OH what a great year it was and how quickly it went by.
It must be the age. This is often the topic of discussion among peers who seem to agree that time, unlike before, passes so quickly. Next thing we know, the counter has dropped another number, and we are talking about our ages. And like the positive mature beings that we seemed to have transformed into, we all say, it is just a number. True, very true.

And we witness the city progress as well. From the wooden buildings, we see great edifices of architectural modernity, unpaved paths are now major thoroughfares, acres of grasslands and swamps are sites of high-end residential clusters and the country's major retail players erect their totem poles in the form of malls and mark their territories in the cityscape.

Arroyo Watch: Sun.Star blog on President Arroyo

Amidst the busy state of the world we all know as progress, we see the rise in numbers of service oriented establishments to cater to all the sectors of the society. Restaurants, coffee shops, boutiques and whatever the mind can conceive pop up like mushrooms from all around the city. And when you decide to hop into the bandwagon of service-oriented businesses, then be prepared to give out the excellent service your patrons deserve. The customer will always be right is a rule you all have to deal with. If they are not, be the most well-mannered person in the planet and settle everything amicably. After all, it can lead bad publicity and loss of income.

But this year-end awarding rite is to those deserving of the coveted apples and loathed lemons (with due respect to this fruit that garnishes my favorite alcoholic beverage). We pay, you deliver. Hard earned moolah deserves good food and service that is expected, more especially if you promoted it as such.
And the APPLES go to...

Summing it up, the year has been great. The gas prices peaked that humbled everyone into turning cost conscious, the fake rice shortage also meant less carbo for the health buff and the worldwide recession showed us that the mighty can fall. Nothing is permanent. But we managed to survive, cope and kept smiling.

An apple for you.

Great food and service play an integral part in hotel's popularity. They make sure you get a taste of the specials with their hosted events. A stylish spa, great food, charming, friendly and smiling GMs. Ten years is the youngest of the lot and has given excellent service in Davao - an achievement and worth celebrating... with style, no less. Enjoy your apples!

Fitness has never been this popular ever! More and more people are into hitting the gym, into a sport and eating healthily. It pays to be healthy plus feeding your vanity does up your attraction points. An apple a day keeps the doctor away.

Glamor is back! Just when you thought the butterfly flew off, it made a comeback and brought plenty more. After the disregard from the official guest list last year, the formal Terno came back-with a vengeance- and Hijos de Dabaw hasn't this been glamorous in years. Nice very nice. Apples and more apples for those glamorous men and women!

Adventure plus! Put this in your must-go to list. Quite late for me but like they say, better than never. Try zipping, white-water rafting or discover a beach! Try something new and go to a never been there destination, make your time worthwhile and exciting. I know I did. Apples!

And the LEMONS go to...

This road side shop's name means beans and their food is spoiled. You complain - they will blame their supplier and have to discuss it with them - in the meantime, they won't replace your food or offer you a refund. Eat at your own risk. Their coffee beans might be spoiled too for all you know. Let's fill up your lights-on-only-when-customer-wants-to-see-food chiller of yours with freshly picked lemons.

And you think opening a second branch near a place of worship will mean business is a good move. Yes, but pair it with better service, por favor. When an item in your menu is not available, say so and don't let us wait for ages while you buy in the supermarket in the mall you rent in. Dessert after four cigarettes is not as good. Four catatonic food servers do not help your image at all. While the new branch will mean new food stock as well. How come you have spoiled fish in your freezer? No amount of garnishing will disguise rotten food. Here's a lemon for your dessert.

Those are the consolation prizes. The top three awardees are...
3rd place. They use a Visayan city in their name and give it a bad reputation. The Queen City of South is not happy. This airline has been consistently creative in ruining their name. Like making you pay P100 per kilo of excess luggage. You pay. You arrive to your destination. You claim NO luggage. Because?

It wasn't loaded in your flight. We call you when you can claim it. Nice arrangement? Crates of lemons for you at no extra charge for excess weight.
2nd place. The green-eagle plane tail must be a dead bird, a molding bird, thus the color green, that make bird droppings from the sky in the form of gas tank covers. Yipeekaye! (thank God it's minus Bruce Willis' Zippo). Teeeensioooon!

You pay for cheap flights and you get even cheaper service in the form of liars.
They announced a delay of an hour from 2:35 p.m. and made you board at 4:10 p.m. (clearly that's more than an hour) rather than feed the passengers with compulsory meals caused by their delay. They announced inside the plane that five passengers were being paged and it seemingly appears that these five were the cause of the delay. Only to find out that these five (connecting flight passengers and checked through from their early morning HK flight) were already informed of the 5:30 p.m. departure. Can you beat that - close to two hours inside the damn plane! A crate of lemon per minute of delay you make.

1st place. The airline that is 99+ percent on time in relentlessly pissing everyone off. Horror stories are endless - from unsmiling, ugly and rude frontliners - booking office to check-in counters - who make it appear that we owe it to them that we can travel by plane; unbelievably stupid alternatives for their failures (like you pay for rebooking for a flight they canceled or rebooking you to another flight two days after when you already have paid for all arrangements abroad); and worse of the worst -- overbooking of their flights! They really don't give a f**k if you raise hell... you have to squeeze an apology out of them.

Let's make it easier... how many damn lemons do you really want?

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(December 28, 2008 issue)
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