Home Theater Sofa

Our 3-seater home theater sofa was delivered by Blims today! We went for a China-made cheaper version of La-Z Boy. It was about P10k cheaper (based on La-Z Boy SRP) and came with a free Toshiba Regza 19" LCD TV. Not that we really needed another TV, but I want to have 2 x PC's at our den and I don't want to buy another LCD monitor for the 2nd PC. A 15" LCD monitor nowadays costs about P6k.

From LGV House Blessing

The recliner mechanism of this sofa is not as good as La-Z Boy's. But one thing I liked about it over La-Z boy's 3-seater is the center seat reclines as well. With La-Z Boy, only the left and right side reclines while the center one converts into a table where you can put food. But I thought it was more important to have seating space so I opted for this one.

The home theater's configuration is supposed to have 2 x rows of theater sofas. But since we're on a tight budget, we opted for one set first and placed it on the raised floor section. Maybe we'll just put bean bags for a while on the front row for the kids.

The home theater is 6-meters deep. The sofa is just slightly behind the overhead projector. So that puts it at about 4-meters from the projection screen. I think its just right. If we put another set on the lower floor level, I think it will actually be too close to the screen.

Christmas @ Boracay Day 3

With still almost the whole morning to spare, Cols, Caitlin, Les and I went to ride the banana boat. Ethan stayed at the hotel beach front with Dad, Nikki and William. At first Caitlin was afraid, but she got over it soon. After the banana boat, Cols and Les went parasailing. Caitlin and I stayed on the motorboat that pulled them.

From Boracay Christmas 2008

After the activities, the hotel shuttle drove us back to Discovery Shores were we played a bit more on the beach. I was advised a few weeks ago by PAL that our flight from Kalibo will be delayed by an hour. But the hotel insisted that we should leave at least 4 hrs before. So we left the hotel around 1pm. The shuttle took us to the ferry port. They arranged for the hotel boat from Boracay to Caticlan and hooked us up with a private van to take us to Kalibo airport. The transfer service was pretty efficient.

From Boracay Christmas 2008

We dozed off on the ride to Kalibo. When we got to the airport, there was nobody there as it was still too early. I checked us in while Cols ordered for food at the restaurant across the airport. We had a late lunch there. The flight took off on time. There were so few passengers. I think there were barely 20 of us in the Airbus back to Manila.

From Boracay Christmas 2008

Christmas @ Boracay Day 2

After a quick breakfast, it was off to the beach for the kids. We took the "island hopping" package from the same agent we got the sea walker yesterday. Mom and Les joined us. Nikki wasn't feeling too well so she stayed on shore with Dad and William.

From Boracay Christmas 2008

The supposed 3-hour bangka ride did not go far because of strong waves. December usually has strong waves and the sky is not as bright. There is always an overcast cloud, which is ok I guess since at least we don't need to put on that much sun tan. We went snorkling a bit in one section of the island beyond the former Station 1. After snorkling for about 10 to 15 mins with Les, we came back on board and were greeted by a marshall of some sorts who charged us for some environmental fee.

Then the bangka headed back towards the other direction (the side of the hotel) and went past Discovery Shores. There are several more resorts being constructed there including one supposedly owned by Manny Pacquiao. Then behind the bend is the soon-to-open Shangri-La Boracay. The beach sand there, in my opinion, is not as good as the main area though.

From Boracay Christmas 2008

After lunch, Ethan went to take his nap while Caitlin went to the children center at Discovery Shores. I called home to check on the maids and the house and we were advised by our helper, Didith, that the ceiling in their room has a big leak. We coordinated with our contractor/architect Juni for have someone come over. But being Dec 24 and all, her workers were all on leave. Cols was eventually able to get hold of Eloy, the electrician/plumber, and had him go over to the house and check.

Around 3:30pm, Cols, Les, Mom and I went over to Sea Wind to be entertained by the owner who is a former neighbor from Iloilo. She toured us her place and we had a hearty snack at their restaurant. We were so full that we had no more appetite for dinner. But we accompanied the kids for dinner at the beachfront of Discovery Shores.

From Boracay Christmas 2008

We took the hotel shuttle to D' Mall after dinner. That's the commercial area of Boracay where all the shops are. There's a small ferris wheel in the center area. The folks joined us in a while but Nikki and Les stayed home to rest. Caitlin was pretty sleepy already so after the folks had dinner at Mang Inasal, we called for the shuttle again for pickup.

From Boracay Christmas 2008

Christmas @ Boracay Day 1

We woke up early to catch our 9am flight to Kalibo. This being Christmas season and all, we wanted to make sure we won't get stuck with a long queue at the airport terminal. But surprisingly when we got there, the lanes were not congested at all. We took PAL from Terminal 2, while Dad and Nikki took PAL Express via Terminal 3. This is because we availed of our PAL miles last summer, but our trip got cancelled due to the typhoon. So we moved it to December to coincide with the whole Chiang family trip to Boracay.

Caitlin has been excited about going to Boracay the past 2 to 3 weeks. She's been counting down the days to Dec 23. So here we are. Our plane touched down on time at Kalibo and we took a chartered bus to Caticlan ferry terminal. From the terminal, we took a bangka to cross over. Then from the Caticlan terminal, we took a multicab for P250 (rip-off!) to get to Discovery Shores. We got there ahead of Dad's party even though we had to travel a longer distance because their plane left Manila much later.

From Boracay Christmas 2008

We arrived at the hotel around 1pm. Our room was not yet ready so they placed us in a temporary room. But we headed to the restaurant to catch a late lunch. The kids weren't complaining of hunger anyway. The folks arrived about 30 mins later and joined us for lunch.

After lunch, the kids went off to the beach. Cols and I contracted with one of the "agents" walking around the beach offering sports/activities. We went for the "Sea Walker". The guy took us via tricyle for P50 (another rip-off!) to get to the station. As it turned out, the station wasn't that far from our beachfront to begin with. One of the Yellow Cab Pizza outlet is behind that station.

From Boracay Christmas 2008

A motorboat took us to the location of the sea walker platform. A heavy piece of round helmet was put on our heads and it pumped in oxygen, which prevented the water from coming in. We got a quick briefing and jumped down. The walking area is about 20 to 30 feet below sea level. Its a very claustrophobic experience. It was already around 4:30pm and the sky was cloudy so the water below was also kinda dark. There were not much corals in that area and not that much fish either. The guide handed us some bread to break in the fishes. Cols and I had some shots taken by the guide using Les' underwater disposable camera. Just for the guide to take your picture, he'll also charge for the service (tourist trap!).

From Boracay Christmas 2008

For dinner, we walked over to Sea Wind Resort. They were having an eat-all-you-can barbecue buffet by the seaside. After a hearty meal, we had fruit shake smoothies at a popular place called Jonah's. Then headed back home to call it a night.

From Boracay Christmas 2008

Mozcom Christmas Party

Mozcom and Comnet celebrated their Christmas parties separately this year. As far as I can recall, this is the first time that the two sister companies did not have a joint party. Since today's a Thursday, its the CRV's color coding so we only had one car. We scheduled a board meeting at Taipan in the afternoon so I just took a cab from the Peak to Taipan.

I instructed our driver to bring the Altis and park it in the adjacent public carpark at Taipan and just hand over the key to me when he's done servicing Caitlin. I usually park on the big lot between Taipan and Prestige Tower. But the driver had a different idea in mind and parked on the Julia Vargas side. So it took me some time to find where he left the car! Grrr...

The traffic within Ortigas Center was quite heavy. Lots of companies are probably having parties also. It took me about 30 mins just to get from Taipan to Shangrila EDSA Plaza. We were booked at Krocodile Grille. The party was a lot smaller this year because Comnet was not part of it. The three tech guys who played host did well. The motif this year was safari, but as usual, only a handful of people actually dressed up for the occasion.

We were done by around 9pm, I think so I headed home. Cols was simultaneously having a Christmas party with her Fortune Tobacco friends at home. By the time I got home, they were still chatting. Jehan, Carol, Bridgitte, Mar, Ollie, and their respective spouses and kids were there. The party lasted until around 11pm and that's when we called it a day.

First Monday

Its my first Monday to leave home for Makati. Since the Altis is on coding today, I left house the house pretty early at 6:15am to make it to Makati before 7am. I headed to Rockwell Club to workout at the gym. I'm not used to working out this early, but it was actually quite refreshing after the shower. Since the car is still on coding, I took the cab going to The Peak. The cab ride costs about P60 to P70 from Rockwell to The Peak.

Nikki arrived from Canada this morning with Leslie and William. We agreed to meet up for dinner at King Crab in Greenhills. But since I'm on coding, I couldn't leave Makati before 7pm. That was ok since I still had to empty the refrigerator; disconnect the PC; etc. and load everything onto the car.

I got to King Crab at about 7:30pm. The folks and Nikki soon followed. Ethan did not stay long as he was getting sleepy so he went home ahead. William still kinda looked the same from we last saw him. But Nikki assured us that he grew taller. :P

The food at King Crab tonight fell below my expectation. The King Crab rice wasn't as good as before. I think this is the only branch left. Poor control of food quality may have caused other branches (like the one here before in Jupiter St.) to close down.

Microwarehouse Sale

Cols, Caitlin and I came to Rockwell this morning to check what items have still been left behind. Cols also had to do the payroll from here since our LGV house still doesn't have Internet access and the PLDT DSL is still active at Rockwell. We had lunch by the poolside, then Cols and Caitlin went shopping while I went to a warehouse sale.

Microwarehouse, one of the larger distributor of Apple products in the Philippines, held a warehouse sale at Enterprise building along Ayala. It was publicized online, mainly via Facebook contacts. Social networking must be a pretty effective means of communication as there was a big turnout.

I parked quite far away since there's no street parking near Enterprise. I had to walk about 5 blocks, I think to get to Enterprise. To control the crowd, they assigned people numbers and only allowed 50 numbers at a given time. So I had to wait for my turn for about 30 mins, I think.

I initially planned on buying a Linksys (now Cisco) DSL router, but ended up getting a Belkin DSL router + wifi when I came across a former Mozcom employee (Dianne Lee) who is now Belkin's country head for Sales. I also got Cols an iPod nanochromatic since it was on sale at about 17% off. Cols has been dropping hints that she wanted an iPod after test-driving my demo iPod that we borrowed for Fliptunes before.

After I got my items, it was time for the cashier. The line here was ridiculously long and slow moving. I must have been there on that line for a good 2 hours. Luckily, Cols didn't get mad at me for going back to them late since I got her an iPod as my Christmas gift.