Milo.

I've been drinking Milo since I was a kid, it used to be my morning drink before I go to school, but eventually I grew up, resorted to drinking coffee every morning for my sugar and caffeine dose. Anyway, I don't know if people have noticed, but the Milo we buy in the grocery isn't as good as the one being served in Mcdonald's before, or in school cafeterias. (The cold one)I used to order Milo a lot when I was in high school. So anyway, in the back packet of Milo, it says to prepare one cup, you're supposed to put 4 teaspoons. Repeat: FOUR TEASPOONS.

So back story, when I was a kid, I never really made my own Milo drink, every morning it's always prepared for me already. I haven't been drinking Milo from the packet in a long time, I just drink it from the vendo or I drink the instant chocolate drinks like Swiss Miss. And since we've been doing household groceries, I thought to buy a pack of Milo.

So when I recently tried to make a glass of hot Milo, it tasted bland. I already put 4 TABLESPOONS, and it's still not sweet. Since the information was kind of misleading, I decided to email Milo(Nestle). Yes this gal is a proactive consumer, it wasn't a compalaint/angry email tone, but more of a concerned Milo-loving gal email. Here's the reply below. Hahaha, I actually find it amusing that I actually emailed them!

Dear Rica,

Thank you for writing to us. Regarding your concern, the instructions indicated on the back of the MILO pack is our recommended preparation for MILO. This was based on a research conducted among consumers that showed preference for 4 heaping teaspoons of MILO per 200ml cup. However, a delicious cup of MILO would really depend on the consumer's taste preference, and this would vary from consumer to consumer. McDonald's, on the other hand, follows a different recipe for its MILO, which explains the difference in taste.

We have also forwarded your comments to our MILO Brand group for consideration in future product innovation. In fact, we have a new product in the pipeline that may be able to address your concern, and we shall inform you once this is out in the market.

Again, thank you for bringing your concern to us. Feedback from valued consumers like you is always an important opportunity for us to respond to you growing and changing needs, improve products and services, and ensure continuous consumer satisfaction and delight.

With our best regards, and thank you for your continued patronage.

Many thanks,
_______ _________
Nestlé Consumer Services
Nestlé Philippines, Inc.
Care Center: xxxx-xxxx


I wonder if they'll send me their new product! Hahaha I didn't ask for a sample anymore because I might come of as an extortionist.

BTS.

I used to really love Gayuma's BTS back in college. BTS stands for "Better-Than-Sex", it's chocolate cake with caramel, if you love caramel this is a guaranteed hit! I don't know what happened to Gayuma, it burned down, moved, and I think it closed again? Last time it was behind Mcdonald's in Katipunan. Anyway, here's the BTS that I'm loving right now. It's from Karen Young Karen's Kitchen. I love UCC cakes, and she's the one supplying some of the cakes I think, I'm not sure if all.

Price list is not on their site, I have a copy of their prices, you have to ask them to fax you the price list, I don't know how to post a PDF file here, I already scanned it :) I can email it to you in case you chance upon my blog via Google? I googled some of her cake reviews and a lot of blogs pop up. Anyway price for BTS, 6 inch: P400 and 8 inch: P750. Minimum order for delivery is P1,500.

(Image is from her site, I hope i don't get reprimanded for getting it hahaha. I'll just post my own picture when I open my box)

(edit after taste test)
Okay, this is kind of a let down, I've tried the smaller version of this cake and it's not the same as the big version :( The 3 inch version has lots of caramel on top, instead of the white cream on top with caramel drizzle, it was the pure caramel goodness. This one had minimal caramel on it. It's still good but for a sweet tooth like me, I prefer cakes that are REALLY really sweet.

My New Favorite Container.

I knew it, I'd be blogging more about household products! Haha. Here's my recently discovered household product, it's by Lock and Lock. This was actually given to us as a gift.

A lot of people use Lock and Lock products as container for their packed lunch a.k.a. baon for work. I've been using it, but this one's really neat since it's for food storage in the ref. There's a dial for the date, on what date you placed the food. And then, you can release the air by pressing on the middle, they actually claim that it deters bacteria growth. I'm not that sure if it really works, but I'm impressed :) You can actually hear a whistle when you release the air, so I'm assuming that this product really works.

Houshold product rating: 5 out of 5

(I'm rethinking to change the label, since I label these posts as house, but we actually live in a condo hahahaha)

The Time Traveler's Wife

There are 2 books on the top of my list, Twilight and The Time Traveler's Wife! We've all seen Twilight, and I think The Time Traveler's Wife is more promising in terms of quality and budget. I think this movie can pretty much meet my expectations. If you haven't read it, go to the nearest bookstore to buy a copy before the movie's released.

Grocery Comparison.

Okay even before getting married, I've done my own groceries, from toiletries, to my own bread (since I'm the only one who eats wheat bread at home), my hot choco (Swiss Miss to Butterfinger mix), my yogurt stash, and the list goes on.

So I'm assuming that everyone thinks that SM has lowest prices in the grocery, right?

Landmark Grocery
Magnolia Low Fat Milk - P67.20
Kellog's Frosties Cereal - P69.00
Nestle Fitnesse and Fruit Cereal - P 142.90
Yakult - P35.00

Rustan's
Magnolia Low Fat Milk - P68.40
Kellog's Frosties Cereal - P75.45
Nestle Fitnesse and Fruit Cereal - P149.75
Yakult - P35.00

SM
Magnolia Low Fat Milk - P69.50
Kellog's Frosties Cereal - P74.50
Nestle Fitnesse and Fruit Cereal - P149.50
Yakult - P35.00

After conquering the 3 groceries in Makati, it boils down to Landmark as the cheapest to do one's groceries. Well this is just based on a sample data, my mum said there are stuff that are cheaper in SM Grocery (that I have yet to find out). So far only Yakult prices are standard! :D Obviously the Magnolia Low Fat Milk is mine, and the Nestle Fitnesse Cereal ;)

From my dream of becoming a food blogger, I'd probably evolve to a 'household tips' blog later on.

Got Hitched.

Ian & Rica from ROMMERSON™ on Vimeo.

I loooooove our on site wedding video! :) If you're surfing through my blog, you have to watch the video I posted. I've always wanted one on my wedding :) If you're not familiar with on site wedding videos or same day edit videos, videographers shoot on the day of the wedding (preps,ceremony,etc) and show it during the reception. So it's really a time crunch, and they have to be really good to produce a video in a few hours, squeeze more than x hours of videos to a 3 minute preentation.

I don't have Internet access in our condo so I am currently blogging at home. I had to go home since Ian just got back from Finland, and to be safe we want to do the quarantine thing. We've been crazy busy because of this wedding, and it's finally over! :) We loved every second of the big day.

What I've learned:

1. Murphy's Law, there's always something that could go wrong during the wedding. If it happens, and you're the bride like me, don't freak out. Stay cool even if they forgot the flowers for the bridal car, or they served the wrong food during the reception, or they forgot the props for the games during the wedding. I still kept my cool!

2. You will always ALWAYS go beyond your wedding budget. Thank God we actually lowered our original budget and had room for the excess(while actually still being on a budget, I hope this made sense)

3. Some years into the relationship, when we've discussed how much each of us should save for the wedding, we forgot to take into account furniture and appliances. It takes a good chunk of the money, even the rent since there's 2 months deposit and 1 month advance. So an advice to couples, add that in the budget :) And if you are in a serious relationship as early as now, it's good to start talking about the budget so you'll have more time to save!

4. We've always wanted and discussed a small wedding, specifically a 100 guest list, well 98 to be specific since we're included in the 100. When I told my mom about this before, it led into an argument since she won't be able to invite her friends. When your parents insist they invite their friends and say that they'll 'shoulder' their guests, a good compromise is letting them throw a post wedding party (this resolved the argument quickly) Because sometimes, it's not really about the money, it's about having people really close to you witness the union, and not some people you barely know. Ian and I had the 100 guest list, my parents had theirs the next day with 130+ guests. Hahahaha and most of the people I can't remember the names :D

5. Invest in wedding shoes that you can wear again! I didn't want to spend x thou amount on shoes that I'll just wear for one day. Thank God for Zara :) And I really wanted to wear purple shoes :)

6. After the wedding's done and over with, you will only have memories about it and videos and pictures. We actually invested more on the videos and photos, than for instance my wedding dress. I'd actually rather scrimp on the dress, and not get a designer one, than compromise the photos and videos.

7. We didn't hire a wedding planner for the wedding, some people hire to assist only on the day itself. It was still a success because I actually distributed the work to family, thanks to all my cousins who assisted that day! :) Even if they were part of the entourage, they had tasks haha.

8. Getting a photobooth as the souvenir or giveaway is actually better than giving away trinkets that people will just put away in their cabinets.

9. Take your prenup pictures in a place that's related to your story. We were thinking of our having ours in CSA, our grade school campus (we were classmates before) but we had it in our college alma mater, Ateneo. Although we weren't together in college, we were classmates once in an elective and we've shared our dose of UAAP games every year! :) Go Ateneo! (In the video, Ian even mentions the blue eagles)

10. It's not true that you can't eat during your wedding, Ian and I have been pigging out on the day itself. I ate complete breakfast, lunch, and I ate well during the reception.

11. Sometimes, it's not the bride who's magastos, sometimes it's actually the groom :P

12. If you want drinks to be served after the wedding, do it somewhere else. Throw an after wedding party in a separate location. We did this because we want the ambiance not to be stiff anymore, where people can be laid back and be themselves sans the 'formal' feel or stiffness of the wedding reception where people can really talk and be loud and noisy, remove their barong, even wear flip flops.

13. Since we both sort of drained our bank accounts for the wedding, we still have to save for a big vacation, so we initially planned to book the first flight out of Manila (domestic or international) ala Amazing Race on a tight budget. Only to learn that it's really expensive to book on the day itself! Plus there's swine flu so international is out of the list. So we had our honeymoon here in the Philippines, Paris can wait! Hahaha we still have to save for it :D People actually give us credit to be able to pay for our own wedding at this age, and the wedding on a budget turned out to be REALLY nice! :) I'm only spilling how much we spent on people who are planning to get married and needs a ballpark figure on how much to save :p

Make-up Artist: Chickoy Vistro
Photographer: Dusko Almosa
Videographer: Rommerson Galapon
Prenup Photgrapher: Charles Buenconsejo
Photobooth: Poof Photobooth

*I'm plugging for them since they really did a wonderful job!*

Rica Racasa Ragudo signing off :)

Crazy Busy.

I have been crazy busy! No time to blog. Haha. As soon as everything's fixed and done, I hope I'd finally have time to write and post pictures :)

But it's all good baby!

25 and then some.

I haven't done the birthday post yet :) I turned 25 last January, and no I don't feel that it's such a big deal to turn 25. No epiphanies, no grand birthday celebration, no feeling of having a specific turning point in my life. Just another year older.

Anyway, I just remembered having no birthday post because I just opened the letter from Ateneo. I'm perplexed that even after almost 5 years after graduating, I still get a birthday greeting from school. Hahahaha, and well, the letter's supposed to be from Fr. Nebres, but for sure the signature is digital and everything's a template for all the birthday celebrants. But I still appreciate the effort, imagine how many people actually graduate each year, and up to how many years do they actually send the letter. I wonder if other schools do this too? I receive this every year since I graduated.


Anyway, I know this is weird, it's Valentine's day and my post is about my birthday. That's why the title says and then some, for my other ramblings.

For one, no I haven't won the lotto yet! There's still no winner, and I guess I better stop dreaming of actually winning the lotto and shake myself to reality. I don't wanna waste more P20's hahaha.

Second, I am so raving about this Caramel and Cheese Popcorn! Chicago Popcorn Shops in Mall of Asia! After I read the post, it so happen that we were really going to MOA that day, so I was able to try it. I guarantee, it's better than Chef Tony's and Holy Kettle Popcorn (which I both love). Their popcorn is SOOO damn good. Seriously, sue me if you don't like it.
Lastly, I'm still not into the whole Vday thing. Love should be celebrated everyday hahahaha. Cheesy! :)

Winning the Lottery.

In case you haven't heard, the prize for today's draw is whooping P130M! I know the odds of winning in a lotto is one in a million or so(I remember in college, we actually computed for the probability of getting the numbers in Statistics class), but it's the thrill of having that 1 nth chance to win :) I dunno, maybe it's just me. But you know or well maybe in my family, sometimes someone would joke that okay we'll do that or get that once we win in the lotto, but no one actually bets? But once you put your place your 6 digits in that card, you're actually a little step closer to winning the prize money.

After you bet on your numbers, you can now daydream of what to do with the P100++ M, like thinking of giving your parents the money for their house in Lucban, or giving money to your brother so he can go to London, haha, but that's part of the whole lotto experience. For me at least :) And I get excited and giddy, since I rarely do it. I know for me the lotto experience is for fun, but for most people, it's because they need the money.

I've watched a story before, a man won the lottery here in Manila, so from rags to riches, now he's back in the slums because he didn't manage the money well. Sometimes getting a lot of money that you didn't work hard for is not really a solution to alleviate someone from poverty. Hard-earned money is hard to spend, and I know everyone would agree with me on that.

Anyway let's focus on the happy thoughts :) *Positive Energy*

Whether it's really fate or sheer luck, that one in a million winner in tonight's draw will be sure damn lucky! :) Who knows, maybe tomorrow I'm blogging in the airport, on the way to some destination so I can hide from the media. *wink wink*

Next Stop: Japan (Part 4)

Okay, so for the last part of my post! :) We extended for 3 more nights after our actual trip, we paid for the extension from our own pocket, and we went to visit Mt. Fuji! The thing is while on the way to Mt. Fuji we saw the mountain, it was really nice, but when we got to the observation place, it was cloudy :( And we can't see the darn thing.

Mt. Fuji
Mt. Fuji covered with clouds

After Mt. Fuji, we went to Hakone, rode a cable car and a pirate ship cruise.


We then took a cab after the pirate ship cruise, we rode on it for 30minutes and we paid 4,000 Yen or P2,000! Really really expensive, we didn't have a choice because there was no other way to get to the Ryokan. It's a traditional Japanese Inn. We had our own Yukata and we slept on the floor.

The next day, we went back to Tokyo and rode the Shinkansen. According to Wikipedia, the speed is 300km/h! We rode the bus to Hakone for like 2 hours or so, and went back to Tokyo for what, 25-30 minutes :D It was really funny because I was trying to capture the train on my camera as video and as soon as I bring out the cam from my bag, the train already passed.


Then the last tour we had before heading home was the Kamakura Walking Tour. On the day it was supposed to snow, was the unfortunate day we had the tour! Since it wasn't cold enough, it didn't snow, but it rained. We kind of got wet, so it was really cold. I didn't pay much attention to the tour guide because I was really really really cold. So cold that when we went back to the hotel I was willing to shell out for Domino's pizza delivery that costs 2,000 Yen or P1,000 for just one pizza! Haha but we just ended up resting first, and eventually had the courage to go out and eat dinner.

Back in Tokyo, we went of course to Ginza, Shibuya and Harajuku :) Oh and of course, Daiso shopping! Wasn't able to buy much for myself, since it's pretty much all pasalubong and food stuff that can only be found in Japan like all the assorted Kitkat flavors. And there's not really much to buy since stuff are more expensive there except for brands that are really made in Japan like Uniqlo and Muji.

Although I went home with 2 bags filled mostly with, well, thick clothes, and goodies for everyone (and not much for me) I went home with a GREAT travel experience! :) It's something that you can't pack on your luggage bag ;)

I definitely want to go back to Japan!