Sweet World of Joan

Its summer again and with another batch of my students will graduate this coming May. They are at the moment job hunting and as there are so many job fairs all over the metro lately, I would like to share to them some tips on job hunting. Tips: Apply for jobs that matches you skills, however if there are certain jobs that you would like to have but at present you don’t have that skill or skills, you have to enroll in additional courses to have that skills. It will take time to study but if you are determined to have that job, you got to work hard for it. While waiting for job interviews or while still job hunting, take this opportunity to build up your portfolio. If your field is on web programming or design, create websites even on free websites or offer your services for free to family and friends, these sites will give you the opportunity to showcase your skills and would be useful during job interviews. It is also the same for programming. Create a blog, this is another way to buil...

I was deep in food research last week in search for Japanese inspirations, going around malls, supermarkets and restaurants looking for the perfect Japanese inspired desserts( It’s a hard job but somebody has to do it ) when I saw the article about Japanese restaurants in Yummy Magazine. Through the magazine I discovered Kozui Green Tea Café. I was having a tough time finding green tea ingredients for my baking needs and tried calling Kozui, a green tea café and was thankful that they indeed sell different varieties of green teas. Since it was a weekend and we were scheduled to go out as a family we decided to check out the café at the same time buy the green tea I needed. I started drinking tea when I vacationed in Hongkong a few years ago and since develop a habit of drinking them although I am a confessed coffee addict, so I was really looking forward to visiting Kozui. Kozui is located at Tomas Morato, Quezon City. They have a variety of food and beverages with green tea or tea as ...

These past months we are hit with continuous rise in the prices of gasoline, cooking oil and flour but what shocks all of us is the price of our staple food, RICE. If only the price of oil/gasoline is the one that is going up many of us may ignore it for most of the population does not have their own cars so we are not directly affected, but when the price of RICE went up everybody stopped and took notice. I for one could not fully comprehend why the price of commercial rice is on the record high some reaching 50 persos per kilo, since there is no rice shortage and we see in the news warehouse after warehouse full of sacks of rice. The videos of people lining up for hours in the summer heat just to buy 2 kilos of NFA rice is really heart breaking, this should not have happen to an agriculture country such as the Philippines. As the budget/purchasing officer of the family I feel the pinch of our situation now, it’s just not happening in the country but when you read the news, its happen...

I read an article from a business section of one of the leading broadsheets a few days ago and one night my husband and I got to talk about it. It was about creating an awareness or buzz about your product/brand and in doing so you can create a demand for your product. We talked about how do we apply that to my current business considering also the changes I plan to make for my business. There were many things I am considering right now, making my made-to-order business to include catering. The article gave examples about some companies in the country getting services of PR agency to create the “buzz” about their products. It tells the story how a PR agency transforms a juice drink to be synonymous to a certain brand. It also shared some tips that PR Agency in the Philippines do to make sure their client’s Ads a success. Lessons I learned from this article are; Ads need not be expensive to guarantee success of the product, Ads must be noticed by the right consumer that are willing to ...

It’s summer once again and for kids it means fun, fun and more fun. But for a child like my son who loves school this summer time is “boring”. He has frequent tantrums now a days for there is not enough to do and he misses school and his classmates. It’s one of the disadvantages of being an only child, there are no other kids to play with. I decided than one solution would be to enroll Lorenzo to a summer activity and I looked around and here is what I found out: Learn a new sport My son is overweight and his pedia encouraged us to give him more physical activities. I found an Ad about it Milo Summer Sports Clinics on the newspaper and called the MILO hotline (02) 914-7111 and discovered they have various sports activities to choose from karate, swimming, basketball, bowling, taekwondo and other sports catering to different ages. I am considering enrolling him on taekwondo but my husband thinks it’s too soon. My son loves to swim so a swimming lesson is another choice we are considerin...

I attended last night the elementary graduation of my inaanak Patricia Nicole at Roosevelt College Cainta. It was a very memorable affair, as the graduates are receiving their diploma there was a video presentation on the side of the stage featuring the picture of the graduate and what he dreams to be when he grows up. It was very refreshing so see so many young people that are so positive about their future, we got to see their dreams and I realized that as adults we have to help them make their dreams a reality. Nicole is very special to me, she is my “first” baby. I got to take care of her when she’s just a year old, I would usually borrow her on weekends and buys her tons of baby stuff. With her I got to feel what it is to be a mother, the long nights of feedings, you feel torn when you have to leave her because you got to work. Nicole wants to be a chef when she grows up, and since I love baking maybe starting this summer I’ll start informally teach her the joys of baking. Congra...