Friday, December 29, 2017

Take a look inside the pages of the BDJ Planner 2018

What's a great Christmas and New Year's gift? A planner!!! I gave my brothers and sister, my nieces, my sister-in-law, and my officemates planners. I truly believe that a planner—one you write on with pen—can change a life. What a gift!

One of the most popular planners this past decade is the Belle de Jour Power Planner. And I have two! One I opened up so we can take a peek inside, and one I'm giving awaaaay! Happy New Year!

Here's the deluxe edition with the velvet leather cover. It's 5.9 x 8 inches, light and compact and can fit into a busy lady's bag. I tried those huge planners and, nope, not for me. I need something I can bring around everywhere.

Okay, let's look inside:

This page always makes me sing that song from Land Before Time. Does anyone even remember that dinosaur movie from the 80s? It's the Diana Ross song, "If We Hold On Together" and it's such an appropriate song for the New Year.

Don't lose your way with each passing day 
You've come so far, don't throw it away 
Live believing
Dreams are for weaving 
Wonders are waiting to start 
Live your story
Faith, hope and glory 
Hold to the truth in your heart 

Dibaaaa??? Okay, mamas, this year we must believe that wonders are just waiting for us to discover them, that dreams are going to come true, that our life is worth telling!

Anyway, more BDJ planner pages before I get downright distracted...

At the very back is a roomy pocket. Don't you just love planners with pockets? And stickers???

In the pocket is a surprise! It's the Perks of a Bella booklet! Inside is your very own BDJ Lifestyle Card.

There's over P40,000 worth of discount coupons for shopping, eating, beautifying (lookcoupons for Flawless!) and more! Super worth getting a BDJ 2018 planner, right?

This BDJ 2018 Power Planner in velvet leather is P680 at bookstores. If you want it customized with your name, order now at ilovebdj.com.

I'm going to give away this BDJ planner this weekend, mamas. Follow my Facebook page and I'll announce the details there. Exciting!

P.S. Because na-LSS na ako, listen na to the song and believe in your heart that if we hold on together, our dreams will never die! Happy New Year, mamas!

Friday, December 22, 2017

The food at New World Hotel's Jasmine and Café 1228 was love!

Hi mamas! I know you all must be stuffed full this holiday season but I just need to tell you about the food we ate when we stayed at New World Hotel Makati this week. The food was really good at Jasmine and Café 1228, and I'm tempted to go back just to eat!

Lotsa photos so let's just do a photo essay. First, let me tell you about our fantabulous dinner at Jasmine, New World Hotel's authentic Chinese restaurant. We've heard of the delectable dimsum at Jasmine and I know dimsum is everywhere in Manila but, guys, the dimsum here has earned Jasmine a spot in Philippine Tatler's Top 20 Restaurants. And we were not disappointed!

But first, soup! This is the amazing Seafood Hot and Sour Soup. It is indeed spicy and sour and sweet and all the chunks of seafood were tender and perfect. It was really spicy, though. Naubo ako ilang beses haha

"Har Gao" or shrimp dumplings and "Shao Mai" or pork dumplings with crab roe. Also known as hakaw and siomai! These are THE BEST hakaw and siomai I've ever had in my entire life!!! The hakaw was plump and siksik and juicy and the skin was tender and perfect. The siomai is so freshly steamed that the meat was so juicy and tender and flavorful and tender and sooo delicious!

Wagyu Beef Mango Roll. I don't know what that crispy lace is made of but it was crunchy and delicate and a delight. The soft Wagyu beef inside was a great contrast. I want to order this again!

This kid liked it, too!

Barbecued Pork Pastry. This was lovely and flaky and then the pork inside was delicately flavored and tender.

And because we wanted to taste other dishes besides the dimsum, we got the Deep Fried Crispy Chicken which was nice and tasty, and Yeung Chow fried rice, all washed down by Jasmine Tea and iced lemon tea. Yum!

Full tummies means good sleep and we woke refreshed the next morning for more food! Our Yuletide Getaway package included breakfast at Café 1228 so we popped in there and filled our plates.

The breakfast buffet is pretty much what you see at other buffets—cereal, bread, bacon, oatmeal, pancakes, toast, omelettes and other egg preparations, the usual. Then there's Pinoy favorites like taho, garlic rice with adobo, grilled chicken, dilis, etc na ulam with lots of sawsawan—so yum! Not the usual tocino, tapa, longganisa, though. There were lots of other breakfast choices from international cuisines so if you like fruits, salads, congee, baked beans, muffins and pastries, cold cuts and cheeses, or maybe just a fruit shake because some people just drink their brekkie, you can start your day filling up your belly at the breakfast buffet at Cafe 1228.


Aaaaaand there you have it! Our Yuletide Getaway was a lovely and delicious getaway indeed!


If you're looking for a place to go after this Christmas weekend, maybe to be with your balikbayan friends or relatives, or to escape the smoke of the upcoming New Year's festivities and also get to see all the fantastic fireworks all over Makati, I highly recommend the Yuletide Getaway package of New World Hotel. It includes a spacious room that can accommodate your family, breakfast buffet at the Café 1228 for two adults and two kids below 7 years old, and treats depending on what room you book (ours was a bottle of wine and two movie passes to Ayala cinemas). Our Deluxe Room package was just P6,700. Super affordable for such a lovely time! Book here!

See how my family loved our New World Hotel staycation

I just got back, mamas, from a quick getaway at New World Makati! We stayed there for just one night. We needed a break but we didn't have the energy or the time to go somewhere far so we took advantage of New World Hotel's Yuletide Getaway promo and stayed in the city for a truly wonderful time. No kidding—we had so much fun!

There's New World towering behind my little boys. We got the Deluxe Room package. That's a room with two twin beds and it includes breakfast buffet at the Café 1228 for two adults and two kids below 7 years old. You also get a bottle of wine and two movie passes to Ayala cinemas. All that for just P6,700! That's so affordable considering New World is a 5-star hotel!

Okay, mamas, sit tight. Lotsa photos coming up!

Here are the kids and you can tell they're really happy about our room! It's a good-sized room. We've stayed at trendy boutique hotels which we found out soon enough is a bad idea for a family of 5. We need space! So we now like staying at big hotels. Traditional, yes, but hotels have centuries of knowing how to take care of people.

Staking their claim on the beds. Soft, fluffy everything! Look at them—they look like angels surrounded by heavenly clouds. Looks like only haha in reality they are little balls of naughty energy!

Exhibit A: Piero. Blurry because he's jumping up and down the extra cot we got even though they know little monkeys shouldn't be jumping on the bed because they might fall down and bump their heads. Since we have three kids, we needed an extra bed. It was just as comfy!

There's a small seating area which made the room feel cozy. We also got a platter of fresh fruits, which the kids snacked on while watching TV.

Oh, and very important info for bloggers, traveling businesspeople, and work-from-everywhere people like me: There's complimentary WiFi and it is fast! Hotel-wide, too, so even when I was booking an Uber at the lobby, posting Instagram photos by the pool, and checking my mail at the restaurant, I could do it using the hotel WiFi. Plus, I like the compact way they put all the universal sockets together by the desk. So convenient, whatever plug you happen to have!

Now let's check out the bathroom!

The bathroom is great! Big, clean. It doesn't have a TV, which is ubiquitous in many hotels these days. I like that there's no TV actually. I never understood that!

I like the separate shower stall. I also like that kid that squeezed himself beside the toilet.

The bathtub is a little low, which made it a bit hard to get out of. The kids, meanwhile, loved it and said it's built for kids so, "Mama and Papa, don't get in the bathtub!"

Here's the view outside our big window:
New World is just across the upscale mall Greenbelt 3, so it's very convenient if you like shopping and eating. That's what we did. We still needed to buy Christmas gifts so we went shop, shop, shopping! 

The pools are big and we love that there's a kiddie pool! Lots of hotels these days are just business hotels so they either have a lap pool, a jacuzzi and/or a deep pool. Some hotels say they have a kiddie pool but it's so small, it's ridiculous. If you're a family with small kids, you'd be happy to know that New World has a real kiddie pool. Big enough so that if other kids are there, your kids have space to wade or swim.

Now, if you're around the area and you want to buy festive pasalubong or gorgeous edible gifts, stop by The Shop at the lobby of New World and choose from yummy delights like fruit mince pies, rich fruit cake, yule logs, stollen bread, lotsa holiday cookies, and gingerbread confections like our Christmas tree! We gobbled that all up!

Oh, what a lovely time we had at New World Hotel! The holidays have been, as always, stressful not because I hate Christmas (it's my favorite time of the year!) but because of the kids' school stuff, the terrible traffic, and the difficulty of getting around whether it's in an Uber or on a bus or jeep. But because it's my favorite time of the year, I always enjoy the hustle and bustle because the streets are gaily decorated, the people are actually in a better mood than usual haha, everyone's giving gifts, and there's so much food!

Speaking of food, let me tell you about the amazing meals we had at New World's Jasmine and Café 1228 in my next post!

Meanwhile, if you want to book New World Hotel's Yuletide Getaway Package, click here. Highly recommended by me and my family!