Mc Donald’s Euro Tour
In 2006, hubby and Abby joined my Mom and me for the first time in Europe. Just a little backgrounder, we are in the manufacturing business and we export metal sculptures to different countries. Our business has brought us to a number of countries via trade fair participation and twice a year for the last 12 years, we’ve been going to Germany to exhibit our products. Now back to my story…
Abby was only 18 months old when we made that trip and meal times turned out to be such a challenge. She didn’t eat much most of the time and the only meal she would ever eat with gusto were the chicken nuggets from Mc Donald’s. Go figure! In that trip, we were able to visit a total of 5 countries and for sourvenirs, we had Happy Meal toys to show for…from each of the 5 countries. Really!
This photo was taken at the Mc Donald’s located at the Frankfurt am Main Hauptbahnhof, the main train station. Abby’s Happy Meal drink is milk referred to as ”Bio Milch”.
Aside from the chicken nuggets, Abby enjoyed the fruit yogurt that came with the meal as well. We were at this Mc Donald’s location for lunch two days in a row.
This was at a Mc Donald’s in the city of Metz in France. The toy that came with the Happy Meal was a mini radio, which upto now, Abby still loves playing with. It’s her all-time favorite Happy Meal toy.
We were very thrilled with this radio because it features Billy Crawford who, at one time in his life, was a child actor in the Philippines. Hee hee. Small world?
These are our family friends, Uncle D and Aunt H. I don’t know if they’d mind having their photo out in cyberspace so I had to put sunglasses on them. :D Anyway, I had to publish this photo if only for the heart-shaped chicken breast. It was very apt for the Mc Donald’s tagline that time which was “Lovin’ It” (translated to different languages).
I simply bought a Happy Meal for take out for this Mc Donald’s in Maastricht, Holland. We just needed our souvenir toy! Hahaha!
Finally, Mc Donald’s in Luxembourg. We actually ate at another burger place called Quick. But we did still buy a Happy Meal, which Abby ate at Quick. Hee hee.
As much as possible, we try to sample the local cuisine of the places we visit whenever we travel. That didn’t quite happen on this trip. I don’t really mind though as that would be a perfect excuse to revisit these beautiful cities. 
Fast Food, Travel | Comments (2)
Time is Gold
Do you have a special fondness for luxury wrist watches? I know a number of people who believe that it is a must to invest on at least one good timepiece. Well, I’d like to believe that, too, if not for the price tag on these things. Hahaha. I’d be lying if I say I don’t want one. The truth is, included in my wish list of things to have are luxury watches for hubby and me. ;) For me, I’m thinking Cartier and I’m overly attracted to this one…
It’s a Cartier Pasha Ladies’ Watch in 18 white gold. What do you think? The price? Let me put it this way, it’s going to feel like you’re wearing an SUV on your wrist. ;) So much for day dreaming. Hee hee.
But for those of you who can afford, The Watchery.Com might be worth checking out. They sell 100% genuine luxury watches at great discounts. They are able to do this because they are not authorized dealers. What they do instead is buy in bulk from the authorized dealers and distributors and sell them with very low mark up. All the watches they sell are brand new and come in their original boxes with their papers or certificate of authenticity. From what I’ve read on the store’s website, they don’t sell refurbished watches and they do indicate on the site if the watches are second hand.
The Watchery.com carries Ebel watches, Gucci, Chopard, Omega, Movado, Bulgari, Cartier, Tag Heuer, Raymond Weil, Patek Philippe, Maurice Lacroix, and many more. If you want to know more, just hop on over to the site. I will…if only to look and salivate over the watches. Hee hee. ;)
Milk & Honey | Comment (0)
Pepsi Light But Not Quite
This 200ml bottle may be light in calories but definitely not on the pocket, particularly MY Filipino pocket. I had this drink at a Vietnamese restaurant in Maastricht, a city in the Netherlands, in February 2006. Being a tourist from the Philippines, it just shocked the b’juices (I’m Catholic! Hahaha!) out of me that this teeny weeny bottle of soda was worth 2.50 Euro. That’s 120 pesos back then! At around that time in the Philippines, Coke and almost every other soda bottling company in the Philippines had a cola of the same size selling only for 5 freakin’ pesos! That’s not even 20 US cents! Hahaha! I remember Coke’s tiny soda was called “Coke Sakto“. Sakto means ”exact” in English. I wonder if we still have that in the Philippines. Believe you me, I savored every sip and every gulp of that Pepsi Light. Now, I just don’t drink soda anymore. Promise.
Kitchen/Food Etcetera | Comment (1)
Social Spark
SocialSpark is the newest baby of Izea, the company behind the very successful Pay Per Post. It is like a soiree for bloggers and advertisers alike. Since Social Spark went live, a couple of my bloggers friends have already signed up. I have, too, but my profile still needs a lot of work. I hope to give it the attention it needs some time this week. Hee hee.
Through Social Spark, advertisers and bloggers are brought closer together, such that advertisers are able to check out the sites of bloggers before finally deciding on where to put their ads/campaigns. Bloggers, on the other hand, have just found themselves another means to earn extra income.
I like how the bloggers are able to sort of vote for (opp) or against an ad (drop) or each other! This gives bloggers who want to “line-up” for a post, a better idea on how an ad may or may not be worth doing. :D From what I’ve noticed so far, bloggers are getting into the “team work” spirit and giving each other props as well. It can be quite exciting specially if one is such a networking afficionado. 
While the idea behind Social Spark is no doubt bright, there are a few kinks that need to be addressed. I’ve been reading complaints frpm some bloggers, such that they reserved an opportunity for a certain amount and when their turn to finally write the ad for that opp, the payment amount has alreaydy been greatly reduced. And then, one doesn’t really have a clue how long he or she will have to wait to get the opportunity he or she is waiting in line for.
I hope all these issues will be resolved soon. For now, bloggers can have a ball visiting each other’s profile, giving each other props, and generally, growing their network of friends.
*This post is sponsored by Social Spark.*
Milk & Honey | Comment (1)
WS #11: First Chinese Barbecue
First Chinese Barbecue is another restaurant located at the China Town Center, where the Asian supermarket we go to is located. We ate here for the first time on a Sunday about a month ago and a second time yesterday. I couldn’t complain about the food. The food is just good. But I couldn’t say the same about the drinks, particuarly the soy milk that we were served yesterday.
Soy milk is my daughter’s official Chinese restaurant beverage. She never ever finishes her drink so I decided to just share the drink with her. It was a blessing that she was sleeping when we got to the restaurant upto the time the food was served as I got to take the first sip from the glass of soy milk. And guess what, it was spoiled. I noticed from the start that it was unusually thick. When I finally tasted it, my suspicion was justified. It was already sour. We called the attention of our server and told her what was wrong. She smelled it and handed me the beverage list so I can order another drink. When she left for the kitchen, I noticed she smelled the glass of soy milk again. And then, she took out a container of what I presumed to be the soy milk, from the fridge. She took the cap off and smelled it. Then she disappeared further into the kitchen. Tsk tsk.
On our first visit to the restaurant, we only ordered 3 food items. Shrimp fried rice was one of them. We loved it. There was a generous amount of shrimps that you don’t really need any other food item to go with the rice :) We brought home a third of this rice as there was just too much.
Hubby wanted pork and I wanted duck so we ordered a combination of both: barbecue pork and peking duck. How I’ve missed duck! Hee hee! Both hubby and Abby liked the barbecue pork. The duck doesn’t taste very differently from the ones I’ve had in the Philippines. Or has it just been too long that I didn’t really notice the difference? Hmmm.
This was my favorite, the seafood crispy noodles. I’ve always preferred cirspy noodles over the other types of (soupless) noodles. Abby loved the (imitation) crabsticks and the squid…and the vegetables, too. Like the rice, we brought home a third of the crispy noodles.
While we love the food, the service is something else. It just takes too long for the food to get to the table. On our first visit, there was “a spot” on one of the plates that were given to us so we asked to have it replaced. And then there’s our soy milk story yesterday. Good food and good service just have to go hand in hand. Since the food is really good, we’ll just do away with the service part and order take out next time.
Have a great week y’all! I have another weekend snapshot entry HERE. Check out the other WS participants HERE.
Weekend Snapshot | Comments (11)
