The Samsung Corby PRO (B5310)

I was so attracted to the Samsung Corby Pro the first time I saw it in a poster that I bought one the week it was released. For its competitive price and wide range of features, I was quite sure that the phone was a steal back then. I am no techie junkie, but I've been roadtesting the product for quite some time now (5 months to be exact!) and I think it's just about time that I make a short review for the others out there who are thinking of getting the same phone.

  

Photo courtesy of google images as I am too lazy to take my own!

I won't be posting all the details and specifications anymore as these can be found in hundreds and hundreds of pages in the internet. Instead, I would be making a list of the things that I liked and disliked about the Samsung Corby Pro.

What I do like:

•  It has multiple typing options. You can input text via the slide-out QWERTY pad, the touchscreen alphanumeric keypad and writing boxes 1 and 2, which recognize your handwriting per letter box and per word, respectively.

• It packs a lot of features for its price, which is around 11,000-12,000Php ($250-265). You've got a 3.2MP camera, music player, Wi-Fi connectivity, HSDPA, GPRS, bluetooth, voice recorder, FM radio and good enough customization features.
• It has widgets for all your social networking needs.
• It has a conversation option, which allows you to view messages as chat logs. I like that I have the option to choose the way by which I read my text messages.
• There are buttons at the left side of the phone which allow you to adjust the font size. This is perfect for those with bad eyes like mine! I can read my messages without my glasses on when I set the font size to its maximum.
• It has 3 interchangeable back covers that come free with every purchase.

Human Heart Nature's Nourishing Shampoo and Body Wash

As embarrassing as it is, I would have to admit that I have been suffering from rapidly thinning hair like some old lady at the very early age of twenty two. According to my awesome mom, this hair fall problem is due to the fact that I do not wear some sort of shower cap when I administer chemotherapeutic drugs to my patients. Oh, how I love mothers and their creative imagination!

 Young and Balding

I've been told  to wash my hair with mild baby shampoo every other day, but I feel icky when I don't wash my hair daily and I get dandruff with baby shampoo, so I had to look for an alternative shampoo that is gentle enough to use daily. I came across Human Heart Nature, a Filipino owned company that sells organic products at affordable prices in one of the blogs that I follow. Their nourishing shampoo sounded promising with its less hair fall claim so I tried the aloe vera -  peppermint variant with much enthusiasm.

What I do like about this product:

• It's organic and affordable! These two words do not usually go together until Human Heart Nature came along. A 200 ml bottle only costs around Php 100 ($2)!
•  I love its minty feel on my scalp.
• It lathers pretty well for an organic shampoo.
•  It also doubles as a body wash so it's perfect for travelling.
•  Human Heart Nature provides employment opportunities and sustainable income to Gawad Kalinga communities so your hair can be as clean as your conscience!

What I do not like about this product:

• My hair kind of felt rough and dry after rinsing, but this is nothing that a good conditioner cannot handle.
• Though the shampoo smelled minty when in the bottle, it did not give my hair any particular scent after rinsing.

I haven't been road testing the product long enough to vouch for their "less hair fall" claim so I'll probably do an update on this one once I see results. Will I repurchase? Uh, maybe.


For more information on Human Heart Nature products, visit www.humanheartnature.com.


Also, watch out for my review of Human Heart Nature's Tomato and Lemongrass Toner.

Going Greek-oh at Cyma!

Together with the  boyfriend, I braved the afternoon weekend crowd of Makati for some Greek food at Cyma.


We arrived at Cyma pretty early because we've been told that the waiting line was a nightmare if you have no reservations. We got a table alright, but while ordering, we were informed that our food choices were not yet ready for serving until an hour or two. Since I had my mind set on what I wanted to eat, stubborn me told the waiter to reserve a table for us for when we come back later. Greek food, or any good food for that matter, is always, always worth the wait, in my opinion (and this is why I'm fat!).


For starters, we had Saganaki in the Cyma Original variant, which was a delightful combination of Mozarella, Parmesan and Evoo melted to cheesy perfection. Served with a hearty "Opa!" by Cyma's amiable waiters, the chewy, gooey goodness of this appetizer is a must try for all cheese lovers like myself.

Saganaki or Flaming Cheese (Php 200)

As we always do, we ordered two main entrees that we can share. For the love of lamb, we tried Lamb gyro, which was basically marinated lamb wrapped in warm pita bread and topped with tomatoes, red onions and tzatziki sauce. Although the meat was not as tender as I wanted it to be, I still liked the flavorful marinade and the mildly sour, garlicky taste of the tzatziki sauce.

 Lamb Gyro (Php 220)

We also wanted to try Greece's national dish so we ordered Moussaka, which was layered seasoned ground pork and beef under roasted Japanese eggplant, topped with Greek Bechamel sauce. The dish was light on the tongue, but suprisingly filling; rich and creamy, but not unpleasantly so.

Moussaka (Php 250)

For dessert, we had Skolatina, Cyma's molten chocolate cake served with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce. The warm, moist cake and the cold vanilla ice cream danced inside my mouth like little blessings from heaven. I seriously think that the world would be a happier and more peaceful place if the government gave everyone free Skolatina rations everyday, lolz.

Skolatina (Php 295)


For reasonably priced Greek food, visit Cyma in Greenbelt 2, EDSA Shangri-La, Trinoma or Eastwood City.

Because I'm Too Poor for Paris

I want to go to Paris, but because I'm too poor these days, I would have to settle for this instead: Paris 26 Gigapixels.


Now, let me kiss you goodbye as you embark on your journey to virtual Paris.

I have an ugly kissing face. I would not want a person looking like this kissing me if I were anyone else.

Seriously though, do click on the link and see 2,346 high resolution photos put together to form a panoramic view of Paris.

Shopping with Dad!

I went home from an exhausting trip to the mall all excited to blog, but lo and behold, we have no internet!  So here I am typing my heart out in notepad and saving the upload part for later. The rather  poor service of PLDT couldn’t dampen my spirits though. I am in such a post-dork-shopping-frenzy-state with all the books my dad and I bought at Chapters and Pages! I am too lazy to enumerate the titles, so just look at the photo below for details. 

Great stuff for Php 49.50 ($1) each, yes? Pre-loved books are love!

A trip to the mall wouldn't be complete without visiting the bath and beauty department. Although I have enough products to last me a year, I just couldn't resist the temptation of trying out new products every now and then. For this trip to the mall, I got the following:

Likas Papaya soap, Pond's Flawless White sunblock, Carmex lip balm, generic shower cap and Olay Natural White cream

I have had terrible experiences with Pond’s (breakouts!) and Olay (oil depot on my face with their tinted moisturizer), but I was in a very forgiving mood a while ago so i decided to give these brands another shot.  I know it's beneficial to wear sunblock all the time even when it's not the summer season, but I just couldn’t find the perfect SPF that would not break me out.  I'll be using the Olay whitening cream on my elbows, nape and knees anyway, so I guess my face won’t be in danger of an oil spill anytime soon. Heh.

I also bought a Carmex lip balm and Likas papaya soap because I read very good reviews about them in the internet.  Carmex lip balm is rather smelly, but I'm loving its minty feel on my lips. I have never tried papaya soap before as I am quite satisfied with my skin color. However,  I’ve recently noticed that my arms  look extremely dark compared to the rest of my body, so I figured that I might need some rescuing by a trusted brand of papaya soap. 

 Cute notebook by Yeah, Maybelline eye and lip make up remover and ELF Corrective Concealer Kit

I was attracted to the ELF Corrective Concealer Kit because of its packaging, which was classy for something worth Php 250 (around 5 dollars). I'm also hoping that it's a good dupe for Red Earth's All-In-One Concealer Kit, which I could not find anywhere these days.

I'm super excited to try my new stuff out! I'll post some reviews when I have the time.

In My Imagination

Summer heat and night shifts are the perfect catalysts for imagination.


I was all excited to sleep after my night shift, but because summer heat is a bitch and campaign jingle noise is bullshit, I found myself unable to sleep in my rented room even if I counted a million sheep. Home sweet airconditioned home is a hundred and fifty bucks away, so instead of taking a cab and sleeping at home before night duty as a normal non-cheapskate person would do, I forgo sleep, go online, let myself be inspired by awesome blogger Helga's recent post and start imagining my perfect world where:

1. Summer heat and night shifts are but distant memories.
2. I have clear skin, regular monthly visits and a metabolism that would keep me barbie-thin for the rest of my life no matter what I eat.
3. Every person has a signature fart smell and mine would be green clover and aloe.
4. I am an events organizer who gets to go to various product launches and food tasting events.
5. My mom and dad never age. My sister is my bff and my brother is an international singing sensation.
6. I have a best selling book, which will be made into a movie. The movie will star Johnny Depp, Tom Hanks, Patrick Dempsey and Geoff Eigenmann. Geoff would not be allowed to talk in the movie, only smile.
7. My boyfriend is a mean race car driver and professional gamer.
8. I have a steady supply of gourmet potato chips, macadamia nuts, my favorite chocolates, french fries and hello panda.
9. The world believes in God and is cancer free.
10. I speak fluent English, Filipino, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Chinese and Japanese. Learning all these languages would be via hypnotism or something totally effortless like that.
11. Cockroaches are extinct. There would be a cockroach museum where people can throw tomatoes at cockroach monuments and laugh at the nonexistence of the cockroach species.
12. I have 20/20 vision and I can adjust the color of my eyes according to my outfit.
13. I have the cutest dog with a huge pink bow who poops at her designated poop compartment in the house.
14. I travel via apparating and Paris is less than 10 seconds away.
15. Awesome things I imagine [such as things mentioned in this list] become a reality.

It's 4pm, I haven't slept yet and my next shift starts at 9pm. I want milk, cookies, sleep and something that would halt the catalysts that are bringing about all this imagination.