I’ve been collecting these mugs since 1998 and my collection has grown to 101 mugs. So how about you, what do you collect when you travel?

It’s easy to get lost in Tokyo specially in the complex subway. Still, it’s a great city to get lost it.

The Starbucks Happy Hour is back along with a new drink! Every Monday from April 30 through May 28, 2pm-6pm, get half off your favorite Starbucks Frappuccino drink AND get to experience the longest queues at your favorite Starbucks stores like in last year’s Starbucks Happy Hour.



There’s also a new item on their menu is the Mocha Cookie Crumble Frappuccino has cookie crumbles in it very similar to its brother – the Java Chip Frapp. The whipped cream is also made of chocolate so the entire thing is bound to crash your summer diet.

Sometime July last year, Coca-Cola Bottlers Philippines literally made their billboard green when they made a garden out of one of their ads along EDSA. The 60×60 foot billboard was planted with Fukien tea plants that cleans up air of pollutants. With Earth Day upcoming this weekend, one wonders how such efforts are maintained.

It’s 100 days to the 2012 London Olympics and we finally have the list of delegates that the Philippines will send to summer games. Taking a closer look however, the Philippines seems to pale in comparison to its South East Asian counterparts when it comes to the games. Even if it was the first South East Asian country to join the Olympics in 1924, the Philippines is yet to bag a gold medal. In fact, it is among the countries sending the fewest delegates to the summer games this year.



Thailand with 7 gold medals, bests other countries in the region and is participating in 9 events this year. The Philippines is only competing in three events this 2012 including boxing where we’ve won 5 of our overall 9 medals. There seems to be support from the government with the Philippine Olympic Committee having a 30 Million Peso budget for the games but this doesn’t explain the small delegation that we’re sending.



Analysis aside, let’s all throw our full support behind our three delegates – Marestella Torres (Athletics), Mark Barriga (Boxing) and Tomohiko Hoshina (Judo) and as that famous book-to-movie line goes “May the odds be ever in your favor.”



Sources:

1. Daily Telegraph – London 2012 Olympics: Country profiles

2. LoadCentral – Beijing 2008 Olympics on Dream Satellite

3. Philippine Star – PSC to put Olympic budget on standby

4. Tempo – Fil-Jap judoka London-bound

5. Philippines at the 2012 Summer Olympics

6. Thailand at the 2012 Summer Olympics

7. Brunei at the 2012 Summer Olympics

8. Myanmar at the 2012 Summer Olympics

9. Cambodia at the 2012 Summer Olympics

10. Chinese Taipei at the 2012 Summer Olympics

11. Hong Kong at the 2012 Summer Olympics

12. Indonesia at the 2012 Summer Olympics

13. Timor-Leste at the 2012 Summer Olympics

14. Malaysia at the 2012 Summer Olympics

15. Singapore at the 2012 Summer Olympics

16. Xinhua – Philippines’ Arroyo says first Olympic gold “priceless”

17. (Photo) Onyok Velasco

18. (Photo) Marestella Torres

19. (Photo) Mark Barriga

20. (Photo) Tomohiko Hoshina