Why Swimming At Woodridge Is Pocket-Friendly

Davao City has a lot of swimming pools but most of them charge too much. There is one swimming nook I discovered though which charges a reasonable fee for swimming as well as for the food they serve. Ironically enough, the pool is located in one of the most expensive and exlusive subdivisions in the city--Woodridge.

The subdivision-run clubhouse boasts of a tennis court (expensive at P200 per hour), function rooms for parties and two swimming pools (children and adult). Entrance to the pool is affordable at P70 considering that it is just located at the city center, Maa actually.

If you find yourself famished after swimming then there's no need to debate whether to order or not because the clubhouse restaurant serves a goid menu of SILOG, coffee and juice. Instant Coffee is priced at P15 while the various Silogs ar priced from P50 to P70. There are also sandwiches like club sandwich at P100 and their P45 burger is delicious and big too!

The restaurant is a nice place for those who want to work with their laptops while watching their kids swim. Bring extra batteries though and don't expect any wifi connection.

SM's Christmas Celebration For The SOS Children

SM City Davao had a mini Christmas Party for the over 150 children of the SOS Children's Village at the Entertainment Center yesterday afternoon. I saw SM's PR Tessa as well as the head of SM Foundation during the celebration and they said it is SM's way of bringing back their blessings to the community. The children were treated to a picture-taking session with Santa (a plywood Santa,that is, parlor games and snacks.

The SOS Children's Village is located at SOS Drive, Bajada this city. I was informed by their guardian that most of the children they have under their care are orphans while others have parents who could not take care of them. This foundation accepts donations from those who want to help the children.

Davao’s P71M “People’s Park” Draws Crowd, Various Reactions

The newly-inaugurated “People’s Park” attracted people from various walks of life while the choice of the park’s name drew adverse reactions from Dabawenyos and people from other places as well. The park, used to be known as the PTA, stands on a lot (along Legaspi corner Palma Gil Streets—back of Apo View Hotel) donated by the Monteverde family.

A total of 900 entries were received by the organizers for the “name the park” contest. The winning name, “People’s Park”, was given by Romeo Sardon, a 75-year old retired seaman and electrician. He won P50 thousand for the park’s name.

The Dabawenyos were clearly enthralled by the park which boasts of a fountain especially designed for the park, waterfalls, Green House Museum and Gallery, children’s playground, an all-Filipino music, security cameras and a rainbow-colored oval track.

So why People’s Park? Some people complained about the chosen name since it clearly did not depict Davao and its culture. There were other entries depicting Davao as a land of the natives but the names were not chosen by the judges for reasons known only to them.

Of course, a public park is intrinsically a people’s park, so no need to name the park as such. The park’s swollen budget would have been justified had the judges chosen a name that would remind tourists and Dabawenyos about the culture and the natural resources of the city. Instead, the judges chose a very simple and plain name---People’s Park.

Gaisano Mall Incident Raise Concerns Over Mall Security And Preparedness

Is Gaisano Mall prepared for emergency situations?

The death of a woman who fell down from an escalator on the 4th level of Gaisano Mall is a tragic "accident" which raised concerns about the safety of the different malls in Davao City. Dabawenyos may think that safety and security is equal to beign free from bomb scare and the likes. However, this incident should make Davao mall owners think twice about how safe the location of their escalators are. Another question which should be answered by the malls is if they have security provisions for such an eventuality.

Staff and employee preparedness in cases of emergency such as the fall of that woman from the 4th level is very crucial. There was one incident involving city councilor Rachel Zozobrado and her kids at Gaisano Mall. In a privilege speech delivered at the SP last November, Zozobrado recounted how the security personnel of Gaisano Mall refused to let her and her kids out (including other customers) despite a 20-minute brownout in the mall. She said she decided to get out as soon as possible since there were no emergency lights inside the mall and the children were already scared.

Perhaps the City Council should take a look at the security measures and preparations being done not only by Gaisano Mall but the other malls in town. Maybe the security guards should concentrate less on literally putting a check mark on the already paid purchases of their customers and look after the latter's safety first.

How To Win One Of The 3 Kia Picanto At Gaisano Citimal

Before SM City Davao and before NCCC Mall, there was the good old JS Gaisano. Any Dabawenyo who frequented the city's few shopping malls wayback in the 1990s (or was it late 1980's?) will always remember the large fairy-tale like staircase leading to JS Gaisano's second floor. But this was before the fire which gutted the mall. It became known as JS Gaisano Citimall under the management of John Y. Gaisano. Back then, JS Citimall was famous for its entertainment shows at the 5th Level. It's marketing people always came up with promos and shows to lure people to the shopping center. Well. how can they not when Sir John always kept them on their toes. He was a hands-on manager who knew what went on his store. of bigger malls like SM and NCCC, people began to outgrow JS Citimall. I am not sure anymore whose hands JS Gaisano is under but I think the store is beginning to wake up from slumber. Their foodstreet was transferred to the 5th and some seats were placed along the grocery area for those who want to take a quick bite.

They also launched a new promo "Cars & Cash" where they will be giving away 3 Picanto cars--these really cute cars and in my favorite color at that--RED! The promo runs from November 17, 2007 to March 15, 2008. I just hope they assign better staff to take care of the raffles since the woman who was supposedly in charge of counting the raffles was so rude and didn't have the basic skills in handling customers. She also had with her a defective calculator ---to think that she was supposed to be doing the math for the raffle stubs like one stub for every P200 purchase from the Department Store. I haven't had any negative experiences with the other sales people on the top floors; in fact the people at the toys section were very nice. Maybe that girl is just having a bad hair day, oh well. I hope the Citimall Management do something about this soon before they alienate their customers again.

Gaisano Citimall has also launched a ard membership promo much like the NCCC Shoppers Card and SM's Advantage Card. I think the free membership offer expired last November---well haven't submitted mine actually since I really do not shop much here but I'm looking forward to a more vibrant Gaisano Citimall. I used to be a PR consultant with JS Citimall and I know how John Gaisano worker hard to make Citimall one of the best shops in the city. Sad to see something that used to be good for the people of Davao go down the drain. So here's goodluck to the new management---keep it going!

Transport Strike Fails To Paralyze Davao City

Today's transport strike may have reminded Dabawenyos about the sky rocketing price of petrol (as the British calls it) despite the appreciation of the peso agaisnt the dollar but it has definitely failed to paralyze the city. There was lesser traffic of course but there were still plenty of public utility vehicles plying the streets even after 12 noon. Economic principles would say that since fuel is purchased in dollars. the Philippines would have lower gas prices by now because of the peso's appreciation. Oil capitalists however say the high fuel price is attributed to the continued inrease of oil in the world market. Does it make sense to you?

Marco Polo Davao's Teddy Bear X'mas Tree

Can you guess how many teddy bears are on this tree?

I would have counted from top to bottom except that my friend Prix is already tugging my sleeves so we can go up to Club 888's press conference and Christmas Party at the 4th floor of Marco Polo Hotel. Such creativity, you may say...

The Teddy Bear is a world-known stuffed toy but a lot of children clutch their teddy bears not knowing how it came to be. The original Teddy Bear was actually inspired by a political cartoon created by Clifford Berryman of Washington Star. The cartoon showed US President Theodore Roosevelt holding a rifle with a baby bear at his back. Roosevelt was supposed to go hunting while settling the Mississippi-Louisiana boundary dispute. The hunting trip turned out lousy as there were no good catch. To accommodate him, his staff captured a black bear cub but Roosevelt turned his back and refused to shoot the cub which was tied to a tree.
But that‘s not the end of the story. Toy maker and owner Morris Michtom saw the political cartoon, made a stuffed bear and displayed it on his window. He got so many orders that he sought the permission of Roosevelt for the use of his name. There goes your Teddy Bear!