Top 5 Things I'm Loving Now - May 1, 2012

If you’re an avid visitor of spot.ph, an entertainment and lifestyle website, you would be familiar with this format. In fact, I watch out for it every week. It’s a Top 10 list with random things that the writer is loving at the moment. It may be neat gadget, a yummy drink or popsicle find from their nearest 7Eleven or a cool event that’s happening in the metro. It’s as random as can be. That’s the format I’m trying to incorporate in this blog.



So here’s my very first Top 5 Things I’m Loving at the Moment. I really wanted to write about 10 initially. But in order to have more updates, I though I’d resort to 5...for now. ;-)


Number 5: Southern Blend Iced Tea from Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf

 For their tea of the day, I had the choice between the Southern Blend and Vanilla Ceylon. I was going to get the latter but it’s a good thing that I decided to ask the cashier what the Southern Blend exactly is. The cashier was going to enumerate it. But when he first said the taste of flower petals, I was already sold. I didn’t bother to hear the rest. I love Jasmine tea and Chrysanthemum. This shouldn’t be far off, I thought. Well, it isn’t. The drink is nice and refreshing. Just the right amount of sweetness and it goes down very smoothly. If you’re not a fan of tea because you don’t like the tannin aftertaste, that won’t be a problem for this drink. It’s not too noticeable. If you’ve been to Memphis, this drink is exactly like their Sweet Tea there. Really yummy!


The drink only costs P95 for the regular size. Pair it with the Triple Decker Cheesecake at P135 a slice like I did and you should be off to an indulgent and well-deserved afternoon treat!


Number 4: SM Bonus Liquid Floor Wax




Sorry the bottle looks icky. You can tell it's being used a lot! ;-)

 You probably don’t know this about me. But I’m really OC or anal when it comes to cleaning the house. Naturally, there are particular cleaning products that I lean towards that do the job as it should. Often, I have the mindset that the more expensive it is, the better it cleans. After discovering SM Bonus’ liquid floor wax, I was proven wrong. I always went for Pledge. It does fine but SM Bonus’ liquid wax does it better.


The purchase was an “accident.” Working for BDO, my husband was given Sodexo GCs after Christmas. Our only option for grocery shopping was SM Hypermart. And since SM, for obvious reasons, is loyal to their own SM bonus brand, they wiped out the other competition. That is precisely the reason why they don’t sell brands like Colgate, Pledge, and the like. Needing liquid wax badly at that time for my OC weekend cleaning, I was ‘stuck’ with the SM Bonus brand. And I’m glad I was. The SM Bonus liquid wax really does make the floor so shiny! I could almost see my reflection our wooden floor! It stays shiny longer too than Pledge. I can’t remember the exact price but I’m pretty sure it’s at least P20 cheaper than Pledge?


Number 3: “Decorate: 1000 Professional Ideas Design Ideas for Every Room in Your Home” book



Source: http://www.thetomkatstudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/DECORATE-book1.jpg



I’m always fond of going to bookstores when I need to kill time. My recent find is “Decorate” by Holly Becker and Joanna Copestick at the National Bookstore in the PowerPlant Mall. I’m sure this book is available in other stores and branches.


I say that this is one of the things that I’m loving at the moment because the book is truly inspiring! Upon skimming the whole book, it made me want immediately run home and redecorate! The book is loaded with pictures for inspiration and their design sense is almost Ikea-ish. The rooms they feature look lived-in and not like model homes (which often do not have televisions!) I mean, really, do you know anyone who doesn’t have a television or two at home??!?? They feature modern homes that still look homey. There are bits and splashes of colour everywhere and most of all, all the homes have character! These are not intimidating homes though. You can easily be inspired by the pictures to make tiny changes in your home that are inexpensive but will draw a lot of impact.


The book retails at P1,545. Decorate away! ;-)


Number 2: Ink eMagazines at http://www.ink-live.com/

I found out about this website from another blog that I frequent. It was one of the links that he included in his entry to forward us to an article that he wrote. Anyway, I became giddy as I explored the website. What a gem! And it’s all free! All you have to do is register, really.


In a nutshell, this is a website that allows free access to airline magazines. When you fly with Cebu Pacific, they have the Smile magazine right? Well, this is available here – back issues included! To top it all off, other magazines like TimeOut Singapore, Thomas Cook’s Travel, Jetstar, Air Macau, Holland Herald and 45 others! Upon registering, just make sure to click on “Update Profile” on the top right corner, then “Select Magazines” so you can add the magazines that you wish to have access to. Such excellent travel resource! In particular, I love reading those destination blurbs in the Smile magazine near the end. Each domestic and international destination that Cebu Pacific flies to has a little section. The contributor is a local of that place and they talk about their most favorite secret breakfast place, bar, best food recommendation, and the like. This is sooooo helpful if you’re the assigned itinerary creator in your trip like I am. ;-)


Although you can access this as well in any mobile device like your iPad, just a note that you really need a fast connection to access this. Otherwise, it’s easy to get frustrated. I wish that they would allow downloading of their issues straight from the website into the iBook or something. This way, you can access them and read them even when you’re offline or even if your wifi is slow.


Number 1: Golden Euphoria Cake from Maitre Chocolatier

When looking at any restaurant menu, it’s very rare to find the actual food serving looking better than it is in the picture. Especially when it comes to dessert.

Well, Maitre Chocolatier really did impress! Not only is their food better looking than their pictures but the cake that we had was truly amazing! I’m talking about their Golden Euphoria –Ferrero Hazelnut Cake. The name alone begs for high expectations already. And the ohhh the pictures! The actual dessert? Real orgasmic. ;-) Hahaha! The texture mixes smooth and crunchy really well. Chocolate is everywhere in different levels of sweetness and texture. Meant to be savored one tiny though indulgent bite at a time and definitely NOT meant for sharing! Trust me on this or else a fight might ensue! ;-) Hahaha! This one definitely made my list of Top 5 dessert of all time.

A slice of the Golden Euphoria costs P218. I’m trying to remember but I think we had to pay extra for VAT and Service Charge. Maitre Chocolatier is along Jupiter Street Extension in Makati. Coming from Makati Avenue, go to the Jupiter part heading to the MRT. It’s near the Starbuck’s there. Enjoy your orgasm! Oooops, I meant dessert! ;-) LOL

My Top 5 Free iPad Apps (at the moment!)

As you know, there are just too many iPad apps to sift through. So I don't think this is a definitive list of my Top 5 iPad apps of all time. Rather, I'm only sharing with you my 5 favorite free apps at the moment. Most of them require internet connection. But once you have that, these 5 apps can surely keep you amused for hours! Some of them are excellent utilities or resource tools as well. Here they are:

5.) Tap TV

Make your iPad a handy TV! With 17 channels to choose from, this app will definitely eat up a lot of your time. The channels are not necessarily channels you'll find on your television at home. Rather, the 'channels' include the likes of Documentary TV, Travel, Kids' TV, Best of YouTube, Silent Movies, Tap TV, and many others. My personal favorite is the Audio Books channel. Here they've got audio books of novels and short stories like "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," and works by Kafka, Mark Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald, O. Henry, Tolstoy and even Rudyard Kipling. So far there are only 30 audio books there. I really hope that they'll keep adding more.

To enjoy and maximize this app, you really need to have fast internet connection. Otherwise, the movies/shows will take a very long time to load and it will just end up frustrating you. Don't forget to have your earphones with you too!

4.) AllRecipes

Not sure what to make for dinner? Install this app and you'll end up with a thousand and one ideas at the very least! ;-) You can filter the thousands of recipes in this app by choosing the meal course, the main ingredient, the cooking method, and even your cooking time preference! Once you've chosen, sumptious pictures of food items that fit all of your preferences will show up side by side on the screen. Tap on the picture and from there, you can find the recipe, calorie count, and reviews of people who have tried the recipe. Some recipes are tweaked to make them better. They're all documented there too. I suggest that you do read the reviews before trying a recipe. The contributors aren't necessarily chefs or professional cooks, etc. The reviews will give you an idea of the ingredients that you can leave out, which ingredients there are too much of/not enough of in the original recipe, and so forth. Nonetheless, this is an excellent starting point. I imagine you will find lots of recipes here that you can include in your repertoire. ;-)

3.) Paper Desk LT

This is only the lite version of Paper Desk. That one's free. But if you'd like to upgrade, it'll cost you a mere $2.99. It's very cheap, but frankly, the lite version on its own will do. There's already so much that you can do on the lite version alone!

So what is Paper Desk? Do you know of Smart Pen? Well, this app will allow you to do everything that you can do on the Smart Pen. It's kind of like an interactive notebook. You can record audio on there, take pictures, type up notes, write actual notes on the screen, and/or combine any or all of these into one file. It's an app that you can definitely use during meetings or if you're a student, during lectures. You can save the file right on your iPad or email them, move them to your Google Docs, or print them! It's real handy. And for someone who's neither a student or one who goes to meetings either, I just use it to write my "To Do" lists. ;-) I'm sure anyone can find other uses for this very helpful app.

2.) Houzz

Looking for interior design inspiration? Once you've installed Houzz, you can browse through close to 150,000 photos of beautifully designed homes. Whatever your design sense may happen to be, you're bound to find lots of inspiration from these pictures. The photos are categorized by the type of space. From powder room, staircase, landscape, kids' rooms, home office, porch, closet, and of course, the usual bedroom, bathroom, living room, and dining room -- they're all there! Aside from photos, there are three other sections that you can look at as well. There's one on Ideabooks. These have articles and more pictures(!) to give you tips and suggestions on DIY projects that you can do, assistance on how you can choose the right paint colour, how to choose a theme, and so many other topics under the sun. They're categorized as well so it's really very easy to browse through.

If you live in North America (ie: Canada and the United States), there's also a section on Professionals that you can get in touch with to get the job done. From architects to general contractors to interior designers, you can find their contact info here as well as samples of their work. There's another section called "My Houzz" where you can create your own Ideabook article. I haven't explored that one yet. I think it requires you to register.

1.) Tune In Radio

Pick any city in the world, a random station from the list, let it buffer, and within seconds, there you are -- listening to live radio streaming! Aside from location, the stations are organized too by music genre and there's also a separate category for sports and talk radio (the AM ones, I assume). It's a great way to beat feeling homesick in my case. I listen to Calgary radio stations, alternating between Up 97.7, 98.5 Virgin Radio, and Kool 101.5. when I'm doing my chores or simply want to listen to music while surfing the net. If it weren't for the Manila heat, I could swear it felt like I was back in Calgary again. You can hear the advertisement on the radio -- know which places are on sale, be updated on the news, and find out about upcoming events too. Not all of the radio stations on the list do this, but there are some that even specify the song that you're listening to and show a picture of the album it came from right on your iPad screen. It's super neat! The very reason why it's number one on my list! ;-)

Have you got other neat (and free!) iPad apps to share as well? Please leave a note in the message section. In the mean time, I'll continue to keep my eyes open for more neat apps. Enjoy and install away! ;-)

Image Sources:

http://a1.mzstatic.com/us/r1000/049/Purple/79/11/d5/mzl.ztemqhwz.480x480-75.jpg

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.shelterpop.com/media/2010/07/houzz-app-ipad-iphone-590kb072710.jpg

http://st.houzz.com/simages/84087_0_8-6587--.jpg

http://cdn.ilovefreesoftware.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/tap-tv-337x450.jpg

http://www.tabletpc-news.com/images/Best%20Cooking%20And%20Recipe%20Apps%20For%20The%20IPad_0.jpg

http://obamapacman.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/TuneIn-Radio-iPad-by-location.jpg