Jeanne and I were sharing a peppermint brownie at the coffee shop when she drank some water and said “Look I’m cleaning my mouth!” “Why?” I asked.
“Like when I’m brushing my teeth.” she replied. I realized she was referring to the peppermint. So I told her “No need, that’s mint for eating.” Totally no pun intended :P
After a few delays, Felix Baumgartner, an Austrian skydiver, daredevil and BASE jumper, has finally done his much anticipated space dive. From a record 39,045 m (39 km!!!) . He also set the record for the highest manned balloon flight and fastest speed of free fall at 1,342 kph making him the first human to break the sound barrier without a vehicle. Baumgartner was in free fall for 4 minutes and 19 seconds, 17 seconds short of the 1960 record of Joseph Kittinger. An inspiring feat of human achievement however you cut it.
Saw a 2013 Hyundai Santa Fe on the expressway yesterday. It looks great except the pricing sucks. It’s priced at P1,768,000 for the 2WD version and P2,228,000. for the 4WD version. That’s way higher than the quite capable pickup-based SUVs (Mitsubishi Montero Sport, Toyota Fortuner, Ford Everest, and the new Chervrolet Trailblazer) and already heading towards the Mazda CX-9, Ford Explorer, and Honda Pilot territory. Sure there is a void in that price range and there will still be buyers at those prices but I don’t think it will be the same as the levels that propelled Hyundai to great success the past few years. Yeah, I’m bitter.
“It’s a great day!” Jeanne declared as we were leaving the mall. And I indeed it was.
The day started off as most Sunday mornings, i.e. lazy. But after a small brunch, we headed off to our favorite picnic grounds: UP. On the way, we stopped by the roadside for some corn. Then we stopped by Petron for barbecue from Ineng’s Special BBQ (barbecue cooked just right), halo-halo from Chow King, as well as drinks.
It was sunny when we got to UP. But not hot and there’s a cool breeze blowing. We set up our picnic mat under the shade of a tree and had late lunch, dessert, and snacks in quick succession. After resting a bit, we then went to the chapel for mass.
After mass, we headed over to the mall. While Michelle went shopping, Jeanne and I went to look at some electronica then to the bookstore to read a few books. We ended up also getting a copy of The Velveteen Rabbit. After the bookstore, we went to the grocery and bought some essentials. James caught up with us as we were paying. We then went to Yoshinoya for dinner, where Michelle rejoined us, before heading home.
Yes, Jeanne. It was a great day!
After the riots in China, both the FoxConn factory and the anti-Japanese riots, US and Japanese companies are finding out about the true costs of being in China. Maybe it’s time they focus more on the Philippines. There may be separatists down south and corruption everywhere but at least workers, and people in general, don’t have the tendency riot the way they do in China. Yes, not even with all that corruption.
For the US, the Philippines has been one of the destinations for business process outsourcing, why not manufacturing, too? For Japan, it has been one of the destinations for outsourcing manufacturing. And has something in common with: disputes with China over sovereign territory :P