Author: Rochelle Sy Chua

Allies Dry Toasted Wonder Peanuts

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On November 24, 2012

Allies Wonder Peanuts

Back when I was in college, I ate a lot of peanuts whenever I need to study overnight for an exam. That habit didn’t stop at all! Now that I’m working, I eat snacks in order to get me through a difficult task or even just to relieve stress.

Franny gave me a can of Allies Dry Toasted Wonder Peanuts to try out during the looloo launch. Apparently, she and her husband distributes the Pampanga-based product here in Metro Manila.

My first impression when I inspected the product was the name ‘Allies Wonder Peanuts’. I was like why did they put ‘wonder‘ in the name of the product? Is Allies Dry Toasted Wonder Peanuts that wonderful? What sets it apart from the vast peanut brands in the market?

I got the answer as soon as I opened the can and had taken several pieces of the dry toasted peanuts.

Allies Wonder Peanuts

It was the generous amount of garlic!!!! In fact, the amount of peanuts and the garlic was almost the same.

Honestly, I can’t tell what good and bad peanuts are but if it has loads of garlic, it’s a definite winner in my eyes. Another thing that I liked about Allied Wonder Peanuts is that it’s not greasy. While I have my hand sanitizer ready, I didn’t need to smudge on the laptop keyboard.

A friend warned me not to eat too much as he noticed me eating non-stop, saying that too much of it will give me urinary tract infection. I, however, thought of the health benefits of peanuts. I remember distinctly that peanuts is a brain food wherein it can boosts memory power. I do agree though that we have to eat any food in moderation 😛

I knew that the product tasted good because my colleagues were taking seconds and asking me where they can buy Allies Dry Toasted Wonder Peanuts.

Allies Dry Toasted Wonder Peanuts can be ordered by calling +639175388125. It can also be purchased in Ha Yuan, The Cheese Steak Shop, Dragon Noodles and Little Store in San Juan. The product has two sizes available: 450 grams for Php 170.00 and 800 grams for Php 270.00.

If you like dry toasted, crunchy, greaseless with loads of garlic peanuts, then go get some Allies Wonder Peanuts. You’ll love it!

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Allies Dry Roasted Wonder Peanuts
450grams and 800grams available
Metro Manila Distributor – +639175388125
http://www.facebook.com/JustCraving

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looloo – Discover Places You’ll Love

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On November 24, 2012

looloo

You might have heard of looloo. It was just released at the iTunes App Store this week. If you haven’t, fret not because I will be writing all about looloo in this blog post! So hang in there and continue reading, okay? 🙂

I was one of the beta testers of this new iOS application. With that, I got to meet the people behind looloo during the beta testers night. The looloo team is a small one, but they are definitely enthusiastic, talented and sweet. They even wrote a blog post just to thank us beta testers! I got personal emails from some of the team members in addition to that. The personal touch just made me want to use looloo more.

looloo beta testers
image taken from the looloo blog

I have been using looloo for a week now and I’m starting to get addicted to it. I have a lot of social media applications on my iPhone. However, it seems that I’ll be adding looloo to my favorite ones.

So what is looloo?

looloo is a simple yet powerful tool for discovering places. Review places you visit and recommend the really good ones to your friends who would love them also.

In an area you’re not familiar with? Whip out the app and see what’s nearby. Even better, find out if any of your friends have been there and see how they liked it.

As a blogger, people tend to ask me for advice where to eat, where to go, what the newest gadgets are, what the latest trend is, etc. I always have my blog to refer to for answers. However, not everyone is a blogger. Actually, I see a lot of friends who share their impression on certain places via their social media accounts.

I think looloo is a great tool to share our opinion about the different places in Metro Manila. It’s like our personal local guide! I do notice though that 80% of the reviews posted by my friends/beta-testers in looloo are related to restaurants! What the heck, we love to eat! No surprise there! 😛

People might think that I know a lot of places. Trust me, I don’t! Metro Manila is just too big! looloo has been very helpful in providing me information as to what places to check out. I get to read reviews from people I know too! With looloo, it’s easier to discover places!

Now, how do we use looloo?

first up, download looloo on your iOS device. Go to the App Store, search for looloo and click the download button (it’s free!).
Log in looloo using your Facebook account.
Go to the Explore tab in order to find restaurants, entertainment places, spas, salons, nightlife & tourist spots. It has many filters so you can search easier. Whether you want to see the highest-rated places (best), currently open for business (open now) or search for places around you (nearby), looloo has them sorted out for you.
The Review tab is where you can share your experiences to people. How did you feel about the place you visited? Did you like it? Did you love it enough to give it a perfect 5 star-rating or hated it so much to give it 1 star? Of course, adding a photo would give your review so much more impact. After you’re done with your review on the looloo app, you can share it via Twitter and/or Facebook.
Lastly, there’s a thing called inflooence. Admittedly, I haven’t tried recommending any places I reviewed to friends so my influence is zero. I will do it next time because it would be so nice having a high score in your looloo profile. You can find the recommend button when you review a place. Go and choose the people who you think would want to check out the place. When they do visit the place and review them on looloo, your inflooence score will go up.

I like the looloo app and I saw more and more people using the app each day. If this is the first time you’ve heard of looloo, you can go to the iTunes app store and download it.

looloo screenshots

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Sun Cellular The Good Choice

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On October 29, 2012

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Let me tell you the story why I have Sun Cellular as my main line for several years now.

I first heard of Sun Cellular about 8 years ago. Several friends were pitching for me to get a Sun Cellular line so that we can text and call each other without worrying about enormous mobile phone charges.

These were my options before (it’s still the same rate as of today!):

Prepaid – PHP 150 for unlimited text to any Sun number
Postpaid – PHP 350 for unlimited text AND calls to any Sun number

I thought the prices were cheap! Come to think of it, one month Sun subscription will cost just as much as one single dinner or lunch! It was definitely a steal! I still hesitated for a moment as only a few friends had Sun. Nevertheless, I still went to a Sun service center and applied for a PHP 350 postpaid line.

I’m never a fan of prepaid, I just hate the hassle of going to a loading center almost every week. As for Sun, I wanted to get the perk of a free phone every 2 years. Plus, all I need to do is pay online every month for the subscription fee.

In all my 6-8 years as a postpaid Sun subscriber, I think I only visited their service center 10 times. The reasons varied from upgrading SIM card, getting the loyalty phone reward and subscribing for a new service.

When I first had my Sun postpaid line, I considered it as a second option. I was using a competing cellular brand as my main line. After so many years of hassle and headache with that company, I decided to forego my main line. I then appreciated my Sun line more. I said to myself. Wow, here’s a smaller mobile service provider but I got better services on this one.

Here is why I’m still with Sun after all these years:

it’s cheap!
it’s unlimited!
their loyalty program rocks!

It was then that I started to use Sun as my main line. It’s not perfect. I have signal issues when I’m on top of an office building but most of the time, it works! I’m getting a lot more with less money and that’s what I really appreciate.

You know what’s cool? Sun offers unlimited mobile internet for only PHP 799 a month! It was a no-brainer. I immediately went to a service center and applied for a line. After a few months of use, I realized that it was indeed very useful. I get 3G signal everywhere I go. I then bundled it with my PHP 350 line which gave me PHP 100 discount (unlimited mobile internet is PhP 699 if you have an existing PHP 350 postpaid line).

I try to minimize hassle because stress is not my best friend. I’m glad that having an unlimited account is giving me that convenience. I never have to worry about my bill in spite of constant use. With everyone availing of mobile internet, I rarely get charged for texting non-Sun lines because I can either tweet them or iMessage them! 🙂

The best of it all, with just PHP 999 a month, I get all three: unlimited texts, unlimited calls and unlimited mobile internet!!

My only wish is that they offer high-end phones (i.e., iPhone) in the future. Will it happen? We’ll never know but right now, Sun is a good choice for me 🙂

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Sun Cellular
http://www.suncellular.com.ph
Toll free from your Sun Cellular mobile phone : 200
Landline : +63-2-3958000

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Smart C+

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On October 28, 2012

Smart C+ Juice Drink

Smart C+ is Oishi’s first venture in the ready-to-drink category. Oishi is one of the known manufacturers of snacks in the Philippines. Now, why did it pique my interest? Well, this new juice drink is unique!

Imagine a ready-to-drink juice that has 500mg of Vitamins C inside of it! Yes, Smart C+ is a juice and vitamin in one!!! Isn’t that Smart??

I need to buy tons of vitamins for my daily intake: Vitamin C, Iron, Zinc, Vitamin A, Vitamin B6 and other supplements. I also plan to prepare fresh fruit juices as I know drinking too much soft-drinks won’t do me any good. However, there will come a time that I’ll be so busy that I wouldn’t be able to prepare. Now, I have an alternative! For those hectic days, I’ll just get myself some Smart C+ Juice Drinks and I’m good-to-go for the day.

I first heard of Smart C+ when I saw Slater Young’s TV commercial.

Slater Young was the Big winner of this year’s Pinoy Big Brother: Unlimited. He is commonly known as the ‘Hotshot Engineer of Cebu’. According to Oishi, they got Slater as a Smart C+ endorser because he has a ‘no stopping me’ character. He grabs every opportunity that comes his way because he knows that he is always ready to take any role, off-cam and on-cam.

Smart C+ Slater Young

Oishi definitely made a good product with Smart C+ and it suits the name perfectly! Besides having 500mg of Vitamin C in every bottle, Smart C+ contains no added preservatives, no artificial colouring & no artificial sweeteners! All it has is natural fruit juice and vitamin C!

Vitamin C is well-known as an important component of your immune system; it’s also a component of collagen, which is needed for healthy connective tissue. It also helps your bones and teeth stay strong.

Vitamin C is an antioxidant that protects the cells in your body from freeradical damage.

Source: http://nutrition.about.com/od/nutrientglossary/g/Vitaminc.htm

There are 3 flavors available: Lemon Squeeze, Orange Crush and Pomelo Grapefruit.

Smart C+ Flavors

I tried all three flavors, and Lemon Squeeze is my favorite among all of them. It was an obvious choice as I like lemonade a lot 😛 After I drank Smart C+, I felt that I have taken a healthy product that would help me boost my immune system, thus helping me get through the day.

Smart C+ is now available in the market. You can choose to get either the 350mL or 500mL. 1-Liter bottle will be available soon.

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More Value, More Life with Watsons

Posted by Rochelle Sy Chua On October 28, 2012

Watsons

A lot of you may not know, but I graduated college with a diploma in B.S. Pharmacy. Ironically, I get sick a lot these past few months. It may have been caused by stress and me eating too much unhealthy food 😛 I have been looking for ways to change my lifestyle (well, bit by bit), to use products that are beneficial to health and to start exercising.

Coincidentally, Watsons, one of the drugstores in Manila launched a campaign called “More Value, More Life“. The campaign focuses on what we value in life and how Watsons values us. Christine Jacob-Sandejas, Paco Sandejas and Venus Raj are some of the brand ambassadors and here are what they have to say about the things they value and how they found value in Watsons:

Christine Jacob-Sandejas says:

My family is really my life. It gives me joy to take care of my husband and five kids – keeping all of us healthy is a top priority. It’s a reality though that healthcare is rather expensive especially with a fairly big family such as ours. It’s good to know that we now have more choices when it comes to branded and generic medicines like what Watsons is offering.

Paco Sandejas says:

To a woman like my wife (Christine Jacob-Sandejas), only the best lang talaga. We’ve been married for 12 years – Christine has supported me in all the ups and downs, and gave birth to our five great kids. In turn, of course I want to make sure that she is in top shape. It really amazes me how she is always ready to do different activities with me & the kids everyday! Christine takes care of everyone so I take care of her naman. She means the world to me,

Venus Raj says:

Since I became Ms. Universe runner-up, life has never been the same. I got more than what I prayed and worked hard for. and now sabi ko sa sarili ko, no matter what I do, I would still think that there is no limit to what I can achieve. And dami ko pang gustong gain at ma-achieve for me and my family kaya I really have to take care of myself.

So how does Watsons value us consumers?

Watsons More Value More Life

Value 1: Comply and Save – Be a SM Advantage Card member and save up to 30% when you purchase featured branded products in packs of 30s.
Value 2: Watsons Health Packs – Guard yourself against common daily illnesses with exclusive Watsons Health Packs and save up to 70% compared to leading brands.
Value 3: Watsons Compliance Packs – Win over hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol and common infections with specially-made Watsons Compliance Packs and save up to 80% compared to leading brands.
Value 4: Buy Generics and Save – Head over to the special Buy Generics Counter inside the pharmacy and save on top quality generic medicines made by trusted pharmaceutical companies. Watsons criteria for trusted generics: (1) manufactured by a trusted pharmaceutical company (2) FDA approved and (3) sold in a reputable pharmacy retailer.

With all those offers, I’m compelled to renew my SM advantage card. Especially now that I need to save money, and buy vitamins & medicines at the same time. Affordability is quite important to me and Watsons went beyond that as they also provide free health services and medication counselling through their well-trained pharmacists at their stores. Cool news, isn’t it?

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