Loyalty Cards & Teachers' Day II

* Tomorrow's the first day of December and we have some treats for you for the last 3 weeks of the year.

* Like last year, we will be giving away LOYALTY CARDS. Remember our Ako'ng Cafe Antonio Loyalty Mug (Wednesday, November 19, 2008)? This time we will be giving away a free tumbler and a free drink when you complete 20 signatures on the card. The promo will run from December 1, 2009 to February 28, 2010. So you'll have lots of time to complete it.

* Some of our Loyalty Mug holders brought home their mugs but most of the mugs are still kept in the cafe where they can use it for their hot drinks (click the link below to see pictures of our Loyalty Mug holders):

Cafe Antonio Loyalty Mug Holders

* Next week (December 7 to 13), we will have another Teachers' Day run. Last year featured Aldo Lim of CDC, Jomar Rabajante and Therese Medina of CAS, and Butch Bataller of CEAT. This year, new faculty member , Mahalia Adelina Corazon Serrano of CAS will join some of the Teachers' Day Alumni. So please come when your teacher invites you. Sila na bahala sa incentives nyo! hehe.

* We're hoping that you guys would join us at the cafe this December! Let's all have a great time and end the year at CAnton. God bless!

Latest CAnton Commercials:

Best Served Piping Hot!

* I had a near perfect week last week. It's just one of those moments in my young life where everything seems to be going in the right direction. It's not really headed that way, but the feeling of it was there and I cannot help but relish it.

* The cafe was very busy last week. The UP Socius had their orientation last Wednesday (or was it Tuesday?) and Neil had a great time preparing pasta for them. And the rest of the week from that point on was just great! It's like hoisting 3 point shots from half-court and you couldn't miss! Thank you everyone for helping us last week. We reeeaally needed the help!

* My sister, Joyce, gave birth to a baby girl last Saturday, her name is Julia. Now I have a niece! I'm really excited to see her. And now we have two babies in the family, the other one is Jethro, my sister Grace's baby boy.

* Hmm, I've used so many exclamation marks already.

* Anyway, we had this high school batch party over the weekend and everyone just had a blast. Retz, Joyceann, and I were late because we still had to close the cafe at 1 am. Right now my friends and I are still hung over about the event and as of this blog we're still talking about the party and how everybody had a good time and all that stuff. People are posting pictures on Facebook like crazy! Ah Facebook, what a wonderful creation. If only we had Facebook back in high school...

* But of course, reminiscing from memory is more fun because we don't get the facts straight and we can add and skim out bad memories without the aid of visual evidence. Yeah, so it's still more fun before. Right now we're just adapting to how people have fun. Nothing really ever changes. Fun never dies, it just transforms. Hehe, just watched Transformers 2 again last night.

* Happy birthday Padeys! Just wanted to put that in.

* My thoughts on the batch outing? First of all we were late, now that's a good start. The resort kicks ass, especially the free videoke, that was golden. The food was plenty, good job on that. I was able to grab 2 bottles of softdrinks, the maja blanca, and a bag of Clover Chips Ham and Cheese Flavor (which I consumed last night while watching My Sister's Keeper and Definitely, Maybe. Yes, I watched three films last night).

* My batchmates and I weren't as rowdy compared to our previous escapades, I guess most of us have mellowed down because of age or what, develop some kind of responsibility, have jobs to attend to, and all that stuff, many factors really. College was mindless enjoyment of college-ness and freedom from high school. And graduation was freedom from college. While work is not exactly freedom from anything. It's just a formless, bounding concept that dictates the direction of our lives.

* With that I can conclude that every chance to escape a routine is a good time.

* Oh yes, the cafe. Sometimes I forget that this is the cafe's blog and not mine. But since I don't have a personal blog I treat this page as my own. So happy reading.

* We're alternating Benguet Arabica coffee with our House Blend coffee starting this week. We want to show our customers that drinking coffee is not just drinking coffee. Coffee has many many many varieties, blends, species, and methods of brewing. If you pay close attention, you'll know the obvious differences between the Benguet Arabica and the House Blend.

* The Benguet Arabica has less caffeine, has a kinda grassy-earthy smell, and a smooth finish. Very clean. Very light. While our House Blend really packs a punch and cuts through the masking of milk and ice to make our Frothiccinos taste like coffee. Some of you guys might miss the kick and the muscle of the half-Robusta House Blend, but sometimes you have to try and experience an entirely different coffee. We've put up a sign on our sliding door which coffee is brewing for the day. It says: "Now Brewing: HOUSE BLEND" and on the flip side, "Now Brewing: BENGUET ARABICA". Check it every now and then so you'll know what you'll be getting. It's all part of our coffee education project.

* I'll be having a tooth pulled out tomorrow. I'm still not sure if the dentist's gonna pull it out, hopefully not. But I'm kinda curious about the pain... hmm...

* Okay! Lotta ideas drilling my mind right now... it's like a bee stinging my brain constantly. This is something I love about my job at the cafe as the manager, I always have to come up with something new, but I'll never know when the big idea's gonna hit me.

* We try everyday to do our best at the cafe. You can taste the caffeine in this entry.

One Big Holiday

* "So what are you looking forward to this week?", my father asked the cafe crew as we ended our weekly Bible Study. I answered, "Well, the Pacquiao-Cotto fight's over, that was last week's highly anticipated event, maybe our high school batch outing this weekend is what we're looking forward to." These are, of course, non-cafe related stuff, but when you work at a cafe everyday, simple pleasures like watching a DVD is something to look forward to. Spending a day with your high school batchmates (most of them we see everyday) is another thing, and it can also be considered a highlight, but the experience is far more superior than watching a DVD.

* Two weekends of watching horror/suspense/thriller flicks was quite a handful, most of us still have hangover, reacting to bumps and creaks like little girls. But that was quite enjoyable. Like decorating the cafe until 4 AM and until 2 AM the following day. That was also a treat.

* We spent the whole afternoon talking about the Pacquiao-Cotto fight, prior to this article. We just saw Pacquiao on the cover of TIME and that gave me goosebumps. Imagine what a boxing match can do. If he lost, we would be depressed for a week or maybe a month. It's been a while since we've seen Manny lose. And we didn't know how to respond to a fallen hero. Well some of our friends don't like Pacman, yes, you can get angry at him for some reasons, but as a boxer, you should be very proud of him. He's the best in his generation, he's a Filipino, be proud and give him credit.

* We're selling Gift Certificates at the cafe this Christmas season. It says "valid until Dec. 31, 2009" but we will extend the promo period until January because we will be closed for two weeks on December starting December 23. My sister thought of the idea and Julius designed it for us. The GCs are good and cheap gift ideas if you want to treat your friends at CAnton this season.

* We had a good week last week, thanks to Gelo Arboleda's birthday bash. Plus we had a bunch of people come in. Wow, you guys still love us, hehe, we missed Showtime Fridays, the couple past of Fridays weren't that "show-timey".

* I've gotta go, my bandmate Eric's at the cafe right now and I want him to hear the songs I've wrote for our band, The Bookshelf Cassette. See you around!

Moving Pictures

* I just erased two sentences prior to this. These past few days I've been thinking for the next big thing for the cafe and myself. We've certainly done a lot during our first year and this year we're just trying our best to live up to the hype that we've created. We just cannot help but compare last year and this year. But every year has its own story and every season has a different plot with a bunch of new characters. This week I'd just like to tell you about our YouTube channel and our videos.

* I was watching our YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/cafeantonioelbi) last night and I was amazed at the number of elaborate videos we just made. The "Shaken" video was spontaneously rehearsed during the closing hours of the cafe while the "White Strawberry" ad was insanely choreographed, involved the participation of a bunch of random people, and was shot in UPLB and UP Diliman. The "New Year" ad introduced The Weepies and their song "I Gotta Have You" to our circle of customers and the "Cafe Antonio Jingle" was heard for the first time in public.

* I kinda missed making videos for the cafe. It's just one of the things we have that makes us sorta different from other cafes--using cheaply done videos to market coffee. I really don't have knowledge in video editing. All I use is Windows Movie Maker, Paint, Joyce's digicam, my stick people drawings, some stop-motion, a thousand songs, and a degree in Sociology. Making videos is just one of the things that I love to do and suddenly stopped doing. Maybe because I'm watching too many DVDs. But I use it as an excuse to gather some inspiration.

* But last night I was able to make a very simple video (that took 4 hours to complete) about our FoMs, paper cups, and Christmas. I felt I was getting rusty and I wanted to make a video to revitalize both myself and our channel on YouTube.

* Nothing really special about the video, maybe I was just inspired when I was watching Sesame Street with my sister and nephew. Listening to Emmy the Great (from Bessy) and re-reading 3 back issues of Paste was just enough to push me to make another innocent, kindergarten-level video inspired by last January's "New Year Ad".

* Well I hope you guys enjoy the video. By the way, we now have Benguet Arabica Beans you can buy for 500 pesos per bag. It makes for a good gift this Christmas for your loved ones who love coffee. And yes, welcome back students! A horde of Ruralites just invaded the cafe before I came to Koinonia to blog. I believe that was Lara Lopez and her crew, hehe, welcome back!

* Enjoy the rest of the week, God bless!

Fall 7 Times, Stand Up 8

The Bookshelf Cassette (L-R: Jabez, Bessy, Eric)

* 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!