The Past Week and More Goodies!

I didn’t blog as much as I wanted last week but I have two good reasons. One, because it was our company Year-End party last Friday. And two, because Hubby and I had an exam last Saturday and we were cramming to prepare for it.

Just like last year, I was responsible for everything for our annual event. Yes, I was practically a one-woman show again.  Unfortunately, despite all the planning and preparations, our company party wasn’t as successful as I wanted it to be. Not my fault, though. The problem was the venue and their operations department. And because of their miscommunication, the program was delayed for an hour and a half, I became angry and was in a foul mood (although I did try my best not to show it because I was the host and needed to be all happy and gay), there were several lapses and we needed to move some parts of the program around, and I didn’t eat eat much even though I was really hungry.

It’s a good thing our top managers were understanding of the situation and just took everything in stride. There was even a time during the party when I forgot what happened earlier because I could see our managers and a few guests enjoying themselves as they followed the moves of the Just Dance video. That was fun! But I was still upset, and as soon as I went back to work last Sunday, I informed our contact person at the hotel what happened and expressed how disappointed I was.

As for the exam, we’ll know the results after a couple of weeks. I think I did well in 3 sections, but I'm not that confident for the last. I do hope I was able to make up for some parts of it, though. We’ll see.

Anyway, I’ve been receiving more goodies lately. Two colleagues arrived from trips to Thailand (one for vacation and another for business), a guest visited from Japan, and the other is actually not for me, but for Sophie.

These came from my colleague who went to Thailand for a 5-day vacation:

She said everything was really cheap there, so she brought a whole bag full of mangoes, packs of dried mangoes, Haw Flakes, small jars of tamarind candies, and keychains for each for us.

These came from the other colleague who was there for a 3-month assignment:

He knows I like to collect magnets, so whenever he goes on a business trip to another country, he never fails to bring me one from the place he visited, and other treats for our other female colleagues. He’s the same one who gave me the magnets from Texas.

This morning, a manager who joined us from Japan brought these colorful boxes of yummy mochi of different flavors

And Sophie received this cute handmade card through the mail from the daughter of a n@wie for our Christmas Card Exchange.

It's not really obvious, but these were made with fingerprints! =)

I know she may be too young to understand the meaning of the Exchange and appreciate the thrill of receiving something handmade and via snail mail, but I’m sure she will when she's a bit older. At least next year, she’ll be able to make one herself and really take part. This year, Caila was the one who participated for both of them, so she had to send 2 cards and gifts to my daughters’ assigned recipients.  She didn't mind, though.  She found it fun.

Oh, one last thing! I just received a call a few minutes ago telling me I can collect a prize I won through another draw I joined. Yaaaaaaayyyy!!!!! I’ll be collecting it tonight after work and I promise I’ll blog about it as soon as I can. For sure I’ll tweet about it later when it’s in my hands, so if you want to see what I won, follow me on Twitter.

I’m so excited!

Pasalubong: Donuts and Japanese Goodies

J.Co donuts is an Indonesian brand that’s famous in the Philippines, and I was curious to find out why people back home were going crazy over them.

Fortunately, when Hubby arrived last week after a short visit to the Philippines, he brought these

a dozen J.Co donuts!

The next day, 2 Japanese guests arrived. One of them brought this for us to share

And the other guest who frequently visits left a wrapped parcel on my desk.  When my girls opened it later at home, we found these inside

So many yummy goodies in 2 days!

Now if you see me looking plumper than usual, you’ll know why =)

Pasalubong: Maamoul Mix

A guest from our Kuwait office came today, and he brought a nice tin can box of goodies for us.

According to Wikipedia, Maamoul are small shortbread pastries filled with pistachios, walnuts, and dates.

This assortment had all these, and I think I tasted figs in one that I tried.

I’m not really a fan of anything with nuts in them, but these were actually quite tasty.

At least I was able to try something new all the way from Kuwait =)

Pasalubong: Matcha KitKat

In the Philippines, when a person returns from a trip or visits someone at his home, he usually brings something that we call a "pasalubong;" something like a souvenir or gift from the place he visited.

Where I work, we receive a lot of pasalubongs because we often have guests visiting (mainly from Japan), and my colleagues and I go on business trips and/or our annual vacations to our home countries or elsewhere.  And since I want to remember all the different international treats I get to taste, I decided to post a series of all these goodies I enjoy.

First off, matcha (green tea) flavored KitKat brought by one of the managers who came back from his vacation.

He usually buys these for us whenever he comes from Japan and they are my favorite flavors out of the very few varieties of KitKat I've tasted...actually, more the green one than the pink.

Plain Matcha flavor

Cherry Blossom flavor

Each box has 3 individual packs of 2 wafer sticks.

Yum? Absolutely!!!

I wonder why the KitKat flavors in Dubai are so limited.  It was only last year (I think) when I saw Lulu Hypermarket selling the orange and mint ones, but that's it.

Have you tried other KitKat flavors? What are your favorites? Please share...so I can ask our manager to buy them if they're available in Japan =)