As the demand for working from home and remote jobs is gradually increasing in the country, most homebuyers consider the availability of a reliable and stable internet provider when buying a home residential property these days.

Lumina Homes is a line of mass housing communities in the Philippines created to support the economic and socialized housing demands in the country. As it envisioned to become one of the top-listed housing developers in the Philippines, Lumina already built over 50 communities in key locations across the country such as Rizal, Bulacan, Pampanga, Bataan, Zambales, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac, Pangasinan, La Union, Cagayan, Isabela, Cavite, Batangas, Laguna, Quezon, Camarines Norte, Albay, Sorsogon, Iloilo, Capiz, Cebu, Negros Occidental, Agusan del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, Bukidnon, Misamis Occidental, Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, and South Cotabato.

Some of the units to choose from are Aimee Rowhouse, a 22 square meter home with a one-bedroom provision; Angelique Home Model (available in Townhouse and Duplex), a 35 square meter home with provision for two bedrooms; and Angeli Home Model (available in Townhouse, Duplex, and Single Firewall), a 42 square meter home with provision for three bedrooms.

Since Lumina Homes provides affordable house and lot packages for sale to Filipinos, Lumina decided to begin its partnership with Streamtech.

Streamtech is a new telecommunications player that was granted a Provisional Authority for the operation of a wired and fixed broadband network across the country. It is also a member of the Philippine Cable and Telecommunications Association, Inc and applied for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity with the National Telecommunications Commission or NTC.

Streamtech is the newest affordable, high-speed fiber internet and cable that is now streaming in several Filipino homes, business establishments, and offices.

Why Streamtech?

Streamtech, as the newest game player in the market, has a quick installation time and services with the help of its widely deployed technical teams and strong technical support. With this, you can ensure the reliability of your internet connection at home through its unlimited fiber internet.

The current Streamtech serviceable areas are Batangas, Bulacan, Cavite, Ilocos, Iloilo, Naga, National Capital Region, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, and Rizal, and they are planning to expand more areas nationwide.

As of now, the available Lumina Homes project locations that Streamtech is catering are the following:

1. Lumina Batangas Phase 1 and Annex

2. Lumina Batangas Phase 2 and Annex

3. Lumina Batangas Classic and Annex

4. Lumina Tanza 1 and 2

5. Lumina Cabanatuan

6.Lumina Iloilo

7. Lumina Lipa

For new Lumina Homeowners, Streamtech is providing affordable offers like these packages:

• Internet Package

25Mbps is PHP 1,499

50Mbps is PHP 1,999

75Mbps is PHP 2,499

150Mbps is PHP 3,499

Upon move-in, Streamtech grants every Lumina homeowner a 48-hour subscription confirmation when they inquire about any Streamtech fiber internet package. This offer has no expiry even if Streamtech is not available in that particular area.

They also offer a much affordable internet plan through their Plan 10 Mbps for only Php 999 every month.

• Internet with Cable TV Package

20Mbps plus Cable TV is P1,499

25Mbps with Cable TV is P1,999

50Mbps with Cable TV is P2,499

75MBps plus Cable TV is P2,999

150 Mbps with Cable TV is P3,999

• Streamtech Cable TV only

Lite P350

Deluxe P750

Premium P1,300

You should note that Streamtech Cable TV only offers several channels that suit every home, such as new, most-watched, movies, kid-oriented, sports, documentary, general entertainment, lifestyle, international, religious, and shopping. All these channels are also available in High-Definition quality or HD.

Why Homeowners Choose Lumina Homes?

Here are the reasons why Lumina is the ideal home to build your family:

Budget-Friendly

With the help of Pag-IBIG Financing, you can own a Lumina house and lot for as low as Php 1,898 per month. Their housing unit offers range from Php 500,000 to Php 1,700,000. You can have a wide selection of home models from their rowhouses, townhouses, duplex home, and single firewall homes.

Durability

Compared to the usual hollow blocks, each Lumina Homes unit is built with a reinforced concrete system, meaning it is made with pure cement that makes it more durable.

Aside from its perimeter fence, CCTV camera, and guarded subdivision entrance, the community also offers the assurance of complete amenities, including a basketball court, multi-purpose hall, mini gardens and playground, and spaces for lease for a future commercial area.

Simple Process

You can have your own space by following the simple steps for all types of home financing loans. You can also have the convenience of using their Lumina Homes Online, where you can have a 24-hour ChatBot assistant that can answer all your queries.

Nationwide Availability

Lumina Homes communities could now be found across the country as it currently spread over Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. All of these are placed in strategic locations so you can have the assurance of the accessibility of each subdivision in major cities, municipalities, and provinces. They are also usually located near hospitals, schools, churches, business infrastructures, and shopping centers.

To know more about Lumina Homes and their affordable house and lot offers, you can visit Lumina Homes' Website.

In the Philippines, my favorite cuisine other than Filipino is Japanese. I just enjoy eating my sashimi, sushi, ramen, karaage, okonomiyaki, takoyaki and a lot more. But I also tried Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Mexican, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Greek and of course, American. But Japanese food are really something else. 

So when I came here in Saudi Arabia, I was kind of hoping there will be even one Japanese restaurant in the area, but unfortunately there was none. Even Filipino restaurant is not available here in Najran. But there were a lot of Indian restaurants and as I remember correctly, I haven't tried eating at an Indian restaurant back in the Philippines, but yeah, I tried Chicken Curry before and I love it a lot.

After doing researches on which restaurant to try, I stumbled upon this highly suggested indian fine dining called Makan. It is located at Abu Bakr Al Siddiq Street Najran and you will immediately notice it because of its very appealing facade.

The staff handed us a tablet as to where we should place our order. There was a lot of Indian food to choose from, but we noticed that only a few beverage options. It was a bit pricey, but it was fine dining so we were kind of expecting that. While checking the menu, one staff served us a free appetizer which contains crackers which I believe is Bhatura and 3 kinds of sauces. 

At first I found the green sauce weird but after sometime, I got really addicted to it. 

 

Now off to our orders:

Shawarma Biryani - 48sr

This one didn't disappoint. It was the best biryani I've tasted here in Najran. Presentation wise, it was very attractive and the chicken was very tasty. This dish is good for 1-2 persons.

Naan with Nutella with Fries

Nothing special with this dessert. But this is something that the kids will definitely enjoy.

Gulab Jamun - 18sr

This is an authentic Indian dessert which is a milk solid-based sweet made from Khoa and Saffron. It was a bit sweet for my liking but I enjoyed trying this out. Plus points for how it was served in some sort of small goblet. Im not sure if they really served it like this in India, but it was cool.

It was also very nice for the staff to give us free drinks since it was our first time to dine in Makan. They are really approachable and friendly and they served our food fast. Really great service from this restaurant. 

It was a great gastronomical experience that me and my friend had in Makan and we will definitely come back to try the other dishes that they offer. If you want to try it out, you can dine in, order for pick up or deliver at home for a minimum order of 50sr. You can check out this link for their menu. You may also visit their Facebook Page and Instagram Account to be updated on their promos and discounts.

Have you tried Makan before? Comment down below what your favorite dish is and which food should I try next. 

If going through 2020 were to be described in a nutshell, it definitely would be a rough ride – much like having to go through a bad hair day, every single day. Now that the new year is here, it’s time to turn things around for the better — here’s to 2021, a year of transformations.

There’s nothing more daunting than rain lashing at the windows whilst your children are running around inside, bickering with each other, and demanding to be entertained. It’s a nightmarish scenario for any parent who’s also stuck inside on a rainy day.

Photo from Pexels

There are countless lifestyle changes that you can make that help you as well as others. Going vegan is one of them. Put simply, when you go vegan, you cut out all animal products and animal derived products from your lifestyle. This means that you no longer consume animal flesh (which means all meat including fish and seafood) or animal byproducts (eggs, dairy, honey and more). When you opt for this kind of diet, you benefit animals in that they are no longer used or exploited. You help the planet, as animal agriculture produces huge amounts of emissions and causes countless environmental problems. You can also massively benefit your health, as many studies have found many health risks associated with animal derived foods. It’s really not all too surprising that many people are giving this lifestyle a try and are finding themselves extremely happy with the results it has on their overall health and wellbeing. If you want to give veganism a try, read on for some advice that can help you along the way!

Learn New Recipes

Of course, when you go vegan, you will find that you need to adapt recipes that you’re used to making, using plant based alternatives to several ingredients. The good news is that if you can make something, chances are there is a vegan alternative that you can make instead. Instead of scrambled eggs, you can try making scrambled tofu. Instead of standard pizza, you can create vegan pizza with vegan cheese. If you want vegan fajitas, you can merely remove the meat and used vegetables such as peppers or mushrooms instead. Whatever you fancy, there will be a way to make it without the need for animal derived products. Just get searching online - there are plenty of tips, tricks and recipes out there that are more than worth trying out.

Limit Vegan Junk Food

When you turn vegan, you’ll inevitably find yourself cutting out a huge amount of junk foods that you may be used to consuming - sheerly because they contain animal derived products. This means that you will find yourself  consuming fewer saturated fats and refined sugars. However, with the number of vegans on the rise, companies are realising demand for more vegan junk foods. This is a whole new market and every day more vegan ready meals, sweets, chocolates and other unhealthy vegan foods are being added to the market. So, make sure that you limit your consumption of these. Sure, a treat here and there is no problem. But you don’t want to find yourself switching to a complete vegan junk food diet. This can be just as bad for your health as a junk food diet containing animal products.

As you can see, there are a few things to bear in mind when it comes to switching to a vegan diet. But all in all, as long as you manage the switch properly, you can find that a plant based diet is a whole lot better for you!

photo grabbed from AllbanyColley from Pixabay

When told about eating healthy, you may think that it is about consuming the low-quality things in life.

You might go through a battle of needs versus desires that often leaves you less than halfway through

your fitness goals by the end of each year.

This undesirable trend is depressing and can lead you to give up on eating healthy altogether. After all, who doesn't get motivated when seeing some positive progress?

Regrettably, this is not always the case. Due to the unhealthy habits that you accumulate, you often deviate from responsible eating. You can use the following ways to develop strict rules for better feeding habits.

Identify the Bad Habits

People tend to have some bad eating habits that keep them from living healthy, whether knowingly or unknowingly. Perhaps you have the insistent habit of missing breakfast or a culture of eating fast food. In any case, the first step to eliminating these devious ways is to single them out.

Other common bad eating habits include:

Eating Too Fast

Consuming food too fast often causes you to overeat because it leaves the stomach with little to no time for processing the level of satisfaction.

Eating Too Much

Bad habits like filling your plate with too much food at once are unhealthy and cannot help bring your confidence back.

Frequent Desserts

Although indulging in a sweet or two once in a while isn't bad, regular consumption of too many sugary desserts remains unhealthy. Instead, replace such habits with healthier options like broccoli cheese casserole with ritz crackers that prove beneficial to your body and taste good.

Replace the Bad Habits

Food was made for man, as was a man for food. This symbiotic relationship bears immense benefits for human health; thus, replacing old habits with newer and better ones will result in a healthier life.

Here are the best ways to begin doing this.

Have a Meal Plan

A schedule of what you'll consume during the week or month will help you avoid deviating from eating

healthy. Use relevant apps and software to come up with a balanced plan, if need be.

Always Carry a Grocery List

When you go to the store with no shopping list, you may tend to indulge in unhealthy food—as such,

drafting a list of only the essential items keeps you focused while shopping.

Schedule Rewards

After a successful run of eating healthy like three weeks into it, it is vital that you remain motivated by

rewarding yourself. Schedule small treats or engage in an activity you love as a way of appreciating

good effort.

Avoid overindulging as it can easily lead you back to the old habit of unhealthy eating.

Healthy eating is a lifelong pursuit that only ends when a person dies. Many people fall below expectations in terms of living healthy. The best way to kick out bad eating habits is to identify them and replace them with healthier options.

Use meal plans, grocery lists, and schedule rewards to keep yourself on track and motivated.

 Everyone that has a family, will know how hard it is to eat right. It's been a long day, you just want to relax and have a full belly before you go to bed. Many of us can relate to this feeling of just wanting something in our stomachs, so we can just go to sleep without waking up in the middle of the night; which would happen if we skipped dinner out of convenience. However, we think that this isn’t a battle that you have to lose every time. So here are a few recipes for your family, when you are all a little tired, too tired to cook but not too tired to go to bed.

photo grabbed from Pixabay

Classic Neapolitan pasta

Rome may have some significant advantages over Naples in some areas like architecture and opera, but some would say it rivals in cuisines. Naples is of course the birthplace of pizza, but it's also the birthplace of Neapolitan style pasta. Keeping it simple is their motto. 

You need any pasta you like and some good quality pasata. Chop up some red chili and garlic. In fact, mush the garlic into a paste so it will melt into the sauce instead of clumping. Then, when the sauce has thickened after simmering for 30-minutes or so, add the pasta to it. Never put the sauce into the pasta, always the pasta into the sauce. This will not change the consistency of the sauce. Then add some fresh mozzarella di Campa, i.e. mozza balls. Sprinkle some fresh basil leaves over the top and you’re done.

The northern Brit

Fish pies are extremely popular in the UK. it's a cold, wet and windy climate, so a whole meal on a plate is quite the common ethos in their cuisine. Pies are the most famous type of food on the island, and fish pie is among the best. Fish pie is very cheap and simple to make. You can use haddock, cod, salmon, pollock, sea bass or monkfish. You will need some good extra mature English cheddar for the sauce, as well as some white wine with low acidity. Have some garden peas and leeks at the ready too. Follow this recipe for the authentic fish pie that has its roots in the North of England and Scotland.

Tofu surprise

Here’s something that your family might not expect to see on their dinner plates; tofu! Tofu is a soft bean curd that is popular in countries such as Japan, Thailand, Korea and China. The black pepper tofu with bok choy is one of the best easy healthy dinner recipes for the whole family. The pepper and choy combo is subtle and doesn’t break any authenticity bars, so you get the full experience of an Asian infusion dish. On top of that, it's very cheap, as tofu and noodles cost very little compared to meat or pasta.

When you’re tired and out of ideas, take up the task to create any one of these simple dishes. It can feed the whole family and be your saving grace when you need to get to bed.