starbucks

Are there still fountain pens to be found in the wild – in Manila?

Fountain Pen Network-Philippines members went to find that out last February 21, with a field trip to Escolta.

Escolta is part of “old Manila” and used to be the main shopping district from pre-war times until around the 1960s. Luis Store, a fountain pen sales-and-repair shop, has been located there since the 1940s. The plan was to meet up at Savory Restaurant at the corner of Escolta – another local landmark – then visit Luis and any other places that happened to catch our fancy.

On my way there in a cab, I saw many things. The sight of a Philippine flag flying in the warm breeze stirred me to near-tears. It was so beautiful.

A monument to heroes, near Manila City Hall.

It was, I felt, a good start to the day.

When I got to Savory, quite a few FPN-P’ers were already there, scribbling away. While waiting for the others – and for lunch – to arrive, we celebrated our passions of pen, ink, and paper.

The entrance to the FPN-P function room.

Early birds play with pens, paper, and ink – the triumvirate of our obsession.

A peek at some of writer-University of the Philippines professor Dr. Butch Dalisay’s Parker Vacumatics.

Lunch was another celebration, this time of gastronomic delights not often relished. The Savory  flavor is like no other. It is Chinese cuisine, yes. But it is also has a unique identity that sets it apart. Especially the fried chicken, which is famous.

Bird’s nest soup, pansit Canton, Yang Chow fried rice, pork something, fried chicken, and lumpiang Shanghai.

After lunch, it was back to pens.

Raffle items – pens, nibs, a loupe (for peering closely at nibs), and ink.

A leaf from Leigh’s notebook.

The attendance sheet – for pens, not humans.

Spot the Sailor, Danitrio, Pelikan, and Bossert and Erhard.

From Savory, the next stop was Luis Store. The fifteen or so of us crammed into the tiny piece of paradise, ogling the beautiful pens on display. Many of them are NOS (new old stock), some dating back to the 1950s, if not earlier.

Carretelas are still a common form of transportation within the area.

Walking down Escolta to Luis Store. The dome of Sta. Cruz Church can be seen in the distance.

FPN-P’ers crowd into Luis Store.

Dr. Butch Dalisay, Mrs. Pua, and Terrie Pua, who runs the pen store.

Pens on parade.

Plates for the engraving machine.

Class picture!

The Puas pressed boxes of warm and delicious chicken empanada on us, and we ate as we walked. Our next stop was Binondo.

The Starbucks – and the Pancake House beside it, and most other establishments in the area – have signage in Chinese.

Leigh holds up the Frankensnork representing TAO, fellow FPN member. In the background, life in Binondo continues its busy hustle, oblivious to the posse of pen collectors chatting and drinking coffee.

Binondo Square still sports the red and gold lanterns left over from the Lunar New Year celebration.

The penmeets celebrate not only the shared interest in pens and ink, but also friendship, love, life – as do all gatherings. That which binds is important and significant, but when people get together and interact, there is so much more that is shared. Enjoy that. Enjoy each other. Let life be a series of celebrations!

taste more:

If there’s one principle that Starbucks as a corporation has become famous for, it’s their tenet of giving the customer utter and complete service satisfaction. It’s what built their fortune. People had gotten tired of surly counterpeople at quick service restaurants, and Starbucks made up for its overpriced coffee by pampering and cossetting customers to an unusual degree, in surroundings that were genteel, warm, and relaxing.

Here in Manila, I’ve generally had a good experience with Starbucks. If you don’t like the way the barista made your drink, or if they made a mistake with your order, they’ll do it over. If you were inconvenienced in some way, you get a free beverage coupon. They hand you your drink with a smile, and if you happen to visit certain locations often, the baristas there make an effort to remember your name and call you by that next time you come in. Depending on the barista, they also remember your favorite drink and ask if you’ll be having “your usual”. (“Hi, Miss Jenny, going to work? Tall Raspberry Mocha for you today?”)

Some weeks ago, I was at the Yupangco branch waiting for my sister when I happened to fill out a customer satisfaction survey form. In it I deplored the lack of Christmas Bearista bears and Peppermint syrup, seasonal offerings we had gotten used to and looked forward to through the years.

I didn’t expect an answer. I suspect such survey forms are displayed only to make customers feel happy that their feedback is being solicited, and I’m not sure if the replies are fed into a CRM database. So I was surprised to receive an email from Rustan Coffee Corporation’s Operations Services Manager Carlo R. Lopez, thanking me for my feedback on the bears and the syrup (he mentioned it in detail, meaning they had actually read the form I filled out), and asking for my postal address so they could send me coupons.

Today the coupons arrived the mail. Not just the one I was expecting, but two.

Letter from Rustan Coffee with two free beverage coupons.

RCC is “an authorized licensee of Starbucks Coffee International”, it says right there on their stationery. RCC is also a “member of the Rustan group of companies”, which is well-known in the Philippines for their Rustan’s department store, which is the most upscale establishment of its kind in the country. They’ve taken their retail expertise and merged it with the Starbucks way to run their operations profitably. I haven’t heard that they are closing locations in the Philippines; in fact, they seem to be expanding, putting stores in newly-opened malls and beside 24/7 call centers.

Here’s another thing – the 2009 planner promotion was such a hit that they ran out of stock. The campaign started maybe five or six years ago, where customers are given a card every November that they fill up with stickers corresponding to a certain number of drinks. Half of the drinks required are the seasonal offerings like Peppermint, Toffee Nut, Dark Cherry, Praline, whatever. At the end of the promo period, the first week of January, there were no planners to be had. Customers were asked to wait until January 16.

The date rolled around. I went the next day – the 17th – with my promo card. I was told that there were no more planners to be had, again. In just 24 hours all the planners were snapped up! I was asked to leave my name with the branch nearest me – which is Rockwell. So I did, and I was given a free beverage coupon to make up for the inconvenience.

I used it the other day at Starbucks Rufino to get a Grande Ice-Shaken Raspberry Mocha. I handed the cashier my coupon. She asked, in a low voice, ”Planner”? I nodded. My order was rung up as a “service recovery”. The machine spit out my receipt. The cashier handed it to me with a smile and pointed out some text at the bottom. “You have another free drink with the “Customer Voice” promo. Just go online to get the code.” The baristas chattered excitedly. A free drink with another free drink? That was rare!

To cap it all, yesterday I got this text message: ”Thank you for making this year’s planner promotion a success. Due to the overwhelming response, we have unexpectedly experienced a shortage of planners. We have placed another order to arrive by March 20. We apologize for the delay & as a token of our appreciation & your understanding we will be including a Starbucks bag with your reserved planner. We sincerely apologize & thank you for your continued patronage and understanding. – strbks r0ckwell”

To sum up, I’ve received coupons for four free drinks, and will be given another freebie, the bag.

Is Starbucks great, or what? This is why I love this place. Not so much for the coffee, which is more milk than espresso anyhow, and frankly I’ve had better. But I keep coming back to Starbucks as a loyal customer for the experience, the ambiance, and the service which is second to none.

Fountain pens, ink, and coffee at Starbucks Rockwell.

taste more:

I spent a couple of hours at Starbucks (Yupangco Makati branch) waiting for my sister to finish lunch with friends. It was her last day in Manila; I was to take her to the airport in the late afternoon so she could catch a flight back to Dubai, where she has been based for the past ten years.

I had some of my favorite things with me to pass the time productively.

The coffee is a Double Tall Dark Cherry Mocha nonfat, no whip, one Splenda. (“Are you sure you still want the Splenda, ma’am? The syrup is very sweet…” I always add one Splenda when I take an extra espresso shot.) The caffeine jolt is necessary to jump-start my brain.

The book is the ninth edition of Theories of Human Communication by Stephen Littlejohn and Karen Foss. It is one of the bibles of the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication. It explains around 126 theories, give or take a few. I read and re-read chapters when I have free time.

The mobile phone is a year-old Nokia 5310 XpressMusic. They didn’t have the pink one when I got this one, which I would have bought for the color. I prefer skinny candy-bar phones, which I can easily hold in one hand for texting. I dislike clamshell and slider types, because the more moving parts there are in a gadget, the more parts there are that are likely to break.

The fountain pens are my daily road warriors. Lacking a proper pen case that can accommodate the six or eight pens that I rotate on a monthly basis, I use a plastic Waterman case that the red Hemisphere came in. Yes, I know, it’s not the best thing for the pens, they’ll scratch each other, but it’s only temporary, I promise.

The purple leather two-pen case is a Christmas gift from my friend Leigh.It’s adorable, just as she is.

Armed with these things and in between downing gulps of coffee, I wrote entries in my ”communication diary”, a large Scribe (Moleskine knock-off) notebook covered with olive silk. The diary is homework for our Communication Research 201 class with Dr. Joey Lacson and must be entirely handwritten. I used a different pen for each entry, so the words pop off the pages in a whirl of colorful inks – Private Reserve Naples Blue, Caran d’Ache Sunset, J. Herbin Cyclamen Rose, Pilot Iroshizuku asa-gao (morning glory blue).

I also texted the entire Board of Directors of the company I work for, telling them that it was a year since they hired me and thanking them for giving me the opportunity to work with them. After that I cleared my messages and deleted unnecessary files, freeing up valuable storage space for data.

I snapped photos of my pens using my mobile phone camera to use as my phone screen wallpaper.

From time to time I would jot down meetings and other reminders in my planner, while at the same time listening to too-loud conversations of other patrons rather than tuning them out. It’s not eavesdropping because they are talking loud enough for others to hear. As a communication student, it’s one way of observing communication behavior in the field.

One young woman, a self-proclaimed frequent traveler, complained to her friend in the colegiala accent of privileged female private Catholic high school students about losing her baggage on a flight to Paris. “It was the first time, and I never though such a thing would happen to me,” she said. “Don’t take anything for granted.”

At another table, an elderly man sitting with eight friends was telling them about a recent golf tournament he played in. “I played eight holes then almost collapsed,” he said. “I wasn’t feeling ill or anything. It just shows that anything can happen, even the least expected.”

My two hours at the coffee shop were well-spent. I completed several important tasks, relaxed in soothing surroundings, and was reminded by others of an important bit of wisdom – “Never take anything for granted.”

Multi-tasking with things that are chosen carefully with functionality foremost in mind helps you be more productive. Find out what things work best for you given your own particular way of doing things. What’s good for someone else might not be what’s right for you.

Once you’ve found out what kind of tools you’re comfortable with and make you more effective, stick with them, while still keeping an open mind on new things. It’s not a case of old dog, old tricks, but rather old dog, best tricks.

When my sister texted that her lunch was over and she was on her way to meet me, I packed up my favorite things, drained my coffee cup, and walked out the door with a sense of accomplishment. Now that felt good.

taste more:

The holiday spirit seems sadly depressed this year at Starbucks here in Manila.

Oh, I don’t mean the decor. The marketing staff have done lovely things with ornament balls wrapped with green and red twine as door wreaths and table centerpieces.

Yet the powers-that-be have committed several major blunders: opting not to bring back the Peppermint syrup (which I waited the entire year for!), and having no cute costumed Barista Bears, instead foisting upon a dismayed clientele their ragamuffin reindeer that lack personality and charm.

This year, they brought back past seasons’ Toffee Nut Latte and Praline Mocha, and introduced Dark Cherry Mocha. Those syrups are fine, but only Peppermint truly evokes a Yuletide flair.

But Starbucks Philippines has redeemed themselves – to an extent – by coming out with makabayan (patriotic) mugs and tumblers. Anything that has “Pilipinas” or “Maynila” written, engraved, or otherwise emblazoned on it inspires my patriotic sentiments and gets my stamp of approval.

Manila girl that I am, I couldn’t pass up the tumbler that proclaims my origin.

Starbucks “Manila” tumbler, wireless phone by Uniden, and a limited edition blue-and-red Lamy 1.1mm italic fountain pen inked with Private Reserve Naples Blue – the tools of this modern-day scribe.

Note to Starbucks: to enjoy my continued patronage next holiday season, please bring back the Peppermint syrup and the Christmas Bearistas!

taste more:

Starbucks rolls out the best designs for their collectible Bearista Bears during the holidays – Valentine’s, Easter, Halloween, and Christmas. That’s when I usually choose one to add to my daughters’ collection of these adorable stuffed bears wearing costumes.

This October sees the release of the Owl Bear and the Pumpkin Bear. I saw them first at Starbucks Sucat a few days ago, and thought the Pumpkin one was cute. I figured I’d get one for Ik later on.

A couple of days later, I saw another one – just one – at the Glorietta “Make Room” branch. Again I put off buying it.

I told the kids about it and Ik was intrigued. “When can we get one, Mama?” “This Sunday,” I promised. So when I got back to Manila from Cavite (where I attended the Klub Don Juan de Manila Derby at San Lazaro Leisure Park) at 6pm, we went to Starbucks Rockwell Drive…

…where the shelves were bare of bears.

Disappointed, we crossed over to Powerplant Mall. The Starbucks there didn’t have any left either. After an hour spent browsing in Fully Booked and getting Alex a Belkin case for the iPod Classic I got for her birthday, I suggested we go home.

“But Mama!” Ik wailed. “We can’t go home without getting a pumpkin bear! You said it was cute!”

“Babe, they’re out of stock,” I said. “Okay, here’s what we can do – let’s go back to the Starbucks at Rockwell Drive and ask if they still have one left in the cupboards.”

When we got there, we asked barista Mhon if they had any bears out back. “How many do you need?” he asked. “Just one,” we said. Mhon and Ginger, another barista, called nearby branches. “There’s one at Yupangco,” Ginger told us. “We can have it sent over here, if you’re willing to wait.”

It was the first time that any merchant had offered to fetch an item from a store that’s not in the immediate area. We said we would wait, and ordered a slice of banana loaf and a Hot White Chocolate for Ik as we settled down.

In less than half an hour, Ginger slipped over to Ik’s chair and handed her the bear.

Ik bounced up and hugged the bear,  jumping up and down in her seat. Ginger’s eyes lit up and she smiled, glancing at me. I smiled back at her, as much to say, “You’ve just made one kid very happy!”

Punkin Bear now joins the other Starbucks Bearistas we’ve collected through the years.

Many thanks to Ginger of Starbucks Rockwell Drive for service above and beyond. She went out of her way to make a child happy, and that’s major good karma.

It doesn’t take much to lift a child’s heart – sometimes it’s just a little bit of extra care – yet that could be enough to show that there’s always goodness in the world, somewhere, and that goodness will always influence the child for the better.

And when that child grows up, and it’s her turn to run the world, then perhaps memories such as these will push her to also take that extra step when it matters most.

So this story isn’t just about acquiring this elusive stuffed bear. It’s about much more than that.

taste more:

A bold blend of Arabica from the Philippines and elsewhere in the Asia Pacific, it’s robust and hearty, perfect for dunking pandesal while reading the diyaryo.

Caveat: this blend, just like the Philippines’s own Manny Pacquiao, packs quite a punch. Halfway through your first cup, your heart will start beating so fast you’ll think you’re in love.

taste more:

Fresh from Starbucks’s kitchens are new desserts and drinks. Say hello to the Strawberry Lamington and Pomegranate Peach Juice Frappucino:

Raspberry Mocha Frap (my signature drink), sample of the Pomegranate Peach Juice Frap with Tazo Tea, Strawberry Lamington

A Lamington is a cube of sponge cake or butter cake, coated with icing (traditionally chocolate) and rolled in dessicated coconut. It was first concocted in Australia in honor of Charles Cochrane-Baillie, 2nd Baron Lamington, who served as Governor-General of Queensland from 1896 to 1901. The strawberry variety is said to be more common in New Zealand.

The Pomegranate Peach drink infused with Tazo Tea is, as advertised, tart and refreshing – a pleasant change from the usual coffee and milk.

Starbucks De La Rosa (Makati) serves these up with a smile and a cheery “hi”.

taste more:

“We’re sorry, but the Jenny you are trying to access is down for maintenance at the moment. Caffeine levels in her blood have not yet reached the required level for optimum function. Please try again later after she has ingested a minimum of 16 ounces of high-octane coffee. Thank you for waiting.”

Alright, I’ve just had a French press-full of this particular brew – Starbucks Ethiopia Sidamo – and it is good. It’s somewhat tangy with a milder taste than my previous bag of Starbucks Sulawesi. Now that blend turned out to be temperamental; steep it just five seconds over the prescribed four minutes and you were in for a bitter mouthful.

Sidamo, now… with floral and citrus undertones that lave your tongue with a taste ever so subtle, it sneaks up on you from behind and sandbags you upside the head.

I’m awake.

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Total number of books owned:

Over a lifetime, perhaps two thousand. Many titles (romance, science fiction, fantasy) were given away through the years. Currently I am keeping about eight hundred books, stacked two-three deep in my inadequate bookshelves. I guess I have to give most of them away – to make room for more.

Wide bookcase on the left holds photo albums, paperbacks, etc. two-three deep. Tall bookcase on the right has my quilting magazines, MBA books, other hardbounds.

Pile of books on the left are behind the dining table, and are mostly F & SF; on the right, books on my bedside table. Not included in photos are other heaps of books. Many other heaps.

Last book bought:

The Diana Chronicles by Tina Brown. I grew up on Princess Di, and wanted to get a backgrounder on her life.

Last book read:

Starbucked by Taylor Clark, all about that global coffee chain that you either love or hate.

Five books that mean a lot to you:

-1. The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. “The canon”, and these were the books I told my husband I would choose when he asked which of them I would bring out of a burning house. That was way before reprints became readily available. Before the movies came out, it was out of print. My copies were printed in the ‘60s.

•2. The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis. I built my collection in the ‘80s by haunting used-books stalls in Morayta. Again, I kept aging copies, but can safely let go of them now as convenient all-in-one editions are available, again after the movie was released this year!

•3. The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge. One of my favorites as a young child, my battered copy was passed on to me by my mother, also a voracious reader. When I was in college twenty years ago, I had it hard-bound. Now I hear they are adapting it into a movie, shooting to begin in Hungary this summer. I guess the book will be coming out again in bookstores, and I can misplace my old copy!

•4. Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. The only poem I have ever memorized is “Jabberwocky”…

•5. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Thankfully a complete collection came out in two volumes around twenty years ago; it’s still available in bookstores.

These are books I read as a child or teenager, maybe that’s why they are still so special, filled as they are with all the pleasant memories associated with them of curling up in a corner and escaping into other worlds.

Currently reading:

-1. Creative Suite 3 for Dummies and InDesign CS3 for Dummies

-2. They’re Racing! The Complete Story of Australian Racing by Les Carlyon

taste more: