[SHOPPING] Through Multiply & House of Flair

Finally I had managed to make a Successful Purchase using Multiply Payment Sytem! For those who are unfamiliar (seriously, where have you been?) , Multiply, from starting as a social network/blog/photogallery site, saw potential in online shopping, thus they came up with Multiply Marketplace, where some Online Shops taking Home on Multiply can have the option of adding a shopping cart and check-out sytem for a more convenient and orderly transactions. That's the closest an ONLINE store can have to a WEBSHOP without owning a domain. 

Successful because the first time a tried making purchase, something went wrong and i was deducted the payment w/o the seller receiving it... anyways...

so for my FIRST SUCCESSFUL shopping, i purchased these lovely pair of H&M flipflops on HOUSE of FLAIR clearance sale! :)

ONLY FOR 150!

i also got a sweet note and a thank you gift :)

forgive my dirty hands. i was in the middle of putting up a new wallpaper when the package arrived

and Using the Multiply checkout, i got free Shipping too! that's like getting it all together for free!

HOUSE of FLAIR .... in a nutshell is basically one of those shops that allows Filipinos an option to shop from US online stores! this is ESPECIALLY convenient for us who do not have credit cards and US addresses. 

YES! through House of Flair, we can purchase goods from our favorite US online stores! YES! we are talking about Chinese Laundry, Charlotte Russe, Macy's, Wet Seal, Juicy Couture, Go Jane! *___*

they can't take orders for food and electronics tho.. :(

they also sometimes carry some on-hand stuff like tops, make-ups, accessories and SHOES! 

SHOPPING CART

and the customer service?! OMG! they are the nicest people to talk to. :)

the only issue tho, is that they ship thru FAST TRACK BUT fast track's tracker is not working. but who am i to complain? It's FREE SHIPPING! LMAO. 




update: :)

and it's not exactly bad as well. Placed my order and payed JULY 24th ; Shipped JULY 25th with an expected date of arrival on the 28th. Recieved my Item on JULY 27th :)

Anyways, i'm looking forward to my next House of Flair shopping! :) [mind you, i need to get a new job first tho. :( ]

take a smell and go see what HOUSE of FLAIR can offer you! i am sure you'll find something!



Suyen

House of Flair

http://houseofflair.multiply.com

0917.8380428

Facebook: http://facebook.com/houseofflair

Twitter: http://twitter.com/houseofflair

[FOOD] Bagasbas LightHouse Hotel Resort's Catherine's Restaurant

I don't REALLy do food blogs or reviews, partly because I am usually a "fast food" kind of person. I didn't even intend to start anytime soon, but this experience is so blog worthy, I can't even figure out what best way to present my experience.

On our way home from an awesome weekend in Calaguas Island, we figured we might as well try the local food. Since it was in our schedule to make a side trip to BAGASBAS Surfing beach, our tour guide decided to try one of the restaurants in the area. We ended up at  Bagasbas LightHouse Resort in which you will find CATHERINE's Restaurant.  It also has a pool, a playground, and quite a vast outdoor.

Since I am personally not very adventurous in my food choices, I decided to just order Chicken barbecue with Java Rice and papaya relish and Pepsi.

We were 12 people all in all + 2, Kuya Yunan and our driver. All of us ordered the Java Rice meal + desserts except for Levy and Jayzenn who ordered Pusit and Bicol Express.

It took us a while to notice that our FOOD was taking so long to serve. We were already very hungry from the strenuous boat ride to shore and it was already around 1PM at the time. Our water and drinks, and the smoothies were already either finished, or not cold anymore.

Smoothies were finished, but the food hasn't arrived, yet

After about 30 minutes of waiting Levy decided to ask this person whom we think is the manager (because he was wearing a tie) as to how long till we have to wait for the food. He responded to Levy that her order is the fastest to cook (yes, we raised an eyebrow at that) but they wanted to serve all the food all at once. So OK, we can understand that. At this point, as much as we were all hungry, we still were pretty nice about the delay.

It was close to being an hour that we started to get really fussy about it. Imagine we had to wait an hour for our food to arrive, and we just ordered basically barbecued and grilled meat. We were not even approached by anyone to apologize for the delay, or even serve us yet another round of cold water.

bugnot na si Jambi at Felix

And then finally the food started to come batch by batch, and even that we noticed that the foods aren’t even warm anymore.

And then this happened: I WASN'T served my food. Everyone already got their food, so I waited a few more minutes. A waiter then approached and ASKED ME WHAT MY ORDER WAS. I was floored. Do I really have to wait even more? My friends are finishing their food already. In fact FELIX and JAMBI already finished theirs, and I still haven't a trace of food on my table. What really got me was, I still haven't been served MY FOOD, and yet they are already cleaning up after JAMBI and FELIX’s plates. AMAZING. It was then, Bhammy took pity on me that she asked the manager (whom was cleaning the plates) to follow up my order. He just looked up and said OK. No apology whatsoever.

when FINALLY my food arrive, which I will remind you, CHICKEN BARBECUE.; as I took out the spoon and fork, I noticed that there was a trace of dried rice still stuck on the spoon. I’m not very picky about things like that and have I told you I’m already very hungry, so I think I was a bit out of it that I tried taking out the dried rice by my nails. <lol> but it wouldn't budge. <lol> so I told the manager if he can please change the spoon. When it came back, I noticed, and I am 90% sure of it, that it was still the same spoon.! It still has the scruff marks my nails made. They didn't even have the decency to get me A NEW ONE. TT^TT

taken while waiting for the "new spoon" to arrive. you'll also notice that the water and pepsi aren't cold anymore.

So finally now, I can have a taste of the food that took AN HOUR to make, I was expecting an amazing taste. but no. Mang Inasal tastes even better than Catherine’s chicken barbecue. (and I could even have unlimited rice with Mang Inasal) .

I also tried their Bicol Express. This I would admit taste good (but then this is also my first time to try the food) so... You know what they say about food to be amazing? If it gives you that tingly feeling? (I had that when I first tried my SBARRO white pizza + baked ziti in white sauce, YUM!) The Bicol express didn't give me that. but then it could also be caused by my annoyance at their "brilliant service")

Oh have I told you that the place is ALSO infested by flies??? THAIRON had to ask for candles to be placed on our table. At one time, a fly even entered BHAM's half finished melon smoothie...

So I went to the bathroom after eating, (thank god) their restrooms are newly renovated and was actually pretty cozy (my interior design instinct kicking in at this point) and my friends and I were discussing what happened. I mean they could’ve given us a head's up if the food would normally take THAT long to be served or something. . . we were all really disappointed.

When I came back, my bill was tucked under my finished plate, so I paid and it was funny coz JAMBI upon seeing LEVY's change of P20 told me to pick up the P20 coz the waiters might think we're giving them tips. LOL. They don't deserve a single tip.

good thing i only paid this much

And then a small commotion happened. MAFEL was charged for 2 PANDANs, when she only ordered one. Then the waiter insisted that all in all, we were served 5 pandans, which was true, but then if he charges mafel 2 pandan's then that would total to 6, so were explaining it to them. The Cashier came out of the booth and even told mafel that they couldn't change the invoice anymore since it was already punched or something. Bham apparently still hasn't received her invoice so we just told them to take out the PANDAN in Bham's invoice so that MAfel can pay for the 2 and Bhammy would just give her payment to mafel. And still they didn't get it. They still wanted to include the pandan in Bham's invoice because she ordered it. When they finally understood our point, we went out of the restaurant.

the commotion

napatayo nako. Galit na din si Bham.

As we were going back to our Van, we were still discussing our annoyance. Even Kuya Yunan expressed his, because apparently he ordered a chocolate shake or something, and then he went to the bathroom, when he came back to his table, his table has been cleared and his chocolate shake wasn't even half finished!

MHADZ overheard the waiter mumbling "ito na nga ba ang sinasabi ko eh" after the billing commotion. The thing is we asked to be billed separately, and they wanted to give us just one invoice for our food. Which is really annoying coz, they would still even do individual billing, we just happened to be dining in together; they would still do individual billing if we happened to be strangers, just dining at the same time.

This is one of the most frustrating dining experiences I've ever had. THEIR food wasn't even great... =.=


TIME STAMPS:

Placed order at 1:07pm

smoothie arrived 10 mins later

  

my food arrived an hour later

check the receipt: time stamped 2:23 pm

MY RATING:

SETTING/INTERIORS: 3/5 (i am an interior designer by profession fyi :P)

CLEANLINESS: 2/5

PRICE: 4/5
FOOD: 2.5/5

SERVICE: 1/5 (and this is being generous)


CHECK OUT JOYCELYN's CALAGUAS ADVENTURE BLOG, and her POV of Catherine's Restaurant

[TRAVEL] Summer 2012 : CALAGUAS

My friends and I started our annual summer getaways in 2008; a year after most of us graduated from College. for our first time, we hit it up north in PAGUDPUD, Ilocos Norte, and made rounds in Bacarra and Batac. this is the only time all 9 of us were complete.

 In 2009, we went to Bolinao, Pangasinan and then after "ordinary buses and rolling canned tunas" incidents went back to Pagudpud.

In 2010, unfortunately, due to Jambi and Bham being in Jordan, Sheera's work, and Belah getting stuck in Ilocos, only 5 of us were able to go to Anawangin in Zambales. they were there in spirits tho.. :)

For 2011, this time Joycelyn was in Dubai for Work. Her, being our usual organizer, and us wanting to change it up for this summer decided to spend out time going only to Enchanted Kingdom. both fortunately and unfortunately, Jambi received a notice to start working in Medical City the very same Sunday we were supposed to go. So we just decided to cancel the said trip. after all work is more important than a getaway. ;P

now that i look back, we always used to go out to the local pool every summer vacation since HS. all these tho got cut off during college days, although we always have this small side trips at random times every year. But that's a different story. :P

For 2012, WE WANTED it to be far, and BANGIN. so we decided to hit it up, a but down south for the first time. our destination: CALAGUAS.

a few days before our scheduled trip to Calaguas, a Storm hit Camarines Norte, where PAGASA declared storm signal #1. it also didn't help that towards the end of May, the weather started to get a bit chilly and rainshowers frequent during the afternoon. We seriously started getting antsy. we've planned this trip in February pa, so we'll have enough time to save, file office leaves, and do personal things with families and stuff. Joyce contacted our tour guide, Kuya Yunan on Tuesday and he said the weather is pretty bad and he'll let us know by Thursday if our trip can be pushed thru. Fortunately by Thursday, the weather became clear and we got the GO signal for our trip . whew! . Thanks to friends' SUN DANCE! :) the weekend got crazy tho... I, after 2 months of not having my period (i'm naturally irregular) unfortunately had mine for the weekend. The other girls either got cold, headaches, Swimsuits burned, scheduled almost messed up because of unexpected office occurences... still, we fought our way to get the much needed vacation. 

We met up at Jollibbee Shell C5 with Kuya Yunan and Kuya Richard at 10PM, Saturday night, after shopping for supplies in Hypermarket. This time is a bit different tho. for the 1st time, we allowed boyfriends to join US. lol.

here's out seat plan. 

the singles were left to fend for themselves :(

just a little after 6 am, we reached DAET and had our breakfast at Jollibee. then we proceeded to Vinzons for the 2 hr boat ride to Mahabang Buhangin. 

The Weather was SOOO nice and the waves were fantastic! as we get nearer to the Island, we noticed and marveled at how clear and beautiful the water is. the LONG travel is SOOO worth it the moment we laid our eyes on the crystal clear water....

we left the island at around 930 am monday morning. The waves this time was terrifying! i was holding on for dear life for as over as 1.5 hrs. lols . longest boat ride of my life. we told our selves, the sun god gave us the perfect weather on Sunday. exclusively for us, or so we say. :)

for Lunch we went to this restaurant in Bagasbas. Catherine's. the verdict: HORRIBLE SERVICE. read my food blog / experience here. <---click

we reached Pasig at around 1030 PM and rode a jeepney on the way home to Binangonan. TIRED? Yes. BUT we had an awesomely, incredible time! 

Budget wise, i think this is the most expensive trip weve had. the package  is P3100 each + P140 share for booze and snacks. on top of that tho is the food on the road. we are naturally matakaw kasi! but money is nothing compared to the awesome time we had!! :)

**will update HQ pics soon. my net is terrible today.. :(
** credits: JAMBI, BHAM, and JOYCEARALAR