Header of the WEEK: Grand Men Seng Hotel’s Chandelier (Davao)

It was May 2010 when we visited Grand Men Seng Hotel in Davao for a special buffet dinner in their Le Grandeur Cafe located at the ground floor of the hotel building. We were with Paul’s friend from the UK named Rufus and her girlfriend from Manila named CJ, both first-time visitors in my lovely city, Davao. It was also my first time to dine in this restaurant so I was looking forward to experience a fine dining of Chinese-Filipino dishes served in a buffet style.

The food was lovely for the price of P250.00 per head that time (don’t know how much is the buffet fee now), service was good and very clean surroundings. Apart from that, I can’t ever forget what was caught by my eyes that night, it was their stunning chandelier hanging in the ceiling. It was big, all lit up, elegant and very wonderful to look at.

Here’s the few pictures of the Chandelier and the hotel itself.

Upon the entrance: Me with the Buddha of the hotel.

The interior of Le Grandeur Cafe at Grand Men Seng Hotel in Davao.

Food Section: The Chinese-Filipino buffet style version of Le Grandeur Cafe of Grand Men Seng Hotel, Davao City.

The ever famous chandelier that caught my eye and was featured on my blog as my HEADER of the WEEK.

Happy Hearts Day!

Singapore Flyer

Who doesn’t want to see the beauty of the country you are visiting? I think nobody wants to miss any opportunity to see how wonderful a foreign country is, specially at night with all the lights on. In our own experience, last year, when we visited Singapore for 4 days, we tried many things and visited tourist spots like the Sentosa Island, China Town, Vivo Mall, Suntec City Mall, Fountain of Wealth and of course the version of Singapore’s “London Eye”, The Singapore Flyer which marks our Valentines celebration very memorable and unforgettable.

Singapore Flyer according to WIKIPEDIA is a giant Ferris wheel in Singapore built-in 2005 and finished in 2008. It is the tallest Ferris wheel in the world, taller than London Eye and Star of Nanchang.

Anyway, from our little shopping in the morning at Singapore’s China Town, we went to Sun Tec City for a lovely dinner at Kenny Rogers Roasters, sat in-front of the Fountain of Wealth for a little rest, wander around Marina Square and head our way to the ever famous Singapore Flyer to see Singapore at night! We walked for almost 20-25 minutes and finally reached the place where the giant Ferris wheel is located.

Here are the photos I took with my Canon IXUS 105.

My first glance with The Singapore Flyer

Sample of a capsule for lovers to hire on their date for Valentines Day.

Singapore Flyer is welcoming us!

Try to look for me! If you win then you win. LOL!

The way to meet, greet and ride the Singapore Flyer.

One of the capsules with people/tourists inside.

Singapore at night #1.

Singapore at night #2.

Singapore at night #3. Marina Bay Sands Singapore View.

Singapore at night #4.

I'm afraid of heights but then I manage. LOL. Singapore as my background.

Me and my boyfriend, Paul with Singapore at our back.

There are restaurants and take away shops in the ground floor part of the building so wide variety of snacks is available. We paid S$29.50 each, the ride is approximately 30 minutes. Last ride is 10pm, opens everyday from 8:30am to 10:30pm.

It was such a great Valentines Day as well as a little holiday for us two. We had a very memorable experience that will last a lifetime for sure. I am hoping that one day I will visit Singapore again not just with this man but also with our kids and my daughter, Nina.

Have a great day!

How To Get NBI Clearance (Davao)

NBI Clearance is one of the supporting documents that we need to support our applications for work, getting passport, visa and some important legal matters. In getting NBI Clearance, you need to have 1 valid I.D. (Passport, School ID, TIN Number, Seaman’s Book, Senior Citizen ID, Voters ID, Work ID, Postal ID or any identification cards that was issued to you by the government), black ball pen (use to fill up the form) and envelope (optional: to keep the clearance after receiving it). Also, you need to wake up as early as 3am to queue because they usually issue 500-700 forms per day and it is first come first serve basis, if they ran out of forms you need to queue again the next day. By the way, NBI Office is located in front of Victoria Plaza Mall Door 3 in JP Laurel Avenue, Davao City.

~STEPS~

a. FORMS- Present an ID to the NBI staff that distributes the forms. Your priority number can be found in the top most part of the form written in red by the NBI staff. Fill up the form and go back to the table where the forms were issued for you to get interviewed and for your form to be checked.

b. PAYMENT- Sit and wait until the cashier opens. Prepare P115.00 for the NBI clearance Certificate Fee. The cashier will call your number for you to give your form and payment then go back to the chair where you have seated.

In the Cashier with a person in blue paying for the fee of his NBI Clearance Certificate.

c. BIOMETRICS- Windows 1-5 are the counters where biometrics happen. They will type the information you wrote in the form to the computer and they will call you to check it in Windows 1-3. They will get your fingerprints and picture in Windows 4-5.

Biometric Section. Windows 1-3 is to clarify your information and 4-5 is the fingerprints and photo.

d. RELEASING SECTION- You need to be attentive on this because they will give the certificates to the OJT students and let them distribute usually at the back of the crowd. If you see that they hand over some certificates to the OJT students after 3-5 minutes you done your biometrics then surely your certificate is already in the OJT students ready to be collected by you.

~IMPORTANT DETAILS~

- Make sure you are handling the exact amount of P115.00 to avoid any delays.

- Do not leave your things unattended (phone, wallet, bag or even documents).

- On windows 1-3, they will show you the computer screen where you see the information you wrote in the form. Be sure to check the spellings, numbers, dates before saying yes to the encoder because if it comes out wrong, you will start back to one and pay the fee again.

- After receiving the certificate, always check the details, photo and if you got the right certificate.

- There is NO MORE RENEWAL of NBI Clearance (new policy).

- NBI Clearance Certificate is valid for 1 YEAR after it is issued.

Lots of luck on getting the NBI Clearance Certificate. Hope you survive and get your certificate in the end.

2011 Royal Wedding Memorabilia

I just want to share this little collection of mine of The Royal Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton that was held at Westminster Abbey, 29th of April 2011 in London, England. The main reason of sharing this collection is to give happiness to those people who are also a fanatic of the British Royal Family but doesn’t have any opportunity yet to collect souvenirs and commemorative items and also to those who want to reminisce one of the history’s most prestigious event happened in 2011.

Most of the items were given to me by my boyfriend’s mum who is very generous and also a very big fan of Prince William’s late mother, Lady Diana Spencer, also known as Princess Diana of Wales.

Here are the photos of the souvenirs and commemorative items that serves as my collection. Enjoy!!

Rington's fine bone china cup with the faces of HRH Prince William and Kate Middleton. (still on their box)

The packaging box of the cup now with their names and the date of their wedding. Also with the Rington's logo on the very top part.

Limited Edition Oyster Card to commemorate the Marriage of Prince William and Catherine Middleton. We avail this card when we were in Northwick Park Station on our way to Madame Tussauds and London Dungeon.

Commemorative Royal Wedding Brown Bear with the images of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

HELLO's Special Collectors Edition of The Royal Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton. You can see the best photography, the unrivalled coverage of the wedding, all the historic celebrations, their love story and their childhood albums in this magazine.

Another HELLO! Magazine featuring the Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton.

The late Princess Diana, the mother of Prince William. A special magazine about Princess D's life before, on and after the 1981 Royal Wedding with HRH Prince Charles.

The three magazines I treasure.

The Return of the “Unexpected Cute Visitor”

I have been waiting for so long to see an old friend again and finally, he granted my wish and came out from nowhere but in a smaller version this time. I am talking about the Praying Mantis in the flask I featured in one of my previous post “An Unexpected Visitor”.  He was so adorable and he likes photo shoot because he always look on my camera and do some nice pose. That reminds me most of him and wish to see one again.

Just this afternoon when I came home from my IELTS review, I was fixing and tidying my things up and by surprised I saw a small green insect tat looks like praying while crawling out of my bag. I, then figured out that it is a smaller version of the praying mantis in the red flask I have featured before. It did freak the life out of me! He was crawling from my bag upwards till he reached my daughters 3 feet tall Little Mermaid’s Ariel doll sitting next to my printer. Guess what? What is the similarity from the praying mantis I featured before to this one? Well, He just ended up in the dolls “RED” hair. How funny is that? It made me think for a while if Praying Mantis do love red stuffs? hmmmm…

Anyway, I want to present to you all the star for the day of my Blog.

There he is!! Hes in the shoulder of my daughter's doll.

Now, he is near the doll's ear and walking to the doll's red hair.

He is now on the top head of the doll and striking a pose!

Bit snob, eh? Or he is just trying to do another pose? What you think? Anyway, He's looking great isn't he??

It is lovely to encounter this insect again. I was scared at the first two meet ups but then they are harmless so nothing to worry about. Hoping for another meeting again with this chap in future.

Have a nice day!