Putting up and maintaining an office is getting costlier every day. If you have been working out of your home for some time now and are put off by the idea of putting up a brick and mortar office due to cost, a virtual office may be the answer.

Virtual offices have been around for quite some time now in major cities in the world like New York, London and Hong Kong. It’s great for those who don’t need an office full-time but need an office presence. Companies that are downsizing or are just starting up may also benefit from having a virtual office.

Just what is a virtual office? Tina Cuerva, marketing consultant of My Office , a Makati-based company offering virtual office services, says: “A virtual office lets the entrepreneur enjoy the benefits of having a traditional serviced office without having to physically occupy office space. This way, an entrepreneur will still have a professional image without having to spend much on capital.”
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IF someone told Thomas Edison that the light bulb he invented can be lighted up using garbage, Edison would probably have laughed. But now it is no laughing matter as biogas from solid waste is indeed being used to power up lights and other appliances even in our country.

It has been six months since the 100kW Biogas Pilot Power Plant was inaugurated in Cebu City. An upgrade of the Inawayan Waste Disposal Facility, the facility is designed to convert solid waste into an energy source. In fact, Philippine BIO-Sciences Co. Inc. (PhilBIO), the operator, has confirmed before that about half of the 400 metric tons of mixed solid waste taken here daily can be converted into biogas.

The project has been touted to give added benefits: reduction of landfill mass, additional revenue for the city, and jobs for the people in the area. There are of course the environmental benefits of depending less on fossil fuels for energy needs and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

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Cristyl Mae B. Senajon*

We all dream of a Philippines without corruption, where people pay taxes without being goaded to do it, where officials use public funds for public good, where deeply ingrained respect for others make most traffic rules unnecessary, and where each child can get quality education that will give her plenty of job options and good pay.

Mary Ann Alampay, a 20-year old BS Management student from the Ateneo de Manila University, believes in this dream. How to reach it, however, was the big puzzle.

Perhaps it was her love for teaching or her hope for the Filipino child that pointed her to a direction that might change a nation. Mian to her family and friends sat herself one Saturday afternoon and poured her heart out on pen and paper. The result was Bright Kids Learning Center, a social entrepreneurship project that would teach underprivileged children for free that art, colors, counting, and reading are as much fun as showing empathy and respect for others.
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IT used to be that all Filipinos had to do to look fabulous was to go to the neighborhood beauty salon. Now there are a whole lot of places to patronize if one is really vain or conscious about appearance: the facial salon, the spa, the medi-spa, the cosmetic surgeon, etc.

Indeed, it seems that Filipinos have become more vain over the years, a fact observed by Faces & Curves’ Dr. Jesus “Jay” Recasata, Jr., a plastic surgeon, and his wife Dr. Sheila A. Recasata, a dermatologist. In the past eight years since Dr. Jay established his practice in Greenhills, he has seen the demand for cosmetic surgery and beauty services rise. “The prospects for the future are good,” says Dr. Jay.

This is why in 2005, Dr. Jay asked his wife to join him in his practice and renamed the clinic Faces & Curves. Aside from surgical services offered (cosmetic, plastic, and reconstructive), the state-of-the-art clinic has since offered beauty services for the face, skin and body, all performed by board-certified doctors.

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NEAR THE FAR end of Tomas Morato Avenue in Quezon City, a new restaurant has been quietly luring diners these past seven months with its authentic Asian cuisine. This is Nasi Lemak, a small cozy restaurant just across the big McDonald’s outlet with French fries on its roof.

There’s a queue at lunch and dinner on weekends, and during weekdays at peak hours, the restaurant gets almost full too. And it’s all due to word of mouth, as satisfied customers rave about the tasty dishes, mostly Singaporean, at reasonable prices.

Restaurant consultant H.K. Tan, a Singaporean, says they are very particular about the quality of the food they serve, to the point of being paranoid. “We import ingredients to be assured of consistent quality,” he says. They also don’t scrimp on the ingredients to be used in the dishes so as to give customers the real deal.

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