Wahington DC

At the Capitol and the grounds of the White House I saw by myself squirrels and it reminded me I was not home but in faraway America. Tourists can view the White House from a distance and take pictures too.

From New York City for a week's stay in a downtown Manhattan hotel and walking distance to Central Park, we traveled by bus to Washington, DC for a day tour.

It was indeed educational, my husband who loves geography and history included in our trip the Washington, DC tour.

From the skyscraper NYC, we found Washington, DC a peaceful yet exciting place with the many historical events that unfolded in this city where the seat of the US government is.

The tour guide explained to us everything including the inaugural ceremonies that took place in Pennsylvania Street and she (tour guide) even told us that lamp posts are movable to give way to the holding of the inauguration of the New President.

With President Barack Obama to take his seat on January 20 at the White House, I personally am excited because I had been to Washington DC, where on Tuesday (American time and Wednesday in the Philippines), will be packed with millions of people. I could view it together with millions of people around the world on television.

My experience in Washington DC was enlightening and exciting. I saw the buildings of different government offices including the Lincoln Memorial (the pencil), the Pentagon, White House, Capitol, the Union Station, the different museums and others, everything that a tourist must see.

The cherry blossoms were in bloom when we went there and it was a different feeling seeing all the trees covered with pinkish and white flowers. Tulips of different colors adorned the streets and made the landscape very beautiful.

Travel really gives us a different experience. Anyway with the new US President, everybody including myself wish a new thing to happen. But President Obama can not do any magic for the crisis that hit hard the US but prayers and cooperation could bring people to where the action must be focused inorder to ease the impact of the global crisis. The Philippines is not spared of this but we know that Filipinos, can make a difference because we (Filipinos) are used to hardship and difficulties. As what the business sector had been advocating, everybody must go back to the basics. In doing so, people could cut on cost as well as prioritize spending.

Going back to Washington, it is really a distinct city that I could not forget its being it. From there we proceeded to Orlando, Florida and let our bodies got tired of the huge and beautiful theme parks of Disneyworld.... again another superb experience.

Med Express to expand to other Mindanao areas

A Manila-based medicine distributor will expand its operations in Mindanao after it hit a 12,000 clients in Davao last year.

The Med Express which delivers nedicines and milk formulas right at the clients doorstep is putting up new stores in Davao City and other parts of Mindanao.

Med Express business development manager Carlo Lorenzana said with one store servicing their clients in the city, they are putting up two more offices that will be servicing those in the northern and southern areas of Davao City.

He said they will open branches within the first quarter this year in the cities of Butuan and Cagayan de Oro.

Med Express already has over 200 stores all over the country servicing 200,000 clients. It has three franchise stores in Jakarta, Indonesia, he said.

Lorenzana said they are optimistic of the business in 2009 even as he said that they noted a 40 percent growth in 2008 as against their performance in 2007.

Davao bakeshop to open new branches

Panaderia, a local bakeshop in Davao City, is bent on opening new branches in other Mindanao areas this year to be able to achieve a profitable operation.

Samuel M. Abrenilla, owner of CokTek Manufacturing and Panaderia Bakeshop said having multiple outlets means higher revenue.

He said they are looking at the cities of General Santos, Valencia and Cagayan de Oro.

Although he said they would not want to do aggressive steps this year, the additional outlets of at least three to their existing 13 branches would give them better income. This is competitive enough, he said.

"We need to have bigger revenue source to come up with profitable operation," he said.

But Abrenilla admitted that their operation has been affected by the economic downtrend. Their operation already suffered in 2008 getting an income very much lower compared in 2007.

He said the bakeshop operation is highly dependent on imported products and prices of these commodities have gone high.

But he said they would not compromise the ingredients because they have to maintain the quality of their products.

Despite the current financial crisis, Abrenilla said they will not sacrifice the quality of their products.

Panaderia's signature product "hot pandesal" will still be available as early as 5:00 am. even as he said that they will still maintain the same ingredients to any of their products.

Abrenilla put up Panaderia Bakeshop after he invented the Coktek Oven where it is known for its distinct feature of equal heat inside the chamber.

With this feature, he said they were able to save substantially on LPG gas of about 20 to 50 percent.

The industrial oven that Abrenilla invented has a capacity of 12 baking pans costing P50,000.

He said his invention is comparable to the product made in Korea and Taiwan of about P150,000.