Life Behind the Door

Anna Paluga, a friend and officemate was with me on the afternoon of December 6, 2008 to try the La Cabana Spa services. It was the best time to visit the spa since it had a big discount on their services. The spa service package was only P 250.00. It was affordable.

(Anna Paluga on a Camiguin shore)

I love their Sauna bath but the room was not spacious. Nonetheless, it felt good to have all my sweat jumping out of my skin. Their massage was, as told by the front desk officer, a combination of Shiatsu and Swedish. But I thought to myself while having the massage that it was not satisfying as Swedish massage should be and also if compared to the services at Sentara Nail & Body Spa, the massage at La Cabana was a mediocre.

Truly a massage at the spa is like a walk in the shore, relaxing near to all Blue (Blue the way poet Evasco would see it).

The rating was ☺☺☺☺ over 10. I’ll keep the reasons to myself why I gave them a low grade. You can try the place though; it is located at the Recto Avenue, beside the Palana Grocers.

That’s all.

It pays to Window Shop

Monday this week, I went to Limketkai Mall to shop at Robinsons and Value Shop. It took only less than 10 minutes to buy all the items I needed. I needed to buy some new personal stuff like bath towels and new coffee mug, and some shirts. Shopping, while true to be a fun and exciting activity, can sometimes be so taxing your time and energy.  So, it being a leisurely activity turns into a stressful one. Who would want that? No one wants to spend to get stress, right? Well, unless you’re a masochist.  

(Photo is from Google Images)
I suggest that it is best to go traipse around your favorite mall to know what brand, which store, location and price ahead of time. This will save up time and energy when the shopping time comes. Just make certain that when you window shop and find an item you really like, ask if they have many stocks in the storeroom or if it is a saleable item. The volume of stock and the salability of the item will give you some sort of idea, assurance or confidence that whenever you come back after a day or two, the item is still there.  No matter how many stocks they have  though or whether the item does not sell like hotcakes, it is best to come back as soon as possible to buy the item. Otherwise, it will frustrate you much to come back and find out that the item is not in the rack anymore. This happened to me quite a lot of instances already. I learned my lesson. I window shop a day or two before my payday, this assures me that the item will still be in its same location when I come back to buy it.

Beside all of these, the main reason why I do window shop is that it motivates me to go to work and earn extra by rendering overtime and work-on-rest-days to get that extra pay. It allows me to see my job in a whole new perspective. It keeps me see things positively.  I always go home happy and inspired after window shopping. So, I make it a habit to window shop before buying.

Next time, when you have extra time, try window shopping. I tell you, it pays.

Happy shopping!  : )

Afternoon of October 24th, I had a really really great time
By Denver E. Torres

Afternoon of October 24th, I had a really really great time with my friend Joanna and her two college chums, Grace and Martin. We gadded the whole of Limketkai, hopped from one resto to another.

Our meeting was sort of a fluky one. My day was supposed to end after my Shift (that starts on 4 AM take note and ends by 12:30 when the sun is so fierce) and a bank transaction. I needed to get money from the bank before the Weekends. But my Bank has this stupid process called cut-off time and that meant I will have to wait for two decades and a half a year to finish my business with the teller that afternoon. And since I know myself too well that I turn into a monster that eats people when people make me wait, I opted to go somewhere instead and come back when it was all ready.

To wait is one thing that I would list down if I am asked: What are the Top 10 things I hate about life? I have observed that half of the lives of people especially in a Third World country like Philippines are spent waiting, wasting half of their lives either in queue or trapped in the traffic snarl. I really hate to be trapped in a situation where I have to wait because time is wasted. And time is something that we do not know how much we have. Your time can end practically anytime. So, to waste it in nonsensical situations like queues and traffic is so disappointing. I wish I am really a goddess and had the powers to control things in this life. I do not know how to do it really but I will take away “waiting” in this existence.

So much about that already, I do not want to keep you waiting. I know you are waiting for me to finish my story. Here we go. Yes. So I went to ketkai, the first A-list mall in Cagayan de Oro City, I was like a grasshopper hopping from one leaf to another. I went to shops but Mossimo was the most memorable. I was there inside the store when the intermittent and recurrent brownouts took place. It was funny because I was trying off some pants but everytime I slip them in, the light went out and I could not see. It was so dark inside the fitting room. I just can’t imagine if brownouts, blackouts whatever, will happen everyday. It would be annoying. I am confident though that this will not happen recurrently. I am sure that CEPALCO may have had run some system maintenance that caused those power interruptions. 

Because I was bored killing time, I texted Joanna asking her if she already watched this horror flick entitled Mirrors starred by Kiefer Sutherland. She replied that she’s scared watching horror films. I am not. I haven’t watched it though. One thing nice about horror films is that it brings you to a point of realization that this world after all is a nice place to live because horror films are antithesis to the real world and that they only belong to the imaginative sphere however using some universal truths to be its basis. Man has to imagine creatively a world that is non extant. These are found in the works of arts like movies. I hope to make a review out of it. I want to watch it before the weekend ends.

I cannot force her. She’s a self-willed young woman. She knows what she wants. She informed me that she was tagging along with a friend from Bohol and that we should meet up if I was free. There outside Bettina, near La Crepe Café I met two charming people: a young and youthful lady named Mutya Grace and the honest and upbeat guy named Martin. Grace looks so lovely with her modish chalico from The UK. It was such a catch from the UK. It is a beautifully designed mocha colored chalico that is below waist length with sort of embroidered designs to accentuate its sides. I was green with envy. I wish I had one like that. But I know I would look funny in it. Throughout that afternoon-early evening jaunt we had, I kept repeating that I super like what she’s wearing. It wasn’t really all about the chalico, I believe, but much on the total outfit she had that afternoon. I really liked it because it was adhering to the minimalist philosophy, that all things beautiful are basically basic and minimal like the Nature. She wore a white sleeveless tank top and paired with nice pair of jeans. The chalico made it stupendous. She looked really cute.

But I must tell as well that from a distant and before we started conversing, I thought that they were Chinese folks from Hong Kong. They looked foreigner to me at first because of their skin color. They did not look like white moon faces really but I just sort of feel it. I was wrong though when they started spewing Visayan. I secretly informed Joanna about this.

At first, we were a bunch of aimless people traipsing the concourses of ketkai, later kissing the shops fleetingly then hop like grasshoppers in the fresh green grassfields. It was purposeless yet fun or was it the group’s way to come up with a plan? I think, yes, it was. We decided to go to the Sky Park at first but we did not like the place because it did not look appealing or comfortable to hang out at. The furnitures or furnishings were ugly and it did not look cozy. We decided to go to Bo’s and while on our way we took some pictures of us. We took the covered walk leading to the Kagay-anon Steakhouse then to Rosario Arcade where the strings of coffee shops, bars, restos are happily lined up.

When we arrived at the foyer of Bo’s Coffee Club we thought that the place is small and that it can be crowded later on in the late afternoon especially that it was a Friday afternoon. So, since its foyer is shared by the foot of the stairs leading to Town, it’s a posh resto and bar, our feet instinctively chose it over Bo’s. We dined and had coffee there. Grace and Martin ordered Chicken Fajitas and Smoothies. Martin was disgusted by his Carrot Shake. He barely even sipped the half of the tall glass. Grace enjoyed her Frappe. I am not sure if Joanne ordered a Strawberry? I, on the other end had a hot drink. It was a –chino, can’t recall. Because it was a cold afternoon and the interior of the resto was a bit chilling, I wanted an antithetical experience.

We had chit chats, magazine flipping, photo-taking and Grace showed me her boyfriend’s picture. I got so excited looking at his super hot half-naked guy in the picture. I think that at that time, my jaws opened itself and that I cannot close it so that I salivated literally and figuratively. I saw my eyes gleaming, fantasizing for a second but was dragged back to reality when some thoughts about money, bank, grocery, enrolment stream through my consciousness.

I asked Joanna, if it was four already? She said five minutes before four. I rushed to the bank and took a cab to arrive on time. My transaction was already set and that I just picked up the money. No sweat. The traffic in the afternoon made me a bit annoyed though.

I was back after 20 minutes or so, I guess. I wasn’t sure because my phone had a comatose batt. When I was back, they were still in Town, the three gorgeous fellows like characters in a painting with the artwork of Enrico Lluch (a local artist) and a gargantuan ecru colored sofa as the backdrop, sitting pretty as if the world did not have war or hunger. It was a transcending experience for me looking at them— there conversing, laughing, smiling as if the world was problem-free. Just like the painting. Few minutes later, we settled our bill and took off to meet Joanna’s mom at Bayo.

Later, we took our dinner at Red Ribbon. I ordered a set meal that includes my favorite juice in the whole wide world – Fresh Pineapple juice. To my dismay, I was forced to delight myself with the cheap tasting, fruit-flavored powdered drink. It was awful. I really hate it when restos like Red Ribbon who have hit-all-high prices to be serving cheap tasting drinks. You will never see me stopping by that store ever again (except if I am buying cakes, I just want to make that clear). I was full. Joanna too. I wonder why when we had very little plates and all the more little food in it. Maybe it was our topic that made us full. We talked about pasta, shrimps and prawns, sushi, and Bologna sausages. Tell me. Am I right?

We had to walk a little to decide where to go next since Martin said that night is so young to call it a. We sauntered a little then decided to have some Ice cream! Off to the second level we went and settled at Fiorgelato, an al fresco Italian Ice Cream parlor. I had a combo of Pistaccio and Fragola scoops in a cup. I thought that it was reasonably priced at Ph P 45 but realized that while it is Italian and the flavors are special, it was not creamy. I like my ice cream to be creamy. I grew up eating creamy ice cream. I enjoyed our brief talk though there at the ant-inviting parlor. We talked about a guy from college who must not be named and his girl who I must not name as well. Sorry. We were a bit mean that afternoon. We laughed a lot.

After the whole afternoon of wandering with aim at one point and without in another, our feet screamed and begged for some rest. We parted ways with a sense of joviality. In my case, I went home with a positive feeling thinking that there are still sensible and wonderful people out there like Grace and Martin (including Joanna of course) that can make life a little more exciting. I really feel that for the past months, my life evolved around work, work and work and that I really was feeling lifeless and directionless. But meeting them was an assurance that the world or this urban city filled with monotonous blocks of buildings and shanties after all is not a totally sad place/life to live.

Enjoy life!   

My Second Sentara Visit

Did I tell you that I went to Sentara lately for their Sentara Royal Massage? And did I say that it was so special?

I had a wonderful time and oh so relaxing and rejuvenating experience while having the massage and the post massage feeling was something that lingered.

But this time aroud, my masseur was so hot and cute. I said to myself as he extended his hand saying, "this way, Sir". I said OMGosh. Wow, you are hot, I said to my self as I responded to his leading the way.

His name was ******* and he said his name with lots of smiles and cordiality. His smiles and words were as warm as their service. And I thought to myself, who would think that such a jaw-dropping looks could be found in the spa and will be the one rubbing and massaging my skin.

I said, if all spas hire these type of people, I am sure they would sell like hotcakes. Just imagine, a Beckham or say Jake Cuenca looking spaboy will give you that massage. Don’t you think it is such an exciting experience?

What do you think? Go try Sentara now.

Sentara is by the way located at Limketkai Drive. It is a Nail and Body Spa.

Help! Where can I buy this V Man with Ashton on the cover, in the Philippines?

I do not want to make online purchases.

Please, please, please help me. I so love Ashton. Love, as in to the extent that I can dare to starve for days just to get a copy of the GQ that has him on the cover. The story here is that one weekend few years back, I only had 300 Ph P for the whole weekend. Both luckily and unfortunately, I bumped into this mag stall at Limketkai mall that sells GQ among other international glossies. Then, I drooled, got confused and pestered myself with should-I-buy-or-not questions. I gave up and bought it at 250. I had 50 remaining to survive, I mean starve for the weekend. I did. Just for a mag? Not really. It was the oppurtunity that I actually bought.

So, please inform me. Or send me one for free, as a gift. I love you guys. Enjoy! Be real! Long live VMan!

Mwaah to the V Man Editors for coming up with a gorgeous cover!

P.S. I hope Joanna is reading this. Friend, find me one in Hongkong before you go back to CDO, please, please, please. Mwaah!

Freddie Ljungberg. Man ohooohhh man. Truly this man’s physique and his package gives you an assurance of forever happiness. LoL Whachutink? He will surely make everyone, even the timid, go naughty and wild.

Provenance: http://www.mykindaplace.com/lads/celeb/pgladsceleb.aspx?id=70

I am grateful to Ryan of Carlo Reyes Hair Salon-Hayes

By Denver Ejem Torres

But all these are things of the past now. Thanks to the adorable and excellent hair doing of Ryan of Carlo Reyes Hair Salon at Hayes Street, Cagayan de Oro City. Ryan is the Hairdresser of the said salon. He is very friendly and such a skillful person in dealing with clients. His answers and suggestions about my hair issue are so reassuring.

I think that my hair, with the tangles or call it dread locks in it, is a big job for him. But Ryan and his amazing staff are but so diligent and willfully, skillfully solve my hair issue. They first have to wash my hair, apply some hot oil then steam for over an hour. Ryan does the hair cut and styling after. They have it blow dried. Finally, the styling. My hair looks so amazing now. The patches are not visible anymore.  I feel so beautiful and confident. I never really think that I can look like a mag hair model (kidding). You have to see me in person. Sad though, I do not have a picture of myself yet with my new hair do. I’ll post some later.   

I have mentioned earlier that I am not a hair person. And that I do not really go to hair salons or parlors often. I have changed my mind. I think I will be going to hair salons frequently from now on. That’s because I have a very good impression of the place and the people.

Thanks to Ryan and to his amazing staff. I love you all guys at Carlo Reyes Hair Salon-Hayes. I will be coming back soon for another service.

***
Carlo Reyes Hair Salon is located at Hayes Street in front of the old Butcher’s Best.
The salon operates from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM and is open from Mondays to Saturdays.
They can be reached at 000-0000
Hair Spa (with Hair Cut and Blow Dry) is P 199.00
Hot Oil (with Hair Cut and Blow Dry) is P 99.00
Phone them up or visit the site for more inquires about their services.

***
Have a great hair day!

On Coffee and Coffee-drinking
By Denver E. Torres

Truly, Coffee is the blood that runs in the veins and arteries of this Archipelago. I agree to the truthfulness of the things mentioned in this ( Coffee: A Celebration of Life  from www.pinoycentric.com) essay.

The essay is well written and the things mentioned in it bring me back to the days of my Childhood. The essay evoked some memories related to Coffee as well as other thoughts. I remember, especially my own personal experiences regarding Coffee. I recall the morning glory-filled-eyes mornings seeing my Mama and Papa conversing silently over cups of coffee early in the morning at our kitchen while the rest of my brothers and sisters are still snoring.

Also, I am transported back to the Mornings at Sta. Cruz, Claveria, Misamis Oriental, my Mother’s natal town. I visit my grandparents on most summers when I was a kid. In Lola’s house, mornings are the busiest because people prepare Coffee and drink them with much enthusiasm and ceremony. I watch them from the long table in the kitchen. I sit down there at the edge of the long bench busy watching my Tiya making fire to boil water.   Coffee, in fact is stapler than rice to them, I guess. I see big jars of Coffee. And, yes they are labeled Nescafe. The hot cups of Coffee are always taken with bread they call patatas among other kinds of bread. I learned later that the patatas they call and we are eating is actually the galletas (egg bread). I do not know if it is a wrong naming by them. Or if simply, patatas is a linguistic variety of galletas.

I am twenty-four now, and I am a lover of Coffee and all about it (maybe, this explains why I have to read Coffee: A Celebration of Life and write something about it).  Even when I need to spendthrift, I cannot help but splurge on 100+ a-cup specialties at Coffee Works, Bo’s Coffee Club or Gazebo, and frequently before at the now-non extant Skizzo Specialty Coffee, all of these shops are in Cagayan de Oro City. When Skizzo closed few years back, I am saddened. I miss the place and still missing it up to now even after two years plus.  Such was a nice place to hang out at. Quiet. Not crowded. Affordable. These three were its best traits.  Plus, the goer gets to see some authentic paintings of local sceneries by local artists. I remember seeing a replica image of the façade and entrance of the St. Augustine Cathedral on a Sunday. The painting is so nice and I wanted to buy it then except that I could not afford it.  It is expensive. But I think it was priced right.

Going to coffeeshops, in my case, is more than just spending or the love of the taste of coffee but, more of a social activity. I think that I spend a lot of money drinking coffee in these shops because I see many nice people around, not to mention the cute ones. Coffee houses are the best places to flirt around. It’s my flirting place.

Coffee-drinking at the Coffeeshops are not necessarily all for flirting with hot and cute guys though. Coffeeshops are best places for serious talk with friends and a great place for business meetings. In fact, I and my literary friends would meet up in these places to workshop our new poems or fictions. They are a perfect place because they are quiet and comfortable.

I have observed that for both the city-dwellers like me and the boondocks people like my grandparents, Coffee or Coffee-drinking is not just a meaningless sipping of something but more of a ceremony to start the day right. It is truly a ritual or an offering of sort to-asking the Deities of the Nature to bless the day with lots of suns and smiles.

Indeed, Coffee or Coffee-drinking is a celebration to most Filipinos. We are a culture of festivities and merriment. And such is a reflection of the type of people we are:  Happy and Optimistic!