Media Max Technology

My business partner, Leslie, is the perfect example of a petite woman – she is 23 years old and stands four feet, eleven inches tall. She usually spends Saturday mornings at her boyfriend’s house, helping his mom cook lunch. She is often kidded by her boyfriend’s older brother since she always had trouble reaching the kitchen counter which was rather high. And the chairs didn’t help, which were a little low for her.

The good thing was her boyfriend’s dad who went home from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia brought the perfect solution – swivel bar stools. Aside from helping her finally reach the counter and not look like a midget cooking, it obviously changed the interior of the kitchen. The kitchen appears wider, since it saves a lot of space. The swivel bar stools were made of wood, which complemented the country-inspired interior of the kitchen. It swivels with ease and allows easy movement. It has a back and foot rest, which makes it rather comfortable.

Cooking with her future in-laws became a more pleasant and comfortable experience for Leslie. All because of a simple swivel bar stool.

My husband’s parents are both great cooks, and they decided to open a food-catering business. My mother-in-law would wake up at three o’ clock in the morning everyday to prepare the ingredients for the day’s menu, and of course, do the cooking. The kitchen would always be messy – an assortment of pots and pans for broiling, baking, and frying littered the countertops. That was until they purchased the Oster convection oven.

The Oster convection oven is a cross between an oven and a toaster, that does not only toasts or bakes but also broils, defrosts, and reheats. Its multiple functions explain the sudden decrease in kitchen mess when my in laws are cooking. Just like the regular oven, it uses a convection fan which forces heated air into the inside of the oven, and into the food. This causes the food to be crisp on the outside yet juicy in the inside in less than 30-50% of the regular cooking time.

It took a while before my mother-in-law became used to the “high-tech” features of the convection oven, such as the digital displays for temperature and timer, but it was worth it. The preparation time for their dishes was significantly reduced, not to mention the cleaner kitchen counters. But then again, she learns more on Oster convection oven reviews online.

My grandmother always wears a beautiful and delicate watch charm bracelet during special occasions. I remember asking her where it came from when I was still a kid. It was a gift to her from my grandfather for their first anniversary as husband and wife. It was made of 18k gold; it includes a watch charm and eleven other charms signifying a memorable object in the eleven months before their first anniversary.

I asked my grandfather why he chose a charm bracelet as an anniversary gift, aside from the obvious reason of being similar to a time capsule, with all those memorable embellishments. He said that my grandmother was never a fan of traditional watches, yet she loves jewelry. My grandfather decided that a watch charm bracelet would be perfect for her – elegant and sophisticated, and useful at the same time. He wistfully recalled that my grandmother was moved to tears when he placed the bracelet on her wrist 50 years ago.

Until now, I secretly hope that my grandmother would give me the watch charm bracelet someday. Aside from being a chic and timeless piece, it holds memories that I would treasure even long after she‘s gone.

My friend in Canada was supposed to have her first Christmas here in the Philippines last year after leaving the country five years ago. Everything was set – all her bags were packed, her passport and travel documents were ready. She was all set. Two days before her flight, one of her friends hosted a going-away party for her. The party starts at eight in the evening, and my friend asked her husband to drive to the nearest supermarket to pick up some stuff. He was driving below the speed limit, but then a van with a drunk driver came out of nowhere and hit their car. My friend’s husband hit his head on the steering wheel leaving him unconscious. My friend had a few bruises. They had to cancel their flight.

Her husband had a concussion, two broken ribs and had to be checked for brain damage, but fortunately, he survived the ordeal. They were not able to come home for Christmas, and if not for their trip cancellation insurance Canada, lost a great deal of money due to the cancelled trip. A lot of people are now availing trip cancellation insurances, for the purpose of reimbursing trip costs in case of accidents, sickness, and extreme weather when travelling, including cancellations due to travel supplier default.

This year, my friend and her husband are already planning to come home for the holidays, and hopefully, they would be able to push through with their plans this time.

Our company’s top distributor and business consultant, who also happens to be a multimillionaire, invited us to a dinner party at his house last September. His house was spacious and unique. He obviously paid a hefty amount of bucks to his architect and interior decorator. He invited us to his office to show some of his collections and memorabilia which he acquired from travelling to different countries around the world.

His office was a clear contrast to the rest of his house. His house was done in a contemporary style – very minimalist. His office was the exact opposite. It was heavily furnished and full of wood furniture. His personal chair behind his huge desk was the single piece of furniture that left an impression on me. It was huge, with intricate designs. I can almost imagine Donald Trump sitting behind the desk. I asked where it came from. He answered, “It’s from San Antonio, Texas. And to think I have my office furniture San Antonio. I have a little bit of cowboy in me.” Then he winked. Then I noticed – he was wearing cowboy boots.

I live in a subdivision where the roads are made of asphalt. I noticed that after sometime, our roads become bumpy, especially where we live, where buses used to enter our street as a detour. I was wondering if asphalt was a really cheap, easily-destructible material, or the engineers were just using low quality asphalt, parts, and equipment.

Our subdivision was relatively small compared to the nearby villages, and funding was really scarce. So I was not surprised when my uncle, who was an engineer and sent to evaluate our roads, told us that the equipment used were not really first class—probably the cheapest that they could find. I was in no position to complain, since I never paid any street dues. But it was then that I realized that quality really matters, even to something as dull as the asphalt used on the street or finding the right asphalt plant equipment company.

My high school friend and I used to be spies and stalkers. We spy on our high school crushes, and yes, I admit that it is pretty embarrassing. We were only amateur spies though, not the James Bond type with cool gadgets and European cars—though we wish it to be so. However, real spy gadgets for sale nowadays almost make me want to time travel back into high school and try it, just for fun.

One is the Calvin Klein USB sunglasses. Too bad they didn’t have Audrey Hepburn-like styles, but sunglasses are always fashionably in, not to mention the added USB feature for saving his personal photos from his laptop. Binoculars are a fundamental spy gadget, and it would be fun to spy at our crush while staying hidden at our room on the third floor. A book hidden camera would be pretty handy in the library. A self-destructing spy paper would be pretty useful for secret correspondence, not to mention passing notes in class without the risk of leaving evidence to be read by our teacher.

Watching my mother painstakingly grind different spices for cooking such as nutmeg, peppercorns, anise, and nuts with the traditional mortar and pestle makes me also want to pant with exhaustion. Aside from being time consuming, the ground spices almost always do not reach the desired consistency which leaves my mother complaining and wishing for a magical hand who could perfectly grind those spices. Out of curiosity, I asked a friend who studied culinary arts if there are any other alternatives aside from using a mortar and pestle for grinding, and he suggested an electric waring spice grinder.

Being kitchen utensil-ignorant, he explained to me the basic features of the electric spice grinder. It has stainless-steel blades which can grind all types of spices – from capsicum to nuts. A so-called “pulse actuation feature allows the user to choose the consistency of the ground spices. It comes with a transparent lid so you can make sure that you have achieved the desired fineness or coarseness of the spices. It even has two extra bowls, which comes in handy if you are grinding two different spices. Its powerful motor is comparable to the speed of an ultracentrifuge – about 19000 rpm, which can easily grind spices into fine powder in a matter of seconds, which is a little scary.

My mother could really benefit from this electric spice grinder. However, she has to settle to the plain old mortar and pestle for now. Maybe next Christmas she would finally get her wish.

Boracay is the most famous summer destination in the Philippine islands. An island located approximately 315 km south of Manila and 2 km off the northwest tip of the island of Panay, Boracay topped the list of the World’s Most Popular Beach according to Yahoo! Travel in 2007. For families wanting to get the ultimate Boracay experience, an all inclusive family vacation at Fairways and Bluewater Resort is a must.

Horseback riding on the powdery white sand, golfing at a private golf course with a 360-degree view of the sparkling sapphire water, and exploring the bat cave are just a few highlights this divine paradise resort has to offer. Being the only 5 star resort on the island, guests are spoiled rotten with a plethora of first-class amenities and a wonderful selection of exclusive hotel facilities. The resort – with its private beaches, fine restaurants, pools, shops, club house and a church all nestled in a hundred hectares of lush landscape — is an ideal vacation choice for those in search of a quiet retreat, romantic alone time or just wanted to temporarily get away from the busy world and spend time with the family. It offers not just tranquility, but also adrenaline-pumping activities like water skiing, banana boat rides, parasailing, windsurfing and kite boarding. An escape to Fairways & Bluewater will definitely leave you bragging about it months afterward

A fireplace is a very foreign thing to me since I live in a tropical country, and I never even saw one until I went to Canada to visit my aunt and cousins. Alberta has a temperature of around 50 below zero during the winter months and to say that a fireplace is needed to keep us warm is an understatement. It was an absolute necessity; given that the extremely cold weather could literally give us frostbite.

My aunt has an outdoor wood burning fireplace, which gives their house a homey and relaxing feeling. She chose the outdoor type over the indoor type because of various reasons. First, because she wanted to save money – her husband would just chop wood and use it for heating, and there is no need to rely on electricity, coal, or gas. Second is because of its traditional and classic design, which gives their house an air of elegance. Safety is another major factor, since there is no risk of indoor fires.
Catching up with family I haven’t seen for such a long time while sipping hot chocolate was made extra special and intimate because of the tranquil ambiance brought about by the warm and cozy fire. Absolutely priceless.