The Best Animal Hospital In Manila?

The first time I walked into Cassandra Care Animal Hospital, I must say that I was impressed. Very impressed. Having had pets most of my life, and now, live with 3 dogs, 3 cats and a turtle in our Alabang home, I was pretty much used to the (lets be honest here), less-than-great vets and pet clinics in the area. Since the terrific Dr. Mike Velhagen went on a sabbatical a couple of years ago, we've had no choice but to take our menagerie to the closest clinic - a smelly, cramped affair, where the personal service was close to nil.

But then, on Good Friday, we had no choice but to try out Cassandra, which seemed to be the only vet clinic opened during the holiday weekend. Our beloved elderly basset was suffering from heat stroke and not only did they take her in for the night and make her well, but they very kindly released her without payment even if they had no idea who we were (we were at the beach and weren't home until Monday). The vet also called continuously for a few days to ask how she was and to give our maid instructions. Something that rarely happened at the other clinic.

I finally visited the place some days later to settle the bill and bring my dog for a check-up. My driver wasn't kidding when he said "Mam, and ganda! Parang hospital ng tao". It was modern, spacious, immaculately clean, tastefully decorated, fully air-conditioned and best of all, smelled pretty good. The same vet was there (hooray!), and with another junior vet as well as an assistant, they took us to a consultation room, which was really not dissimilar to what you'd see at Asian hospital. No kidding. She needed an x-ray, so while waiting for my dog to get back, I was served a cold drink in a tray. Can you believe it? For someone used to sitting in a hot, crowded, stinky waiting room for ages with "wowowee" blasting from a small tv, this was fantastic. I peeked around the place a bit, and saw some comfy looking kennels, a large play room with toys and a snazzy grooming area encased in glass where a shitzu was being pampered. Wow.

As I settled the bill (and it was way less that what I would normally pay), I saw a list of their great services which had things like hydromassage, an incubator, a fully-equipped ambulance and so on....but their "vision" was even better:

CassandraCare will be known for its heart of compassion as well as its abilities and skills. No pet needing urgent attention will be turned away without due cause.

How lovely is that? Yesterday I sent my persian cat to try the grooming service and he came home looking fab with a nifty chart on what was done, so that I can properly keep track. Oh, and a mini calendar with the cutest photo of his face on it, free of charge.

Cassandra Care is located at 209 Aguirre Ave. BF Homes. Telephone: 568 0347

Contact GK's Ating Balai for your employment needs

From secretaries to messengers to household help and caregivers, Ating BALai (Building Abilities, Life skills and Independence) can provide your home or business with employees that were personally trained by the good people at the Ating Balai Gawad Kalinga Center in Taguig.

For more information or to post your job vacancies, simply email them at atingbalai@gmail.com

Ditch your "trash" at ATC this Friday!

The Ayala Recyclables Fair will be at the Alabang Town Center parking lot this Friday, 19 January 2010. Now's your chance to get rid of those old and outdated bits of technology (appliances, mobile phones, PDAs, etc.) that you have lying around the house but were too hesitant to just toss in the trash.

Here's a more comprehensive list of items that you can dispose of or sell at the Fair:

• Used lead-acid batteries: Genset, UPS and motor batteries
• E-waste: Non-working electronic and electrical appliances, obsolete CPUs and monitors
• Paper waste: Used paper, old newspapers, cartons, magazines, obsolete books, posters, tetra pak cartons
• Plastic and metal waste: VHS and betamax tapes, cassette tapes, bottles, containers, sando bags, plastic furniture, aluminum cans, tin cans and other materials
• Printer cartridges: Toner and ink cartridges
• For proper disposal only: Tarpaulin streamers, household batteries, polystyrene packaging, mobile phones, batteries and chargers
  

For more information, please call Ayala Foundation at 752-1084.

The Recyclables Fair will be at ATC every 3rd Friday of the month during the whole year. So if you miss this one, catch the next one! You'll feel much better getting rid of all your excess garbage this way.

PAEZ Shoes - Free Delivery in the Alabang area!

Unless you've been under a rock the past holiday season, you've most likely heard of the latest imported brand of super-comfy footwear that's now in Manila -- PAEZ shoes. Taking the lowly alpargatas and modernizing them with soft foam soles and fun prints, PAEZ shoes are the cooler cousins of the traditional espadrilles.



You can find PAEZ shoes at Rustan's and Shoe Salon... but since the owners of this business are based in the South, they offer FREE delivery in the Alabang area (this includes the HCC of course ; )

Simply call the following numbers for questions/orders: 211-4789, 215-9778, and 0917-8007674. You can also order online from heywhereyou.com

Check out PAEZ' great styles and their price list:

Watch out for their adorable line of kids' PAEZ coming in March 2010!

Cyma Alabang Town Center -- disappointing!

This is the first restaurant review for the HCC site but I just had to share how awful our food experience was at CYMA in Alabang Town Center a few nights ago. My husband and I decided to have some "delicious Greek food" and were happy to hear that Cyma was now open on the 2nd level of the Corte de las Palmas (where Good Earth used to be).

The place was small but looked nice, the wait staff very friendly and attentive but the food... YIKES! We ordered basic Greek food that no Greek resto should be able to screw up and they failed on all basic dishes. To start, we ordered a Greek salad - usually a no-brainer that anyone can make at home due to its only having 5 ingredients. Our Greek salad came with farfalle (bowtie) pasta, (??) and hardly had any cucumbers nor tomatoes, and worst of all, the dressing was a brown creamy vinagrette that looked like HP sauce. Tasted bottled and I think it was.

Then the Kalamarakia - deep fried calamari - tasted like rubber dipped in flour and fried, with no seasoning whatsoever. My favorite Spanakopita - spinach in filo pastry - was pretty tasteless but at least the pastry was lovely. My husband's chicken dish was the only ok thing we had but then again, we could've ordered roast chicken from S&R and eaten that at home. I also looked at the table next to us and their "saganaki" dip looked like pure thousand island dressing. Yikes yikes yikes.

I was so so disappointed. I love Greek food and grew up having it from Greek friends' houses so maybe I'm being picky but please save your money and stay away... at least until they get their food right. Maybe it's just that they've only been open less than a month.

For my money, Cafe Med is a way better bet. Happy New Year!

Must-visit Bungalow 300 SALE in Alabang

Looking for unique pieces of furniture, great gift items or classic home accents? Visit Bungalow 300's first-ever SALE this weekend, November 14-15 from 9am-5pm at 300 Banahaw corner San Juanico Sts., Ayala Alabang Village.









Everything in the following photos is for sale:

They also have a lot of great items from IKEA care of Mobler. I already set aside sets of glasses, condiment dispensers, and scented candles! Very good selection and at great prices.

Bungalow 300 specializes in lovingly-restored found items such as this little table below:

The sale also features a lot of retro-modern items and retro furniture, lamps, and home accents.

Gorgeous lamp from Mobler!

It's tru's 5th Anniversary SALE !

tru is celebrating 5 years this September.

To reward customers old and new, Cristina (tru's owner) is putting everything in the Rockwell Power Plant store on SALE at 10-70% off from September 23-October 11.

Here are some photos of tru's beautiful leather bags taken at Cristina's Cupang area workroom:

For more information, check out their website http://www.trubags.com/