Kudos to Cebu Pacific...

...for their quality customer service despite the fact that our original flight schedule was cancelled.

I don't really check my Yahoo! emails unless there are some valid stuff I am waiting on. (When I say valid - that is anything that is not related to Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and other social networking stuff). For some reason (and surprisingly at 5 AM), I opened Yahoo! mail on my iPhone and saw the words - Cebu. Pacific. Cancelled. - and then I found my heart beat racing and my senses fully awake. The other keywords were SORRY. INCONVENIENCE. AIRCRAFT SITUATION. CALL US. Whew. Okay, so there is a phone number and I dialed it. I was so nega at this time I was actually thinking about how long I will have to stay in the queue. Surprisingly, in less than a minute I got hold of an agent, who was very polite and sounded very knowledgeable. He explained that I could cancel the entire booking without any fees... blah blah blah... I felt really bad and was ready to drop the phone. HOWEVERRRRR, towards the end of the call, he said, "You also have the option to choose from the other schedules TODAY." I had to ask him again if I heard the right thing. I gave a sigh of relief. He rebooked our flight from the original departure time of 9:30 AM to 12:30 PM. And. With the same seats! :-)

Overall the experience was really wonderful for me. I love the fact that they sent notifications early (via email and SMS) and that they are also able to make adjustments easily on the phone. I feel though that Cebu Pacific should actually refund the price difference between the original flight and the new schedule. Reason is, this could be perceived as a sales strategy where they sell the premium schedules at a more expensive rate and then cancel it at a later time and eventually force the passenger to get a less desirable flight schedule, at the premium price. Anyway, the Cebu Pacific reservations officer acknowledged my concern and actually told me that they value my feedback and consider these types of comments as room for improvement.

Kudos to Cebu Pacific. My perception of you as underdog to PAL has reversed 180 degrees. Keep it up!

HSBC just disapproved my application for home loan...

... what the heck? With all the hassle I went through preparing all those required documents, I get an SMS today saying that my loan app was rejected. Disappointing. Disheartening. Frustrating. I guess I gotta deal with this objectively when I come back from vacay. Rain is still here but hoping for a brighter tomorrow (literally and figuratively speaking).

rain rain go away

rain rain go away
come again another day
because ed and rhoda want to vacay!

It is our 5th anniversary on the 29th of July and this year's is the only time that we are actually celebrating it together. The past four years, I have always been either out of the country or out to work on some urgent stuff. I want to make it up with Ed this time as we live only once. Life is too short to have regrets, life is too short to not enjoy life.

So please rainmaker... please... go away. Let the weather be kind to us.

today's trivial stuff

Followed by mishaps from yesterday, today has been chaotic as well. I'm starting to believe now that bad luck always comes in three's and that waves come in three's as well. And then they say that two is enough and three is too much. Oh well.

• @ Work - the day started with a conference call with one of our customers. It wasn't too bad actually. It is just the feeling of being caught in between "two lovers." Customer is really disappointed that the multi-million project isn't working as expected. On the other hand, we, as their service providers, are also clueless what to do because the issue is escalated to the vendor. In as much as we really want to settle the cases, we just don't have that skill. Kaput! I was bombarded with calls too, from internal and external. I wasn't able to finish a single target item today. Now how's that for starters. The main course is that the big boss is gonna chase me again endlessly and will surely tell me how disappointed he is with my progress.
• @ Real Life - why am I being considered the arbiter of two "entities" both in the same place while I am so far away here in Cavite??? Aren't people too old for this kind of shit?
• @ Money Matters - Ed's cash loan has been denied. I don't have a status of my loan too. Shitty, right? I wonder where I could get instant money?

A day of mishaps

Yesterday was a series of mishaps for me - at work, at home, on the phone, etc. It is true we all have our bad weather days.

• Sun Cellular - Have to take back that statement that I am totally happy with them and that I am thinking about getting rid of my Globe numbers. I.Take.This.Back. What happened is they have suspended/blocked my outgoing calls and SMS just because I exceeded the credit limit of PhP 1,500 which, by the way, has not been billed to me yet. 
• So why pay when it isn't billed yet? My account is even on auto-debit so that is even more reassuring for them that whatever amount they bill me, huge or small, they will get paid for it. 
• I have been using my Sun phone when working from home, thus the need to make international calls to our client bases in Australia or New Zealand. If they resort to suspending accounts that go over the meager 1500 peso credit limit, how are they going to get the class A people to use their service?
• Last month or around May, they sent me SMS, saying that they are proud to inform me that they have increased my limit to PhP 2,500. I referenced this SMS when I called them the day they suspended my account. They told me that at the time I received that SMS, I was supposed to call them to confirm the increase in credit limit. Duh? So companies have to ask customers if they want an increase in credit limit? Who doesn't want one?
• I have a "prepaid" number attached to my account, it is under Plan 150 and it is supposed to be able to do unlimited calls and SMS to Sun customers. And so I opted to use this while my default number is available. After sending around 10 SMS and making around 2-3 calls, the line got suspended too! 
• Jollibee Delivery and Citi Mobile
• I called Jollibee at around 10pm last night to order (as usual) our dinner. Upon verifying my home address, the agent told me right away that the branch that is supposed to deliver in our area is already closed. I told her that we've been a frequent customer, having food delivered outside of the store hours and that when we do, it is the Imus branch who caters to us. And so the necessary escalations were done by the agent until I was finally given an affirmation that yes - we could have Jollibee for that night.
• The lady(boy) asked me for my Citi Mobile number and all the necessary details. After a minute or so, I received the text from Citi asking for my PIN and confirmation for the order. Right after the message was sent, I received a text saying that my order has been cancelled because they have not received an SMS confirmation from me for more than three minutes. I'm like... "What the...?" And so I called 878-7000 again and they fixed it for me. There was, apparently, a technical issue at the Citi Mobile facility.
• @ Work
• I received several pretty shitty emails from customers, complaining about the quality of service, missed commitments, and everything else they think they want to blame my team for. The.Hell.With.You.Guys. This is just a job. At the end of the day, I have a life to look forward too. We are not perfect. We commit mistakes too. We break promises. We mess up. But. You are, most of the time... Stupid. Arrogant. Unreasonable. So we're quits.
• With Money Maters
• Damn I'm in a really bad state. Credit card bills arrived. Family asking for money. Loan applications not updated. Car repair. Duh.

The list will go on and on if I don't stop right now. Gotta. Go. To. Work.

Thank God I have a wonderful team, a loving family, and the best of all - a great, loving, and caring husband.

Abe @ Mall of Asia

I did mention in one of my blogs that Abe at the Mall of Asia has always been one of our favourite Filipino restaurants, in fact it was once our "staple" dinner food. The only thing I noticed about their food is that the taste and the quality are not consistent. Though the food tastes great, there is still something always different with the dish for every single time that we go there. For instance:

• Crispy Pampanga Sisig - the first time we ordered this, it was sort of crispy and really tasty. The serving size wasn't so big, but it was enough for two persons. The second time, it wasn't crispy, it was spicy, and the serving size was literally just 5 spoonfuls.
• Calamares en su tinta or adobong squid/pusit - The first ones were always tasty and serving size sufficient for two. The one we had recently was just black, and bland in taste.
• Guyabano Juice - how could two guyabano juices ordered the same day taste different? The other one was pulpy, the second was literally just like juice without pulp,

There are some others but this is the ones I've taken notice of. Customer service is really good though, it is indeed a place where good friends meet. 

An Odd Day with McDelivery Imus

McDonald's (and Jollibee) has always been life-saving for Ed and myself, especially when neither of us have the drive to prepare breakfast. Today is one of those days, as we are looking forward to a load of laundry and cleaning the house. And so I called the 878-MCDO hotline that was highlighted in the flyers they gave us yesterday. I was quite excited that I'd be able to use their online facility, and more so, Citi Mobile! How else can you enjoy cashless delivery, right?

The agent got all my details, first and foremost my telephone number then all else. At the end of the probing, he eventually told me that McDelivery at the Imus branch is not yet available. What the??? I've always had my McDo food delivered from there, and besides, what the hell are these flyers for??? Frustrated, I just ended the call and started thinking about Jollibee breakfast meals, and another free Jollibee Cube Pad!!! (lol)

When I was about to dial the Jollibee hotline 878-7000, the phone rang and at the other line was a lady from McDonald's. Confused, I ask her where she was calling from and she said she would like to take my order. (Is this a gag???) So I gave her all the details. She said sorry for the inconvenience but never really explained the mix-up. So next thing I asked is if I could pay using Citimobile. She said yes. I gave her my number. I received the SMS alert from Citibank. I replied to it. I received the TRN or transaction number. And will all this, I gave a sigh of relief. I'll finally have McDelivery. Cashless.

Surprisingly, my phone rang again and found myself talking to the same lady I was speaking to, less than five minutes ago. She told me that the Imus branch does not use CitiMobile. Darn! Not really disappointed about the money, but with the merry-go-round experience I had to go through! Anyway, I just said that I'll pay in cash. No more complaining, I'll just wait.

What's with the Imus branch? Are they that primitive that they don't want to use Citi Mobile yet? How come it works perfectly with Jollibee? There's always a first time though, I hope this encounter with them gets on to their records and they'll find a solution to it.

Sentro is the new centre of my palate's attraction

Ed and I have always liked Abe because of their Filipino lutong-bahay food. This was once our "staple" food, thus the frequent visits to Mall of Asia. Lately though, we have been frequenting Greenbelt because of the need to accommodate our foreign visitors who just stay at New World, across Greenbelt. Since we started "Greenbelting," we have made an agreement to try out all the different restaurants in the area. Heaven was so kind to have led us to Sentro.

On our first visit, we ordered:

• Crispy Drunken Shrimps
• The fun in this was it was crispy and you can eat the entire shrimp even with its shells. It isn't so fun though when the sharp postions hurt the insides of your mouth! 
• Sinigang na Corned Beef 
• Delicious indeed! The food servers will let each of you have a taste of the sabaw in order for you to let them know if you are okay with the asim or not. The "corned beef" isn't actually ground, but huge chunks of it. (Imagine the chunky corned beef in can).
• Home-Style Chicken Adobo
• This was my favourite of the day. It tastes so home-cooked and it caught the perfect taste of adobo. The way the food was presented was so unique, with the shredded green mango and all.
• Drinks: Sago't Gulaman (refillable)
• Nothing but sweetness to me, but this is the only place where I have tasted this mix. It tastes so Filipino, I don't really know how to describe it. Muscovado probably?

On the second visit which was last night, we had:

• Bangus na torta
• Tastes like some torta I've had before, but since I was craving for it, I'd say it was delicious. The unique twist to this is they used shredded bangus meat.
• Kare Kare
• Nothing special as well, but good. I couldn't even remember the last time I ate kare kare. What troubled me though was the price. For a solo plate of this dish, PhP 520 wasn't so worth it. The serving for sharing is PhP 820.
• Pandan Lemon juice (pitcher)
• This is the highlight of my day. Again, tasted so Filipino. You would very much distinguish the pandan and the lemon flavour from the drink. The combination was perfect.

While I haven't really given rave reviews about the food, I'd say Sentro is a must-try for people who want to witness a twist to Filipino cuisine. 

Pay your Globe postpaid bill with Citimobile

Since my last post about using Citi Mobile for Jollibee Delivery... I've had several nice encounters with the feature. Today I received an SMS alert that I can pay my Globe bill via Citi Mobile and I could get a 10% discount. And so I did, and it was very hassle free.

All you do on your Globe mobile phone is:
1. Type CITIPAY space GLOBE space [amount] space PIN
2. You will receive a transaction number if the payment is approved.

So I just paid 500 today and I'll get a 50-peso rebate on my next bill.

I'm sure there are some more perks wit Citi Mobile. I'm glad my 9-year old Globe number is back in action.

Go Citi Mobile with Jollibee Delivery

I love my cellphones, all three of them, but I have never been a fan of mobile phone transactions, especially those that involve money, until one Sunday afternoon when both Ed and I ran out of money, yet we both wanted so badly to have some Jollibee meals. The craving led me to search for the mechanics of using Citi Mobile. Walah! Never did I know that I have already registered to this service years ago, but never even used it.

It is very easy to use:
1. Enroll your mobile phone as per instructions on the Citi Mobile website. The highlight of the step is your 6-digit MPIN that you will need everytime you use Citi Mobile.
2. Once all steps are complete, you are ready to use your Citi Mobile.

For Jollibee delivery:
1. Call the hotline 878-7000, place your order.
2. Upon confirmation of all your orders and the total bill, let the Jollibee CSR know that you will be using Citi Mobile.
3. He/She will either confirm your Citi Mobile number, or ask you to provide him/her your Citi Mobile number.
4. After the call, wait for an SMS from Citi Mobile on the cellphone you have enrolled. (May take around a maximum of 5 minutes to receive this)
5. The SMS will ask you for your M-PIN - this is the 6-digit code you have initially enrolled for Citi Mobile.
6. Citi Mobile will send you a confirmation, that your M-PIN has been accepted, along with the Transaction Number
7. The Jollibee store may call you to confirm your delivery request... otherwise, just wait for the Jollibee delivery man to arrive!

I find this service really convenient, and reward-earning too as your purchase also earns points on your credit card. So what are you waiting for... Go Citi Mobile!

Jollibee Cubes

I love my ChickenJoy, YES! I've had so many people (mostly foreigners) argue with me on how Jollibee is so loved by Filipinos.

Ed and I are loyal patrons of Jollibee Delivery especially during the rainy season when we are not in the mood for cooking, and also during weekends when we prefer to sleep longer and get food the easier way.

They have an ongoing promo where a delivery purchase of 300+ pesos in a single receipt entitles you to one point (out of three) on the free cube pad promo card. Once you complete three points, you get the memo pad for free. (Ang mahal na memo pad noh? 300+ !!!) I just love the fact that this time, their giveaway is something that is actually usable, and something to argue about again in terms of likeability. Oh well. I now have three pads, and one more delivery I will get another set. :-)

Jollibee Cubes

I love my ChickenJoy, YES! I've had so many people (mostly foreigners) argue with me on how Jollibee is so loved by Filipinos.

Ed and I are loyal patrons of Jollibee Delivery especially during the rainy season when we are not in the mood for cooking, and also during weekends when we prefer to sleep longer and get food the easier way.

They have an ongoing promo where a delivery purchase of 300+ pesos in a single receipt entitles you to one point (out of three) on the free cube pad promo card. Once you complete three points, you get the memo pad for free. (Ang mahal na memo pad noh? 300+ !!!) I just love the fact that this time, their giveaway is something that is actually usable, and something to argue about again in terms of likeability. Oh well. I now have three pads, and one more delivery I will get another set. :-)

Sun Cellular's Loyalty Plans indeed make their Subscribers Loyal

I've been a Globe Telecom subscriber since my college years (12 years ago) and I have always been happy with the service, until recently when their network has been problematic, and when the customer service officers simply lost the "customer-oriented touch."

When Ed and I moved to Cavite, we noticed that we hardly get any signal from Globe, so we purchased Sun Cellular phone kits. At first we planned for these to be our secondary phones but they ended up being our main contacts. Why not? For PhP 350 a month, you get unlimited calls and text to Sun cellular subscribers, plus 200 free SMS to other networks. Very very very good deal indeed. You can never get that with either Globe or Smart. What's more? Ed actually got himself a wireless Manila-based landline using his current Sun simcard and it seems to be working really fine for him. It is also so easy to get additional lines. And the best deal - FREE PHONES. :-) Every time your holding contract expires, they proactively offer you a free handset in exchange for renewing your contract. Why not, right? I have never experienced this treatment with Globe.

Now I'm thinking what phone unit to avail. What's yours?

Sun Cellular's Loyalty Plans indeed make their Subscribers Loyal

I've been a Globe Telecom subscriber since my college years (12 years ago) and I have always been happy with the service, until recently when their network has been problematic, and when the customer service officers simply lost the "customer-oriented touch."

When Ed and I moved to Cavite, we noticed that we hardly get any signal from Globe, so we purchased Sun Cellular phone kits. At first we planned for these to be our secondary phones but they ended up being our main contacts. Why not? For PhP 350 a month, you get unlimited calls and text to Sun cellular subscribers, plus 200 free SMS to other networks. Very very very good deal indeed. You can never get that with either Globe or Smart. What's more? Ed actually got himself a wireless Manila-based landline using his current Sun simcard and it seems to be working really fine for him. It is also so easy to get additional lines. And the best deal - FREE PHONES. :-) Every time your holding contract expires, they proactively offer you a free handset in exchange for renewing your contract. Why not, right? I have never experienced this treatment with Globe.

Now I'm thinking what phone unit to avail. What's yours?

Maxicare and some good phlegm-stopping stuff

Mr. Cough has been bothering me for exactly seven days now. I had to be absent from work because of him, and eventually had to go see a doctor to keep him from killing me.

Thanks to the accessible location of St. Luke's and its proximity to HSBC and Secret Recipes - we literally had a one-stop-shop on Wednesday afternoon. These three establishments are just a few steps away from each other.

Anyway, I also like the fact that Maxicare is very well established within St. Luke's, unlike other hospitals where they try, as much as possible to avoid Maxicare card holders. Maxicare has its own room at St. Luke's, specifically Room 325. (Manong guard was kind enough to tell us what to do.) I'm not sure whether the ease of going through a medical checkup here is just because it is a weekday afternoon, or their facility here is seldom used. All I had to do was hand my card to the lady at the reception, then fill out a form, and then wait till the resident physician called me.

After a few routine checks and all, she finally diagnosed me with having acute bronchitis. As per Wikipedia: Acute bronchitis is an inflammation of the large bronchi (medium-size airways) in the lungs that is usually caused by viruses or bacteria and may last several days or weeks.^[1] Characteristic symptoms include cough, sputum (phlegm) production, and shortness of breath and wheezing related to the obstruction of the inflamed airways. Diagnosis is by clinical examination and sometimes microbiological examination of the phlegm. Treatment for acute bronchitis is typically symptomatic. As viruses cause most cases of acute bronchitis, antibiotics should not be used unless microscopic examination of gram-stained sputum reveals large numbers of bacteria.

Of course I was scared! Bronchitis is not a term we all hear everyday. She told me it isn't that dangerous if I take my medication religiously, and most importantly, if I take complete rest. She gave me two sets of medication: antibiotics (Azithromycin Zithromax) and Ectrin Erdosteine. The latter I have to take once a day, while the other, as treament for the cough, twice a day. Both have to be taken after meals.

I have been feeling quite okay, in fact I felt a huge improvement. It isn't normal for me to react this way to medicines. They are usually ineffective for me, and so this latest discovery is a surprise.

Anyway, things learned from this: DO NOT SELF-MEDICATE, DO NOT IGNORE COUGH, DO NOT DRINK ICE COLD WATER AFTER AN ALL-NIGHT-LONG SESSION OF RHB (Red Horse Beer) and VIDEOKE. :-)

One Sunday @ Gerry's Grill Tagaytay

We had Australian and Singaporean visitors over the last few weeks and the highlight of their visit to PH was dinner at Antonio's (yes the posh Antonio's place). We, however, decided to have some drinks and merienda first and so we drove along the highway until one of them screamed "Gerry's Grill!" So off we went to this popular Pinoy food place.

While waiting for food to come, we came to a point where we discussed our favourites. The list below is almost all that we ordered, except for the pinakbet.

- One of them said that the Pinakbet is the best native veggie dish he has ever had in PH, with special mention of the bitter gourd (amapalaya)

- Another highlighted the Beef Casserole (Nilagang Baka), which was his first dish of its kind

- Squid Heads was the unanimous choice among all the free pica-pica food (pulutan). You get one free pulutan dish for every bucket of Red Horse and/or probably some other brands of beer.

- Pork Sisig was something everyone looked forward to

- Garlic Adobo Flakes is something one of them will kill for (lol)

- Chicken Lollipop which is a first for everyone

- Baked Scallops was an attempt to "neutralize" all the unhealthy food

- Chichabits which was not available at that time

- Deadly and sinful was the Chicken Skin

- Hot Calamansi was really great, made me feel better (I was sporting a cough and cold that time)

- RHB Red Horse Beer of course. (did I need to mention that? :-)

Despite of all of the delicious food we had and the enchanting view of the Taal Volcano, we got totally turned off with the terrible quality of service we received from the crew.

- At the entrance, a lady greeted us but no one even asked how many seats we required. We just ended up choosing a table at the upper loft which smelled less of the bird poo. (they have a mini aviary)

- I diligently pointed and stated our orders to the lady who was in charge of our table. She repeated everything correctly and we were excited about the food.

- Around 20 minutes later, the drinks came, and all the orders except the chicken lollipop and the baked scallops. Of course the food was gone in a matter of minutes.

- Another half an hour later came another round of RHBs, and still no chickeln lollipop and baked scallops. I had to call one of the food servers who told me that the baked scallops they initially prepared was overcooked, and that we did not order the chicken lollipops. Screw them. Anyway, I still kept my cool and waited. We had to ask for the chicken lollipops twice. And the wait wasn't worth it. Not a good pulutan piece it was.

I felt embarrassed that our visitors had to go through that nasty customer service. I was somehow relieved though when one of them actually said that he really never expects restaurants in Tagaytay to pick his wish list up correctly the first time. Looks like he always had to say what he wanted more than twice before his wish got finally- and correctly- granted.

The funny thing is the space they have is really huge, and they have a lot of servers walking around the place. I wonder how the place goes during their peak family days and hours?

It was also a challenge to get the food server's attention by the way. I am not sure if they really weren't seeing us, or if they were simply ignoring us. (Nobody smiled too!)

This is bad rep for Michael V who is their endorser, as he seems to be very friendly and accommodating. What a waste on their really catchy slogan which says "A Pinoy Original."