Coolchura

Online shopping became a hit in 2016. In this fast-paced lifestyle, online payment becomes more convenient for the millennials. If shopping will be made online, where you do not have to go around to look for the best and the "sulit," by just typing the keyword you'd like with available sorter from lowest price to highest and vice versa, and what's hot and relevant, undeniably, your budget might get out of hand.

Good thing we have a new local option --- Shopee! When Lazada entered the market, we thought that we already found a cheaper version of items with their big discounts. Hope not! Although Shopee is not as famous as Lazada, their service is almost as good. Although I cannot guarantee the quality of both online shops absolutely, let me share my experience with them and allow you to judge and share yours on the comments section below. But before that, let me give you some of my thoughts.
Benefits of Shopee
Shopee lets their user purchase items with at least PhP5 price tag. It's like an online Divisoria but less the crowded place and traffic. The sellers have their individual virtual stores where you can browse their products. You can also view the store's ratings and feedbacks for a particular item. Shopee guarantees that you will have your money back if you did not receive your order. Just make sure that you make all your payment transactions in Shopee. It offers a chat service where you can inquire directly from the seller and even make a bargain for your purchase.

The products in Shopee ranges from homewares, electronics, health and beauty, clothing, shoes, and bag, you name it.

I am also a subscriber of AliExpress and I can say that Shopee offers products which can be found in AliExpress. So, instead of purchasing in AliExpress and waiting for at least 3 weeks of shipping time, have the Shopee experience for a shorter waiting time and free of custom handling fee.  

Rebates
Shopee coins are earned once a successful purchase and delivery has been confirmed. For every 1000 coins earned, you will get PhP10 off from the Shopee preferred items.

Payment Methods
You can pay your orders in Shopee through:

It will be easier to pay if you have bank accounts with enrolled DragonPay billing. Unlike Lazada, Shopee does not accept debit or credit card payments yet.

Shipping
Shopee offers FREE shipping nationwide with at least PhP250 purchase from a store. Once your order is confirmed, you have to wait for at most 3 days before your order is shipped. So, the shipping time ranges from 3-7 days or more, depending on their market traffic. But if you are not in a hurry to get hold of your product, this will not have a bearing on your part. I still suggest that you go for the cheap yet slow than the fast yet costly, in the end you will have the same item. Why bother to spend more of your pesos if you can wait for a few more days.

Shopee vs. Lazada Experience
My first Shopee experience is during the holiday season. I bought gifts for my friends in bulk. Although it took a longer time to arrive, around twelve days, still I was able to give it to them during our Christmas party. I ordered fifteen (15) travel pouches from Shopee which I purchased for about P135.00 less than the price of Lazada. Can you imagine I saved about P2025.00 for my gifts? The only problem is that five out of the fifteen pouches had a different brand, but they are in new and good condition. Should I complain? I guess not. With the savings, I could care less.

I was a bit hesitant to order in Shopee again but another opportunity came, so I dared to try again. I am organizing an event and I wanted to save up our budget as much as I can without compromising the quality of our souvenirs. I ordered thirty (30) pieces of pencil bags in Shopee which costs around P350 less than Lazada's tag (savings of P10,500.00). This time, all of the items are as I have imagined it to be, with a bonus of free two (2) mini calendars. Also, unlike before, it arrived in four (4) days. Perhaps the delayed delivery last time is just brought about the season. Even Lazada had a delay during that time since I ordered from them as well. I also ordered six (6) foldable bags from Shopee, priced at P120 less than Lazada's. They, too, are in good condition.

My experiences with Shopee may not have been enough but in my perspective, Shopee can be considered in the same platform of Lazada. I did have a few not so good experiences with Lazada, like a defective shoe organizer and frail luggage bags. So if you are saving up, try Shopee!

How to have the Shopee App in your device?
You can also browse Shopee Philippines using your mobile and tablet devices. Simply go to your Google Playstore or App Store and search the Shopee PH app.

For more information about Shopee, visit their Help Center.

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If you want an easy inexpensive meal that is complete with carbs and protein, try Alcapurria. It's a Puerto Rican fritter but in this version we will be using ground pork, saging na saba, yautia (known as San Fernando in Filipino), and carrots.

Alcapurria molded into balls

Ingredients:
1 small sized carrot
5 pieces of small yautia (San Fernando) or 3 pieces of medium size ones
100 g ground pork
3 pieces saging na saba
3 cloves garlic and half onion for saute
 pepper and salt to taste
1 small bottle cooking oil for deep frying

Estimated Expense: Less than PhP100.00

Procedure:
1. Mince the carrot.
2. Saute the ground pork and carrot with pepper, garlic and onions.
3. Grate/mash the saging na saba and yautia then add salt to prevent them from turning gray or brownish.
4. With your hand, coat the sauteed ground pork and carrots with mashed/grated saging na saba and yautia (Mold them into balls with the pork as fillings).
5. Deep fry the balls until golden brown.
6. Serve while hot! Enjoy!

Alcapurria

Makes 4 servings.
Let me know your comments through the form below! (wink)

Mozilla Firefox browser had just updated to a new look! It's suave! It may feel as if you are using a chromium one but the look is different. Their new tagline Designed to be Redesigned enables user to design their new tab and toolbar with Firefox newly customizable icons. Themes were also updated, lots of it are still available. Syncing with your mobile and tablet Firefox is still one of the features. You can also choose from a lot of add-ons; but the ASK toolbar is not compatible with this new version at of this moment. Another issue is I just can't seem to understand the retention of the search toolbar if you can use the url box as a search box. It seems that two is better than one eh?


 Get your own localized version in Firefox download page.
 Enjoy the new design!

I know it's already the start of Holy Week! I had been abstaining from meat since the start of the Lenten Season and yet, I found myself craving for it when I passed by Digong's Super Bulalo. It is a newly established eatery in University of the Philippines - Diliman and suited in the famous Area 2 of the campus. I can't resist the temptation of trying it out because of the flock of people that goes there everyday even if it looks like the typical carinderia found in the streets; nothing much attractive except the smell of the cooking bulalo.

So, I am guilty. I tried it with a friend. We ordered the Super Bulalo which costs P180 and I think is already good for 3-4 persons because we haven't been able to consume the whole serving. The bulalo is cooked in broth with the right combination of seasoning accented with the flavor of spring onion. You can even make it tastier by adding a bit of calamansi and patis as well as adding some chili for a more spicy taste. Of course when it's bulalo, you wouldn't miss picking the bone marrow with a barbecue stick! I had been a fan of bone marrrows ever since I was a child. Yum!

Digong's Bulalo also offers (with unlimited soup refill):
- Pata with Laman (P60)
- Balbakwa (P35) - this is the fatty skin part
- Bulalo (P120) - good for 2-3 persons
- Super Mix (P60) - mixture of balbakwa and laman

*Rice is paid separately at P10/serving

Try them after this Holy Week! You can never find any other good bulalo in QC at these price range! And Boy Bulalo should also come here, he'll surely get served!

Globe PH's bundle of CloudFone Pad 750w and CloudFone 354g at PhP499 per month had enticed me to inquire their postpaid plans. But as I had read reviews of these CloudFone brand, I was discouraged to avail the bundle though I badly wanted a tablet and a new android phone. But still their tagline, "Avail a postplain now and double what you paid for" had convinced me to check out their other handsets and I settled myself with their Huawei Ascend G510 plan at PhP499 per month.

The Globe Postpaid Plan
When you avail of the postpaid plan, you can choose among the different plans ranging from PhP299-3799 per month. You can also avail of the unlimited plan and family plan of group three up to 10 unli plans in bundle. Each plan has equivalent Peso Value (PV) with the lowest plan 299 at 500 PV each month. The PV works like a converted money for purchase in the site in which you can purchase gadgets, combos and boosters.

The Gadget (Optional)
As part of the postpaid plan, you can have a free gadget or you can opt to SIM only. As for my case, I availed a phone and I am quite satisfied with it. The specification of Ascend G510 are better than those other phones in the entry-level league. With its 4.5" IPS screen, Qualcomm MSM8225 Snapdrago Dual COre 1.2 Ghz processor, and 512MB RAM, I can already play hard core games like NBA 2k13, Dungeon Hunter, Temple Run, Ripside, MC4, etc. The only weak spot of this phone is that its small internal memory of 1GB but it can be solved by adding a microSD card of at least 4GB. To fully enjoy your Android experience, I suggest you root your phone after the gadget's one month warranty had expired cause it will void your warranty (just make sure that you had tried and tested everything in your phone and is satisfied that nothing is wrong with it). Out of the box, the phone do not come with so many bloatwares inside thus, saving your time managing your internal memory.

The Combos
The PhP499 plan will give you a 900 PV per month on which 99PV is allotted for the compulsory availment of the 50MB internet surfing per month and the gadget's 250PV purchase per month. So per month, you will be left out with 551 PV for your consumption of regular load or for purchase of another combos. You can choose your combo among the following:
1. 125 texts to all network (100 PV)
2. 100 text to all network + 5 mins call to Globe/TM (100PV)
3. 20 mins Globe/TM calls (100PV)
4. 5 mins IDD and 5 international SMS (100PV)
Caveat: Globe does not have a function to inquire about the status of your remaining texts and calls in the combos so you have to manually monitor them so as not to incur additional amount in your monthly bills.

The Boosters
You will also be offered to choose from their boosters but the payment will be added on top of your monthly PhP499 bill. For instance, you added Unlimited call and text to one Globe number for PhP175 per month, you will be billed PhP674 monthly. Other boosters are:
1. Unli All Net text (Php599/month)
2. Unli Calls and Texts (Php599/month)
3. Surf 50MB (Php99/month)
4. Surf 300MB (Php299/month)
5. Surf 1GB (Php499/month)
6. Unli Dup and Landline (Php450/month)
7. Unli Mobile and Landline (Php599/month)
8. Unli Text (Php349/month)

You can check the Outstanding balance and Unbilled balance of your postpaid account by calling *143# and choose My account.

Take note, you can also purchase their plan with just the postpaid SIM and no added combos nor boosters.

Requirements for Application
I have applied for a new subscription with just a valid ID and a previous month payslip. Other Globe stalls require a proof of billing but since I do not have a permanent home in the city, they let me get away with that requirement.
Also note that your consumable regular load cannot be transferred through Share-a-Load.

P.S.
If you can compare this with their previous version of postpaid plans, I think I go with their previous version. The previous one loads your phone with the your monthly consumable thus giving you less worries in incurring additional amount in your bills since you can monitor it by just checking your balance.

I had watched The Mistress in Cinema and had seen the long lines of moviegoers just to watch this show. I have even seen a lola wait in line as she is being assisted by maybe her apo. Maybe some of them had watched it because of John Lloyd Cruz or Bea Alonzo. And maybe some of them shared the feeling of being a mistress and is curious how the movie will handle the theme.

As we can remember, before The Mistress was shown, there was The Other Woman which also became a hit. It has a different plot but same theme: having a mistress. And now, I came to watch the official trailer of A Secret Affair in youtube.com and it stars Anne Curtis, Derek Ramsey and Andi Eigenmann. Anne Curtis is now playing the first partner and Derek Ramsey is again taking roles of a guy with two lovers. Some said it is like the extension of The Other Woman cono on which Derek may had chosen to be with Anne. And here again revolves the story of having a mistress, a third party in the relationship. If the Other Woman ended with the Wife having her husband back while The Mistress ended with a tragedy, how will the Secret Affair end?

Are the Filipinos being liberated in this kind of idea on which they patronize on screen? Or are there so many  women now who had been in that same position before and had form sentiments of being called a mistress that's why it seemed that we are embracing third party culture? It is really extreme to the Filipino's conservative nature. Some may had said that statistically, there are more women than men and maybe this is the time for love triangles to be a norm?