Anniversay at F1 Hotel, Taguig

May 25 was the date when +maria cessna galecio became my girlfriend. So last May 25, 2013, Chea decided to celebrate it with a stay at F1 hotel, courtesy of DealGrocer (I think).

Since Thirdy was staying at Antipolo, we went to pick him up. Chea's brother Cyrus, her sister Chie and nephew Justine came along for the ride. It was an uneventful trip except for the terrible traffic.

Didn't get a chance to take a picture of the building. This is from the menu.

We arrived at F1 Hotel at around 3pm. We parked at basement 1 and then took the elevator to the 5th floor. Their reservations desk was at that level. The first floor was just basically an information desk.

There was a short line at the reservation desk. The entire floor looked small, but everything was clean and modern. It looked like a boutique hotel.

After we were checked in, we went to the elevators (there were 4 for guests and 1 service elevator). The elevators were those fancy ones that you need to key in your room card. We got off on the 10th floor and headed over to room 1015. They didn't have bellboys to help with our stuff, but that was ok since we didn't have that much luggage.

They had electronic door locks. It took me a few seconds to realize to touch the room key card on top of the door handle itself instead of the lcd display. I was accustomed to having key card slots on hotel doors.

When we got in, I was pretty surprised. We got a room with a receiving area. Chea quipped that It looked like we got upgraded. Yey.

The hotel knew that we were bringing Thirdy along so they actually placed a nursery cot in the room.

H'lo, guv'na. Fancy your new cot?

We placed Thirdy in the crib and gave him milk, while I took pictures of the place.

The living area

As i've mentioned, we had a receiving area that had a sofa, a dining table, and a small kitchen. The room had an LCD tv, a Samsung Inverter ac unit, and a personal ref.

In the bedroom, aside from the bed, it had a LCD tv as well, a radio clock, a miniature safety box and another Samsung Inverter ac unit. Man, how cold do you want to get?

Ho ho. A King size bed

A sign stating the obvious. Har har.

Chi, Cyrus and Justine waited for Cyrus' girlfriend to drop by before they headed out. She arrived a few minutes later, so Chea and I started preparing Thirdy for the pool. That kid sure loves the water.

The pool deck was at the third floor, so we took the elevator down and went out into the pool deck.

They had 3 pools there: a round kiddie pool, a somewhat larger rectangular pool for the adults, and a lap pool for those fancying more than just a dip.

Thirdy at the kiddie pool

Chea and Thirdy tried the kiddie pool for a bit, but it gets crowded with 5 kids in there, so they transferred to the adult pool. After an hour, we pulled Thirdy out and cleaned him up. He really had a great time.

We went back to the room and then got ready to head out for dinner.

The plan was to go to S&R across the building, but we decided to head over to the newly opened SM Aura. It started to rain when we came out of the hotel. We took a cab and headed over to the mall. There were a lot of cars coming and going at SM Aura, so it took us a while to get there.

The mall had about 4 shopping levels. The roof was a park with some restos. Unfortunately, none of them were open yet. The foodcourt was packed with people, so after taking a quick tour of the mall, we decided to leave and head over to Market Market and eat there.

The rain had stopped so we started to walk towards Market Market. But since we had crossed over to the Serendra side, we opted to have our dinner there.

We couldn't decide where to eat, so we went walking towards Contis. From afar, it looked like it was full, so we agreed to try out the nearest restaurant from where we were standing, which turned out to be DUO Steakhouse and Wine bar.

It was a wine and resto bar. Chea and I never got into wines so we rarely tried this type of establishments. It was good that we went with DUO because as soon as we got in, there was a sudden downpour that lasted for more than an hour. I'll blog about our dining experience on another time.

After the meal, Chea, Thirdy and myself, hailed a cab and headed back to F1 Hotel. After an hour or so, Thirdy fell asleep with Chea in the bedroom. I ordered for a McDonald's delivery around 11pm as I was too tired to go outside. Turns out, I still had to go down to get the food at the ground floor when I arrived.

We all got up around 7 am the next day and promptly headed down to the third floor for breakfast.

Thirdy was practically wolfing down everything we gave him

Their restaurant was pretty average in size. It's like the ones you can find in good sized resorts. However, the food was great. Food selection was big for a breakfast menu. There were all sorts of breads, pastries, fruits and their dishes were also good. I went for the usual: egg, bacon, fried rice and mango juice. I was unable to try out everything as I felt too full already. Chea however had an appetite since she didn't have a midnight snack like me.

After breakfast, we headed back to the room and waited for Chea's parents to arrive to pick us up. When they did, they took Thirdy back swimming while Chea packed up our things, and I took a power nap.

We checked out by noon, and then headed off back to Antipolo to drop off Chea's parents and Thirdy. We were going to Tagaytay right after as my sister gifted us an overnight stay at Las Ventanas Tagaytay. We originally wanted to bring Thirdy along, but the management didn't allow it. I'll blog about our trip to Las Ventanas on my next entry.

Anyway, our stay at F1 hotel was pretty good, except for the terrible wifi connection. We called to have it fixed but we had to go out for dinner. And when we came back by 9 pm, their IT people had already left so no one could fix it.

Also, I got annoyed about the food delivery that I had to go downstairs. I guess they didn't employ too many staff to be escorting delivery guys around. Another annoyance was getting billed for phone calls. I know most hotels do that, but its kinda irritating especially for three short phone calls that didn't even get charged domestic rates.

Another comment is that the place, is on a far corner of Bonifacio Global City. It's actually beside S&R and St. Luke's Hospital. So if you wanted to go for a night out, you'd be walking far or taking a cab (which we did).

The highlight of the experience would be the fancy room and the breakfast buffet. All in all, a great experience for me.

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Samsung Digital Inverter Fridge wins!

Back to the story of our refrigerator hunting.

Last Monday (05/27), on our way to Antipolo from our little getaway trip to Tagaytay (courtesy of my sister, Maricel Mendoza), +maria cessna galecio and I got a little hungry by the time we reached Robinson's Cainta. We decided to eat there since it was very hot outside and we wanted to get some covered parking.

We ate at the food court, and then saw the Robinson's appliance center and decided to take a quick look around.

I skipped most of the displays and went straight to the Samsung lot. I saw the Digital Inverter ref with the recessed grip instead of the door handles that we were eyeing before but something different caught my eye.

321!

The EEF factor was 321. I distinctly remember it being 302 before. On closer inspection, this was definitely a different model. When we looked inside, most of it looked familiar, except it didn't have the top slide out shelf.

Looking at the price, it's 17,995 pesos or about 1,000 pesos cheaper than the original model we were looking at. But it also had a discount of 2,750 for cash payments or straight charge credit card payments. Making it a little more than just 15,000, which I felt was a steal for a digital inverter compressor. And not only that, they were offering a free Philips juicer with the unit. I don't know the actual price, but Philips products are usually priced at a premium, because of good quality. So if you consider the juicer to be priced at 1,000 pesos, then the ref would practically cost us just around 14,000 pesos, which isn't that far from the Condura single door fridge that we were looking at.

Looking at the EEF tag, the consumption is at .77kwh/24hr as compared to the other model which was .94kwh/24hr or a difference of about 200w. (A good size lcd/led tv uses about 100w). And if I remember correctly, the Condura was at .64kw/24hr, so that's just about a 100w difference.

So this particular model seemed like a steal at this point. When we asked about the delivery charges, the sales personnel could not estimate it for a delivery in Q.C. He assumed it would slightly be expensive than the 300 pesos delivery charge around Rizal. We asked if they had an appliance store in Robinson's Novaliches and he said yes, and that they should also have the same promo.

We decided to check with Robinson's Novaliches when we get the time, and we then went on our way to Antipolo.

Yesterday (05/30/2013), Chea and I got the chance to head home early, so we decided to head over to Robinson's Novaliches. Three of her office mates went along with us as two of them had a thing to do over at Philcoa, while the third one, lived in Fairview.

Once we got to Robinson's Novaliches, we headed straight to the appliance store and directly to the Samsung section. We found the same ref, but the tags were different. The discount was just 1,500 pesos, and there was no mention of the free juicer.

Chea inquired about the promo, and the sales personnel attending to us said that he would ask the manager about the 2,750 discount. After a few minutes, the sales rep got back and told us we can get the discounted price.

Chea then asked about the juicer (model is HR 1823) and we were told that they ran out of stocks which is why they removed the tag. Chea persisted in getting the juicer but the sales rep wouldn't budge. I asked Chea if they could call the Cainta branch and see if they have stocks there brought over, or just ask how much the actual delivery cost if we got the fridge from Cainta.

The sales rep tried calling and kept getting a busy tone, so he told us that he'll talk to the manager again and see if they can get the juicer from Cainta and we'll just pick it up on another time. After several minutes, he came back and proposed giving us a box of Lock & Lock containers instead. Chea insisted that she wanted the juicer.

The rep again went back to the manager for several minutes. When he came out, he said that they had some Philips Juicer units reserved for their Sharp promos, and he can just give us one of those. Triumphantly, Chea agreed and we had the ref and juicer brought out to be tested.

7 cu.ft. Just perfect for a family of three.

After testing the ref and the juicer, we paid for it, and took the juicer home while the ref would be delivered today.

Digital Inverter. 10yrs warranty on the compressor, 2 yrs warranty on the body.

Chea's persistence saved the day for us. We could have gone with the 1,500 discount and no juicer if we caved in at the start. I love my wife.

Update (2013/08/16) : Less than 3 months later, how do i rate this ref? So far, it's been pretty good. Hopefully I dont jinx it for me to use the warranty already.

Anyway, the ref functions quite well. The main fridge keeps most of everything cool. The water doesn't go too cold. It's like a glass of water with about 2 ice cubes in it.

The chilled compartment (moist fresh zone) manages to keep most of the food items there sufficiently chilled.

The freezer is as advertised. No frost. Truly. The ice cubes do not get too frozen. They're frozen but they're still transparent.

As for the power consumption? I'm too lazy to check my Voltcraft energy logger. But my electricity bill stayed at 4,000pesos before and after getting the fridge. During that time, I actually shifted from a 100watt intel i5 file server to a 40-50watt AMD e350 apu. Logically speaking, since my power consumption somewhat hovered the same, i guess the fridge is running on about a 50-60watt 24hr/hr average, which is basically the same consumption of an electric fan on high setting.

So i guess, it's a pretty great buy. New technology that's energy efficient.

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Let's get ref!

So, we're on the hunt for a new fridge. It's a long story, so we'll just skip to the actual hunt.

Last saturday, (04/18/2013), Chea and I went to SM North Edsa so I could pay (and vent my frustrations) at a Bayantel shop at the Annex building.

While I was at Bayantel, Chea picked up Thirdy's first haircut certificate at Cuts 4 Tots at The Block building of SM North Edsa. I'll blog about it on another time.

After that, we went around The Block and found ourselves at an SM Appliance Center. We looked at some of their refrigerators. Personal refs (5cu ft) sold for around 6,000 pesos. We were looking for something around 8 cubic ft. They started at roughly upwards of 10,000 pesos for the single door models. Two door models started at 12,000, i think.

I was eyeing something cheap. Anything less than 14,000 pesos. There were several brands available that had models at that price range.

The very first refrigerator from my earliest memories was a GE brand. It was a single door variant. And it was built like a rock. I remember it lasting until I was in college.

I think it was in college (or right after it), that we decided to get a new ref. I remember owing my dad some money, and when I had enough to pay him back, I asked my dad if we can use the money I owed him, plus some money of my own, to buy a new fridge for my mom. My dad agreed, so we finally upgraded the GE ref to a 12 cu.ft. two-door LG refrigerator. It's pretty durable as it's still working at my parent's house, and it looks relatively new except for some spots of rust near the door handle. I don't think we ever had a problem with it.

So looking around, I was looking for the ones with the highest EEF (energy efficiency factor) number. They're usually printed on a yellow piece of paper and attached in front of some appliances (mostly fridges and ACs). The higher EEF number, the more efficient it is. Meaning it should save on electricity costs, although it's not a straight comparison between different sized refs.

So after looking around, we found that the highest EEF around the price range we were looking at was a Condura Go Negosyo 6.7 cu.ft. single door refrigerator. The EEF was about 282. It was a semi automatic defrost, meaning there was a button for the defrost cycle so you no longer need to unplug the ref to defrost it. It costs around 12,000 pesos I think. I can't remember.

But then, I got around to the Samsung refs and saw models with inverter compressors, or the Samsung Digital Inverter series. The 8 cu.ft. model costs around 18,995.

Go Filipino or Go Korean?

Now inverter technology is a different spin on traditional compressors, as they have more than two states. The traditional compressor is either on, or off. When you turn on an AC unit, the compressor will turn on (uses a high spike of current on starting up a compressor), and would run on a constant speed until the thermostat (checks the temperature of a room for ACs or the temp in a ref), turns it off. If the temperatures dips higher (warmer) than the setting in the thermostat, the compressor turns on again.

An inverter compressor on the other hand, turns on, and then slows down when it reaches the desired temperature. So the compressor doesn't turn off, so it doesn't use a high spike in current to turn it on again if the temperature gets warmer.

So basically, the inverter technology creates a more efficient (and oftentimes electricity saving) appliance. It's evidently true in airconditioners, but the jury's still out when it comes to fridges (and washing machines)

Now the Samsung two door model I'm looking at had an EEF of 302 (seems way better than the condura). Plus the inverter tech is more efficient. However, the power consumption is .94kwh/24hr, compared to Condura's 6.7 cu.ft. .64kwh/24hr.

The power consumption rating is an average number of the kilowatt hour used for 24hrs. Multiply that with the kw/hr rate from Meralco and over the course of a month, you should get the actual monthly electricity cost for the appliance. Although I'm not sure if that's correct, because I think I'm getting the computations all wrong. Hah.

So if you look at it, Condura wins in the power consumption rate. Plus, it's semi automatic, meaning it depends on the user how often they want to defrost.

These semi and full automatic/ no frost systems usually defrost the ref using heating coils around the freezer. And these heating elements actually use about ~150watts. So for manual or semi-automatic defrost systems, you can limit the times you defrost, saving you power usage.

On full automatic/no frost system like the Samsung Digital Inverter series, a salesman mentioned that it runs about 2-3 times every 8 hours. And each cycle runs for about 20-30mins.

So it seems that despite the new compressor technology, the Samsung Digital Series may have higher electricity costs despite the better EEF number.

Anyway, it felt like that the sales people at SM Appliances were egging me more towards Panasonic and Condura. I'm a Panasonic fan myself, but their inverter refs were around 30,000 pesos still. Despite the Condura seemingly able to save me more on electricity costs, I was still partial to the Samsung inverter fridge. I'm just a sucker for new tech.

Chea and I then decided to go to Abenson's (at the Carpark) to check on the refs there. We still looked at the same two units, although the sales personnel were pitching more for Condura and Kelvinator. (Both brands I think are from Concepcion Industries).

So still being a bit confused, we decided not to purchase right away and just went home.

I did some research that night, and found some bad anecdotes on the Condura models. Seems like quality has gone down the drain the last few years as some refs started having problems within the first year. Electrolux refs are definitely a no-no as sourcing parts from abroad is problematic. American brands seemed durable but their efficiency is atrocious.

The next day, we did a late day window shopping at Trinoma and went to Anson's which had a favorable review of offering discounts. Again, when we got to looking around the place, the sales personnel pitched the same two brands again: Condura and Kelvinator.

The same thing happened when we hopped on over to the other appliance stores in Trinoma, except at Western. They didn't have the exact Samsung model that we were looking at, so they never got to pitch for a particular make and model.

I was disappointed with the trip to Trinoma. It felt that the sales personnel were pitching for a certain brand more for something else (such as commission) rather than what would fit the buyer's needs. I actually got to the point that I wanted to look for a Samsung store and ask them to pitch their products.

Looking around the internet, I could barely find any reviews on the refs that I was looking at. So i went to my favorite forum, and asked the people there. There were a couple of Samsung Digital Inverter ref owners there, but they couldn't provide hard numbers (like electricity costs), just impressions. But since they came over from older model refs which are presumably more power hungry, I couldn't compare it to the newer, more efficient models.

So right now, I'm still on the fence on which model to get. Since I'm the one paying the utility bills, I've become more aware of electricity consumption.

Just recently, when my Intel i5 3.2Ghz quad-core, 150-watt file server died , i went to a more frugal AMD 1.6Ghz dual core APU, running at 50 watts. Since i had it running 24/7, i decided to go to the less power hungry machine even if it meant i could no longer play my favorite PC games on it. That's the price of growing old I guess.

Anyway, I'm still undecided. Hopefully, I can make a decision this coming Sunday.

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The French Baker

So my wife and I are in the hunt for a new fridge. Late today, we decided to head over to Trinoma to check refrigerators at Anson's as we already did the same at Abenson's and SM appliances at SM North Edsa yesterday.

We then had our late dinner at the Landmark food court. At around a few minutes before 9pm, we decided to head back home.

On the way to the car, we passed by a French Baker stall by the supermarket. And since it was almost 9pm, I asked Chea if we could get some bread since they sell them at 50% off by 9pm.

I always loved The French Baker

They were already started packing their goods when we asked them if they were already selling them off at 50% off. We got a somewhat indifferent reply of it still being a good 3 minutes off.

Since it was still 3 minutes away, we just looked at what goodies were left and asked for the prices as most of the labels were already removed from the display.

Again, we got what I felt was a bit discourteous attitude from the staff. Here we are, wanting to buy their goods, and yet we felt we were being dismissed. After a few more questions, we were told some of the items were already spoken for as there were customers waiting ahead of us, who were a few meters away from the stall.

We looked back, and there were about three people way behind us who looked somewhat were in a loose definition of a line. Chea and I wondered if we should wait for the remaining minute before they start selling their bread at a discount, but then I voiced out that we should just head home.

I was a bit turned off with the staff's attitude. Maybe they're really tired. It's sunday after all. But still, I was a customer and i really wanted some beef turnovers ( i love these) and some bread to dip in my barely touched  vinaigrette at home. So imagine my disappointment on not being able to have those.

Anyway, the incident got me to reminiscing about all the times I've enjoyed The French Baker.

I was born in Quezon City. And I have been going to SM North Edsa ever since it was first built. The French Baker had their first branch there and we frequented them ever since.When I was a kid, I remember my mom coming home with baguettes and garlic bread at least once a week. Most of them on weekends. She loved buying those stuff. And me and my brother loved eating them for midnight snacks.

Ever since I started working at Ortigas over a decade ago, whenever I got out and had time to pass through SM Megamall, I would buy turnovers and garlic bread.

However, over the years, the love affair with The French Baker would be tested by flings with Le Coeur de France and by the fresh and modern BreadTalk. Still, we will always go back to The French Baker.

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