Monday 31 December 2012

Celebrating the holidays with Mrs. Smith's

This post brought to you by Mrs. Smith's . All opinions are 100% mine.

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Thinking of it, we have not been sending any physical or paper season greeting cards to family and friends for many years now.  The reason being so is to help preserve our planet for our future generations.  By this little efforts of ours, together we could help to save the life of our trees.

We still send out season greeting cards and for special ocassions to family and friends by holiday e-card.  It is easy to use and the recipients will receive the greetings without delay.  I do not have to worry of my greetings being lost in the post.  During this holiday seasons, Mrs. Smith's Holiday will give both the sender and receiver free coupon.

I am sure your friends and family are anxiously waiting for your greetings to come through.  It is not too late to send holiday e-cards to them. By using holiday e-card they will receive the message in a matter of minutes.

Worrying of what to bring along to family and friend's gathering party?  Why not take along Mrs. Smith’s pies?  They will be delighted.  There are varieties of pies to choose from Mrs. Smith's, just to name a few, Coconut Pies, Blueberry Pies, Mince Pies, Peach Pies, Pumpkin Pies.  

Mrs Smith's pumpkin pie

My daughter would love the Pumpkin Pies.  She can have pumpkin pies as meals for the day.

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Mrs. Smith's will dontate $1 for every pie sold to Operation Homefront in the month of November and December.  They also provides pies to Operation Homefront for Thanksgiving.  As a gesture of good cause, buy pies from Mrs. Smith's, the more the merrier. 

 

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Food in the Philippines

Before heading to do some Christmas shopping, we had breakfast at the famous fast food chain, Jolibee.  The franchise was in Sabah at one time many years ago.  I wonder whether we could find any of its outlet in Malaysia now.  

 Beef served with rice.  The beef is very tasty well marinated.
   Our girls chose their favourite Hot Dogs with lots of cheese topping, served with rich soup.


 My breakfast, Lasagne with garlic bread.

One of the ice cream outlets serve their flavoured ice cream in little balls shape

 While the daddy doing his shopping at the men's section, our girls entertained themselves, sitting around or doing funny acts in  front of the mirrors.  They were tired after a couple of days of walking and shopping.  
 Choosing stars decorations for Christmas, we bought 3 of them in different colours.  

One of the nights, we had our dinner at Sugarhouse, a small cake house cum restaurant nearby our hotel serving Western and Philippino's cuisine.
 our girls had Fettuccine Carbonara.  A serving tossed in a rich cream sauce.  Topped generously with bacon bits and finished with a dash or two of Parmesan, PHP165.00 (RM12.40) per serving.  The taste is somewhat different from what they usually had. 
 Tuna Melt, a serving of tuna topped with melted mozzarella on a lightly toasted soft roll, served with side salad, PHP180.00 (RM13.50).  The lettuce is fresh, the burger is not bad too.
 Another cheesy pasta for our girls, Baked Macaroni.  It is served with a medley of meat, tomatoes, cream sauce and loads of cheese, PHP195.00 (RM14.65)
Beef Salpicado.  Tenderloin cubes in captivating salpicado sauce served with garlic rice, tomato salsa and a side salad, PHP350.00 (RM26.25).  The beef is very tasty.   

One the 5th day, we had our lunch at SM mall before heading to the airport.  As time is limited, we picked one of the small eatery to settle our lunch.   I think this is Daing.  Milk fish which has been dried, salted and marinated in vinegar with garlic and fried.  I was told that this dish is also made famous in Tawau too, a fast growing town at the east coast of Sabah.
 Tapsilog, dried beef served with rice

 Lots of brownies.  I am not a chocolate lover so these did not tempt me much.  But we brought back some as gifts.  

Though we had lunch before we boarded the aircraft,  the pre-ordered in flight meals had became our tea break.   
 Spaghetti Bolognese Combo
chicken pops, mashed potatoes and diced carrots


 Bukhara chicken Briyani combo, a bit too hot and spicy for me

Panini Chicken Combo

We are Home Sweet Home not long after we had our "Tea Break".

Travelling is tiring. After our Genting/KL trip in November and travelled to the Philippines in December, our girls asked us to give them a year break before we could go for another holiday...:D..After all school term will be starting soon..no time for holiday lo..

Tuesday 25 December 2012

My Birthday in the Philippines

We celebrated my birthday in the Philippines this year.  Clet bought a small birthday cake from Red Ribbon Bake Shop nearby the hotel.
 Varieties of cakes displayed in Red Ribbon Bake Shop
Clet bought the cake that I chose.  Can you guess which cake from the cake display counter that we bought??

I also spotted this Butter Mamon in the bakery, I bought 1 to try.
does not taste as spongy as I expected.  A bit dry to my liking and is too sweet.

 This is my birthday cake.

a small and simple cake, we stored the remaining in our room's fridge.  My girls do not fancy eating cakes but they admire beautifully decorated cakes.

Monday 24 December 2012

Professional Office Moving Service

We are in the midst of setting up our office and shop.  Though it is a small rented shop, there are office furniture, cabinets, display settings, office equipments and so forth that we need to move in to get our office and shop in full operational mode in a short period of time.

We were having a hard time moving out from our previous office as we did not hire any moving service to help out, when we started packing we realised that moving is not as simple as we first thought.  After packing, transporting of all these big and small office stuff can be a big task, we thought that we could manage it on our own with the help of a few casual workers.  We were wrong.  There were so much to pack and carry even from a small office.  Hubby ended up has to help out on carrying the office tables and equipments which has strained his muscle, caused him so much pain as a result.

After having such an experience, we have decided to hire professional moving service like Ship-Smart to handle our office moves this time round. Ship-Smart provides very reasonable price in its moving office service, their services include custom packing and delivering to the desired destination. I particularly like their packing service as this will save a lot of our time in packing and leave us a peace of mind that our stuff are securely packed and transported.  

Sunday 23 December 2012

Philippines Trip, December 2012..continues 1

Shopping is our first priority going to the Philippines...the currency is much lower than ours, more varieties, their local made garments are of quality, shop attendants are courteous, shopping malls are huge, toilets are clean, but food are generally slightly expensive unless you know where to find cheaper food in the food court.  We had our dinner at the food court just before they closed at 8pm.

 Spaghetti Carbonara, taste slightly different, the garlic bun is delicious
 I love this sweet & sour soup, the fish supposed to go into the soup but we prefer it to be separated, easier for us to get the bones out from the fish.
 One of the popular cuisine, the pork dishes.  Clet's favourite, not for me, too much fats
Meat balls in sauces

On the 2nd day, due to my lack of sense of directions, I got lost in finding my way out from the shopping mall, with 2 hands full of shopping, I went round and round to find the right exit from the mall to the hotel.  I finally got to ask from a security whom gave me the direction. :D
one of the shopping mall in Greenhills

I am so use to rely on calculators that I have problem converting the PHP to RM mentally.  Clet saw me struggling with that, he gave me this piece of small paper with conversion written down for me as guide, I  always take it out from my pocket whenever I need to check on the prices, make my shopping easier.

Besides shopping and exploring their food, we visited a church nearby.  The St.Joseph church.  This church is located within a guarded residency area, the security is tight too.


Christmas trees at the church compound

 giving donations
inside the church


Say prayers

To be continued on our trip next post.....


Give away souvenir from Libby

I have received a give away souvenir from Libby a couple of days ago but I have forgotten to let Libby know about it in fact I have promised to let her know upon receiving it.  I have been too busy preparing for family's gathering and also getting ready to open my physical shop on children's apparels besides having my online shop. Libby, sorry for the delay in informing you, thanks for the souvenir - a cartoon document folder which is very useful to keep my documents intact and get some of my documents organised .  

To recap, I am the lucky winner in giving the right answer to her favourite post for August 2012.

This being the 3rd give away souvenirs I received from my blogger friends so far, I am looking forward to receive more....  

If you hadn't known, I am also having a Freebies Give Away in my blog here, your supports are highly appreciated.  

Friday 21 December 2012

Our Trip to the Philippines, 1st - 5th December 2012

This is to record down our trip to the Philippines from 1st to 5th December 2012.  After our trip to Kuala Lumpur in November, this was the first overseas trip for our girls, and also my first trip to the Philippines.  Clet has been there many times on business trip and wanted to bring us along for shopping and have a feel of the Christmas mood which started as early as September in the Philippines.  

It took us a couple of weeks to decide which country we should visit and shop for our purpose.  We chose between China, Thailand and Philippines.   We finally decided to hop on Air Asia to Clark, spent a 5D4N at Manila.  It was a short trip as we need to come back in time for Crystal to join her carolling scheduled on the 6th which was later postponed to a later date.
On board the aircraft having our meals
pre-ordered meals.  We enjoy having meals on the aircraft despite a bit uncomfortable with the space.

After near 2 hours flight from KK.  We arrived at Clark International Airport on a bright sunny afternoon.  Pearl can hardly opened her eyes under the sun.

it took 2 hours drive on a coach to the city of Manila from the airport.  The traffic is terrible in Metro Manila, worst than those in KL.

We arrived at the hotel about 7pm.  Our hotel room is very spacious equipped with other facilities.  It just 2 minutes walk to the shopping malls, too convenient for us to unload our shopping and go back for more round of shopping..:D.  Here are some of the photos of the deluxe room:

The TV is a bit old fashion but with Astro channels, sufficient to entertainment our girls with the cartoon programmes
Huge floor type aircon.  I think is pre-set with higher temperature during day time

Day view from our hotel room
Night view of the shopping malls from our room

stationery provided.  Internet service is PHP150.00 per hour and PHP600.00 per day.
safe and bathrobe too

After settling down at the hotel, we took a walk at the shopping mall to have a feel of where we are and look for our meals.  These are what we had on the 1st day in Manila.

We planned to go to the chapel in the shopping mall to say a prayer after meal but we were a bit late, it  had closed when we finished our meal, we took some photos with the Manger in front of the chapel.