7 Corners Crowne Plaza

Chase treated me to a nice lunch at 7 Corners Crowne Plaza last December 28, 2007. The beef stuff was great, but other than that, there weren't as many choices of food as I thought I'd have. I also liked the make your own personal pizza there. I tried out the all cheese and it was really good.

7 Corners is cheaper than Heat and Circles. It's priced at around 1000 per head... I wasn't sure. But I remember that our total bill was around 2500 (plus a service charge of around 250!!). All in all, it was a good dining experience. But for that price, and additional couple of hundred bucks, I'd prefer to go eat at Heat instead, for the primary reason that I would have more choices there. Don't get me wrong though, the food was great here as well.

Anyway, in buffets, I always look forward to the dessert! And to prove that, here I am beside the dessert bar. Delicious. They had cold rock type of ice cream, which HEAT also has, but Circles do not have.


Here's another photo of the steak we had. Looks delicious huh?


All in all, price is great, food is great, although I just hoped they had more choices. Our next buffet stop? SPIRAL!

back to the market

Dow ended up around 300 points up for the past two trading days, thus, we're hoping for a big rally for the PSE this coming Wednesday when we open again after the long two day holiday. I'm really hoping my stocks rally up so as I can sell one of them when I get it to reach its TP, which is just slightly above my buying price. It's a bit down right now, and so I'm really hoping to really sell it soon. I've had two opportunities to sell it for the past weeks, and well, greed struck, and my target price didn't get hit. So this time around, I lowered my TP and hopefully, before year ends, I get to sell it, so as I can have cash ready for a good stock buy I've been wanting to acquire for quite a while (it's currently at bargain price!!!).

For the next year, I vow to be more careful with my stock market trades. I've had a couple of "ipits" and well, it wasn't a good feeling to keep on waiting for it to go up. So, the next time, I really really have to stick to me cut-loss strategy (I did this once, and it really got me a great deal after selling my losing stocks!).

Can't wait for next year. Hoping for more money to play! More money to save, and of course, more money to earn!

great day

Chase and I had a breakfast date early this morning given that I am on leave and his work schedule for the week is from 2pm to 10pm. It was a nice day all in all. We had breakfast, talked and talked, afterwards, he got hooked playing his rubik's cube while I ended up playing this flash game in his ultra high end pc. At around 12 pm, we headed out to Robinson's Place to buy some stuff he needed for work, and 5 more rubik's cubes that his friends from work asked him to buy (apparently this toy is only abundant in Toy Kingdom). We were in a hurry since he had to be in the office by two pm. So we just had a light and quick lunch at Sbarro (his treat!). Afterwards, he dropped me off at LRT station and then sped off to work (he was still 30 minutes late for work though).

I guess, I have to say, spending time together doesn't always have to be eating in expensive restaurants and all. A simple meal, or maybe a simple chat is already a great time, as long as we get to talk and all. I believe our relationship has matured for the past two and a half years. It's a different story now altogether. And the good thing is, we're really both happy.

Camiguin-CDO Trip

We spent 4 days and 3 nights last Noveber 29, 2007 to December 2, 2007 at Camiguin and CDO for a nice but tiring vacation.



The white water rafting was by far the highlight of the trip. I didn't get any photos of the adventure, but our friends did! Will always remember the tipover!

On the other hand, the Camiguin trip was made special by the nice sights and out of this world experience with the place we stayed in (which I wouldn't be recommending, by the way).

Anyway, we're hoping for another group trip next year. But this time, I won't be the one planning it! I'm tired of planning our trips ever since (Baguio, Sagada, Palawan, and CDO-Camiguin). Actually, for the past trips, I had my friend Leda who always helped me with the planning. But this time, it was all me (Leda was extra busy then)! Special thanks though to Chase, who did all the contacting (he has free load anyway!).

'Till next vacation!

Fascinating history from fictional books

I've just finished James Rollins' Map of Bones and I found the book... engaging. I think this is the first time I've wanted to finish a book in a hurry since the Dan Brown era. It's safe to say that I'm a sucker for mystery/suspense/action that deals with fascinating history, particularly that which is related to the church.

It is astounding how rich the church's history is. Or maybe how mysterious it actually is, that authors are able to sew together pieces of facts that somehow sound really really true. I don't necessarily believe everything I read from these fictional books, however, I still believe that there are a lot of stories hidden behind the walls of the Church. Given the span of decades and centuries that the church has been alive, one can only imagine the vast wealth of knowledge, and secrets they have.

Wouldn't it be just intriguing if we were able to discover secrets of the past?

Maybe that's the reason why I just love these books! They all present a snapshot of the past, and how many events, may have shaped what we actually believe in right now.

Equity Fund - Christmas gift to my parents

As a Christmas gift to my parents, I've decided to open an equity fund account for them. I made the initial deposit for them, and vowed that when I have extra money, I'll add some more to this fund. Of course, they should do their part as well to add money once in a while to the fund. After all, this is for their future.

This will be a first for them as they really don't know much about investing in the market. My mom's quite jittery as she's more conscious about the value of the investment, as compared to my dad, who's investor profile suggests that he is willing to go through the ups and downs of the market, for as long as in the long run, you still make a hefty profit.

Whatever difference in their investor profiles are, I'm really happy to be able to do something for them, educate them about investing, and of course, preparing them for the future ahead. After all, they're starting around 30 years later, compared to me. This will be a scary ride, which hopefully, will bear its fruits for the years to come.

James Rollins' Map of Bones

As I was looking for my MRT card this morning, I decided to check my wallet if it was there. No, the MRT card wasn't there, but I did find something else - a 300 pesos Fully Booked gift certificate! And as I checked the expiry date, the gc was good only upto December 12, 2007! Lucky that I even found it! I completely forgot about this gc, which my sister gave to me last Christmas.

So as not to go to waste, I asked Chase to accompany to Gateway's Fully Booked branch and lo and behold, there I found a book, which I've wanted to buy years back, but couldn't since it wasn't available locally!



Get an overview of what this book is all about from the author's official website.

Its genre is similar with Dan Browns' genres. And since I like the mystery, suspense and action type of book, I'm really hoping this'll give me my (free)money's worth!

The book's a little scratched though as it was the last one there. But at least now I know where I can find James Rollins novels! If I get to enjoy the book, I might get some more of his other titles.

I'm no good in writing reviews, but rest assured, I'll put up a post regarding this book once I get to finish it.

Starbucks planner fever!

Starbucks planner fever is gearing up once again and when one of my colleagues in HP celebrated her 6th month at work, she decided to treat us to Starbucks (so she can get stamps as well!). I remember my sister getting the Starbucks planner last year. The planner was really beautiful! But I don't think she ever used it anyway. I guess it's there as a collectible?

Anyway, I tried this Praline Mocha Frappucino flavor, and yeah, it's really good.

Ramon Tulfo's "Here We Go Again" Article

I was at CDO and Camiguin last thursday when the Manila Penn standoff occurred. We only got a hold of the news when one of my companions received a text message that something was happening in Metro Manila. And when we went out for lunch in Camiguin, we were able to catch the news on TV and finally knew what was really going on. Going back in Manila, I tried to catch up on news and stumbled upon Ramon Tulfo's reaction to the coup attempt.

Ramon Tulfo said it best:

I hate to say this to the 11 million voters who installed Antonio Trillanes IV in the Senate: I told you so!

Read the rest of the article by Ramon Tulfo: Here we go again