The 8th International Exposition on Worldwide Food and Beverage, Technologies and Machineries will happen on August 6-9, 2008 at the World Trade Center, Manila.

There are seminars, workshops and cooking demos that will happen simultaneously. Most of these are free but there are some like the Food Styling with Hands-On seminar, Meat cutting/Cooking techniques, French Baker seminar, “How to Flair” seminar, bar tending seminar, and Conceptualizing and Costing seminar, these have fees ranging from PhP600 - PhP1,000.

All the other activities with featured food products are for free.

Children under 16 are not allowed entry though.

To those who will go to the event, please attend the Floor Safety Maintenance in the Food Service Industry seminar to be given on Thursday, August 7, 2008 at Seminar Room Cleo (C) at 3:00pm. This is going to be sponsored by Global Safe Philippines.

We had had another price hike in gasoline prices over the weekend. So what do we do then? Spend time at home, of course, and eat home-cooked meals and eat our free ice cream.

Free ice cream?

Yup, we got free tub of 3.4 liters of Nestle Cookies and Cream ice cream when we went to the Get Your Pop On Nestle Event last Thursday night. Woohoo!

Ok, those two words above sound almost the same (at least to me). So what is a keffiyeh and what about Dunkin’ Donuts (DD) coffee? I just came across this term when I was reading the posts about this topic. All I know was it was probably called a scarf, a big scarf.

A keffiyeh is a checkered scarf, more known and seen being worn by Moslems. No surprise there because we have seen some personalities associated with the religious group, or even those who do not belong to the group but tries to blend with them, wear this. A variety or maybe a more popular variety is the red and white checkered one.

Michelle Malkin raised a ruckus when she wrote a blog entry about Rachael Ray wearing this keffiyeh in a DD ad. Pamela Geller wrote about it first. So what happened next? DD pulled out the ad. Yep, it did, and this is the link.

This here is another link.

Me? I’m outta here. I will just sleep off a sudden craving for donut, any glazed donut

What is SCTEx?

SCTEx is this: Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway which runs from Tarlac up to Subic or SBMA and back of course.

Well paved roads. Lush green country side. Peaceful ride. Almost isolated expressway (for now I guess) where thinking about having an engine trouble is not an option. Sure, one needs to pay extra (we paid Php112.00) and travel extra kilometers from the usual route but that would not matter because travel is really pleasant.

No need to navigate through road with vehicular and foot traffic. I shudder to think about the trees and the mountains that they have to cut in half just to make this happen.

Traveling at night it was a different story. We traveled through a heavy downpour. Zero visibility. Fog was thick. It was eerie but it was still fun. The photo above was taken as we were approaching Clark, hence lights on the road.

Another post about this can be viewed here.

Malungkot. Ngayon ay Mayo Uno, Araw ng Paggawa. Sad. Bleak. Depressing. Today is May One,Labor Day.

Sa loob ng mga magagara at maliliwanag na mga gusaling iyan, naririyan ang mga mangagawa. May mga sumasahod ng mas mataas sa minimum. May magagarang damit, celfone at sapatos. Mangilan-ngilan ay may kotse. Masayahin. Ngunit tunay kayang sila ay masaya? May ngiti pa bang mamumutawi sa kanilang mga labi sa taas ng presyo ng mga bilihin, bayarin sa kuryente, tubig, gasolina at pamasahe at ang trapikong araw-araw ay kanilang kinakaharap? May ngiti pa bang makikita sa mga mata ng mga taong ginagawang araw ang gabi at gabi ang araw, upang sumagot sa mga reklamo ng mga tao sa telepono? Oo, karamihan sa mga diyan sa mga gusaling iyan, nandiyan sa gabi para magtrabaho, nabubuhay sa kape at nikotina. Yan ang dahilan kung bakit marami pang ilaw sa mga gusaling iyan.

Inside those grand and brightly lit buildings are employees. Most of them probably earn a little above the minimum wage. They have nice clothes, nice cellphones and nice shoes. Some even have cars. They are happy. Or are they really happy? Would a smile still play on their lips especially now that the prices of food, electricity bill, water bill, gasoline, public transport fares are so steep? Not to mention the monstrous traffic they have to endure, going to work and coming home when they workday is done. Can they still smile, these people who make the nights their days and the days their nights, just so they can answer complaints and queries on the telephone from irate customers? Yes, most of those who work in those buildings work at night until the wee hours, energized by caffeine and nicotine. Why do you think the buildings are still so bright even if its obviously late?

Malungkot ang kalagayan hindi lang ng mga manggagawang Pilipino, kundi pati ang kalahatang kundisyon ng bansa.

It is a sad plight not just for the Filipino worker, but for the overall condition of the country.

But still…

Anuman ang gawain, mataas man ang tungkulin o tila isang abang manggagawa, dapat ito ay ginagawa ng tama at may karangalan.

Whatever kind of work, whether in a top rank or in a lowly position, work should be done correctly, rightly, and with dignity.

Mabuhay ang mga manggagawang Pilipino!

P.S. Sige na nga, masaya na tayo kasi walang pasok. Pero ako me turo pa rin, ok lang yun sa akin, huling hirit ko. Iiwan ako ng 4 na studyante, pupuntang New York ang isang pares nang magkapatid at magba-Bahama cruise naman ang isa pang pares na magkapatid. Ako ang malungkot. Konti lang ang kita ko ngayong Mayo