Twelve years later

 I just recently discovered that this very old blog still exists in cyberspace.  I can't imagine how 12 years could have passed since my last entry!  So many life changes have occurred, I don't even know where to start.  Why don't I start with links.  

https://www.philstar.com/lifestyle/allure/2013/06/09/951679/malu-francisco-allure-beauty

https://www.philstar.com/lifestyle/fashion-and-beauty/2019/05/29/1921622/glam-fashion-maven-to-omg-brave-new-life

So there's this boy.

Camera trick - or treat

Nothing like the right props. Recently I told my co-moms the quickest way to look ten, no make that twenty, years younger in pictures was to grab a toddler or baby-in-a-stroller and pose with it like you were once again starry eyed and twenty five at the brink of total womanhood - after having given birth to junior and looking forward to number two. It works sometimes, but not if you're particularly stressed and with no makeup on, in which case you'd come out looking like the proud grandma. It has happened to me. AND the quickest way to look old (or your actual age) is to wear leggings and a long shirt, and pose with your real life 21-year old daughter and 18-year old son, thus giving away your forty or fifty something years of age even if you declare to the whole world that you gave birth at the age of ten. Recently I found out in one of those never ending cocktail parties where the SFDVs* are herded like cows from one venue to the next (honestly! I saw the very same faces last Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday!) - that if you wedge yourself in between two elderly looking been-to-a-million-cocktail parties type of people, your face actually brightens and you look young, fresh, and nubile again. Like this:

No, I will not identify these poor victims of mine. They are actually famous and very very nice. So, enough.

* same faces different venue

On a different note, I always thought I had this addiction

to LBDs (little black dresses). My wardrobe is filled with LBDs like they were some sort of uniform. It's the most practical thing! So WHY did I end up wearing a BBD? (big black dress, what else) It's the most hideous thing and I actually look .... fat! Steph was also wearing one, but in her case she looks smart.

Sigh...what's a blog without pictures? So, until I can save for a brand new cam, I will not be updating as regularly as the past two years. I rely now on photos sent to me by friends of course -- like these, from our Massimo Dutti event held two weeks ago. (Click on this link for Larry's account of that chica eve. ahem, with special mention of yours truly of course.) That's me with Allyana - daughter of friends Liezl and Albert. And below with Carla of M magazine, balikbayan Rosalie and my best friend Ginny.

I'm still here.

Well if there are two unproductive things that occupy my time now - for the benefit of all those cyber voyeurs who still visit this space and are wondering what I've been up to during the few minutes (!!) of spare time I have at the end of each day -- it's....

http://www.facebook.com/people/Malu-Francisco/604266171

where I have 401 friends and still counting..

and

http://www.volvooceanracegame.org/home.php

where I have 4 friends but who are actually one and the same person (who owns 4 boats), and that's it. I 'own' a boat named Antipolo.

Some very interesting things have happened to me personally over the past three months, but until I decide to convert this into a private blog with access to no one but moi, my lips are sealed. No photos, no names, no stories, no sex videos (JOKE!)

Valentine's thru the years

This evening is probably going to be the last of its kind.  I must prepare for Valentine's Day 2010 onwards when I will be by myself and my kids realize it's much more exciting to have a non-relative as your 'Valentine'.   Ever since I became a mother some 22 years ago, I have always been my children's valentine date. They've given me home-made hearts and cards and little tokens,  and we've spent countless Valentine evenings just ordering in -- mostly PIZZA by tradition, and watching TV.  On certain years we've had a male adult guest of mine over (a.k.a. suitor, beau, manliligaw, MU), partaking of the Valentine pizza with my children. (We've always been a packaged deal, you know.) Last year was the last time the three of us were complete - plus one guest, John the Aussie.  There was another year we had Mon the Tisoy.  This year - tonight - there were just two of us -- me and my 18-year old son Luis, as Nikki, 21, finally had her own Valentine gimmick.  And no male adult guest this year, I guess the 'packaged deal' was just too much, huh. Luis and I started the evening off by eating choriburger in Metro Walk, then, after buying 4 DVDs, we settled down infront of the TV  and watched Slum Dog Millionaire.  We will probably have to watch one or two more movies to keep us awake till 2am, when we can go pick up Nikki at the Fort.   

Sigh..This time next year both of them will probably have their own non-mother,                         

non-sibling Valentine's.  Wonder how many dvds I should buy then.

The valentine pic by the way is of my OFFICE family... for some reason I couldn't get my two children to pose in red with me. wonder why. I guess that's the start. sigh.

break

I will take a break from blogging.  Back January 2009.

"before" pictures

This was taken BEFORE Carmina's wedding.  We all dressed up in the office and looked fresh as daisies. All powdered, primped and postura.  The venue was on the other side of town, by the bay, and at rush hour it took me two hours to drive,  aircon was faulty, car was over heating, and in fact it stalled thrice.   The AFTER pictures (oily faces, hungry look, disheveled hair) is non-postable.

THE one.

Now I don't want to get over excited at such an initial stage.. but I think I've found THE gym.  First of all let it be known that I got a refund from the fake gym I was raving about the other week, the one with the basketball team on the outside, tulisans on the inside.  And discovered this one, which is actually one of the better known gyms but surprisingly turned out cheaper than the fake one!  Cheaper only because I was clever enough to make use of the buy-one-take-one-promo and actually SHARE it with a complete stranger who also happened to be enrolling on the same day.  So I ended up paying HALF the usual rate.  And using the credit card promo that amortized it over 12 mos at 0% interest -- it turned out much MUCH cheaper per month than the fake one! Clever clever me.  I just came from my second session tonight, and already I feel so toned, even if it was just a fitness test. 

T's thanks

Twas the appreciation dinner last night hosted by T for all the guys who supported them during the T ball.  That included our company, and so there I was, thoroughly enjoying the veuve cliquot with my baked salmon.  Interesting conversation, some 'behind the scenes' anecdotes, as well as the inevitable dissing of some unmentionable characters.  What I love are the souvenir framed photos they gave at the end of the evening, mine came out suuuuuuuuuper... me and date C lookin happy, just chillin.. big smiles. :) 

chick lit encore

Had an absolutely deplorable, profoundly disturbing, knock-me-on-my-head regretful conversation straight out of a chick lit novel with somebody last night.  I am sure weeks from now I will find it ridiculously funny because right now it's ridiculously humiliating.  Ah, classic chick lit.  No hints, no names, ok? 

anu to??!

seeeyettt!!! anu to? I went to my gym at 10 this evening, at panay tulisan-looking, wearing tsinelas pa, di man converse.  And we're not talking havaianas here.  refund! refund!  I think the basketball team was pang-props lang for first visits.  Even the trainors looked different. 

serious business

Today, after 8 long months of lethargy, I finally enrolled in a truly kick-ass, no nonsense, no frills gym called "E____e".  More reasonable than all those other fancy-pants fitness centers with their juice bars and lounges and astronomical membership fees.   No fancy decor nor lighting. No windows even, it's like some huge, dimly lit cavernous dungeon - BUT FILLED with well kept equipment -- the basic stuff that spelled serious business and seemed to say hey we're here to work out and not to flirt with co-members in between sets.  AND serious business it really was!  I just left the gym an hour ago and had to literally tear myself away because of the awesome eye candy - an ENTIRE PBA basketball team doing their strength training bit - which of course I pretended not to notice... I simply walked about with an air of nonchalance, to the fountain, to the machines, and obeyed my trainer, adding more weights to impress (!!?).. for there they were, bronze, tanned, and chocolate gods with nobody under 6'2", I KID YOU NOT.  What a feast..all pumping iron, doing some reeeaaally serious business.  

I have found it, my ideal gym.  Lots of inspiration to make me go at least thrice a week, dontcha think. 

Brand T

And yet another event was held this evening... this time for brand T.  Great turn out for a store event.  Wonderful mix of people - well, actually, the SFDVs, but that's really who we were aiming for anyway, PLUS actual customers - customers who actually bought! Good job, K! (she's my events counterpart in sister company R)

On the personal side, eve left a sour taste in my mouth, and I'm not talking about the quiches and the foie gras and the dates with goatcheese filling.  Oh, this chick lit life. Enough. Good night moon, good night world. Will feel better in the morning.