Inviting Comments on the SSS website

to the readers of this blog

i am planning to give the SSS webmaster feedback about the SSS website
so i am inviting comments from all of you

for example, is it easy to access the website?
is it easy to navigate?

do you use My.SSS?  tell me about your experience

i promise to inform the webmaster your comments so i hope you comment

thanks!

Muang Thai - a favorite resto

It is almost 11 and i am getting hungry.

I am thinking of food, glorious food.

Muang Thai is a Thai restaurant that is behind Heart Center.

My favorites there -

Fried Catfish Salad - yum, the best so far that i have tasted, and we've ordered the same in a lot of other restos.  the catfish was crispy, the green mango was perfect, and well, they used to have separate sauce, but now they have blended it with the dish.  i prefer it separate because i can season the dish  with as much as i like......

Sizzling Squid - yum.  really, really good food.  The squid was tender, and didnt taste .... fishy, in tagalog, one would say, it doesnt taste malansa.  A taste of tart with soy, and a wonderful blend of spices.  the veggies with it were delicious as well.  i had a good time eating them.

and of course, the Spicy Shrimp Soup - what is it now, Tom Yum (camt remember) which i have been trying to duplicate at home.

and the rice.  There are several that i like, the Muang Thai Rice, their banner rice dish, and the Bagoong Rice.  Either one is good.

The Massaman Curry is okay, and their Satay Chicken/Beef is good, but not as spectacular as the first 2 i mentioned.

hmmmm.

i already have my lunch.  i will try to catch dinner there sometime second week of May, after my laboratory examinations....  

A Korean Hot Pot - Nowana U&I

Ensogo offered a deal for Nowana U&I - unlimited shabu-shabu for 2 and an order of Bulgogi.

Our family loves hot pot - so i bought a voucher and brought my nephew to this new place ,,, along Mother Ignacia.

It is a new resto, but if you are disabled, you must be prepared to negotiate the stairs.  I had a bit of difficulty and asked my nephew to hold on to my cane.  The stairs are a bit narrow, like some of the old houses in Manila.

The Bulgogi was too sweet and too liquidy - and this didnt match the hot pot.  I would have preferred it a little less watery, with perhaps a thicker sauce, and with a little bite.  Moreover the meat was practically the same one in the hot pot.

The hot pot ingredients were pretty standard - tofu, veggies (2 kinds), some shrimps. fish balls, fresh eggs, and meat that you had to ask for.  For seasoning there was garlic, onions, red hot pepper (red sili), green hot pepper.  Then they served a concoction they had prepared.  We requested for soy sauce and calamansi, since both of us like soy and the tartness of calamansi.

Once you've layered the taste, the soup was good.  we had a lot of it.  we had 2 servings of the meat, and we went to get ingredients twice.  as my nephew puts it, there was nothing special.  it was okay, but not special.  

The soup was good - after we added spices.  i can go there again for the soup, but i have to think about the stairs.

and oh, the bathroom was clean and nice.  Of course, we were the only guests there....... as the resto had just newly opened....

i wanted to say that you should take advantage of the ensogo offer.

and oh, i told the servers that their pot was too shallow.  i mean hot pots were meant to contain lots of soup, and their pot just didnt do it.  also, their tables didnt have the sunken thing for the hot pot, so the pots were on the table, with this cookware that uses gas in a canister.  The disadvantage, hard to get the soup

Provident Funds ....like the SSS Peso-Fund, Pag-ibig2 Fund

remember when SSS announced the SSS Provident Fund - that is - The SSS Peso Fund -
 wherein interest followed the 90-day T bill?
well, that fund is still not in play.  Yep, it has been postponed.  The fund is similar to the Flexi-fund offered to OFWs.  But there are many restrictions.

If you check the Pag-ibig website, there is a Pag-ibig 2 offer wherein contributions are voluntary, have a better interest rate than bank deposits, but the interest rates are not comparable to the SSS Provident Fund.

however, the Pag-ibig offer has less restrictions so if you want to invest now, and with less hassles, go with the Pag-ibig 2 fund.
also, did you know that you can also increase your pag-ibig 1 contributions.
i know, HR never said anything, right?

do you wonder if HR really cares about you?

well .....

SSS UMID cards - An SSS Advisory

Just to make sure you are kept abreast of SSS media advisory of the release of SSS UMID cards

An Angel in the Mail

Instead of Passing this on to mail to only 10 people
am pasting this in my blog.

add a comment .......... and pray for you and your friends

Have you stopped paying your SSS contributions? You can continue - no sweat - PART 2

This is part 2 of the earlier post with the same title.

Yes, you can continue to pay your contributions after you stop, even if the stop is a long time (like 10++ years).  However, if you were self-employed, you might need to be interviewed again, depending on circumstances.

Otherwise, all you need to do is pay as voluntary since you already have previous contributions.

Remember to use the new payment form for SSS Contribution payments.

this is how it looks ...

a reduced copy of the form

click to see the copy in the sss website

Are you an SSS Claimant?

Yes? that means you must have a STUB.  if you dont have a stub. you are NOT a claimant, okay

Some of you do follow-ups too soon, wasting your time and money because the result is the same - your claim is still pending.

The thing is, as Julia Roberts says, you need to ask the frontliner when you can do a follow-up, and dont forget to ask their telephone numbers.  if they dont give you the phone number, mosey over to the website and take a look at the branch directory. take note of the number and call them.

if your sss records contain no flaws - such as everything correct, and your documentation is complete, then claims will not take too long.  allow 3 months at least even if the ARTA says shorter before you start stressing about your retirement.

this is why i am advising all would-be retirees to check their sss records to make sure that everything is fine and dandy before retirement, way before retirement.  what is fine and dandy you say?

1. your full name is correct.  full name: first name, middle name, and last name, and whatever suffixes (Jr., III, etc) - no documentation errors

2. your birthdate is correct.  no documentation discrepancies

3.  your date of cover is correct.....

4. all your employers have been correctly captured

5. no missing contributions and loans okay

btw, sss has an ongoing project related to manual verification and consequent pension adjustments that will take til year end to complete.  that is, of course, the target date.  dont be angry if it gets delayed.   there is still Murphy's Law to be considered.

btw. it is easier to email you. so get your child/grandchild or other relative to handle responses for you for email.  texting is a bit hard to explain matters, much, much easier to email - and there is out of pocket expense for the sss personnel so you just may get your response easier

Text Talk - Not for use in this Blog

This is just to announce that I will NOT respond to any comments using text-talk.

i dont see why people cannot spell out the correct tagalog/pilipino  or English word when there is no limit to the text.....

so if you want to ask or comment and expect a response, write in proper tagalog or English.  Even taglish would do, just NOT text talk.

SSS says goodbye to Commissioner Marianita Mendoza

SSS said goodbye to Mrs. Marianita Mendoza this afternoon at a send-off party at the Executive Lounge at the Social Security Building along East Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City.

I had the opportunity to speak with her many times.  She is a warm, wonderful physician, beautiful woman, who is very soft-spoken.


She will be missed by the Officers and Staff of the SSS.

L-R: Trustees: Trustee 1, Alfred, PCEO de Quiros, Trustee 2, Carol, Horace Templo, Comm. Marianita Mendoza, Zaldy

April birthdays

April 1 - Choodze Orpilla
April 3 - Ylla Sales
April 17 - Ricci Sindac
April 29 - Kay Uichanco

Life and Death - a slightly confusing post that i published anyway

I wish everyone a Happy Easter!  The joyous rebirth into Christ's love.

There would be no Resurrection without the Crucifixion, and Life with God can only begin after Death to the Material World, to use one of Madonna's words.

The only sure things,  Brad Pitt says in Meet Joe Black, are death and taxes.  And taxes in the Philippines are truly, truly onerous.  In the Philippines, the sick are further burdened by the Philippines gross income tax.

Death waits for everyone, some have very short waits, others have long, long waits.
Death, they say, is easier than living.  But giving up to death is not quite kosher - which is quite different from having a DNR*.

Hot Pot recs - Luk Foo and David's Tea House

i love hot pot, i think they call this shabu-shabu, a term i confuse with shawarma.

yes, i know. totally different but sometimes word associations can be iffy

but hot pot, yummy.  nothing to beat it.

we are a family who love soup, so hot pot is a favorite with us.

Luk Foo's hot pot is, to my -our taste, one of the best.

Unfortunately, not all Luk Foo places have hot pot.

In Luk Foo - you have to choose the items you want in the hot pot, there is regular beef, imported beef if you wish, pork, veggies (corn, bok choy, pechay, chinese cabbage, young onions, leeks), mushrooms (several kinds), fish/shrimp/squid balls, squid, shrimps (we couldnt have any as my nephew is allergic)....

There are only 2 - the one along E. Rod (cor. Araneta ave) and the one near the airport

The one near the airport has a ghost,and when we were there in 2011 (it really is too far otherwise) to have dinner with my brother - who was returning to the USA

I also tried David's hot pot - oh, also very good.  will visit again and this will probably be sooner than later since this is much nearer.  David's tea house is in the corner of morato and timog and is in the 2nd floor -----

at David's i was on solo flight so i couldnt have a lot of stuff as i wouldnt be able to finish it.  Still, it was good..

if you know of other hot pots, let me know.  Oh yes, i've tried tong yang - when it was along Quezon Ave.