MediSpa: A Wish Come True

Remember how I was wishing for a day at the Spa to refresh my cob-webbed mind from all the antics of Trillanes, the continued rise of the peso vs dollar (which is unfavorable to the outsourcing industry) amid the rise of fuel prices, erc. etc ---and then I won $12 from PMT but the cash was not enough for a refreshing Spa? Well, that wish finally came true today, thanks to MediSpa.

MediSpa, which is located at SM City Davao (side entrance just near the elevator), hosted a Spa Christmas Party for Davao's business writers. I got pampered with a foot massage while interviewing MediSpa owner Dr. Victoria Patiño-Guillano.Guillano is the only Dermatopathologist in Davao City (and perhaps one of the only two known practicing Dermatopathologist in Mindanao). This young and charismatic doctor, who seemed to be very passionate about what she does, is a Fellow at the American Academy of Dermatology and the Philippine Dermatologic Society.

MediSpa is not your ordinary Spa or derma clinic where you get your facials (although they offer that services as well) in the sense that the doctor is a Dermapathologist which means she is legally and medially armed to provide consultations on skin conditions and diseases like Leprosy and Psoriasis. She also conducts Biopsy of skin conditions that has been treated for weeks but has remained uncured. In fact, dermatologists and other skin clinics from as far as General Santos City and Butuan send patient samples to her for Biopsy since she is also head of the Dermatopathology Department of the Davao Medical Center.

Aside from various Spa Services, MediSpa also hosts Spa Themed Parties and they haev the facilities to provide several hours of spa-pleasure to the celebrant and the guests. The Spa room has an adjustable lighting fixture to suit the needs of the clients. Falling asleep while having a back massage would be nice (although I haven't tried that service yet!) but Dr. Guillano's assistant sure gave a very relaxing foot massage.

Dr. Guillano has a lot to say about other issues in her industry but that will be for the next blog.

Stretching Lastikman's Verbiage

(photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

Lastikman has captured the hearts of both children and adults not only in Davao but in the whole country, what with his generosity and kindheartedness, not to mention his cinematic transformations on screen from an elastic man to a helicopter, insect, car, cellphone, etc. It is a simple TV series but with plenty of representations from where children can learn from including the villains who represent the 7 deadly sins (GREED-Agaddon, LUST-Mothra, ENVY-Byutiki, SLOTH-Alingasaw, GLUTTONY-Morphino, WRATH-Dr. Jared and PRIDE-Ayessa.)

But lately, the writers of Lastikman seems to be cashing in on the use of Taglish and text Englsh which is not good for children who are just learning the rudiments of the English language. If Lastikman airs longer and with those Taglish words being emphasized like "Ok ba you? Ok na me" or "Here na me"---willmost likely stick to the minds of children viewers, most of whom are already aping such expressions in their daily language use.

As a web content writer, I realized that one of the Filipinos' edge over other outsourcing countries including India is proper English usage. In fact, the ability to speak English properly seems to be an advantage used even by the Overseas Filipino Workers no matter what country they are in. I hope that the production staff of Lastikman will realize this and do something about it or we risk producing children with text or carabao English.

If this is not addressed soon, I may have to punch out Channel 4 from my remote...

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!