Don't Lose Your Marbles

[October 23, 2011] We went for our city tour around Puerto Princesa on our last day. Our first stop was Baker's Hill which was owned by the Flores family who also owns Tipas Bakery.  This place is famous for their freshly baked  hopia  (a type of round flaky pastry) filled with either   red bean, purple yam/ube, or candied wintermelon with pork fat.  They also sell other kinds of breads and pastries but the hopia is considered their bestseller.  We bought some to take back to Manila. It also has a landscaped garden with numerous figurines (some of popular characters) that provide photo opportunities.  ;) and a wide range of plants and flowers   There's also a children's playground and a mini aviary. peacock golden pheasant They also have an in-house restaurant that offers lunch buffet on specific days of the week.

[October 22, 2011] After the firefly watching at Iwahig River, we went to Ka Lui Restaurant for dinner.  We had already asked Ms. Tiara to make the reservations for us.  They request having reservations before going since they can be up to full capacity especially for dinner and walk-in customers are only entertained if they have vacancies. The restaurant is located along the stretch of Rizal Avenue too and the trike ride from Marianne Home Inn to the restaurant took less than 10 minutes.  It's setup like a traditional Filipino home with floors and walls made up of bamboo and native wood.  It's also surrounded by a landscaped garden with some interesting pieces. Before heading inside, all guests need to take off their shoes/sandals and leave them by the foyer. Since we were a group of 4, we ordered the Special of the Day Set (good for two people) at Php 415 per set which includes plain rice and mixed vegetables.  You can order other items on ...

Found this 3-piece set of glass spice storage bottles that look very similar to those from Ikea for only Php 88 at Japan Home. The only difference I could notice was these are slightly irregular in shape & cut such that when you place them side by side one another, they don't always line up perfectly.  But who cares? They're the same size as the Rajtans and way cheaper. The 4-piece Ikea Rajtan set from CashCashPinoy sometimes sells for Php 150-180 for a 4 -piece set.

Found this 3-pack travel size plastic bottle set (50mL each) suitable to hold your liquids and gels at Japan Home for only Php 66.  Cheaper than if you buy them separately at Landmark or some other department store.  The 2 bottles have snap-tops.  

Please refer to the 2018 version here. ========================== Recently noticed a ticking sound coming from my desktop so when I used Seatools to check my drives, it failed a specific test.  If your drives are in good condition, the test status will show "Pass," but since one of the drives showed a fail, clicking on the "Fail Info" at the top showed the error code (see photo).  Take note of the Seatools Test Code by writing it on the RMA form you're going to create later. Not all drives that failed Seatools tests show an error code, and some can be repaired using Seagate's repair tool.  If it cannot be repaired, you can opt to send in the drive for replacement provided it's within the warranty period.  You can check if your drive is still under Seagate warranty using this link .  You can also find your hard drive's model and serial number using SeaTools for Windows. Or if you bought your hard drive from a store, you can also opt to take...

Update: If you stumbled upon this old blogpost , y ou can contact Globe Gcash customer service at their hotline 2882 or via FB Messenger here . Other than that, I do not know of any updated email addresses for their customer support. My recommendation below still stands, use it for small purchases only.  The forex rate that Gcash Amex uses is even higher than local credit cards like Citibank. I just recently posted about how to register for the Globe Gcash Amex virtual card and I'd just like to share my experience regarding the first time I used this card which didn't turn out so well.   Since I have more than enough balance in my Gcash account, I ordered something online (less than $10) just to try this new service.    I received a text message that showed the corresponding amount in pesos was automatically deducted from my Gcash account.  A few hours later, I received an email from the merchant saying that m y order was put on hold, and the follo...