J. Co. Donuts finally opened in the Philippines last March 16, at The Strip on the ground level of SM Mega Mall in Mandaluyong. For those of you who have no idea where The Strip is, it’s that piece of road (actually part of Julia Vargas Ave.) that’s located right in between the mall’s Building A and Building B. J. Co. is located right next to Seattle’s Best.

Lumia 800′s Windows 7.5 software is both fun and easy to use. It provides effortless integration with social networking sites (such as facebook and twitter) and e-mail synchronization and comes with a portable version of MSOffice. I personally like the Nokia drive Navigation software which allows one to download and view maps when I’m on the road or when abroad. It is best to download all the maps you need while at home, though, as doing so abroad will result in you incurring roaming charges. Once downloaded, the maps will be in your library and available for use anytime

Let me start the Chinese New Year with a recipe, one that may neither be Chinese nor Asian but makes use of the bright RED strawberry fruit, red being the eternal lucky color of the Chinese.

J.Co’s flavors smack of gourmet desserts, with rather inspired names as Al Capone (which is my favorite, a white chocolate and almond topped baby, pictured on the storefront announcement above) and Chocolate Caviar (this one is chocolate crunch topped). But the best thing about them is they are not overly sweet.

One thing I have learned in my years of travel is that a trip to the grocers in a foreign country can be just as riveting as a tour of such land’s well renowned tourist attractions.

It used to be that online shopping was only a privilege enjoyed by someone with a US, Canadian or US territory address. Now, several big US based retailers sell their wares to almost anywhere in the world via the internet and most of them, such as Macy’s and Nordstrom, even allow buyers to shop in their local currency thru e-commerce service providers like FiftyOne.

In my years of travel, I have never been delayed more than three hours tops, so you can understand why I am saying that we got stranded in Bangkok. That coupled with the fact that our group of five was really anxious to get home, it being 2 days before Christmas day.

Upon closer look, we learned that these were the United Buddy Bears and that 143 of them were on tour in Malaysia’s capital, from December 8, 2011 to February 15, 2012 – 140 representing the countries recognized by the United Nations with 3 special bears, all espousing peaceful co-existence and international understanding among cultures.