Fall 7 Times, Stand Up 8
* Remember in my past blogs when I was writing about being safe in the arms of routine and all that stuff? Well, we were certainly rocked when Typhoon Santi hit Elbi. Ondoy was also a big hassle. But what made Santi more memorable was it showered my room…my room–the command center of Cafe Antonio-Los Banos. All the magic happens there, that’s my laboratory, my music studio, my art studio, and my history museum. That’s when I found out how vulnerable I was and how dependent I was on my stuff.
* I tried to stay cool and composed, I didn’t get mad but I was certainly panicking deep inside. Good thing, aside from being a control and neat freak, ironically, I also like nomadic adventures and Bohemian values, weird. It’s like switching between two modes.
* Last night I was surfing the net at Infobucks because Koinonia was closed. For two days we spent the night at my sister’s house at the IRRI Staff housing. I had three bags, one for clothes, one for gadgets, and my usual backpack of notebooks, books, and mobile phone chargers. I had pillows, a blanket, and Bishan the White Tiger in my MultiCab. I was relishing the moment, I remember the days when I was a kid when we would experience horrendous floods at Jordanville in Quezon City. Our life was a life of cleaning up stuff, packing things in to boxes and moving from house to house. My family has moved a total of 21 times, I was there in 3 or 4.
* Maybe I just got fed up with all the running and cleaning. And I never thought my stuff would get wet again. I said to myself that what happened to us was just okay and it’s a good thing that nobody got hurt. It’s also a good thing that the cafe didn’t get wet inside.
* This week we’re facing a lot of cleanup, especially for my part because I have a lot of stuff packed in my room. The MultiCab also needs to take a bath. That’s life, it gets messed up, we clean it up, make the best out of it and then get ready for the next big thing. Too much good will make you miss the bad and vice versa.
* Cafe NEWS! Our 100% Benguet Arabica Beans are now available in 500 gram bags for 500 pesos. That’s double the amount of our House Blend beans. We decided to be the first shop here in Elbi to sell 100% Arabica beans. And it’s from Benguet, we thought it would be a good way to support local coffee.
* FoMs! The Christmas Season offers 3 FoMs every year. The Choco Chip and the Smores Frothiccino. If you’re having trouble deciding which one to pick you can always try the combination of the two, the all-time favorite OVERLOAD! It’s soooo insane, it can be served in a bowl! Try one now!
* I just came back from Dumaguete last Wednesday, you can check out our pictures at our Facebook page. See how the branch in Visayas is doing. That’s all for this week, thanks for supporting us!
Of Paper Cups and Music
The Beauty in Breakdown
CAnton Runs on Tropa-wer!
* Oh my, it’s been days since I’ve gone online. I didn’t get the chance to update you guys about this month’s Flavor of the Month, the very popular Brownie Fudge Frothiccino (BFF) or the Ultimate Fattening Frothiccino, as I personally like to call it. Yes, it’s back, after a year! It was so highly anticipated, it was ordered 8 times on its first day last Thursday and 8 times again in one hour the next day! For our new customers, the BFF is like a drink and a dessert in a 16-oz cup. It has two kinds of chocolate pastries (baked by Yummings Pastry Shop) literally crammed in a chocolate and Irish cream-based Frothiccino. It’s really a treat for those who love brownies and chocolate. You get all of these delicious goodness for only 130 pesos.
* Have you noticed our Shirts Avenue display at the back of the bookshelf? Well, for those of you who ordered UP shirts at the cafe, your shirts will be a bit delayed. Shirts Avenue’s printing press is in Marikina and it has temporarily stopped operations due to Typhoon Ondoy. We will just inform you about further developments. You can still reserve shirts at the cafe.
* Last week was a crazy week for us. Everybody was prepared for another typhoon and customer turnout was a little unpredictable. Typhoon Pepeng got a lot of hype, so Showtime Friday last week wasn’t exactly the showtime we were expecting. Thursday night attracted more people and also Saturday, maybe it’s a way of celebrating Pepeng’s no-show in Elbi. Thankfully, Pepeng didn’t become the kind of typhoon we were expecting. We’re definitely not ready for another blow just yet.
* Again, we would like to thank our customers for a successful run last week, in spite of the calamities and the odds that defy us, it’s always comforting for us to see that the CAnton faithful is always there to support us. Remember last Tuesday night? That was really something else, we had people waiting outside because the cafe was so full we ran out of tables. And last Saturday, even though the air-conditioning had gone bonkers, droves of people still went in. Is this encouragement or pressure? Or both?
* If the band, Meliora, has Tro-fans on Facebook (tropa who are fans), CAnton runs on Tropa-wer, where friends of friends of friends just support each other. I’m really looking forward to this week. We’ll be buying new trashcans, the kind where you can segregate the plastics, paper, and biodegradable stuff. And I’ll be the barista again tomorrow (Monday) because Neil has to finish a number of requirements before the semester ends.
* Well, I hope we all end the semester just right, with no hang-ups whatsoever. And I hope you guys would celebrate good times at CAnton when all these first sem drama ends, just like last year!
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A Fair Share of the Good and the Bad
* The things that happened last week, it’s kinda funny how things played out. It’s an emotional roller coaster, really. Last, last week (”Fire’s Hot, We Need More Fuel!”), I was sorta down maybe because I was in the process of brainstorming stuff for the cafe. I like brainstorming, but it really sucks the energy out of you. So what I did was put my plans into action all in one Sunday evening. That was draining but I was fulfilled.
* Last Monday, a day after pulling the strings and making the world go round (as I would like to call it) from my room/office, a barrage of things just happened all at once.
* Stressed and hassled from managing repairs early in the morning at the cafe, I posted on Facebook: What good will this Monday bring us? And I got my answer almost immediately. After Bible study, my sister Joyce and I had a financial update meeting. While we were talking, our 2 TESDA OJTers arrived from Batangas for their first day of training. I told them to sit tight as I was wrapping up my meeting with my sister. When I finally got to them for their orientation, our Shirts Avenue suppliers arrived to set up their space at the cafe. By the way, Shirts Avenue (www.shirtsavenue.multiply.com) is a Multiply site owned and managed by people from UP Diliman. They sell UP shirts online. Our friends from the UPLB Navigators decided to sell Shirts Avenue merchandise at CAnton so that UP students from Elbi can buy their UP shirts. Going back to the story, I told the shirts people to wait because I was still orienting the trainees. After a few seconds, Kuya Rodel from Koinonia.com arrived with our new tumblers. I told him that I’ll attend to him right after I attend to the shirts people. After a few minutes, the crew from the Kabataan News Network arrived asking me if they could setup their equipment! What’s funny was I completely forgot about our interview! So I was not really ready to face the camera and all. In addition to that, a group of customers arrived at the cafe. It was crazy. But everything went great.
* Prior to that, we just got new curtains installed. So it’s a good debut for the curtains, well at least for the cream curtains from our house that my mom brought from San Pablo. We used it for a couple of hours. Later in the evening, Jenni brought the curtains we asked her and her mom to make. I didn’t expect that they’ll make it that fast!
* In just one night, the cafe was full of new stuff. We had the curtains, the Shirts Avenue display, and the new tumblers from Koinonia (order one today at www.cafeantoniostore.multiply.com). We were all happy about the way things turned out. Who would have thought that so much change would happen not just in a day, but in a moment. A moment definitely changes a lot of things.
* The next day, that was a Tuesday, I went to San Pablo for my work with my Pop. While I was posting pictures of the new developments at the cafe on Facebook, Dan wrote on our wall asking if I’ve seen my name and a quote from my blog on the newspaper. I told him not yet. He called then told me my name was on the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s Go Negosyo full-page ad sponsored by Belo Medical Group (Sept. 21, 2009). Then Jenni called and told me that my blog entry (”Fire’s Hot, We Need More Fuel!”) appeared on Joey Concepcion’s column in the Philippine Star last, last Thursday (Sept. 17, 2009). We didn’t even get the chance to see it! Everything went nuts that day, I was sweating and getting all excited. My blog entry was also posted in Philstar.com and GoNegosyo.net, officially making it the most popular blog entry I’ve ever written on this blog site. Then last Friday (Sept. 25, 2009), while Retz was reading the Philippine Star, he saw another Go Negosyo ad, this time sponsored by Condura, again, with my name and a quote from my blog! Woah…
* Well, we had our share of good things. But of course, when good things happen, bad things also happen. Like last Saturday’s typhoon Ondoy. We opened at 7 PM that day because our apartment was flooded and we had to clean our home. It’s a good thing that the cafe’s ceiling didn’t leak. We had a handful of memorable experiences when the cafe’s ceiling leaked.
* That day, I thought that it would officially be our first day without a sale. The outside looked bleak. I slept on the couch while our friend Gelo Arboleda, typed an outline for his English subject. My fear didn’t come true, thankfully. Our loyal customers are really loyal. Kahit may bagyo, pumupunta parin! I can’t believe it! Haha!
* It’s a new week and a new hope for all of us. We’ll be praying for those who have been affected by the typhoon, I hope we’ll all be able to recover. For those who remained safe, be very thankful.
* We’re very thankful for this week, it’s been a unique experience for all of us. It gives variety and brings spice (like a dash of Cayenne pepper to a bowl of Pasta Bolognese) to our lives. Be it good or bad, everything happens for a reason. Have a fruitful and productive week ahead, God bless!
WE SATiSFi W/ NO WiFi: What it Means
* After 4 packs of Cream-O Deluxe sandwich cookies, and an episode of Gossip Girl, I’ve decided to write this week’s blog entry on a Sunday evening. I’ll be waking up early tomorrow because I have to be at the cafe to attend to some repairs and installations.
* WE SATiSFi WITH NO WiFi. You may have read this statement on our door or on some t-shirts that we sold on Multiply (http://cafeantoniostore.multiply.com) and at the cafe. But what does this exactly mean? I have blogged about our “WiFi-Free” establishment months ago, way, way, way back. But Facebook wasn’t popular yet during that time. And this is a good opportunity for everybody to know.
* We didn’t have WiFi from the very beginning. The lack of an Internet connection is a feature that we are proud to have… “the lack of” is what we have and normally the lack of something shouldn’t be called a feature at all. The presence of absence, as I like to call it. When asked, “Ano yung meron kayo, na wala yung iba?”, we would answer, “Mas maganda sana kung ang tanong ay anong wala kami na meron yung iba?”
*WE SATiSFi WITH NO WiFi is sort of a subtle campaign we started to encourage both fellow entrepreneurs and customers.
* DISCLAIMER: WiFi IS NOT BAD, IT IS OUR FRIEND. WE ALSO USE WiFi IN OUR PERSONAL LIVES.
* For entrepreneurs first. Obviously, we’re not the first establishment to have no WiFi. Only a handful have WiFi in their establishments. The message that we want to preach is that it is not a disadvantage to not have WiFi. Actually it gives entreps an opportunity to focus more on their products and their customers. Rather than their customers focusing on what they need to do hence the emergence of the rise of the
“tambay” customers. It’s such a refreshing feeling to have knowing that people come for you and your products and not simply for the bonus features that you offer. And when the time comes that we all REEEEALLY do need WiFi and it becomes a necessity like cable TV and Ascorbic Acid, do not fret, someday, somehow, the whole of ELBI if not the whole world will be a Free WiFi zone. So let’s just bank on that! Haha, rakenrol!
* For customers… Most of us have an Internet connection at home. We spend maybe 40% or more of our day surfing the net outside of our homes in a computer shop, on our mobile phones, or with our laptops and Globe Tattoos. For a change of vista, or quite frankly, for a change of pace in our life of strained eyes, isn’t it cool to experience the world where we were born for just a few hours and be humans rather than just profiles photos and headshots? At CAnton, we let everybody get wild in a game of Uno, we allow them to roll on the floor while playing Pictionary, we permit everyone to be kids and read Pugad Baboy, and we enjoy seeing groups of people talk the night away. Ahh… it’s a good reminder of who we used to be.
* Yes, CAnton is 100% dependent on online promotions in our social networking sites. Our websites are an extension of our physical cafe. You don’t come to the cafe to visit our websites or read our blogs. That’s just wrong. Our sites serve as your Cafe Antonio when you’re not physically in Cafe Antonio. When you’re there, you become part of what we post on our sites, you actually become part of a story.
*So as everyone can see, we don’t discourage the use of the Internet because we also use it for work. Let us use WE SATiSFi WITH NO WiFi as a campaign to encourage both businesses, lifestyles, and Filipino values. So join us, and let’s try to do our very best even without a WiFi connection!
Uncategorized | Comment (0)Fire’s Hot, We Need More Fuel!
* Opportunities. Choices. Decisions. I was pondering the meaning of those 3 words last week while I was at the cafe. And I found out that all three relate to the concept of our future, individual and collective. The opportunities we grab may start our future and mark the beginning of something good…or bad. But of course, we always have the choice to either grab that opportunity or not. The choice to whether grab it or not, needs some big time decision-making.
* When my friend Jenni and I went to the SM Mall of Asia last Friday to attend the Go Negosyo Sigaw ng Kabataan event, we were looking forward to get a lot of inspiration from the speakers (we heard talks from Joey Concepcion, Sen. Manny Villar, Sec. Peter Favila, Veejay Floresca, Chris Tiu, Sen. Chiz Escudero, Myla Villanueva, Gov. L Ray Villafuerte, Sen. Kiko Pangilinan, Francis Kong, Butch Jimenez, Henry Tenedero, Sec. Arthur Yap, Dean Pax Lapid, Joy Abaquin, and Maoi Arroyo). And yes, we did get inspiration. But not just inspiration, as a young entrepreneur myself, I got a lot of encouragement and affirmation.
* The speakers mentioned about starting young, staying in the country and being your own boss, taking risks, utilizing what we have and not being hindered by finances, being creative and innovative, and all that. I was really glad that the high school and college students who attended the event were getting this much positivity and encouragement from not just “old business people” but from people who are in their 20s and 30s. Not really “a generation away”.
* The entrepreneurial spirit - not everyone has this. But for the people who do have this and have yet to find this, you all know what your heart wants you to do. It sure is risky and involves a lot of ground-up hard work and a lot of heart, courage, and determination.
* And not just courage from failure, but the courage to tell everyone what you want to do. A good example of this kind of courage is The Zohan, from the film, You Don’t Mess with the Zohan. He’s a counter-terrorist but wants to be a hairdresser and stylist. That’s a bit extreme, but I do believe that many many people have a similar problem. Most of the time, the problem is “what would people think about me?” rather than “what do I really want to do in my life?” Because we all know what we want to do waaaay deep in our hearts. But we are afraid because others may think it’s a waste of time or “sayang ang pinag-aralan mo”. Can anyone relate?
* I’m really happy that my life was fashioned to be a good example of what I’m saying. I’m a sociology graduate, and I was good at what I’m doing: field research, writing, and reporting. I could have made a career out of that. But deep inside my heart, I wanted to serve people food and drinks and make coffee. If I had strict parents, they could have me imprisoned the moment that I tell them that. But thankfully, I do not have those kind of parents. That’s why it was easy for me to do what I wanted. My parents had faith and trusted in us. They knew what we were capable of in our fields of interest. Because that’s where our hearts are.
* For our parent readers, I’m asking you that you give your children a chance to be who they want to be. It may be a cliche already, but it is the way to go in this day and age because we are so capable of so many different things. Like it or not, it’s the youth who makes the world go round today.
* The Go Negosyo program is very very good. Empowering the youth about entrepreneurship is definitely a good thing. But the youth have parents, and it’s these people who make their world go forward. I hope that we can also empower parents to support their children in their endeavors. Because if we’re talking about heart and desire, we (the youth) already have enough. What we need now is support. Especially from our parents. God bless everyone!
Sophomore Slump or A New Perspective?
* I really don’t like being on duty on late notice. That’s because for me, being a barista for a day needs a lot of psyching up before game time. Right now, although I’m a bit queasy from watching Gossip Girl all day yesterday (then realizing halfway that I’ve already watched Season 2 before, badtrip!), I can say that I’m pretty psyched up. I was up very early today, turned on the radio for my daily dose of Good Times at Magic, sipped Nesvita and coffee (mixed!), took a bath, made do lists and sub-do lists, then drove off to do, I mean, PERFORM errands. I like that PERFORM errands, haha! Blogging is an errand, a weekly Monday errand. Along with laundry, picking up groceries at Joyce’s place, plus other stuff I do to make me look busy.
* I was forced to eat pancakes at McDonald’s this morning. I needed the extra energy. It’s part of the psyching up thing.
* Back to the main topic, we’re busy this week because…
* I have this interview at 4 pm with a student. She’s (are you a she?) doing a study about coffee shops in Elbi. Well, that’s been a hot topic lately. Hehe. Suddenly everybody loves coffee; are we the new coffee capital?! Who knows, who knows…
* Then we have this OJT person who will be hanging out with us for a while. She’ll be starting today. Just trying to help her out for her TESDA exam. Glad we can help. We hope your experience with us will be fruitful! Add us up on Facebook (www.facebook.com/cafeantonioelbi).
* Then on Friday, I’ll be the one gone for the day so Neil will be taking over Showtime Friday this week. It’s been quite some time now since Neil’s taken over a Friday. I’ll be attending this Go Negosyo event at the SM Mall of Asia. They’ve got a bunch of free seminars that looks interesting. It’s an all-day event and I’m very excited. My friend Jenni Sumagui will be accompanying me to the event. Al Labadan was supposed to go with me but backed out, so sayang dude. Joyce has work so she can’t come too. I hope we can get fresh insights from the event… yeah, certainly we will.
* Gigs… I’m still waiting for the go-signal from Meliora. I was asking them if they can do an acoustic gig at the cafe. And my band, actually it’s just me and Bessy collectively known as The Bookshelf Cassette (because I used to store my cassette tape collection on a bookshelf), haven’t practiced yet. Hey if you guys out there have any original material and/or play indie covers you can do a gig at the cafe. But no, we can’t pay you, you’ll be playing just for the heck of playing and letting others hear your stuff. The message: YOU HAVE A VENUE.
* Cafe news. Got a lot of customers last week, around 400 plus paying customers, we only count those who order food and/or drinks. So that’s a lot for our cafe. Thanks to all of you! We really want to be the best in what we do. You’ve probably read my barista speeches on my blog, and you probably know by now that making coffee for us is rocket science. I’m glad that I’ve passed on the obsession for clean filter baskets to my baristas. We pull shots until we get it right. We don’t care about the wasted coffee (apologies to our bosses in Dumaguete), it’s not actually wasted, it’s disposed because it’s being tested for quality.
* I’m really happy that our espresso orders are picking up, take note, espresso only, who orders that right? It’s really the heart of everything good. Bitter to some, but sometimes bitter is better. Thank you!!!
* Ahhh… the pressure to do good, and do even better the next time, it’s the formula for breakdown. Are we having a sophomore slump? Uh, I don’t think so. It’s a new year, a new album, a different project, a new perspective (haha, PATD!). We’ll see, it’s hard to live up to the hype sometimes. Especially when you’ve gone full-throttle on your first year.
* I’m amazed that despite the obvious changes at the cafe, we still get new customers and maintain old ones. Special shout out to the Sherwin-Aldo-Candy trio, they’ve been with us since day one. Sometimes I think Sherwin is my boss, haha!
* So please pray for us and continue to support us. We’re very happy that our hometown’s here for us because we love Elbi right back.
I Tried to Do Handstands for You
* Well here we are once again, doing our respective jobs and stuck in the routine of life. Well most of you are on vacation right now but some of us aren’t bound by national holidays. But routine is not that all bad. These moments of complacency, assurance of what would happen during the day, and repetitiveness are sometimes necessary, if not essential, in our lives. These lull moments will pass, then something insane will happen, be it a positive or negative form of insanity. Something totally unexpected or something anticipated and well-prepared for. We must bask in these moments and rest ourselves and find comfort in the arms of routine.
* One thing I realized after college is that students are among one of the luckiest people around. Why? Because they live in a routine. A life that is scheduled, planned out, and laid out for them. You know that this subject is on this time, you know when your midterms are, you can prepare yourself for a long weekend and stuff. Things like that. Although there are some elements of unpredictability, like a pop quiz or a typhoon, or an unplanned failed exam, you have to admit that the life of a student is structured in the structurest way of a structure!
* When you wake up after your graduation you’ll realize that you are no longer bound by some school’s requirements. Unless you found work early and you have to go to the office at once. In my case, I didn’t have work for a year. I did the classic PMA (pahinga muna anak) way after grad. Typical soul-searching and stuff. I strongly recommend that to anyone who is reading this that would be grauating this year. Unless your parents are pressuring you or you want to earn money immediately. But being a bum really detoxifies your inner-being. haha! Yeah it does. It gives you time to think of what you really want to do and totally prepare for it.
* And now here I am, after two years, still in a routine, but it’s a routine that I made for myself. No one’s asking me to blog or maintain several social networking accounts. Our bosses in Dumaguete didn’t tell me to do that (yes, this is a full-time labor of love). But I want to. At least the pressure comes from myself. I’m writing this blog because I want aspiring young entreps to know what goes on in the heart and mind of a 23-year old full-time cafe owner in a little town called Los Banos. Yeah, these are just random thoughts indeed.
* A friend of mine saw our new paper cups and told me, “now you’re like Starbucks!” Uh, yeah, somehow. I wasn’t really offended, I don’t want to be a hypocrite, our crew hangs out at Starbucks when we can, but from the start of the business we didn’t really want to be like Starbucks. Maybe in terms of brand recognition in the Los Banos (UPLB) and Dumaguete (Silliman) areas, yes we do want to be known for our good coffee. But in terms of the overall image, we decided to stray away from the quiet-couch-WiFi crowd. Instead, we welcomed the noise from a thousand youths and played genres from techno to RnB to metal (right now we’re alternating indie singer-songwriters and post-grunge playlists).
* I have something planned out for the cafe this year. As you have noticed we have mellowed down on the posters, videos, promos and stuff. But no, we did not slack off. We’re just coming up with something different, something new. I won’t tell you what it is yet, I don’t want to spoil it! It’s still in the drawing board. The question will always be (at least for me), “What does it take to be different? What will set us apart?” Oh, I’m loving the dynamism of this job. After a few years I hope we can get good at this.
* I view my life like that of a musician or a novelist. You spend a lot of time underthe radar, reflecting on what to do, what to write, what new material to create and all that stuff. People won’t hear from you and they’ll think you’re dead. And then you come out of nowhere and come up with a mega project that’s totally cool. Yeah, that’s the kind of life I like.
* Like what my friend Aaron Zara told me last night, “I like your life, it’s like everyday’s an adventure.” Yes it is, and thanks for reminding me cause sometimes I tend to lose sight of it. God bless everybody!
Uncategorized | Comment (0)Weeds was Entitled Weeds Not Just Because of the Weed
Photo: Our new 12 oz paper cups, yeah!
[Soundtrack: Final Straw - Snow Patrol]
I was about to start this week’s blog entry with the word “last” but noticed that I started a bunch of my blog entries with the words “last week”. And that’s why I started with this notice. Can I use the word “last” now? I think I will…
Last year, we devoted much of our time doing PR work online, making ads (posters and videos), and the works. This year I thought that we’ll concentrate more on training our baristas and strengthening ties with our newfound industry friends. More on the technical side this year. I think we’ve done enough work introducing ourselves to the world (for now) last year. We’re happy that as of this entry we already have 1014 friends on Facebook. We may not know them all (some of them I just added on Suggested Friends, some of them invited us) but I’m glad that you guys are part of what’s going on in our lives as baristas and young entrepreneurs.
I was deleting emails from our inbox last night and I was surprised to see that we actually receive fan mail! Wow, I can’t believe I’ve been ignoring those because all I see are the words Facebook and Multiply in our inbox. To those people who’ve been mailing us, thanks for the encouraging words! I hope the advice I’d given you would help you in your own future endeavors. We’re not industry experts but we’re glad to share our experiences with you. Here’s one email:
Subject: Inspired By You
From: Niña Luigi Chua-Cabardo
I stumbled upon your cafe in Entrepreneur magazine and I have been thinking about your endeavor ever since. It has truly inspired me to take action on a long-time dream, which is to put up my own cafe. And you guys are so young, too! Congratulations on your success! If you have any tips on how to get started on this (which do I do first?!), please do let me know!
Hope to visit Los Baños one of these days so I can try your concoctions 
Thanks and more blessings to you!
Inspiring people to actually pursue their dream gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. Whenever I feel I haven’t done anything significant, here are some things that really gets me going and also inspire me to do better. I actually already made a sorta template reply for people asking for advice on setting up their own shop. Just a list of some things that I learned from Phil and Cedric Ho at Highlander Coffee Academy and other people I’ve talked to.
One thing I’ve learned from those guys is that you don’t have to monopolize the industry. It’s great that there are many small shops coexisting in one place. It offers variety, hosts different types of people, and also puts less pressure on you to actually accommodate everyone on the planet.
I’ve been really really busy last week. I have this 8am to 2pm secretarial job for my father at TOPIC Phils. every Monday to Wednesday. I think it’s been three weeks now. I drive to San Pablo then back to Los Banos in the afternoon to setup the cafe at 3pm. We open at 4pm then I hangout for awhile then go home to prepare for another day. I still work at the cafe during Thursdays to Saturdays. Oh the things people do to get by.
Last Saturday morning was really very tiring. We were supposed to pickup the paper cups at Cubao at 9am. But then we were bitten by the “lakas trippings” bug. We decided that we take Ramhil home to Tanauan, Batangas after work then head straight to Cubao. We brought our former barista Bessy along too.
So after work we went straight to Tanauan and had “dinner” at Jollibee. Then went to Cubao. Realizing that our meet-up place was still closed, we went to Ortigas to look for a place to chill. We were looking for a Starbucks but unfortunately we got lost. The place really looks different without the light of day. We stopped at a Chowking but there was no CR. So we went to McDo instead, had our pancakes and coffee and stayed their until 7 to 7:30am. Talking about life and all that comedy-drama stuff.
We went back to Cubao at the Navigators building. I toured Manong and Bessy around and then we fell asleep on the couch. Thanks to Noynoy for accommodating us! Then the Primatech people came, did the transaction, and then we’re off again. The traffic was horribly amazing, it was freakin’ hot inside the multicab, with all the boxes containing the 5000 paper cups inside it. It was hell on earth, the multicab’s fans were blowing out demons with pitchforks on our faces. The Creedence Clearwater Revival album I was listening to repeated 3 times and we were still in the same place! We got home at 12:30pm. Then Manong and I overslept, we woke up at 3pm instead of the usual 2pm. We were late. But when we got to the cafe, I decided to take my time and just chill, not worry about anything or panic. I opened the cafe alone at 4pm, customers went in but it was all cool. Iba lang talaga pag laseng sa puyat.
[Soundtrack: Futures - Jimmy Eat World]
After closing that day we went straight to Tagaytay to have bulalo on Dan’s birthday. Happy 22nd bday dude! Then we stopped at Petron, SLEX on the way home to have breakfast and coffee. As expected, I woke up at 5pm the next day. I finished season 1 of Weeds. Actually the series inspired me to write today. I don’t know why but the inspiration that a comedy-drama series can give me is often unparalleled. Props to My Boys season 1 for inspiring me for our first year at the cafe. Trust me, I learned a lot of things from that series.
Am I stressed? I don’t think so, doing nothing stresses me more. I think we will all have cancer in the future anyway. So do what you have to do right now. Very bad advice for those who want to save money. Don’t listen to me for financial advice. I don’t like money and math.
AND as for this week, we hope that a lot of you would be taking out our hot coffee. The coffee cups really look good (see the picture above). Nice work by the Primatech people (not the Heroes Primatech people, ok? hehe).
Well thanks for reading these things that’s been going on in my head. A lot of people won’t care but some people just have to do this. They just have to blog. It feels really good.
Okay, I’ll see you all at the cafe. I have some errands to do. Earlier this morning I hung out with my tito Ed Cvelich, a long-time family friend. We talked about a lot of stuff and had coffee at the cafe. Yeah, I opened it for him (because Ate Mila was cleaning anyway). He bought a t-shirt and I gave him a bag of beans to take home to the States. Hope you read this Tito Ed!
God bless us all!
May caffeine be the only drug you take.