Burger King has (or had, depending on when you're reading this) a thing for bloggers from August 1-7, 2008. All we had to do was sign up, and if we got into the 50 slots, we can bring 3 friends and eat for free at a Burger King branch of our choice. I signed up to go to SM North EDSA, and one of my best friends, Mi, signed up at the Trinoma branch. Ehe. Funny, both of us got into the 50 bloggers list. Now the dillema was: which branch to go to? So we said, "Yeah, we'll see when the day comes." Read full post...

This morning when I woke up it was raining outside, and the weather was absolutely bed-worthy. So I slept in, which I haven't done in a long, long time. Mainly because I always have so much to do on weekends, and my recently-started voice lessons required me to wake up at 6:30 on Saturday mornings. Well, I didn't have lessons this morning, so YEY I slept in!

Eventually, I dragged myself out of bed (but first I plurked and wrote about David Archuleta's new single, Crush) and made my way to Trinoma, where I was supposed to meet the amigas for Loraine's birthday.

I got to Trinoma at around 1 p.m. and loitered around the lobby for a while. Despite sleeping in, I was still sleepy—whether it was because of the rain or because I've been lacking proper sleep the past days, I'm not exactly sure—so I basically forgot where exactly in Trinoma I was supposed to meet the girls.

So, while waiting for them to reply to my text message, I went to sit in Burger King, just in case we decide to have lunch there (since we DO have free food there). Even though I was officially signed up to be an observing blogger in the SM North branch across the road, I decided to observe, anyway.

The place
The first thing I noticed was that the place was clean. I mean, okay, so it was a restaurant, so it's supposed to be clean, but it's just....cleaner than I thought. The moment a couple left their table, this BK crew member immediately went to that table and cleaned it up (thus giving me a place to sit. COUCH!). There were a lot of people, but the place didn't look crowded. Weird. I don't know if it's an Ayala Malls thing or a Burger King thing. Or both.

The service
When I entered, I passed by this girl in a physical therapist's uniform massaging the back of one of the customers. At first I thought it was the customer's personal PT... But then the customer left, and the Massage Girl stayed, and went to the next table. Like, whoa! Awesome! The only other restaurant I know with Massage People was Isdaan in Ilocos. They have them massagers because the restaurant is along the highway, so, naturally, weary travellers needed back massages. But the massages there had a small fee. In BK I think they gave the service for free! (Can't be sure, though.)

Unlike other fastfood chains I know, the crew members at the counter weren't yelling their lungs out at each other with the excuse of communicating clearly. I'm not sure if it's only because my booth was far from the counter or something, but I just LOVE it that no one was yelling. The yelling annoys me.

I was still waiting for my friends' reply when a crew member approached me with a smile on her face and offered water. How cool! Rarely do I see fastfood servers who are nice to people who aren't exactly customers yet. (I haven't ordered yet, of course.)

The food
Okay, here's where I fail. Ahehe. I ended up leaving BK without eating. Eating in Burger King on a very special day would be a bit weird for us, and Loraine had decided where she wanted to eat. Ah, well. I guess I'll try the food again next time. It's been soooooo long since I ate at Burger King! I've always loved their onion rings. And their itty bitty little hashbrowns which are so much more fun to munch on the McDee's has browns. Hehe. It's too bad that I never got to eat our free meal today, but oh well. :)


Up next on this series: I left Burger King to meet with the amigas, and we made our way up to Trinoma's fourth floor to eat at Cyma...

Friday, July 18, 2008

on rain, writing, and price hikes

It's been raining a lot the past days. And although it can't be denied that the rain makes travelling by commute—or by private car, if you think about it—more stressful and tiring than it already is, I still love the rain.

When it's raining, my creative mind tends to wake up. Maybe it's because the rhythmic sound of raindrops outside. Or maybe it's because, when I was a kid, rain equals floods equals no classes, therefore a rainy day equals grabbing a book and reading in some corner of the house. I think that's it, really. Read full post...Now, when it rains, I...

1. tend to write code faster.
   
2. tend to want to drop my work and write, instead. ...Which leads to the writing of this post. Heh. (For the record: I'm not at work so I have guilt-free writing time right now.)
3. tend to want to snuggle under the covers and just dream.
   

Several days ago, it rained hard all night, and in the morning the weather was what I like to call, "snuggle-licious." It's that kind of cold that summons the soft blanket from the drawers...but not too cold that man would long for summer. It's that gentle, bury-yourself-under-the-covers-and-sleep-in kind of cold.

Now, I love that kind of weather, but on certain days it could get problematic.

Like, say, on a workday.

Like that day after that rainy night. It was such a snuggle-licious morning that I woke up late. As in, like, so late that I did not have time to get ready, and that very minute I was supposed to be on the train on the way to work already. Yeah. That late.

But since I consider myself rather hygenic, so I used a technique I learned during my college days that enabled me to take a bath, brush my teeth, get dressed and ready, all in 15 minutes. By 9:30I was ready to go. Problem was: I was still in Quezon City. My work was in Fort Bonifacio, which was one and a half hours away. Oh, joy.

But still I charged forth! I got a cab to the train, took the train to Makate and then got another cab to the office, the whole time ignoring my watch and my cellphone so that I won't get any more stressed at how late I already was.

I got to my office in one piece.

And at 10:00 AM.

Hu-WHAT?!

"Sarah, it only took you thirty minutes?!"

Yes, it did. Until now I still haven't figured it out. At first I considered that maybe I just got the time wrong, but my mom verified that I indeed left the house at 9:30.

Weird, I know.

My Plurk friends tell me that it's because of the price hike recently. Gas is SO expensive nowadays that people want to leave their cars. Therefore there's lighter traffic on the road, therefore travel time is faster. Well, I guess may be true. I wouldn't be surprised if it was.

Ha. So I guess that's one good thing about the price hike, eh?