Christmas at Starbucks v.02

Well, technically this isn’t what I planned it to be. I thought I’d try more Christmas items at Starbucks but so far I haven’t been able to accomplish that. This November is an extremely hectic and busy one, and since Christmas stuff only became available on the last day of October, it didn’t leave me much time to try them.

Nevertheless, we all know that Starbucks is available in almost every major city right? Well, except for cities in Italy I’ve been to where I think there isn’t a single Starbucks (there really isn’t a need for a US coffee chain in Europe, especially Italy!) and also where there is just perhaps one or two of them in Helsinki that I hadn’t the chance to check out. Oh and the town I visited in Germany in August this year also do not bear any traces of American coffee invasion but there is one in Frankfurt airport though.

So guess where I dropped in to almost daily when I was in Makati City of Manila last week? There is an outlet near where I stayed, and there was also one within a few blocks away from the office, so I made it a point to go there for an after-lunch coffee.

The familiar green logo. And they are doing great business in the Philippines because each day when I go there after lunch to grab a drink regardless of the time, there is always a snaking queue! I was there last January too, for a slightly longer period, and I was really impressed by the crew because they remembered me after a couple of visits and subsequently, each time I stepped into the store they’d greet me and even remember my usual order. Well, well, great customer service you have there! And not to mention the warmth and over-the-top friendliness of the counter staff who seem so jovial and vivacious it’s hard not to get infected with their brand of cheerfulness.

Although I have been having black coffee mostly now, I don’t really fancy the Christmas blend. Somehow it tastes a bit too acidic for me without any sugar, though I reckon it won’t differ too much with brown sugar anyway. And because it is Christmas, it’s just the right time to take an occasional hiatus from black and return to my original preferences of coffee with milk! Singapore’s Starbucks serve the Peppermint Mocha, the Toffee Nut Latte and the Cranberry White Chocolate Mocha. I have not tried the last drink because its very name already sounds like a diabetic-inducing formula. But I could be wrong. TNL was my usual Christmas drink because I am just the latte person but it’s gotten to become too sweet now for me and I realise that Peppermint Mocha is a good alternative. 🙂

Just the other day, a friend of mine who lives and works in Hong Kong posted about her visit to Starbucks for Gingerbread latte. I think I remembered having it last year in Tokyo and not thinking too much about it. By a stroke of luck, Philippines has it too and this time when I tried it, I think it’s so much better than Toffee Nut!

It doesn’t have the sweetness of toffee nut, and yet the slight gingerbread taste mixed with milk gives the drink a wonderful flavour that alludes to the vibe of Christmas. It was all just very warm and fuzzy, the kind of feeling it invoked in me, especially when the office I was in was just an enormous freezer of sorts. The weather in Manila was erratic, possibly also due to that typhoon that left some of the southern parts of the giant archipelago in ruins. It was quite heat-wrenching watching the news reports on TV and seeing images on the local papers about the disaster zones. But despite that, the people in Manila were generally warm and friendly and got on with life as usual, yet still putting together relief efforts in a bid to send aid to those in the affected regions.

what makes you happy

Or rather what makes me happy.

This is just really random. Because I have trouble sleeping. Last night being the last day of our work here in Makati, we went out for dinner at this place called Wine Depot. It’s similar in concept to some of the wine places we have in Singapore like Wine Connection and the likes, but this is like a cross between that and maybe Jones the grocer. I really liked it for its chill-out atmosphere and definitely it is more spacious with much lesser tables as compared to where I’ve mentioned above. And the wines they have are affordable too; from what I was told they cost probably 300+ pesos per bottle for those that we had, which equates to about maybe S$10. These were rather good reds too, coming from the colleagues who apparently are quite in touch with wine tastes and the likes. For me, I just take care of drinking them.

Food is very good too, from the baby pork ribs to the buffalo wings to jalapenoes, shrimps and the panna cotta, they were really awesome. We spent a couple of hours there and it was a quiet enough environment to sit and chat without too much noise.

So I got back say around 11pm, showered and started packing amidst web-surfing. Then I wanted to sleep at about 1am but had difficulty falling asleep. Usually I have no problems going to sleep at all, especially after taking alcohol but these few nights I just can’t. I don’t know what time I finally fell asleep but was woken up in the middle of it by some messages on Twitter, and then way before my alarm was set to go off, I was already awake and couldn’t get back to sleep.

Anyhow, back to my post title. While I was languishing in bed just now I was thinking how all of a sudden I felt happy, because I was heading home. That is usually how I feel at the end of a business trip on the night before I was due to fly home, knowing that the next time I awake I’ll just be preparing to go home and not having to go in to the office that day. As much as many people have this perception that I’m the last person you’d think of as homely I do miss home on and off, whether it’s the people or the convenience and familiarity that is home.

So what makes you happy?

Hearing my favourite songs being played unexpectedly. Getting to know new people. Enjoying a aromatic cup of coffee leisurely. Travelling to places that I love such as Tokyo! It doesn’t have to be something epic. Sometimes the smallest things can make me a very happy person. Don’t you think so too?

impulse shopping

Yay I shopped! Ok, it wasn’t really planned such that I’d buy stuff since like I mentioned so many times before like a broken record on repeat, I am trying to do some serious money-saving. But… as with where saving money goes, it isn’t like I’m going on a complete frugal overdrive and scrimping on everything. I am still eating and drinking normally, going on holidays and indulging in the occasional shopping. I wouldn’t say no if someone wants to buy me some drinks or a nice meal (hint hint, any takers), but of course I will need to cut back on somethings and be more conscious of how and what I spend on.

We took a taxi to this place that was about 20-30 minutes’ drive away, a supposedly giant mall called Mall of Asia. Well it was rather large but I wouldn’t say that it’s that huge as what we were told. I think there are some mega malls elsewhere in Asia too, such as maybe in Hong Kong where the Harbour City stretch of shops is considered pretty extensive.

Initially we had planned to spend about 3 hours there but by the time I walked about one part of the mall for an hour I was more than ready to go, but then I continued to browse stuff and try on stuff before finally parking my giant ass in Starbucks for a coffee to wait for them. And they too decided to come to Starbucks before our agreed meeting time was up. Surprisingly, we all bought something, even though we all did not plan to.

After we got back to the hotel, I thought I’d take a walk to the Greenbelt. It isn’t that far, about 15 minutes’ walk, and along the way I think my lungs died from all that exhaust fumes emitted by the trucks on the roads that I was trying to cross.

I only went to Greenbelt 5, and boy was it filled with so many luxury brands! Of course, it’s silly to buy them here since I haven’t done any ‘market research’ but I’d think these international brands would be more expensive here if not the same as in Singapore. Plus, if I have a chance to buy them in Europe I don’t see why I should buy them here.

BUT I still bought some stuff because these would anyway be things that I might buy back home and especially since I have time now to properly shop and try them, without the oppression of the shopping crowd in Singapore!

While having drinks with the colleagues later in the evening, one of them mentioned how he felt weekends overseas are a complete waste of time, because it would be just mall-trawling and doing nothing. I guess it’s because he has a family back home and he missed the chance to go to some nice island/resort that they had originally planned. For me, I thought it’s a good chance to explore the shopping part of a city. Since I love cities so much and inclusively the shopping, the weekends included in a business trip would be the best time to do the exploration; I don’t have time to do so on weekdays because it’s just hotel to office to work and then back to the hotel to sleep.

But I figured that if I were to travel on a more frequent basis (which to date I still don’t know how ‘extensive’ it is going to be, so far it is still rather manageable), I might start to feel the detachment. I mean, in Singapore, of course I see my family on a daily basis since we live under the same roof, but friends… I don’t get to see many of them nowadays. Most of us at this juncture of our lives are busy with our own lives, families, work, etc., so typically I only get to meet a few of them when I’m around, outside of the various classes that I attend, be it studies or yoga. I think I’m starting to miss some of my friends, and definitely I am missing having a very carefree existence not rushing from place to place each day.

roll me over

Good weekend morning! I know it’s kind of crazy to be up early on a weekend morning, when there is no need to be up early for work or whatsoever, but yes I am already up and about. In fact I was already up before 8, but I didn’t sleep late last night, and it’s already a little more sleep than I manage on other days when I have to go to the office, and definitely I think I am sleeping more than when I am in Singapore! I think.

So… I already went out for my breakfast at the nearby Starbucks, thank goodness that there’s one within 5 minutes’ walk from where I’m staying now, and took a walk around the Salcedo community market that was right in front of Starbucks. It’s a weekend market, maybe something like the farmers’ market kind of thing, I see a lot of food being sold, local as well as perhaps imported stuff. But there are non-food items on sale as well. Maybe I’ll pop by tomorrow morning and grab some food there, although I don’t know about the hygiene. Haha. We shall see. It’s really interesting to just walk about and see what people are selling and buying even if I am just looking and not buying, but it’s early anyhow and already there are so many people up and about too.

I’ll gladly admit I’m a victim of commercialisation, I seek out Starbucks in most cities that I visit for caffeine fixes and some food but in my defense, there are also times when I try to explore other coffee joints too! That happened when I was in Seoul and also San Francisco; the variety there is just awesome.

Anyhow as I was eating the cinnamon roll that I ordered I started to wonder how most people eat it.

Do you just cut it in half or simply bite into it, or do you do it like most people I think do, as with myself, start from the end of the roll and gradually un-roll it by cutting small pieces out to eat? That’s generally how I eat things that are rolled up, and even with love letters that are crispy, I try to ‘unwrap’ it when I eat, but because it’s so thin and breakable, usually I’ll give up and just start biting it length-wise.

We’re heading out to the malls today, not sure what I’ll find but at least for these couple of days, let’s just forget about work and all that negative stuff in the world and focus instead on relaxing and enjoying what life has to offer. Have a great Saturday!

taking the plunge

Still no pictures here. It is not a difficult thing to do yet I am just that lazy to connect my phone to the laptop to transfer whatever little pictures I have taken so far.

It really isn’t much anyway because the past 5 days I have just been shuttling back and forth the hotel and office. We would leave at about 8 in the morning and reach the office latest by 815 since it is essentially just a short drive of maybe 5 minutes that cost less than 50 pesos. Then we would take a quick lunch at the nearby RCBC Plaza near the office, continue to work till after the sun sets (which is considerably early here at around 6pm). The past days we have decided to just walk back to the hotel from the office since by the time we leave it’s already dark so it isn’t that hot anymore, and a 15-minute walk still has not made me break out in sweat yet though I do feel warm by the time I get back to the room. It’s rather much of a toil to have to keep up with the pace of my colleagues who take really big strides, especially when I am in heels on most days and lugging a laptop.

Anyhow that was my story for this week. The only pictures I took were a couple of lunches that did not taste too bad. We are very random when it comes to food, because of differing preferences in tastes and budgets, it’s really hit-and-miss. I could be totally unadventurous and just have sandwiches everyday like I did back in Brisbane couple years ago on my own, but one of my colleagues likes to check out local stuff.

Working about 10 or so hours a day is also proving to be a little taxing on me because by the time I get back to the hotel I’m already exhausted and almost brain dead. That explains all that lethargy in doing anything; blogging is something I do like clockwork, doesn’t take too much effort to ramble I realise. But it’s just ramblings I noticed.

Today I learnt from a local partner we have here that on Fridays most people start work earlier so that they can leave the office earlier either to return to the provinces or to hit the pubs for drinks in the evenings. I was commenting to him about how the roads seemed emptier this morning when we took the cab to the office, if there are companies that do not work on Fridays or something. It was really true what he said though because when we left at our usual time at night, the roads were also significantly emptier. That is a rare sight in Makati City I’d think.

So what plunge are we talking about? Nothing much actually. I just thought there are always some things that we think of doing and we spend too much time deliberating and procrastinating that we never get round to doing it. Sometimes we shouldn’t waste all that time ruminating the possibilities but should just go out to do it; whether or not we like the results at least we did it and did ourselves justice by taking that plunge. It isn’t like I have made any groundbreaking decision lately but it was just a random thought that popped up in my mind. Just before I started writing this, I spent almost half an hour composing an email, half of it written in Japanese, to an ex-colleague who is Japanese. I have been thinking of writing that email for the longest time since I thought that would be a great opportunity for me to practise too but never got around to doing it. It was a fairly short email but yes it still took me that long. And this post… it only took me about 10 minutes to write.