Events Archives - Page 11 of 17

November 22, 2008

Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf’s 12 Cups of Giving

I love coffee. Period.

Last year, in order to get my 2 girls the planners they wanted, I was at this coffee shop almost daily ordering a cup of coffee. This year, though, I told myself I would not do that. After computing the cost of daily coffee at that shop, I figured it was an expensive way to buy a planner.

But I have changed my mind after attending the blogger event hosted by Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (CBTL) at Boni High Street.

I confess I had no idea what the event was all about except that I was drawn to the word “Giving” in the text I got from Geiser Maclang.

C1 came along with me. As we entered CBTL, we were surprised to see bloggers huddled around tables talking with people who had brochures laid out. That was how I found out that CBTL was launching its Christmas program, 12 Cups with The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf: Give in to Giving. At each table were representatives of each of the 12 organizations being supported by CBTL this Christmas.

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Here’s how it works. Every cup of coffee or tea you buy, which is covered by the program, gets you a stamp on a card. Once you complete the 12 stamps on the card, you get to choose your favorite cause/advocacy from the 12 supported organizations and CBTL will make a donation in your name. Not only that! For having completed the card, you also get one of the 3 CBTL limited edition commemorative journals specially designed by 12 of the most important Filipino artists in the country today — FREE! And if you get to donate to all 12 organizations (that means 12 cards x 12 cups = 144 cups), CBTL will give one year’s supply of coffee!

Whatever your advocacy is, there is sure to be one organization from this lot that you can help. Here are the 12 organizations you can help support via CBTL as well as the kind of support CBTL will donate in your name after you complete your 12th cup of giving:

1. Kababaihan Gabay sa Bayan (KAGABAY) – poverty reduction through social, political and economic empowerment of women. CBTL will donate P600/child for their education needs.

2. The Restorative Justice Program of Caritas Manila – service to prisoners and their families through formation, paralegal assistance and outreach. CBTL will donate P1,000 under your name for values formation class materials per school year for inmates.

3. The Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) – animal protection and care. CBTL will provide medicine for animals under PAWS’ care.

4. Bahay Tuluyan – serves streetchildren. CBTL will give a birthday present for a child worth P250 under your name.

5. Haribon Foundation – conservation of Philippine biodiversity. CBTL will adopt a seedling under your name.

6. Cartwheel Foundation – education for the country’s indigenous people. CBTL will donate P8,000 for educational materials, curriculum development, tuition, teacher training & seminars, and school supplies for each student per school year.

7. Kythe Foundation – supports children with cancer; its Child Life Program seeks to alleviate the anxieties of a child during hospitalization. CBTL will sponsor an unforgettable kids’ outing for the kids and the volunteers.

8. Autism Society Philippines (ASP) – committed to the wellbeing of persons with autism spectrum disorder. CBTL will donate P2,000 for books needed for autism disorder awareness.

9. Philippine Cerebral Palsy, Inc. – aids cerebral palsy victims. CBTL will give a patient P1,800 per month to help in their medicine and rehabilitation.

10. Philippine Band of Mercy (PBM) – attends to indigent Filipinos suffering from cleft lip & palate, congenital cataract & glaucoma, hydrocephalus & meninggoceale. CBTL will give P8,000 for the operation of each child & become the leading provider of comprehensive craniofacial health services for the less privileged.

11. Resources for the Blind – seeks to ensure that blind students have access to the same information that sighted students have. CBTL donate P1,000 for the production of Braille textbooks.

12. Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) – seeks to improve the quality of life for Filipinos through corporate citizenship. CBTL will sponsor a child’s medical consultation worth P200.

img_3933-low-res — Representatives of the 12 NGOs with Paolo del Rosario of CBTL

I had the chance to speak with Coffee Bean’s Marketing Director, Paolo Del Rosario, who enthused about the program. I told him that I was very touched by their gesture to support not one but TWELVE NGOs. And Paolo assured me that this is going to be a yearly thing with CBTL and not just a one-shot deal. Much later, I also had the chance to meet CBTL’s Managing Director, Walden Chu, who was likewise very enthusiastic about their program.

If I had to spend my money on coffee, this is were I would plunk it down. Not only do I actually enjoy CBTL’s coffee and tea (Chai Latte and African Sunrise are my all-time favorites) but their food fare, for a yogini, is very healthy and tasty. There is a CBTL on the ground floor of my yoga center and we would often hang out here before or after classes over cups of coffee or tea. With The 12 Cups of Giving program, CBTL has earned my respect and admiration — not just for their good food but more so, for their generous hearts for the marginalized among our citizens.

A big THANK YOU to Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf for giving us good coffee, tea and food while giving us this rare opportunity to give back a little of ourselves to society as well.

The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf is located at TriNoMa, SM The Block, Gateway, Ortigas Park, Paseo Center, Bonifacio High Street, Mall of Asia, convergys Ayala Avenue, Salcedo Village, Alabang Town Center, Rockwell, Robinson’s Ermita, Greenhills Promenade, Robinson’s Galleria, Eastwood, Tomas Morato and 2 more branches in Cebu.

November 21, 2008

Bratpack Greenbelt 5 Opens With a Bang!

The flagship store of the trendy and sporty bag people, Bratpack, opened recently at Greenbelt 5.

I was there at GB5 for a lunch date with friends at Cibo and saw the Bratpack people setting up in the lobby area right outside Cibo. Seeing all the bags hanging on display made me recall my school days when I almost always went around school with a backpack. Truly, the contents and the type of bag one carries says a lot about the personality of its owner!

When my daughter C1 bought a backpack, we went for JanSport after seeing the other varieties around. JanSport was the one that met our standards not just aesthetically but functionally, with its wide, foam-padded shoulder straps which I found very good since the books she used to bring home felt more like boulders and I was really concerned about possible injuries to her shoulders and back.

To this day, this backpack is still here with narry a tear or damage. It has weathered all the use (and abuse) it has taken after being lagged all around C1’s school daily.

When I got to the Bratpack launch, people were milling around and getting some food to eat. I immediately spotted Noemi and Bong and joined their table. Much later, more blogger friends arrived and so I went table hopping to get some of them in photo ops.

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I also got a good look at the latest styles in bags that Bratpack was offering and noted that not only did they retain the functional look but they had evolved from plain colors to bright, spunky prints as well! And some of the bags were fashionable enough for the office (something I noted since I now work).

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They had a contest going on to color some fashion templates as you wish so Noemi and I got right down to being as artsy as we could be (which was quite an effort for me as I had not doodled and colored in such a long time!). But it was fun and I must say, the outcome of what I did was not too bad. Even C1 liked it!

img_3849-low-res — My attempt at fashion designing

Another riddle contest had us guessing what the items were as well as in which Bratpack bags they were located. 10 bags were given away to 10 lucky bloggers who were able to guess correctly 3 times. I was lucky to be the 2nd winner and my bag was the pink & black backpack!!!! Of course, when I got home, who else would beg to have it but C1, the JanSport lover.

img_3882-low-res — I won the cute pink & black Jansport backpack! Here I am getting it from Brian Kong, Bratpack Marketing Officer

And here are the 10 lucky blogger winners!

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Whatever one’s lifestyle or personality, Bratpack seems to have just the right bag for you, as can be seen from the different types of bags, colors, sizes I saw. And yes, their Greenbelt 5 store is HUGE (designed by renowned graphic design house Team Manila)! Wide open space to move around and ogle the bags for whatever your sport or fashion sense dictates.

Their 3 major lines are JanSport, Timbuk2 and Hedgren. But at Greenbelt 5, they carry new brands that cater to more lifestyles: skate brand DC and Sector9, Sanuk the surfers and beachbums, Skull Candy for music lovers, as well as Eastpak and Life is Good.

I will be going back soon as it’s just along the pedestrian walkway from my office in Makati. Their laptop bags are worth checking out!

Bratpack has branches at Greenbelt 5, Robinsons Place Manila, Robinsons Galleria, SM Cagayan de Oro, SM Davao, SM The Block, SM Pampanga, SM Southmall and Ayala Cebu.

November 8, 2008

This “Mother & Daughters” Tandem Dared to Wear BLACK!!!

See what the Halloween Party, put together by Unilever and its Clear Shampoo, did to this mommy blogger and her 2 blogger daughters (AND their young friend). IT MADE US DARE TO WEAR BLACK!!!

The girls were excited when they received their invites about a week or two before the event.

It was right smack during their sem break so it was easy to get them to come. Excitement was in the air as they planned what to wear on this blackest of black nights. They passed for me at my office and chatted away as we sped off to Taste Asia at Mall of Asia for the event.

It was also a big change for me. Several years back, the girls were excited about what costume to wear as they went trick or treating. Now here they were, on Halloween Night, all looking glam and grown-up in black!

img_3771-med-res — Lady Predator with my girls and a friend of theirs

My girls & their friend obviously enjoying the Clear party

The crowd at Taste Asia ranged from the young to the yuppies. I ended up making my rounds of the bloggers who were outside while the girls, attracted by the lights and sounds, spent some time dancing the night away inside.

Beauties & bloggers alike filled the dance floor

Batang Yagit and Jezhlau in the foreground

Two Janes + Chris — Jane the foodista + Jane the yogini + Chris

"Funnysexy" and "Billycoy" in the foreground; Fritz with cam — Kring and Alan in the foreground; Fritz with a cam

Moi with Jay, Aileen, Fritz and the girls

The highlight of the night as far as my 3 young girls went was suddenly seeing Ms. Earth candidates coming in to join the bloggers and party the night away. My girls were so taken by Ms. Tanzania who, in their words, had “the most beautiful dark skin” they had ever seen!

And Ms. Canada was most charming and accommodating enough for us to get this shot of her and the girls:

Many thanks, Unilever people, for this awesome party!

You bet, this mother and her girls had a great time. Generation gap no more!!!! This was one night when mother and her daughters did the same thing TOGETHER! That, for me, was a CLEAR MOMENT…

September 25, 2008

The Blue Eagles — 2008 UAAP Champions!!!!!

After a 6-year drought, Ateneo de Manila University finally clinched the 2008 UAAP Championship with a win in Game 2 against its long-time arch rival, De La Salle University, 62-51.

C1 and C2 had classes in Ateneo but were able to get out in time to run to Escaler where they joined other schoolmates for the final moments of the game. I still need to find out where my sister and her family were all this time. My BIL used to be captain of the Blue Babble Battalion during his days; their only son and oldest daughter both graduated from ADMU; and my sister and their 3 younger daughters are naturally just as loyally blue. At championship games like this, they are almost always there in full force at Araneta too.

I was at home, watching on TV, dressed all in blue down to my blue & white Adidas gym rubber shoes.

I went into lotus pose to try & relax while watching the games. Didn't work! — Tried the lotus yoga pose to relax while watching the games. No dice!

M1 came home in time to catch the 4th quarter. Initially the lead of Ateneo widened to as much as 15 points at the end of the 2nd quarter (26-41) but in the 3rd quarter, La Salle cut this down to as narrow as 3 points and that really made me nervous. I felt a bit of relief when Maierhofer got his second technical foul which meant he was out of the game; and in the 4th quarter, JV Casio fouled out as well, leaving La Salle bereft of 2 of their star players.

This championship is so much sweeter as it comes when Ateneo is also preparing for its 150th anniversary, its Sesquicentennial, on December 10, 2009.

Ateneo also swept up majority of the UAAP and Studio 23 awards handed out as follows:

1. Finals MVP – Nonoy Baclao

2. Season MVP – Rabeh Al-Hussaini

3. Part of Mythical 5 – Rabeh Al-Hussaini, Chris Tiu

4. Rookie of the Year – Ryan Buenafe

5. Most Improved Player – Rabeh Al-Hussaini

6. Defensive Player of the Year – Nonoy Baclao

Several special sponsor awards were also handed out to some of the Blue Eagles.

The sweet smell of victory will only start to sink in beginning tomorrow and over the weekend. Already, my girls and I are excited to be at the bonfire which usually caps an Ateneo UAAP victory (It’s now definite – the bonfire will be on Tiu’s-day, Sept. 30, 7PM! It will be preceded by a thanksgiving Mass at the Church of the Gesu at 6PM. Watch out for more details!).

I found the final moments of the 4th Quarter on the ABS-CBN sports site:

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I am happy that my girls were able to experience a UAAP Championship during their school years in Ateneo. The school spirit and pride, I am sure, is now welling up in them. It is something they will remember forever.

And even if I am just the mother of 2 Ateneans (and hopefully 2 more waiting in the wings), I will always be one of those who will shriek and root excitedly every time the Blue Eagles play a UAAP game.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE BLUE EAGLES TEAM (and that goes not just for the players but for coach Norman Black, the coaching team and everyone else who did so much behind-the-scenes work for the team). You truly are champions in every sense of the word.

Update: Found this on inboundpass’s YouTube channel. A view of the after-game celebration and a short clip of Norman Black:

September 19, 2008

Al Jarreau/George Benson Take Manila by Storm (literally!!!)

I am a jazz lover and a child of the 70s/80s in terms of my music taste. There is a wide range of jazz artists I listen to but 2 of my favorites are Al Jarreau and George Benson. When a friend told me that they were holding a one-night concert in Manila, I called up yogini friend Chona who agreed to watch with me. This was my first concert again — in ages!!! And I am not exaggerating!

On the night of September 8, just when Chona and I were waiting to be seated at Italiannis Gateway, the heavens opened and a downpour of cinematic proportions came crashing down on the entire Araneta Coliseum area. Many of those eating dinner at Italiannis, like us, were just waiting for showtime. We even spotted some politicos in nearby tables as well as parents from my sons’ school. Seemed like my generation was coming out in full force to see the power duo of jazz!

Chona and I had Upper A tickets and as we purchased early on, we had a front row view. The show was delayed for half an hour due to the rains but as promised, it started at exactly 8:30 PM. And wow, these 2 did not fail me.

Al Jarreau started out the first set. Is this guy already 68 years old? Well, he belted out songs with the same timbre and versatility he had from decades ago! His vocals were intact! I heard snippets from different songs: “Berimbau”, “Mais Que Nada”, “Agua de Beber”, and even “Girl from Ipanema” sang in that all-too-familiar Jarreau voice like no other. My only disappointment? He did not do “Spain”!!! 🙁

The next set was George Benson and personally, I loved him better because he sang many of the songs I loved: “Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love for You”, “In Your Eyes”, “Give Me the Night”, “Turn Your Love Around”, “Love Times Love”, and others.

If we talk of performance level, Al Jarreau stood out because he had a flair for playing around with his vocals and the songs, being playful with the audience and the band. But in terms of music to my ears, George Benson’s repertoire was IT!

They did a jazz piece together bringing the audience to its feet, clapping, dancing and singing along. And when everyone roared for an encore, they sang “On Broadway”.

The blogger in me wanted to bring a digicam but I was not sure of Araneta’s rules. I should have listened to my instincts! The video snippets I took from my camphone leave much to be desired.

But just to give you an idea of what we experienced the night that the Jarreau/Benson tandem took Manila by storm, here are some of them (warning: the visuals suck with the camphone I had. But the music is still awesome).

Thank you, Al Jarreau & George Benson, for a wonderful, nostalgic trip back to a wonderful time in my life. It was a night I would long remember and relish.

Turn Your Love Around

Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love for You

In Your Eyes

September 17, 2008

California Pizza Kitchen’s Bloggers Night

Manila’s famous (or more aptly, infamous) rains and floods could not dampen the bloggers’ enthusiasm and determination to attend California Pizza Kitchen’s (CPK) bloggers night at CPK Glorietta 3 last Sept. 10.

It had been raining all day and fiercely at times. Some bloggers were deliberating whether they would still go or not. So I thought that if I left the office at 7pm, I would still be in time for the event. What a surprise met me when I got there a little past 7 pm to see the 2nd floor function room of CPK practically full of bloggers already!

At the registration area, I saw several CPK boxes marked with themes. We were supposed to pick out a theme we wanted. I selected the theme “More Than a Massage” as I was fascinated by its health theme. We found out later that whatever theme we chose corresponded with a new pizza flavor which CPK arranged for us to make.

This was a meet & greet affair. Got to meet Archie Rodriguez, the President of the CPK franchise in the Philippines.

Also had time to chat up emcee RJ Ledesma. I told RJ that I knew he was a yoga teacher and first saw him at Vinyasa. When I introduced myself as the one behind the yoga blog, The Yogini from Manila, it turned out he actually heard of my blog. There and then, we began chatting like 2 people who found something common to talk about.

Later, I also met Brad Geiser, one of the partners behind Geiser Maclang which prepared this event for CPK. I had long wanted to meet Brad who was just a buddy on a social networking site. Another buddy on that network was Jen who was there with her husband Stan.

An eyeball with Jen who I only knew as "jencc" for the longest time — An eyeball with Jen "jencc"

It was a night of pure fun. I think most of the bloggers there were a lot younger so you can imagine the energy filling the room.

We watched a video about CPK’s beginnings. Gift certificates were later given to those who successfully answered the trivia questions. Next, we were asked to decorate our CPK boxes (they dumped art supplies on each table like colored glue, ribbons, decals, crayons, etc) with the best PICK-UP LINE we could think of. This was really hilarious because these bloggers turned out to have really HOT minds! For the life of me, I could not think of any pick-up line. I began with one that said “Taste Heaven With Me” but stopped after seeing that this was sooo tame compared to some others. Haha…

The best part, at least for me, was when we made our own pizzas depending on the theme we chose. Very aptly, my pizza was the Thai Chicken one, which was so healthy because of its ingredients: scallions, chicken, bean sprouts, carrots and peanuts AND garnished with cilantro. I started out with a pizza crust, then one by one added the ingredients with the help of CPK’s friendly staff. My finished pizza was then marched off to be cooked in a hearth oven (the secret to the delicious CPK taste).

My pizza BEFORE it is cooked — My pizza BEFORE it was baked

The pizza I made! — My Thai Chicken pizza after it was baked

Next time you visit CPK, try one of their other pizza flavors:

1. BBQ Chicken Pizza – the most popular pizza and one of the original recipes of the founders

2. Greek Pizza – made from Mediterranean spiced grilled chicken and Mozzarella cheese, topped with a chilled Greek salad of cucumbers, red onions, fresh tomatoes, Greek olives, Feta cheese and lemon-herb vinaigrett and served with homemade Tzatziki sauce and chopped Italian parsley

3. Jamaican Jerk Chicken – made from grilled Jamaican Jerk spiced chicken breast with spicy sweet Caribbgean sauce, Mozzarella cheese, applewood smoked bacon, mild onions, roasted red & yellow peppers and green onions

4. Cajun Pizza – made from blackened chicken and spicy Andouille sausage with Creole sauce, roasted red and yellow peppers, mild onions and Mozzarella cheese

Here are more pics of the night: