Everybody knows Mario’s. It is one of the very few restaurants in the country that have stood the test of time and perhaps one of the more prominent establishments frequented by people, young and old, who know good food.
I was recently at the Tomas Morato branch of Mario’s and had the opportunity to enjoy their very popular Classic Sunday Lunch Buffet with good friends who also happen to be fellow foodies (Notice how I inserted the word, “fellow” in there? Yep… self-professed foodie here! Haha!). These guys are some of the best in the food blogging industry.
I knew that my wife and I were in for a treat given that any time the words “Mario’s” and “buffet” come together, it is always cause for a gastronomical celebration.
The cold Christmas weather… can you feel it already? It’s coming. So, why not kick back, relax, soak in all the holiday goodness and just “be in the moment” with a cup of wonderfully made coffee to keep you company.
That’s the kind of Christmas Seattle’s Best Coffee wishes for you to experience. The kind that brings back childhood memories of days gone by… filled with the joy of Christmas morn, of toys and of carefree innocence. Wouldn’t you want to relive those moments when mom would whip up a cup of hot cocoa or maybe a cold chocolate drink for you in the wee hours of the morning and everything would suddenly just feel so comforting? I’m sure you would.
And Seattle’s Best wants to help bring back that feeling of Christmas warmth through their selections of holiday coffee offerings. Not to mention the complete makeover of every Seattle’s Best branch’s interior design in keeping with the Yuletide spirit.
Starting today (Yes, TODAY), Seattle’s Best will be making available to the public their various new coffee concoctions that uniquely tugs at our emotions, invoking feelings of child-like Christmas delight. Read more
He commented on my blog entry: “SentiSabado encourages people (especially kids) to go and make new memories, today!”
Make new memories…
That phrase stuck in my mind… Why do kids nowadays have to be encouraged to go and make new memories today?
Encourage them? Isn’t that supposed to come naturally? Aren’t memories formed by every action we take and every interaction we engage in?
It is in pondering this that I ultimately realized the reason why we, the so called “Gen X/Y” babies, have so much memories and nostalgia compared to those who were born in the 90s. We actually had more interaction with the world… the people around us… the things we did… the places we’ve been to… the experiences we’ve gone through…
Not because we are (obviously) older than them. No.
The main culprit (in my honest opinion): computers, game consoles, internet, cable TV, etc.
Kids nowadays are holed up in their own imaginary world playing PSPs, iPhones, Farmville, and all those other time-consuming-and-attention-grabbing devices.
Heck! I see a good number of kids and teens playing with PSPs at the mall even while walking!
Whatever happened to engaging conversations or laughing at simple jokes… or the friendly banter every now and then… or even simply looking at your surroundings while walking? Does it ever exist anymore… with the younger ones for that matter?
Back then, our idea of recreation and fun was climbing a tree, hanging out in the park with friends, playing “tumbang preso” till it became too dark to play outside. Even our toys back in the day would encourage us to interact with others (Can you imagine playing tex by yourself? Or play “touchball” without a friend”?). Going to the mall was an exciting experience for us every single time… just to walk around and see the new places… we’d take everything in and love every minute of it.
The only time we’d be caught inside the house was either due to homework… or because it was time for our weekly dose of Saturday morning cartoons.
What will these new generation of kids look back at when they grow older? What kind of memories will they have? If they had their own form of #SentiSabado, what sort of nostalgia will they reminisce on?
Moments such as “hanging out from dusk till dawn playing counterstrike in the internet cafe”, maybe? Or “how Farmville changed Facebook gaming”? Or perhaps, “watching all sorts of trailers on YouTube” and “reaching the high score of “Need for Speed” on the PSP while ascending the escalator”…?
Don’t get me wrong… PSPs, cable TV, the internet are all cool! They’re great!
But anything in excess is unhealthy.
So, going back to my first question… “Encouragement?”
Of course. No doubt!
If for no other reason, let #SentiSabado be the means to help encourage kids… to limit video games… to lessen cable TV watching… to set restrictions on certain activities…
…to get out more… to interact physically… to engage… to feel the breeze, smell the air… to live… love… laugh… to make mistakes… and learn from them…
A lot of people have already blogged about last week’s overwhelmingly successful #SentiSabado movement on Twitter. This is just my simple retrospective on what has transpired.
First, I want to thank each and every Pinoy tweep who participated in last week’s momentous event. At its peak, #SentiSabado reached No.4 on Twitter’s top trending topics. What can I say…? I am at a loss for words.
I’ve been receiving news from other tweeps that even their friends who don’t tweet already know about SentiSabado.
Wow!
I remember how, back in September 4, Tonyo Cruz (@tonyocruz) started this simple series of nostalgic tweets and added the hashtag, “#sentisabado” on each one of them. I reciprocated with some of my own… well… not some… more like a truckload of 80s recollections:
Tetorns… USED jeans… Drakkar… Choo-Choo Junction restaurant… playing tumbang preso and climbing the aratilis tree during my childhood… biking at PICC… recalling my 6-digit phone number…
T’was only a handful of us back then (together with the #bumsquad) going at it with passion and gusto!
Before we knew it, more and more tweeps started joining in.
The first SentiSabado (Sept. 4) actually peaked towards the end of Saturday… and eventually spilled over to the early morning of Sunday! It was so fun that people were still contributing #sentisabado tweets till Monday!
Because of this, we pretty much figured that if #SentiSabado could be started way earlier the following week (last Saturday), it would gain more momentum and more tweeps could join in on the fun.
So, we eventually announced that the next #SentiSabado would start at 12:00AM. Saturday came… and the rest, as you know, is history!
Last Saturday, the #SentiSabado stream column on my Tweetdeck app was scrolling uncontrollably like a manic clicker, unable to keep up with the tweets coming in. It was that massive!
Thanks, tweeps!
For those who didn’t have the chance to join us last week but wanted to… don’t fret. Our next SentiSabado will be in 2 days (a day and a half to be exact). Our next theme will be announced very very soon, so stay tuned and dedicate a #SentiSabado stream on your Twitter app.
By the way… in case you didn’t know, #SentiSabado has an official Facebook page already! So, come on over and join us by visiting: http://www.facebook.com/sentisabado
And lest you forget… It’s #SentiSabado again this September 11, 2010. The fun (and frenzy) starts at exactly 12:00 AM!
So, warm up those fingers… rack your brain… recall those cool, nostalgic memories… and get your tweet on!
arroz, buffet, classic, cochinillo, family, food, lunch, mario's, metro manila, morato, nostalgia, oysters, quezon city, sunday, tomas 0 Comments 
