Author: Rochelle Sy Chua

D.E.I. Direct Sales

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On August 27, 2009

I discovered this recently from an email sent to me.
I had this impression that the only direct selling company that offers clothes & other beauty/fashion products is Avon. Apparently, there is D.E.I. Direct Sales.

D.E.I. (Dragonworld Enterprises, Inc.) is a fast-growing direct selling company of trendy & affordable clothes for ladies, men & children. Aside from this, they also provide an opportunity to earn money.

Started May 2003 with only 7 dealers, now they have 40,000 business associates nationwide. Its business opportunity is being endorsed by Winnie Cordero.

Browsing at their catalogue, it looks interesting and the price is not bad.

Here are some of them:

Aside from the products shown above, they also offered the ff. recently:

Homecare Products (Fabric Softener & Dishwashing Liquid)
Wheatgrass Products

This is more of an informational post, I’m not a business associate of DEI or have bought anything from them but I think other people like you would be interested in their products or business opportunity 🙂

If you’re into fashion or if you’re someone who’s looking for business opportunity, you can just go to their site at http://www.deidirectsales.com.

Laking National 1-day Advance Sale – Aug 27 2009

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On August 27, 2009

Today is my lucky day. The event that I was supposed to go to got cancelled but I already filed for a half-day leave. I decided to just chill at Trinoma Mall. Look what I found! 1-day Advance Sale at National Bookstore!

You know why I just feel so glad I discovered this? Because I’ve been planning to buy the Lonely Planet guides for quite some time coz I’ll be going to Taiwan next month. I wanted to make good use of my time and travel to the places that I should visit in Taiwan.

I was about to buy yesterday but I ended up not getting it because we can’t figure out the balance left in my Ayala eGC. I was thinking of just buying it next time. Now I know why it happened.. because… of the 1-day advance sale for Laking National members today!!! Wohoo!

Just to give you an idea why I’m so happy with my purchase.. I bought the ff.:

Lonely Planet: China (Php 1,349.00) – bought it for Php 809.50 at 40% off!!!
Lonely Planet: Taiwan (Php 1,559.00) – bought it for Php 587.50 at 75% off 😀

Happiness Indeed! 🙂 Take note, they are still the latest issue (published last 2007).

Take note though that this is exclusively for Laking National members. I was not a member until I discovered this so I applied for one without hesitation. What is Php100 if you can save as much as Php1,511.00!!!

Hello Kitty Online

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On August 24, 2009

I attended the Hello Kitty Online Bloggers Party at Yaku Restaurant, Podium Mall last August 20, 2009. It was attended by bloggers and organized by Level Up, sponsored by Level Up, Sanrio & Netopia.

Pictures from the event can be found here.

They gave us a demo of the game and also raffled out prizes, I didn’t win but I’m happy to be invited as I’m a BIG fan of hello kitty! So nice that there is an online game that has Sanrio characters. We were all given founders beta passes to try out the game first-hand.

I tried it out early this morning. I initially thought that this will be the same SIMS but apparently, I can compare this with World of Warcaft hehehe. It’s an MMPORG but more on the “cute” side.

First, you’ll create your character, customize it according to your preference. I named my character “Alba” (I just watched Time Traveler’s wife hehe).

Character Creation Screen

Then we’ll explore the world, it’s soooo cute! It’s a truly magical world out there with places like London, Paris, Beijing, New York & Florapolis.

Area Map

And we can also interact with Sanrio characters such as Hello Kitty, Keroppi, Bad Badtz-Maru, Pochacco, many more.

There are just so many things to do in HKO.

Farming – allows you to plant, grow & harvest your crops
Item Collection & Crafting – allows you to dig ores in mines or gather fruits from trees. You can also gain skills like cooking, tailoring, make furnitures & house building.
Pet System – you can own different pets to defeat monsters.
Guild System – Guild can also be formed inside HKO. players can choose one of the 6 sanrio characters as their emblem.

So glad that I’m one of the first ones to try out this great cute game! If you want to be part of the first few to try out the game, you can go to this link.

Before I forget, HKO players can also get a free account with Sanriotown (http://sanriotown.com) where they can send emails, post blog entries, share pictures, play mini games and a lot more.

Here are improvement areas that I hope HKO team will address:

We can only use our mouse as controls for the game. I really hope we could also use the arrow keys in our keyboards.
We can only add our HKO buddies if we’re both offline. I hope that we can add buddies even if they are offline.
Can’t zoom in or zoom out 🙁 We have to be very dependent on the mini map in this case. I hope we’d be given that option coz it will ease gameplay a lot.
Be able to create more than 1 character. We’re only allowed to create only one character today.

That’s all for now. Let’s see if I have something more to say in the future when I get to play the game more 🙂

PicPanda.com

Secret Recipe

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On August 24, 2009

Secret Recipe
5/F Shangri-La Mall, Edsa corner Shaw Blvd., Mandaluyong City
(02) 637-0367

——————–
We wanted to try a restaurant that I haven’t reviewed yet. We ended up choosing Secret Recipe. My friend recommended this and I said why not? Besides my colleague Jo always mentions that we should try to eat there (calling Jo!).

We ordered their ever-famous Lamb stew, let you know later if we liked it 😛

Here are what we ordered:

Green Apple Kasturi (Php 120)

The restaurant has pictures of their menu items all over the walls. This was one of them & it looked so delicious so I ordered it. It does taste good, not your usual fruit juice. I do think that Green Apple is not the only ingredient here, I just can’t figure out what 🙂

Iced Lemon Tea (Php 50)

I didn’t order this but I’ll order this drink when I eat at Secret Recipe next time. Not our usual powdered Iced tea. Combination of tea, water & lemon 🙂

Irish Lamb Stew (Php 480)

This is highly recommended by everyone so even if I’m not fond of lambs, I said why not? Maybe it’s really that good. This is tender lamb shank cooked with herbs. Served with mashed potato (designed beautifully) & bun. My friend was totally disappointed coz he tried the same dish at a different country’s secret recipe restaurant. I guess it’s because the lamb here isn’t the same? For me, I’m really just not fond of lambs period 🙂

Thai Style Fried Rice (Php 300)

I really liked the presentation for this dish and I feel it’s a bit cheap considering the serving. And it’s delicious too though the soup was just toooooo spicy! I think the chef accidentally put too much spice in it!

It’s fried rice cooked Thailand style with shrimps & shrimp paste. Served with 2 pieces King prawns, additional shrimp paste, salad & Tom Yum Soup.

White Chocolate Macademia (Php 120/slice, Php 1400/whole)

I love white chocolate & I also love macademia nuts but I’m not fond of cakes. When I first saw the cake slice, I said wow it’s a big slice of cake! Best for sharing unless you really eat a lot hehehe 😛 It’s good but I’m not wowed by it. I can barely taste the macademia but it’s still okay nonetheless.

My friend was kinda disappointed with what we ordered, I felt there’s no chance for that person to go eat at Secret Recipe again 😛

As for me, I’m really not fond of Lamb so I wasn’t really expecting anything. As for the restaurant & the food they serve, I think I will go back to try their other dishes. It’s not that bad, I gave them good feedback when they asked me to provide it in their sheet. 🙂

The Time Traveler’s Wife

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On August 23, 2009

Watched this yesterday courtesy of my friend’s Citibank receipts hehehe 😛

I’m such a fan of Rachel McAdams so whatever movie she has, I’ll definitely watch.

Time Traveller’s wife is an adaption of the book by Audrey Niffenegger.

Basically a love story.. Eric Bana’s character has a rare genetic disease where he travels through time, vanishing without specific timing and being gone for a long time.

He met Rachel’s character during his time travels (she was still a child then). She has been dreaming to be married to him and eventually met Eric’s character when she got older.

The movie is a bit dragging but was pretty exciting in the end. I shed a few tears especially at the ending when Eric’s character died. Apparently, when he was still alive and time travelling, he was visiting Rachel & their daughter in the future… *sniff sniff*

I never read the book so I can’t compare. This movie reminds me of “the Notebook” & “a Walk to Remember”. Another story that shows that there is indeed true love..

My Rating for The Time Traveler’s Wife: 4 out of 5 stars.

Official Website of Rochelle Sy Chua where she talks about her travel experiences in Taipei, Taiwan, Philippines and Asia, as well as her adventures in food and restaurants