "this blogger had a slow start but now he's taking home the 3rd prize of the blog contest." And he finally got to mention my name and I took home Php 3000 and a month-supply of Soyami Soya Chips.

Yeah! A month of snacking without the guilt since Soyami is made with Real Soya, no MSG, high in Protein and Calcium and 0% transfat.  It’s available in 3 flavors: Original, Pizza and White Cheddar.

(L-R) Marc Nelson, 2nd prize winner Melanie Abuel, 1st prize winner Paige San Juan, me and Ms. Apple Morales
And thus I say thank you Soyami for win!  Special thanks to Mr. Mc Richard Paglicawan (yes, another Richard) who invited me to join the contest; Ms. Apple Morales, President and Owner of AM Global Works Marketing Corporation; Marc (mentioned your name here four times to return the favor) and all the event's sponsors:

    Q-Life : Face One
    Fruit Magic
    Fitness First
    Tourne
    Haribon Foundation
    Suncoast : Lightwater and Vit. Boost
    Fernbelly - Treehugger
    Rudy Project 


Now, all i can say is Soyami is so yummy, I am so happy!

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

I love you, is that okay?




American author Karen Sunde once wrote, “To love is to receive a glimpse of heaven.”

I would like to believe that even individuals who have a heart of stone will agree with that statement.  I’m sure at least once in our lifetime, each one of us has experienced this crazy thing called love.

Whenever the month of February comes, we can’t help but get bitten by the love bug or at least feel the need to be in love when this time of the year comes.  How can you escape the big billboards, mall displays and a shower of cheesy yet sweet pick-up lines that announces Valentine’s Day?

Here are some cool trivia that you might want to know about the celebration, love, relationship, men and women, the heart and other things worth embracing.


The V-Day
Valentine's Day is an annual commemoration held on February 14 celebrating love and affection between sweethearts.  According to history.com, the day is named after the Christian martyr named Saint Valentine, and was established by Pope Gelasius I in 496 AD.  It is traditionally a day on which lovers express their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards. The day first became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished.  Modern Valentine's Day symbols include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid.


Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus
How can you tell a man from a woman? Well, one easy way is to check the buttons of their shirts.  Men’s shirts have the buttons on the right while women’s shirts have the buttons on the left.  And you can also tell by looking at their eyes.   Women blink nearly twice as much as men.  We can make a list on how to differentiate a guy from a gal and can go on hours discussing it but the bottom line is with the magic called love, people will still find the one for them. And check this out: every day 200 million couples make love and 400,000 babies are born. This will remind us of Wet Wet Wet’s hit Love is All Around.


What’s in a love song?
The oldest known love song was written 4,000 years ago and comes from an area between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in Western Asia.  In the Philippines, the tradition courtship of serenading women called harana became popular in the 1920s. It is mostly practiced in rural areas and small towns. The man, usually accompanied by his close friends, goes to the house of the woman he is courting and plays music and sings love songs to her. The harana shows strong Spanish influences, as the rhythm of the songs usually performed for the serenade are derived from the Spanish tango or habanera, albeit the tempo for the songs are much slower.


Can this be love?
Falling in love can induce a calming effect on the body and mind and raises levels of nerve growth factor for about a year, which helps to restore the nervous system and improves the lover’s memory.  Love can also exert the same stress on your body as deep fear. You see the same physiological responses—pupil dilation, sweaty palms, and increased heart rate.  People who are newly in love produce decreased levels of the hormone serotonin —as low as levels seen in people with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Perhaps that’s why it’s so easy to feel obsessed when you’re smitten.


Date Movie
Leonardo Dicaprio and Kate Winslet’s movie Titanic which was released worldwide in 1997 is the top-grossing romantic film of all-time with over $600 million of ticket sales.  The total production cost of the film was around $200 million compared to the $7 million actual cost of building the colossal ship Titanic in 1912.  Also, did you know that The Titanic was the first ship in the world to use the SOS signal?    


Matters of the Heart
Christiaan Neethling Barnard, a South African cardiac surgeon performed the world's first successful human-to-human heart transplant in 1967.  The more interesting story is while on a holiday vacation in Cyprus in 2001, Barnard died after reportedly suffering a heart attack. Here’s a dose of fun facts about the heart: The human heart creates enough pressure while pumping to squirt blood 30 feet. It takes about 20 seconds for a red blood cell to circle the whole body. Your left lung is smaller than your right lung to make room for your heart.


Kiss Me
Kissing is said to have originated when mothers orally passed chewed solid food to their infants during weaning. Another theory suggests kissing evolved from prospective mates sniffing each others’ pheromones for biological compatibility.  Here are some random trivia about this great mouth experience….Men who kiss their wives in the morning live five years longer than those who don't… French kissing involves all 34 muscles in the face…People are more likely to tilt their heads to the right when kissing instead of the left (65 percent of people go to the right!)…. The longest kiss lasted 46 hours 24 minutes and 9 seconds between Thai couple Akekachai and Raksana Tiranarat.  Now, if you want to beat the record, the perfect time to do it is on Heart’s Day.

 Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!