Fame’s Wedding for Perfect Party and Other Events in Cebu

My sister wanted to have a perfect and hassle-free birthday party for her little boy and discovered Fame’s Wedding Concepts and Events via Internet. Since she was in Belgium still at the time, she asked me to make an arrangement with them. I’m not much for events so what I basically did is to print my sister’s instruction and gave it to Fames as well as pay the necessary dues which was 14,600 pesos to cover the Package B Kiddie Parties plus other additional services such as magician, chocolate fountain, face painting and balloon columns.

Grand Convention Function room Chrysanthemum turn out to be one magical place for a night with a Batman theme (Birthday boy is the batman of course) and it was quite painless on my part that I only have good things to say about this Party team.

I’ve yet to see their other events like weddings and debut but based from what I’ve witnessed with this one event alone, I can say that I would be happy to get their services again for any of our future events and would be proud to recommend Fame’s among friends.

Gelatissimo Italian Ice Cream for 50 Pesos Na Lang

Gelatissimo has an on-going promo of buy one scoop ice cream and enjoy one scoop of any of their fruity flavored ice cream for FREE and the girls decided to take advantage of it.

A scoop of Gelatissimo Italian ice cream in a cup cost 100 pesos na lang and since we get 2 cups in all, we paired up so we get to pay 50 pesos each only. For many of us, it will be our first time to taste Gelatissimo so we have problems choosing which of the delicious flavors we wanted but the nice thing about Gelatissimo is they offer FREE TASTE. I was wondering if I could enjoy a spoon of FREE TASTE for all flavors and then just LEAVE when I’m done because I’ve already had my Italian dessert. Nyahaha.

Anyway, I had blueberry ice cream for the good old times when I was in Belgium and busy stealing blueberries from grandma Maria’s garden and I love it. Fully loaded with real blueberry bits alright. I wasn’t able to take pictures of girls’ individual ice cream because they started digging in so fast and loved all their ice cream too except perhaps Racs who had LIME ice cream. Nyahaha. She doesn’t care to eat sourly lime on her dessert and said that she should have ordered Mango ice cream instead because at least she is familiar with such fruit.

Magnum Na Lang

Magnum became trending topic in twitter and facebook once and I didn’t really take notice until I saw my nephew eating Magnum. And then I was like, “I WANT TO EAT THAT TOO!”. 

We have a shop called S & R which according to a colleague sells the REAL Magnum straight from Belgium at 100 pesos only (about 1.8 Euro). I wouldn’t mind shelling out this much for a bar of goody but I have a problem with this store. It’s a membership shopping center where people actually PAY to be able to have the luxury of shopping at this ugly store that looked like a warehouse to me.  What the..?! So, I plan to boycott this store for as long as I could hold it out and decided to go for the local brand instead from SELECTA which cost only 50 pesos per bar or 0.9 Euro.

Since I haven’t really tasted this so called REAL Magnum, I can’t know the difference but this local one is good enough for me. It’s like eating vanilla ice cream topped with Belgian chocolate. Lamiiii (delicious)! Selecta Magnum comes in 4 flavors if I’m not mistaken but I’m not sure if I’m willing to shell out 150 bucks just so I could try them all.

Once is enough.

Unless someone care to buy me a Magnum?

Tourist Visa Application – Cover Letter

Is cover letter necessary when applying for tourist visa? It wasn’t listed at Belgian Embassy website and I wasn’t asked for it when I went to apply my Short Stay Family Visit or also known as Schengen Visa but for those who needed to make one to summarize purpose and intentions similar to when one is applying for a job, here’s a sample that I made.

I’m not an expert but I thought it’s good to make a sample highlighting the following information:

1. Type of visa one is applying

2. How the expenses will be covered and corresponding proof of documents enclosed

3. Proof of ties to make sure that you will not suddenly “disappear” and become an illegal immigrant

4. Accommodation details, how one planned to spend the days and again, corresponding proof of documents

To all applicants, Veel Geluk!

**********************************

Embassy of Belgium
Multinational Bancorporation Center
9th Floor – 6805 Ayala Avenue
Makati City, Philippines

Sub: Jane Doe, Philippine Passport No. XX1234567, Short Stay Family Visit Visa

Dear Sir/Madam:

I would like to apply for a short stay family visit visa to see my sister, Mary Doe for a period of 24 days starting August 4 – 27, 2011.

I am employed at Tarzan Corporation located in Forest Gump, Lapu-Lapu City, Philippines since January 2005 and currently holding the position of Engineer I. Vacation from work has already been approved.

I have more than enough savings to cover the cost of my plane ticket while all other expenses will be sponsored by my sister such as food and accommodation at her place in Markt, Belgium.

Aside from seeing my relatives, I also plan to do some sightseeing like the Atomium and Mini-europe in Brussels, Markt and Burg square in Bruges, etc.

Please find the following documents to support my visa application enclosed herewith:

* Passport showing my travel experiences – Thailand, Macau, Hongkong, Malaysia and Singapore

* Birth Certificates of my sister and I on NSO Security Paper proving our relationship

*My sister’s document: Annexe 3bis/Verbintenis Tot Tenlasteneming; photocopy of her Belgian ID card; Composition de Menage/Samenstelling Van Het Gezin; and her payslips

* Employment certificate and Leave approvals showing the date I’m expected to report back in the office

*My own payslips, ITR, copies of credit cards, bank certificates and bank statements

*Plane ticket booking reservation at Qatar Airways with itinerary Cebu-Doha-Brussels-Doha-Cebu.

I hope my visa application for this scheduled trip will result to a favorable response. For questions and clarifications, please feel free to contact me anytime.

Sincerely,

Jane Doe
Cebu City 6000, Phil.
Home: (63) +32 123-4567
Mobile: (63) 908- 12345678
Office: (63) + 32 987-6543 local 8520
Email: janedoe@yahoo.com

Laguna Cafe in SM NorthWing Cebu

After our bentusa massage at Langkawi Discovery Spa, we took a jeepney from ParkMall to SM City Cebu for our lunch at Laguna Café. It’s part of our post valentine itinerary in celebration of womanhood, singlehood and lifehood. Oh yeah!

I’ve always thought that Laguna Café is ridiculously expensive but I was wrong. For 8 people, our total bill was only 3540 and since this is a KKB event (kanya-kanyang bayad or Dutch style), my wallet only bled 442.50 pesos. One foreigner guy informed me that he would love to join us 8 women but I frankly told him that unless he is ready to pay the entire bill, this is NEVER a good idea because unfortunately, a lot of Filipinos will always expect to have a white guy pay for EVERYTHING.

So about our lunch, my favorite food was paella and the seafood platter. Paella is one of my sister’s favorite dishes and she kept telling me about this that I became curious. I wanted to be able to relate to her so I suggested that we order paella. I don’t know if paella in Laguna Café is different from what my sister had in Belgium or Spain but the paella that I’ve tried sure was lovely.

Below is our order and the bill receipt…

Lumpia Shanghai 196.43 pesos

Laguna Fried Chicken 191.96 pesos

Crispy Pata 294.64 pesos

Nilagang Baka 218.75 pesos

Pandan Chicken 191.96

Seafood Platter 531.25 pesos

Paella Large 513.40 pesos