With her flamboyant personality, very public stance against multinational corporations and outspoken opinions on traditional stereotypes of attractiveness, Roddick will be remembered as a maverick in the world of beauty.
—- WWD.com

Anita Roddick died on Monday and for the second time in my life, a public figure’s death touched me and I mourned. Roddick may not be Mother Theresa but she’s certainly an inspiration to women around the globe. Her death meant losing a powerful and credible role model for our children.

Roddick is the founder of Body Shop and she was diagnosed with Hepatitis C which she caught from a blood transfusion upon giving birth. I don’t really know much about her. I don’t have any of her books. I’m not a regular customer in her shop. But from the little news and history that I learnt since coming to London, I can’t help but be amazed by how much she has accomplished & how much she managed to give back to society. I know this is superficial I also liked looking at her pictures and more than once I told my husband that I want to grow old like her: gracious and always simple but elegant. Truly classy like a modern day Audrey Hepburn in her greying years.

For most of us still living & breathing, especially those struggling to do the right thing or to “make it”, Roddick’s life can still inspire us to persevere, to stay focused, and to challenge the norm if it meant staying true to what you believe in. She’s truly one a kind. God Bless her soul.

I’ve seen films a number of times where kids are allowed to travel by themselves on a bus / plane / ship. I’ve often wondered at how brave these kids under 12 are. Even more amazingly, how the parents can let their kids visit their grandma, say in Chicago, travelling from North Dakota - alone. But I’ve never really wondered whether the companies charge extra for taking charge of minors, until recently.

Hubby’s auntie is originally from Leyte but resides in Cavite. Last summer she let her kids (16 & 11 year olds) take their vacation to their hometown. They travelled by themselves with no hassles. Coming back the older child had to leave early so the youngest was left to travel on his own. Worse, he was to bring a 5 year old cousin with him back to Manila. Yes, yes, how can their elders let them travel alone? Well the parents are both abroad & perhaps the aunties/uncles back home were “confident” the 11-year old was responsible & competent enough. Who knows really, I find it incredible, too.

Anyway the auntie they stayed with confirmed the kids flight with Cebu Pacific. She was told on they will be charged 500 Php per kid for apparently “looking after” the kids. Unfortunately, they were late & they missed their flight. Then the next flight was cancelled. By the time the kids are ready to board the next plane bound for Manila, their auntie was told they owed Cebu Pacific a staggering 3,000 Php!!!

I nearly fell off my chair when I heard the story. I was indignant because of the blatant daylight robbing that happened. How in the world Cebu Pacific can justify 1000 Php for a missed flight is already beyond reason as the kids were not onboard, who did they look after? To charge them again for a cancelled flight is totally absurd as the kids were with their aunt the whole time in the lobby.

I checked Cebu Pacific’s website for details but found no policy for minors travelling alone. The only thing they have was a “1 adult 1 child” policy, which I’m sure is malleable over the phone. I was sorely tempted to contact their customer service but I’m still not sure I want to. See, the family this happened to doesn’t seem fussed. They probably just mentioned how unbelievable it was, but most likely the thought of filing a complaint will not even cross their minds. I mean common if you can let children travel without supervision, you really think they’d have the slightest inclination to stand up to business suited a-holes?

Out of curiosity I checked Phil Airlines’ website, too, in the hope that I’d find some policy there. No chance. Aside from a few bugs on their site’s incompatibility with Firefox, I found nothing else of note.

Do you know if other airlines have policies for letting kids onboard without an adult?

Please don’t think I’m earning anything by what I’m about to post. As an overseas Pinay, I rely on online shops to send gifts to Pinas and most of them have really poor service and/or product.

When I tried Island Rose four years ago I was really satisfied so I have been using their services ever since. Each time the recipients would tell me how fresh and beautiful the roses are. The first time Nanay received a bouquet, she even called my eldest sister to tell her to buy some prettier vases as the flowers were too pretty for her old ones.

The prices are very reasonable, depending on what you want they charge from 900Php. The delivery is spot on, too. When I was first time customer I sent them a few questions, and I got immediate responses.

So if you’re thinking of sending flowers to loved ones, check out their website.

I have finally set up my leaving do present. I uploaded 90 JPGs to my hip digital picture frame & stuck it near my work PCs. I’m so happy. Its slide effect is set at random so I see my son’s birthday party pictures, our Pinas trip last year, some funny faces & my loved ones back home.

If you’re stuck in a cube (like me) or in your roomy office, don’t settle for static picture frames. Get one of these, they can ease your stress even for a bit.

Now this is what I like in developed countries, it is rare that consumer complaints are not responded to. At the very least you will receive an apologetic letter and most likely, you get compensated.

When I blogged about my nightmare trip home via c2c, I said I will file a complaint & I did. I received a proper email response after 7 days. The letter was long. The girl explained what caused the problem, what action they took to resolve it, and admitted to their shortcomings. At the very end, she asked that I give them suggestions on how to better improve their services and also send them an address they can send some compensation through. I did. I outlined some suggestions like linking directly with the bus companies and other train operators to mitigate severe disruptions like what we experienced. And of course I included my home address.

Yesterday I received 3 rail network vouchers worth £10 each! Well, those more than covers the extra £6 I forked out to get home that horrible night. I looked at the expiry dates and they are valid for a year. Great. I’m certainly one happy compensated passenger.

I also got similar treatment from Amazon. I pre-ordered the clip-on iPod Shuffle and the site said it will be delivered after 3 weeks or something. It was for hubby’s xmas gift last year. Only when November arrived did I realise that the player hasn’t arrived. I checked my Order Status and there was no comment, I checked my email addresses in case I missed a notification, I didn’t. I wrote a strongly worded complaint to Amazon. To cut the story short, they gave me a £5 voucher to spend on Amazon as compensation for the delay & their lack of feedback.

I doubt if I can ever expect this level of customer service in Pinas, unless you scare the hell out of them.