Pink Ribbon Sale at The Bench Tower

Last October 25, 2014, a Saturday, Chea, Tita Fe and Thirdy went to the annual Halloween party of Rockwell. I begged off since I was tired from the previous week and wanted to sleep in. That night, Chea told me that they passed by Bench Tower at Bonifacio Global City for a sale. She mentioned that there were some good bargains there especially Charles and Keith bags that were being sold for only 1000 pesos.

When I checked a retail shop, they usually sell the bags at 5,000 pesos so I thought that was a pretty good bargain, and it was a good christmas gift option for the females in our family.

So the next day, Chea and I dropped by the Bench Tower again, after bringing Thirdy to Antipolo to stay at his grandparents til after All Souls' Day.

Sign outside the building

We arrived a little before 3pm and went straight to the sale.

Near the entrance you have the local brands sale. We skipped that and went straight to the other side, which had the foreign brands. The middle part, in front of the cashiers, had the premium brands so they're expensive, so we didn't bother to look at them.

Premium brands. Pass!

Mothercare! Chea had already bought something for Thirdy the other day.

As soon as we got in, Chea and I already separated while I was taking some pictures. There were a lot of people so it took a while for me to find Chea. I went to look at the American Eagle Outfitters section first, since that's the men's brand I'm a bit familiar with, owning a single t-shirt. Lol.

There's a good selection of t-shirts, short pants and jeans

There were some shorts for sale at American Eagle Outfitters. Unfortunately, the tags indicated full price. The shorts cost around 2,500 pesos. Ouch. I tried to look for some discount tags so I just gave up. The jeans didn't have price tags, while the t-shirts cost about 499 pesos and above. There were only a few designs available, for the shorts, jeans and t-shirts. I didn't feel like coughing up 500 pesos for a t-shirt that day, so I walked away dejected.

Shoes!

Beside the American Eagle Outfitters section was Aldo. I wasn't planning on buying shoes so I skipped that part and went to the Celio display. I also have one long sleeved polo shirt from Celio, so I took a quick look. It was mostly t-shirts and long-sleeved shirts. Most of the long sleeved shirts were sold at 999 pesos, so I was a bit turned off by the price. They're actually a bargain especially with some of the designs, but I decided to take a look around first before deciding to getting anything.

Cotton On on one end, Celio on the other.

I then looked for Chea and later I found her near the Charles and Keith displays. I asked her to get a bag as a gift for my mom and my sister, so we spent quite some time there.

Pretty good bargains at Charles and Keith.

We ended up getting a black leather bag and a beige bag. Both were sold at 999 pesos, so they're a steal somewhat. They don't come with boxes, but they have dust bags. Now, I only need to buy a gift for my dad and Gerry for Christmas.

Chea couldn't find a bag that she likes. So she concentrated on shoes.

I continued looking around the place.

No shoes for me for now.

I'm not familiar with F & X, but the guy in the picture is a former co-worker of mine. Lol.

Some delicates. Teehee!

I went back to the Celio display after giving it some thought. I have two long sleeved shirts at the moment ( since I'm more of a t-shirt and polo-shirt kind of guy), which I barely wear since I wear barongs to work. I sometimes use them on Fridays and a few occasions, so having another one or two wouldn't hurt. And to be honest, long sleeved shirts are usually in the thousand peso range nowadays, so the 999 peso price tag isn't too unreasonable.

I looked for a couple that I like, and found that the design is pretty nice and the quality is good as well. I picked out four shirts, but decided to just get two.

One's 599, the other's 999 pesos. Those are pretty good prices.

Chea bought about five shoes (I think), and they're Charles and Keith to boot (pun intended), at discounted prices and it was just 4pm. I actually felt that we were there for hours already. We queued to pay at the counter. There were about four cashiers so the wait wasn't terribly long.

Time to pay the piper, i mean, cashier

At the cashier, we had an option to pay using a BDO credit card which allowed us to pay it in installments. For around 3,000 pesos, you have an option of 3 month installment, and for 10,000 and above, 6 months. And another good news was that payment would start next year. Yey for BDO!

When we got outside, there were freebies for those using BDO Bench credit card. Too bad we didn't have that. One could never have too many umbrellas.

Also, they gave out free drinks for the customers. Kinda like the Sterling sale in Bulacan.

I usually buy the orange variety during grocery trips

It was past four when we left, so we decided to have an early dinner. We ended up at El Chupacabra in Makati, very near Chea's office. But that's a blog entry for another day.

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Buffalo Wings n' Things Banawe

October 18, 2014, Thirdy had a checkup at Chinese General Hospital. I slept in, so Chea and I decided to meet up later at S&R Munoz.

We met up at 1pm, and did some shopping. It was a week after their end-of-the-year sale, so there were still some discounted items.

After that, we went to the Garden of the Divine Word columbarium to visit my brother. It was almost 3 pm already and we haven't had lunch yet. We decided to drive towards Banawe to find something to eat there.

We ended up at Buffalo Wings N' Things since we haven't been there before, and there was a free parking space. But I was mostly attracted by a signage outside boasting of a 99 peso chicken fillet meal and a 129 peso chicken wings meal.

The menu. Couldn't find the picture of the other side. Too bad, it had the list of dips.

The establishment has an outdoor area made up of several tables and chairs. They serve alcohol so the area is good for boisterous fun, and probably for a lot of smoking too. But since it was mid afternoon, there weren't any people occupying the outdoor tables.

Inside, there's four tables. One was already occupied by a couple. So we took the one in between them and the order counter. The place has a high ceiling so it's dimly lit.

It comes in Large too.

There were about 2 waitresses and another one manning the kitchen at the time.

The kitchen. Buffalo style. Don't know what that means.

We didn't bother looking too much at the rest of the menu, although I remember most of it's affordable. We just went ahead and ordered 2 of the 99 peso meal for Chea and Tita Fe, while I went with the 129 wings meal. I also ordered a large Down Town Iced Tea (additional of 20 pesos on the base price). Chea also ordered a Blueberry ice cream dessert.

Uh, the area beside the kitchen. 

We waited a while for the order to come through, and another two groups of people filled the remaining 2 two tables. Before we left, a family arrived and sat outside, since those are the only tables that could fit more than 4 persons.

Thirdy messing around with his mom.

The drink arrived first. And after a few minutes, the food came all at the same time.

Chea ordered the butter dip for her meal. I think she ordered a different dip for Tita Fe but I wasn't able to taste hers. They asked to separate the dip from the meal, so they came in small plastic dip cups. I ordered the Basil and Garlic dip on mine, and I didn't bother having it separated.

The chicken tenders with the dirty rice and butter something dip. I think there's about 4 pieces of them chicken strips.

We were given plastic disposable gloves, so you can eat with your hands, especially since you were handling chicken wings. Thirdy played around with his, since it was too big (also, they didn't have kid chairs or booster chairs). Chea just fed Thirdy with a spoon.

Even without the dip, the chicken was pretty good. Thirdy ate big chunks of chicken and he really got into it.

The meal came with rice, Dirty Rice they call it. It was yellowish, but it didn't taste the similar looking java rice from other establishments (my favorite is Kipp's). It kind of reminded me of jambalaya. I like cajun dishes, whatever little I've tasted of it in cajun-themed restaurants in the country. After a brief googling, it seemed that I was correct. Dirty rice is a cajun dish.

Original buffalo wings with Basil and garlic dip. 2 and a half pieces of chicken wings. 

On top of the dirty rice were some relish (looks like pickles and some tomatoes), which gave the rice additional flavor. It was really good.

As for the dips, I didn't like the butter dip. It was too buttery. However, I liked the Basil and garlic. I'm biased of course since I love basil. Still, it was pretty good. It was sweet with a little bit of tang.

It's ice cream. What more do you need to know?

The blueberry cake was ok. It was hard vanilla ice cream topped with whip cream and some blueberry sauce. Third loves ice cream so he had no complaints, except when Chea tried to stop him from eating more.

Our bill was about 520 or so pesos, but with a senior citizen discount, came to about 485 pesos. That's pretty affordable.

Overall, I really liked the place. It's pretty inexpensive. You can order a half pound of chicken wings for only 149 pesos, while 1 pound costs 409 pesos. They have other american fast food menu items like hotdogs, burgers, nachos, fries, etc if you want to skip the rice which are all under 200 pesos.

The place was clean, and the music was light R&B. The staff were courteous and was open to conversation as one waitress was chatting with one of the customers about the dips and some funny anecdotes of other customers trying out the really spicy ones.

Also, the place was a bit further from the very busy areas in Banawe, so it was quiet and you could really enjoy your meal. The only drawback is you'd have a hard time getting there if you had a car, and if you did, parking would be a problem on busy hours.

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A day for babies

Mar 29, 2014. Chea wanted to go to to a kids' bazaar at Bonifacio Global City along with Thirdy. I also wanted to bring my parents along since my dad's been cooped up at home for the entire week. And the only way to get him out of the house was if he wasn't driving.

I also didn't want to tire my dad so the plan was to go out after lunch. So a little before 2pm, Chea, Thirdy, my mom, my dad and myself got into my dad's car and went out.

We first dropped by at the columbary to visit my brother, and then we went to Ateneo de Manila University as there was a babypalooza again. Thirdy's carrier ripped when we were at Tiendesitas a couple of weeks back. And since he's around 12kgs now, it's tiring to carry him around in our arms. So we need a sturdier carrier.

We got to Ateneo at around 3pm and proceeded to the area. There were a lot of people going around in togas, so I guess they were having graduations that day. We waited a while but we were able to park the car near the event building. As we were walking towards the building, there was a bit of a commotion with the attendants. One of them approached and told us that we hit one of the cars when we were backing up and maneuvering into the parking area.

I was a bit surprised since I didn't hear or feel anything. My parents and chea also couldn't believe what the attendant was saying. But he was adamant that another attendant actually saw our car hitting a parked black Toyota Vios. We looked at the right corner of the rear bumper and there was some scrapes. But again, we couldn't believe it since we didn't feel anything. When we asked the attendant who saw the entire thing, he was positive that we hit the car.

We checked our car, and there were no new scratches on our rear bumper. We asked the attendant to fetch the driver so we could talk to them and settle things. I let my parents do the talking because my temper flares easily at times.

A little bit later, the owner came over and looked at the damage. I was trying to cool off at a distance when the owner left. It seems that the damage was actually an old one. If there were new scratches, it wouldn't matter since it'll be fixed by the insurance anyway. Still, the attendant continued insisting that we hit the car. My mother had to berate the attendant, since it was no longer an issue as the owner insisted that there was no harm done. My mom reasoned that the height of the scratches on either car did not match up, so it doesn't make sense. Way I see it, the attendant who supposedly saw the accident was a bit far from us at the time, and was in an angle that made him think there was contact between the two cars, came on over after the fact, and concluded that we hit the car because there was some damage.

I actually would understand their position. They are, after all, trying to do their job. Still, it kinda ruined my day.

A few minutes later we left and headed to Taguig to the Bench Tower for the Cirque du Bebe Baby and Kids Fair.

Since we're not familiar with the place, we again turned to the trusty Google Maps app for direction. Unfortunately, Bench Tower wasn't showing up in the search, so I had to put in the street names instead. As soon as we got near to 30th street, I just zoomed in the map, and found Bench Tower.

We parked across the building, and walked towards it. We took the elevator down to level B and found the event.

There was a registration booth at the entrance. Behind that were some seats and a small stage with videos being projected against the backdrop.

Try to find my dad and my mom.

There were some booths off to right and left of the stage, selling all sorts of baby stuff. Gymboree was there, and they occupied a large area off to the right. Little Tikes, Philips Avent, Halo Sleepsacks and other retailers were also present.

There were picture cardboard cut outs which Thirdy really enjoyed.

Since the theme was a Circus, there were some mascots and some clowns on stilts. Thirdy felt uncomfortable next to the clowns so after a quick picture, we left. The next kid who took pictures with the clowns started to bawl immediately.

Most of the kids didn't like the clowns on stilts. A few of them actually cried.

We found a baby carrier, but it was too expensive at 5,000 pesos. I was hoping to find one at less than 1,000 pesos (if there ever was one).

Nicole Hernandez, the commercial model, was there. She was with her husband and their baby in a stroller. Aside from that, it was pretty uneventful.

So after less than an hour, we left and went out of the building. At the stop light, diagonal to Bench Tower, was an area that looked like a park. I was curious so I walked towards there carrying Thirdy. Chea and my parents had no choice but to follow as I was already way ahead of them.

When I got near, I saw what looked like a playground through the thick plants. So we went around along the pathway, trying to find the main entrance. After a brisk walk, it turns out that it's the Science-in-the-Park of the Mind Museum building. Looks like Thirdy's gonna get some play time.

Food!

Thirdy's Mr. Pogi pose

Bend it like Thirdy!

There was a Jollibee so we headed there for dinner first as it was almost 6pm. Unfortunately, there was a kids party going on at the second floor, so there were no available fried chicken being sold. Most of the stocks were still being thawed out. We had to settle for spaghetti and palabok. Looks like it's going to be a light dinner.

After eating, i then took Thirdy to the Science-in-the-Park. It was free so that's a big plus for the place. There's actually not that many enjoyable things a kid could do here except beat on some drums, and slide down the mobius strip-like slide. While Thirdy wasn't able to go to the slide, as there were a lot of kids there, he did, however, enjoy his time with the drums.

Seesaw

Mobius slide off to the left

Chea couldn't make the big bubble work.

Nope. still can't do it.

My dad taking pics.

Thirdy hammering away

After about 10 or so minutes, we left, went back to the parking lot and got into the car and headed to Marikina. Thirdy's birthday is on April 17th, and on his 2nd birthday, we wanted to have a pool party with just the family and probably a few friends. Third loves the water, and since his birthday's on Maundy Thursday, it'll be like a family summer outing.

We initially had our eye on City Hideaway along Sumulong Hiway in Antipolo, since it's very much near our house in Maia Alta. The idea is to have the party during the day, and then have the clan stay overnight at Maia Alta. That way, they don't need to drive home to rest after a tiring day.

Unfortunately, after checking the place out last weekend, when we called to confirm our reservation, we were told that they made a mistake and that the date was already booked.

We still wanted to have that pool party, so we did some online search, and found some private pools in Marikina. The one were we're checking that day was Costa Marquina. And since weren't familiar with the address, we had to check Google Maps again for directions. It was dark, but somehow, we were able to find it after getting initially lost.

The place was ok for its price. For 6,000 pesos, you get a pool, a children's pool, some area around the pool so you could set up tables and chairs. And there's a 2 floor house that you could occupy, with a bedroom with two big beds and A/C.

As it turns out, the owners also had another private pool a few meters away. It was basically the same thing, although the house was a bit bigger as it was segregated into an area for use with the pool, while the other part was being lived in by the house administrators.

The price was the same. As luck would have it, both places were free on April 17th. So it's just an issue of who reserves first. Still, we just made a pencil booking, as there's another place that's a lot bigger, although a lot farther (Morong actually), that we wanted to check out as well.

We then started on our way home, but I got hungry along the way, so I asked if we could stop by somewhere. That somewhere turned out to be Robert Flavors of Asia, which I'll write about on another entry.

After the brief stop, we headed home and called it a day.

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SerendipiTV: A Toshiba TV Tale

Around the time Thirdy had turned two years old, he was spending most of his waking hours watching movies (Cars, Frozen, and Planes are his favorites) and tv shows (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse) on our lone TV in the house.

He gets to watch whenever he wants, especially when he flashes that winsome smile and those googly eyes and says "movie". And since my htpc is connected to our lone TV, I'll drop whatever I'm doing, let him watch a movie or two, and just wait for him to fall asleep or get bored to have my chance to go back to whatever I was using the TV for. So I've been planning for months on getting another television so I don't have to lose out to my son.

For the last couple of weeks, I've been doing my due diligence by checking the price of 32" LED TVs online. I usually check sulit.com.ph (now olx.ph). I'm planning to put in our room, so I thought 32 inches was just the right size. I trimmed down my option to an LG 32LB551B TV. It was a 2014 model, so it's slimmer and more power efficient. It wasn't a SMART tv (meaning you could access the internet on it) nor it was 3D. I felt I didn't need those features, since we had our smart phones and tablets. It did, however, have USB media playback so I didn't need to attach it to a media player to watch movies on it. There were other brands and models, but this was the cheapest being sold at 13,980 pesos by, surprise!, Sights and Sounds.

Sights and Sounds is an AV shop at Shangrila Mall well known in the online AV community (mostly in www.pinoydvd.com). I've read that they don't have their shop in ShangriLa anymore, but they do CODs. We've bought several LCD TVs from them already (2 Toshibas, 1 Panasonic and 1 Skyworth. Our Samsung lcd tv, we bought from Listening in Style, also in ShangriLa) and have never had a problem with any of them.

After checking out olx.ph, I went to pinoydvd.com and asked for a recent quotations on TVs from online sellers there, including Sights and Sounds.

For the last few days I looked at the prices of the 32" TVs and was leaning towards getting the LG, until I started thinking of getting one that's around 39" - 42". They're a bit big for our room, but I was thinking of moving the old TV (37") to the bedroom, and putting the new one in the living room. I originally planned of only spending 14,000 pesos on the new TV, but if I could find something around 18,000 pesos, I thought that the extra 7" inches (at least) would make it worth the additional cost.

I saw a Samsung UA39FH5003 being sold online at only 17.5k, and a Toshiba 39P2300VP at the same price. I kept the seller's numbers for reference so I could call them when I decide to get a tv this weekend.

Then there was a seller on PinoyDVD, selling a MyView 42EX100 tv for only 16,000 pesos. I was sorely tempted, but was still hoping for a japanese or korean branded television. I did some forum searching on feedbacks for the MyView brand, and I found out that some had either run into problems during the first few months, or worse, just after the 2 year warranty had just expired. Ouch.

Today, September 20, 2014, a Saturday, I asked Chea if we could finally buy a TV. Plan was to check with Robinson's Appliance store in Novaliches since they really have good discounts (we bought our Samsung Inverter refrigerator there at a discounted price and with a free juicer). After that, check out Saver's Appliance store at Wilcon City Center in Visayas Avenue. If we couldn't find anything by then, we'd regroup, consider our options, and decide tomorrow.

I first texted the online seller of the Toshiba 39" TV if we could check out their units at their store. Unfortunately, we were told they were sold out. I asked about their 32" variants, but didn't get a reply.

We then headed out to Robinsons' Appliance store in Novaliches. There was a Toshiba 39" TV there being sold for roughly 16,000 pesos. The caveat was that it was the last unit from their stocks and was a previous model. I was thinking of getting it, but was told that it only had 1 year left on it's warranty. I didn't want to risk it, but again, it was tempting.

We saw the Toshiba displays, and was drawn to the 2014 models. Their 32" model, 32P2400, was being sold for about 15k, but was at a discount, and was now going for 13,200 pesos. I looked it up online, and saw that it was being sold at roughly the same price at Cash n' Carry Makati. Since that was a bit far, it made sense to just get it from Robinsons'. They also had the 40" variant, discounted to a price of 18,990 pesos. Again, the same price at Cash n' Carry, but cheaper than everywhere else.

The sales personnel also tried to sell us on a 40" Sharp TV. Again, at a 'discounted cash price' of 18,990. There were other 32" models from Philips, Sharp, Samsung, etc all around 14k. We decided to check out SuperSaver, before making a decision. We could always come back the next day.

On our way to Saver's, i texted the online seller of the 17,500 peso 39" samsung tv. I asked for the warranty length. The seller replied with a "1 year". It looks like I have to settle for the 32" TVs, since I set my limit to 18,000 pesos for the TV we're planning on getting.

Saver's Appliance Deport was a disappointment. The Toshibas, LGs and Samsungs were expensive, at least 2,000 pesos more than what we saw at Robinsons'. Dejected, we then decided to head over to Divine Word Columbary to visit my brother.

After the visit, Chea was thinking of heading home since it was already around 5:30 pm, and we still had to buy dinner for my dad. I asked that we hit one more appliance store. We decided on Trinoma, since it had Anson's , Western Appliance, and a few more appliance shops there.

We always parked near the side exit of Landmark at Trinoma, so our first shop was Anson's. We went in nonchalantly, not expecting anything, when I laid eyes on a Sharp 40" TV on display. A big sign displayed the price of around 26,998 pesos. That was expected. But then my eyes focused on the paper taped to the bottom of the price, it said , "30% discount, 16,198". I think i blinked several times. Was that correct? A 40" Sharp TV for ONLY 16k? I had to holler over to Chea who had already moved a few meters away to the LG displays. When she came back, we asked a sales personnel if the price was real.

The display that started it all.

We were told that it was the sale price for using a Metrobank credit card. My heart sank. We didn't have a Metrobank credit card. I got preapproved for one, even had the card delivered to me, but I chose not to keep it when they asked me to pay an annual fee a year later, even if i never used it. Not to mention it was a pain to pay for a Metrobank credit card, since some bills payment centers didn't accept payments for them.

Another Sharp TV with a sharp discount (pun intended). 

Another one. Man, these Sharp TVs are heavily discounted than the other brands. 

We did a look around and saw several TVs with unbelievable discounts. On our way out, we passed by a display of Toshiba TVs. The same models we saw at Robinsons' were also on sale. The 32" variant was on sale for only 11.6k pesos if using a Metrobank credit card, and 13,000 pesos if paying with cash.  The 40" variant was on sale for 16.3k pesos if, again, using a Metrobank credit card, and 18,500 pesos if paying with cash. This was the cheapest price for the Toshibas on a cash basis, so i was thinking of already getting one. I was pondering of just getting the 32" and be over with it. Unfortunately, there was an elderly couple who looked like they were getting the 32" TV, which the sales guy said was the last unit left. Oh well, looks like I'm gonna go over my 18,000 peso budget for the 40incher.

Caught our eye on the way out.

Still, we opted to go down to Western appliances to compare first. The 40" variant was being sold for 19,200 pesos. And if we had it delivered, it would cost another 260 pesos. And the earliest we could get it was Tuesday.

LG 42 inch LED TV. Nope, not a 3D Smart TV. Still, for only 19,500 pesos, you can't go wrong.

So we went back to Anson's and decided to get the 40L2400VP model. We had one unit moved over to the testing area so I went with it. My mom, Tita Fe, Thirdy and Chea just waited among the Toshiba displays and seemed to start a conversation with the elderly couple who bought the last unit of the 32" variant (they actually bought 1 pc of the 32" variant, came back and bought the last one after telling a niece or nephew over the phone about it, and then decided to buy a 40" variant also).

LG 42" 3D TV. Still not Smart though, but only for 24.5k pesos. 

LG 32" Smart TV. 

Chea then approached me and told me that the couple was willing to buy the TV for us using their credit card, and we'll just give them our cash. So instead of paying 18,500 pesos to Anson's, we would be paying the elderly couple, 16,500 pesos, or around 200 pesos more than the Metrobank sale price. I said yes of course, so after waiting for a few minutes for the wall bracket, we were heading home  with a brand new Toshiba 40L2400VP that only cost us 16,500 pesos.

We ended up buying this. Hooray!

This is why I always love having my wife around when buying stuff. She's amiable to most folks, and could charm her way to discounts or freebies, and this time, to a big discount of 2,000 pesos via strangers we've only met that day, and only conversed with for a few minutes.

It was truly, serendipity for us. We waited a few months before deciding on getting the tv today. Then we didn't immediately decide on the TVs in Robinsons' despite them being fairly cheap already. I also didn't bite on the 39" Toshiba and the 39" Samsung TVs, that were both on a 1 year warranty only. We also didn't plan on going to Trinoma, but it was a spur of the moment thing. And then, having that couple at the exact time and place, when we were finally getting the TV. When we started to head off to Western, they were actually just getting back to get the last 32" unit, and decided to stay longer to get a 40" unit, that by the time we got there, they were already in the process of getting their receipts signed.

So here's to luck, and even to God, I guess, for this amusing turn of events.

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