The BPI Big Outlet Sale 2013

As you all know, Christmas season in the Philippines starts as soon as September comes, and since it's already October now, I'm sure a lot of you are already making plans what to buy your friends and loved ones this Christmas. We all want to send and receive gifts during the holidays, but of course we want to get the best deals, so if you're up for up for the four letter word SALE, then this is what you're looking for:


The BPI Big Outlet Sale 2013 happening next weekend.

25 to 27 October 2013 (10am - 9pm)

Metrotent at Metrowalk - Ortigas Center, Pasig

Enjoy deals up to 80% off on big brands to satisfy every shoppers - there is surely something for everyone! What's more, if you're a BPI Cardholder with valid ID, you get free entrance for the event, and if you're a BPI Credit Card Holder and you purchased at least 1000 pesos worth of items, you're in for more discounts, freebies, and prizes!


Click on the images to view the larger version or check their Facebook page to learn more about this event. Ready, shop... go! See you there next weekend!

* Jenn *
 

The Happies and the Crappies

Thank God it's Friday... but even if it's already the start of the weekend, I still have so many tasks to do, so let me now recap the week that was before I continue doing my assignment.



Happie:
Great product purchases.

♥ Mom and I went to Watsons to buy her choice of hair tint, and while paying, the cashier told us about TRESSemme hair products, which were being sold at 50% off, as part of their introductory offering. We do have our own choice of hair products, but 450ml bottles for 165 pesos? That was quite a steal! Was it good? Heck yeah! Well, my hair has natural light curls (it's never really straight) and it's always frizzy, but our hair is just so soft and it smells so good. It wasn't able to tame my always fly-away hair, but we were happy with this purchase.

♥ More books at reasonable prices, making the worm very happy.

♥ I still have about 10+ nail polish bottles I haven't used yet, but it's been so long since I last bought this other addiction I have, so one time I satisfied myself buy buying more local branded nail polishes. I bought - Chic Nail Color {Grainy - Montana}, Klik Nail Polish {Ube Shake, Navy Blue, Lazy Pink}, Color Trends Nail Polish {Celebrity Seen}, and OMG Nail Colors {Purple Passion, Sunny Tan, Bunny, Salsa}. Quite a handful... but it will take more months before I will have another nail polish haul.

♥ Rains brought in a lot of mosquitoes and for some crazy, irritating reasons, it also drove some cockroaches out of their hiding places. This Baygon insect repeller + protector took care of our worries, and while there were still a few mosquitoes, I haven't seen any cockroaches since we sprayed nearly a week ago. It has an orange scent, too!


Happie / Crappie
Silver Shoes

Sister still hasn't bought her silver shoes for the wedding, so on her last day off, we went to the mall and checked out Payless Shoe Source. The store currently has a sale - some pairs as low as 375 pesos, something that really drove my Imeldific sister crazy. This was a happie and a crappy at the same time, because the salesperson told us that one of the pairs (right image) was priced 375 pesos, making sister bought it along with the other pair (left image - 575 pesos) and another one, which she can use at work. We were given 10% more discount for all the pairs of shoes, but when we got home we noticed that the supposed to be 375 pesos pair of shoes was priced at 500 pesos. We went back to the store to ask for an explanation and the cashier told it was the salesperson's fault... that the pair was actually 500 pesos and not 375 pesos. The incident was quite stressful (will tell more next Wednesday), but in the end we just accepted it. Afterall, 500 minus 10% was still a very cheap price for a good pair of shoes. However, crappy selling on their end now caused us to have second thoughts if we are going to purchase there again.


Happie:
Baking my first oven toaster Fudge Rocky Road Brownies! Well, it wasn't 100% successful, but my gosh... it was so good that I don't think I would buy brownies anymore - I will just bake it at home!


Happie:
Spending time with my family

No fancy food trips with the family, but each of the food we ate was made special because we were together.


Happie:
Balancing the food intake.

Last week, I had food trips with the family, and one day my sister went home with grilled pork belly, which caused me dizziness and headaches for two days. I am pre-hypertensive, and even if I never had my blood pressure taken, I knew eating fatty pork was giving me negative effects. For the last three days, I haven't eaten pork yet, and was consuming mostly vegetables.

Crappies this week weren't that much, for which I was thankful.
Have a great weekend, everybody!

* Jenn *

 

Remembering Old Churches in Bohol

While eating breakfast this morning, I wasn't able to receive brother's call. Soon after, us three girls started receiving string of messages from him saying there was an earthquake. Since sister and I both own phones that can connect to the Internet, we checked several social media sites and was shocked with the messages about the earthquake. Turning the television on made us see the horrific images.

A 7.2 earthquake hit the country, with the epicenter located at the town of Carmen in Bohol. Even if the province of Bohol is composed of one big island and a few smaller islands nearby, the earthquake was felt as far as the province of Sorsogon in Luzon and the province of Davao in Mindanao.

There were a lot of damages, but the ones that took the biggest hit in the province of Bohol were its centuries old churches. I was able to travel to the said province two times (2008 and 2011), so for this post, let me just remember these churches.


Baclayon Church, completed in 1727.


Loboc Church and Museum (photographed from the Loboc River floating restaurant), completed 1734.

Textured with two layers of Kim Klassen's "Organic" texture,
one set to Overlay at 50%, the other set to Soft Light at 60%

Dauis Church, completed in 1920.

As a Catholic country and as a Catholic, one of the things I do whenever I travel is visit Catholic churches, not because I see myself as a saint, but because these churches show a lot of history and culture. It was sad though, that in the two times of traveling to Bohol, I never really had a chance to set foot inside the Loboc Church, because in both occasions, I went to Loboc to eat lunch at their floating restaurants and visiting the church wasn't part of the itinerary.

Still, I am grateful. Grateful that in my lifetime, I got to see these churches personally before a force of nature destroyed them. There's happiness in my heart that these images weren't just something from the books, magazines, newspapers, and Internet... but images I took using my own camera.

The Philippines is experiencing a lot of blows lately. First, the war in Zamboanga followed by a series of typhoons devastating different parts of the country, and now the earthquake. It reminds me that nothing is permanent in this world and all of us would just have to make the most out of life while we still have it. I pray for the people affected by these calamities... and as soon as I know a place to go to, the girls and I will wholeheartedly donate our still wearable clothes.

To read more about this earthquake and to view images of the destroyed churches, please click on this link.

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Photograph of Dauis Church taken in 2008 while on a holiday with K, all else were taken in 2011 during an out of town trip with mom and her friends.

* Jenn *