What would you buy in bars?

Note: If you're reading this and you're underage wherever you come from, I'd like to remind you to follow your home country/state's laws regarding drinking.

I normally drink at a house with my friends, and we tend to drink either beers or mixed drinks. It's why I had that post a long while back. For several reasons, I prefer drinking in a private location, but there are times when I end up outside with them. During these occasions, its either pitchers (to share) or beers for me. Why?

1. I'd rather not get drunk in public

Because it comes with a host of problems from the humiliating to the horrifying. Your Blood Alcohol Levels\ (BAC) increases depending on how much and how fast you drink, but the liver can only metabolise one drink an hour. There are charts available to calculate it, but you only need 1-2 drinks in an hour to get that buzz.

and

2. Liquor, especially hard liquor, is awfully expensive in bars

The mark-up is usually at least twice the store price. This is due to many factors, like why Starbucks is so expensive. It's another story if they're serving something special, but even those you can buy anywhere becomes insanely expensive in the right/wrong places.

For some people, either the former and/or the latter would be fine. But it's just not for me…

Qtea

Qtea is a milk tea place found in Jorge Bocobo St., Ermita Manila. It's a nice place to hang out since it's supposed to offer free wifi for a certain time (I think) for a drink purchased. I've never tried the Wifi here and I've only ordered a drink once. I asked a staff member and their tea all comes from Taiwan and it looks like tea leaves are actually used!

Qtea Bar area

 As seen below, the store occupies two stories. It's actually loft type and sunlight filters well through the front of the store. It's a bit darker and cozier near the back. The upper floor is significantly warmer than the ground floor and you'll be listening to chinese music while you chill or study. This place closes late.

Qtea

 The bar area is also pretty long and kept quite neatly. Unfortunately, I'd rather not buy from a place that charges extra for fresh milk, so I've only tried the earl grey tea once, and it was decent, though I'm not wowed by it (possibly too much ice).

Qtea Bar area 2

… But they make a pretty good waffle! For P95 (or is it 98), you get a drink sized waffle that's crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. They, cool the whipped cream in an ice bath before serving, which is pretty nice. My only dislike was that couldn't really go crazy on the whipped cream: serving size was appropriate for light dipping…. you can't really slather it on :( I wonder if you can ask for extra cream XD

Qtea Waffle

I'll probably return here for the waffles :) It makes for a delicious light breakfast or heavy snack while studying.

Skin White Classic Whitening Deodorant

This Skin White Classic Whitening Deodorant (and antiperspirant?) is a roll-on with a "powder silk" scent. If you're one of those people that like the smell of powder, or like to use it, this might be for you. It's a bit on the strong side at first while wet, but becomes on the fainter - like powder ought to be - as soon as it dries off. Tip: Make sure it dries off first before adding clothes on top - this is a liquid roll-on! I haven't noticed any stains on clothes from this but I always make sure everything's dry.

Skin White Classic Whitening Deodorant

While this is marketed as a whitening deodorant and antiperspirant, it only does 2/3 claims: it's a pretty ok deodorant and antiperspirant (lasts 8-9 hours in non-strenuous conditions) especially for its price of around P30 and lasts a long time. It didn't really do much for whitening, though it didn't do any darkening other.

I probably won't buy this again because I'd like to find something with actual whitening capabilities, but for a basic antiperspirant and deodorant, this is pretty ok for me.


Edit: The smaller size is 30, this probably was around 60.

The Importance of Back Ups

My laptop crashed a week ago and boy - did i regret not having a backup of half my files (over 1 year of stuff just gone). Thanks to P, I was able to regain most of my files (THANKS P!!! <-- a="" am="" be="" but="" cannot="" d="" didn="" exclamation="" first="" give="" go="" grateful="" have="" how="" i="" in="" into="" losing="" lot="" more="" of="" p="" panic="" place.="" points="" put="" sentiment="" show="" t="" the="" them="" through="" to="" wish="" words="">
Lesson learned a bit too late: if you have a computer, you need an external drive big enough to contain everything inside (and a bit more) - and you should use it regularly (at least once a month).

Nowadays, I recommend getting at least 1TB of extra space... they're not so expensive now (around P3k) : especially if you're willing to get the non portable ones. The newer, smaller ones are more expensive but they're a lot more portable.

Of course, there's always cloud storage for those willing to pay a lot more, but I don't think its a very popular option in the Phil ($20/month for 1TB on iCloud)... though it does have the benefit of being super accessible (just don't keep nothing really sensitive inside) given a good net connection.

So there, I lost some of my stuff: which is why posting will probably be delayed :( But, silver lining: I learned a very valuable lesson that will stick with me forever.