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.  

starts with a d, ends with a y

Ok, let's take a break from serious work stuff. Today press samples arrived and we had a blast as usual. See here, that's from NEXT season mind you.  From the Spring Summer 2009 press collection of brand "d". No names, ok, remember the google search effect. It's a very popular brand from the big apple that starts with a d, ends with a y and has 4 letters that are actually the acronym of the lady designer + the city.  We're about to lend it out to the fashion editor of x magazine who has no idea we beat her to the pictorial...tee hee..  Ms. dopey smiling lady here is wearing her own baduy clothes but she thinks she's cool coz she's got next season's towering platform heels (on rubber shoes?!??) from cool brand "d".

SF!

simply faaaaaaaabulous post made by RLJ on the SF 80th anniv:

SF 80th Anniv

she captured the grandeur of it all

sino ba talaga si malou francisco? hate it the way people misspell my name, inserting the letter "o"and  making me just one of those gazillion malous on over 100 pages of google search. it's a very personal thing with me, like saying I'm 55 instead of - ahem - 35. hahahahahahaha. sinungalin talaga si malou francisco.  

(I've always thought if you're gonna lie about your age, lubusin mo na, don't just chop off a few measly years, that's pathetic. Chop off an entire decade! or more, if needed. tee hee)

By the way, sent friend C the original uncropped version of pic below and he said we looked 'stressed'.

Cropping Chris

Alex finally sent me a proper remembrance of that magical evening at the T Ball. Cropped C upon request though (of my hundred million admirers. JUST kidding..).

The Night before SF

Twas the night before SF

and all through the house

all my nerves were a stirring, my white hair a-growing, my stress level rising...

YES it is the eve before our S.Ferragamo gala - the 80th anniversary, the culmination of months of stress, anguish, agony, panic.. tomorrow I will wake up and take a deep breath and thank God I am still alive to see October 22.   Tomorrow the sun will rise and I will go through a hundred million items on my checklist, from the delivery of more than 300 bottles of wine and champagne, to the adjustments in the VO script, to the speeches, to the briefing of the twenty usherettes who will surely be late, the seating plan, the color coded cards, every single detail that will leave me in palpitating, zombie-like, breathless, about-to-break-down mode all day.

But twenty four hours from now... I shall have a big smile on my face, heaving a sigh of relief  - only temporarily though...there's still the Cartier event on Oct.23 and then M.Jacobs on the 24th!  It never really ends, you know

Twas the night before SF

And all through the house

Peace and quiet reigned as I slept

and slept and over slept...  

And woke up just in time for ... Christmas!

(and lost my job in the process. oh no!!!)

Kythe

Today I thought of my Kythe kids and was dismayed to find out I had run out of leaves that would allow me to go back.   Kythe visits are every Thursday morning and so I would have to postpone that for February '09 when I get a whole new batch of leave credits from work. I stopped last March soon after Knowell passed away and I was too affected to go back. Now I'm longing to see them again, although I am sure it's a whole new set of faces to replace the old ones whom I had gotten to know and love and are now in a much happier place.  I am longing to go back to try to make the children happy again, read stories and play with jigsaw puzzles and 'kikay' kits again.  Many things are happening now at work and in my personal life that leave me anxious - ok - I'll even use the word 'sad' (pag minsan like now why kaya),  and something is now pulling me to go back to the kids.  The Kythe yahoo group emailed about their Christmas party on Dec.13 - which I will make it a point to attend.  Absolutely nothing should get in the way. 

It feels good to know that my blog entries are posted in their website!! http://www.kythe.org/volexperience.html I hope they inspire some of you readers. 

Visit the Kythe site to know more about how you can help kids with terminal or chronic illnesses. Or, like what some of us do, take the time to visit them and cheer them up and play with them once a week (just an hour or two is all it takes!) so they continue to feel loved and cared for. You can pretend to be a clown, a princess, a witch, a rabbit or just their big sister or brother or auntie who makes faces and tells stories ... whatever you think will make them happy and feel like ordinary kids again..To those who would like to help, there are many affiliate hospitals under the Kythe program, but if you would like to care for the kids at the NCH in particular, please contact Marian or Cynthia at 7240656 loc 59.  

This morning I suddenly thought of my Kythe friends, most of whom are probably in Heaven now. 

Mea culpa

I've just been working on the previous entry, snipping, cutting, cropping, abbreviating, making it absolutely google-proof.  In my excitement the other day I made the mistake of spelling out each and every word related to this high profile event - something I don't normally do - including the full name of the now-cropped person, AND full length photo to boot!   Everything's absolutely google proof now, with acronyms, abbreviations, cropped photo and all.  tsk tsk mea culpa.  No damage done, I hope.  No names are ever mentioned in this blog as much as possible. Everyone goes by abbreviations and codes -- UNLESS you're a ratwak. :)

Pre-party pose

I have absolutely no decent photographs to share of the 7th Anv TB which took place last night at the R B of the Mkti S-la.  Let me see if I can swipe some from Alex, Dindo or Mon -- get them to email me one or two...but in the meantime I shall just have to post the one and only pre-party pic taken by my daughter who forgot to put the flash on as she took a picture of me in my Ttlr finery in my humble dining room ...  no you don't have astigmatism or myopia.. it really came out blurry.  

The gown was black velour with silver trimmings and a decolletage just up to there. It had a bit of spandex and was very very tight, I actually had to do 100 crunches a day since September to do it justice.  quite different from the book leaf number I wore last year which was quite frou frou, my hips kept bumping other frou frou hips.  Of course with such a tight number it was a challenge last night to slither into zee waiting - ahem - 'sports car'. 

Anyway, by comparison here's last year's entry, which was more sedate, maybe more like..Sabrina in.. Sabrina  http://msfrancisco.blogspot.com/2007/09/channeling-sabrina.html

That's it!  Last night was a magical, enchanting, heavenly evening that only a ball of Ttlr proportions can achieve.  For one magical moment I and the other 499 guests lived in another world... 

What we did for love

http://mariebonifacio.multiply.com/journal/item/88/What_I_Did_For_Love

This is just way too much. Click on the multiply link above and see what a blast Marie, Grace and I had last Sunday on Henggee's birthday. World class performers indeed!!

'

- Malu a.k.a Magoo (Poveda HS class nevermind)

Chick lit, chic life

WHY do I subject myself to this? In the words of my very wise, very old (as in 'old soul') daughter, I have just undergone a shamelessly cheesy CHICK LIT moment. As I related to her the highlights of my travails this week as a babyboomer late bloomer, narrating a major disappointment that had actually driven me close to tears, all I got were guffaws and snorts and a classic rolling of the eyeballs with a declaration that my life seemed to be one very long chick lit novel now. She said my recent story was a certified classic. And so very very funny (not to me it wasn't!). Forget the tragic and scandalous deeds of the past. Forget the close-to-suicidal heartaches and tearing of hair and beating of breast in agony that marked the '80s and the 90's. My so called escapades of the 21st century have been relegated to that: chick lit. Classic chick lit. Think Bridget Jones and that shallow headed Shopaholic girl. Or movies with Anne Hathaway, Lindsay Lohan or - heaven forbid - Hillary Duff in them! And so we ended up laughing our hearts out in the car yesterday at the absurdity and shallowness of it all, in a priceless mother-daughter bonding moment.

As to the details of this chick lit episode, my dear readers, it is much too embarrassing and shallow to immortalize in cyberspace. Suffice it to say the subject has been banished to outer space along with antagonists from my 20th century soap-operatic life. Details are in a handwritten, personal diary kept in the drawer of my bedside table, to be read only upon my ...ahem...passing. Now, isn't that classic chick lit.

Fall fashion, literally

Almost all the popular local blogs have posted it, so why not do likewise. I speak of none other than the video clip of that very memorable fashion show I was witness to last Thursday, where one model after another made "tapilok", with two of them actually falling flat on the floor. One was a super diva model from the 90's who recovered with much grace and elan - and quick thinking! She posed as though modelling for a mattress tv commercial and didn't get up till someone from the audience helped her. The other was pure comedy by a very famous tv actress - no need for words, just watch:


JA the director explained it was due to the plexiglass ramp, which must have been polished too much right before the show. Or it could have been the lights which had some sort of heating - and slippery?- effect on the plexiglass. Anyway..I and Chris Lacson who was seated beside me had a blast, we were near the front - just two rows away - and could hear the commotion backstage, including one super malutong tagalog expletive by celebrity model P right there on the ramp.

Facing Faces

A trek down memory lane was in order as the entire cosmo manille - the SFDV crowd plus more - trooped to the EDSA Shang last Friday after MS mag issued the invite that they would "re-create" the famous Faces... And so the '80s came back with a vengeance, this time staged in the grandeur of the Isla Ballroom converted into one gigantic authentic-looking disco with mirror balls, colored lights, fog machine and ledge dancing from that memorable era. Faces from the past were a-plenty, with plenty of air kissing, hugging and yes, shrieking. It was indeed a lump-in-the- throat moment for many as recollections of the hedonistic 80’s and early 90’s filled the air - which led to a very heightened party feeling - ergo - marathon drinking and celebrating with long lost friends (including vodka tonic ‘classmates’ like JT the ex lover of my best friend then Christie C who had that famous confrontation scene in Quirino Avenue after leaving disco SG, which by the way wasn't Faces era, but still part of the sinful '80s) . It was simply overwhelming- - the memories, the music, the people. But I told EL, one of the party hosts, that although I was very much an '80s girl, Faces was NOT exactly my scene as that happened late eightees when I was – ahem – busy getting pregnant or nursing and seeing a different set of faces - cute lil' ones with drool and spit who kept me up all night. Admittedly, and I know I’m dating myself, I have a different set of memories - having been more of a Stargazer-Johnny Romero’s Circus - LouieY’s and Calesa kind of '80s gal. Yup, early to mid. So there, the age shows but who cares. ANYWAY.. the party last Friday was a celebration of the ENTIRE '80s era, which was still MY era, and indeed the most colorful part of my life, where stolichnaya and disco reigned supreme and the only problem was how to drive home with car on auto pilot, where the issues for the day involved deciding what to wear that night, who to go with, and hoping "na maganda yung crowd’. I remember agreeing with Christie back then that the only reason we had our day jobs was so we could earn enough money to buy nice clothes to wear at night.
And that, folks, summarizes my shallow shallow youth which I've left behind - thank God.

Instant youth by osmosis - with twenty-something SSI girls Ria, Annick and Nina... They too were at "Faces", wanting to find out what their aunties, uncles, moms and dads (my peers in other words) were up to twenty years ago. Common denominator? Look what they're holding...

SFDV

Has it really been ONE year since colleague Gerbie and I resurrected our gowns from our bauls in preparation for a supposedly long gown affair, and where we hid behind the tall plants in the lobby, feeling very self-conscious in our ballgowns as we noticed that majority of the cocktail crowd were squeezed into little black dresses? But I do remember having fun that evening, overdosing on pritchon and champagne, feeling very Kiera-ish in my long gown finery. Well, tonight marked the anniversary of that evening, as magazine T&C celebrated its first year by throwing yet another well planned, lavish affair, complete with big band (yes! think Blue Moon and that era), dancing, DI's, a delectable spread of roastbeef, oysters and other Pen delights...AND of course, the de rigueur cocktail crowd of le cosmo manille - the SFDVs in full force! (Same faces different venue) It was indeed such a welcome respite for this hired hand to get away from the trenches of office routine and sip..or rather gulp down six successive glasses of champagne, and devour the oysters and canapes with my cocktail friends (most of whom quite honestly I don't see during the daytime, but who I greet anyway like long lost relatives, kissing on both cheeks while trying to remember names). It is such a welcome exercise to go through the usual party motions inside the Rigodon ballroom, after all the stress and physical and mental fatigue the past weeks - which by the way accounts for my long long blog absence. And soooo...talking about exercise...I did just that, by dancing with the DI's like there was no tomorrow once the canned music set in.
While tonight was the first anniversary celebration of T&C, tomorrow is the launch of some new magazine,WB, while Friday is the grand grand party of MS magazine. Yes folks, the party scene is upon us, as the -ber months slowly creep in. SFDVs of Manila, unite!

Incidentally, at one point earlier this evening I and my single friend M of MC mag were quietly surveying the glass clinking crowd and made the common observation that no way would parties like this be a potential breeding ground for Mr. Right. In the first place, I said, Mr. Right would probably be at home reading the stock market report or some such boring winding-down-after-a-hard-day activity. And, M added, you wouldn't want your Mr. Right to be the type to attend these activities, would you, as we eyed the dapper, very friendly, oozing with charm and all the right words men-about-town-but-whom- you-better-be-wary-of "N" and "M". They were working the room alright, dressed in their spiffy suits and devious smiles as they oggled the array of cleavages, low backs and slinky dresses parading about. But the SFDV crowd wouldn't be as interesting without them, would it?

Cheers! Clink.

last year's event: http://msfrancisco.blogspot.com/2007/09/pritchon-chic.html

fab fab fab

There is nothing more relaxing or stress relieving than having pure unadulterated girl talk right smack in the middle of work week over a sumptuous lunch in elegant and quiet surroundings punctuated only by squeals and shrieks and gushy conversaton. Who? whaaaaat? where? with whom, he did? and how on earth did you find out, who told youuuuu?? This happened last Wednesday at Inagiku with 3 other girls all of whom have fab careers in the publishing world, and thus the abundant source of fab gossip. There was A of LA, C of M and L of A. There you go, all initials because you know how it is in blogosphere where your reputation can be ruined by a mere google search, enter key or double click. Anything work related was set aside, nobody spoke about editorials and shoots and advertising and 'new brands' and so I had a super fab time... sorry my vocabulary is limited now, I think that is the result of too much chismis flooding my brains. But we talked of useful practical topics too like the most painless brazilian wax in manila (Regine's...where they go at it in one WHACK according to A of LA), or where to get the most natural looking eyelash extensions (Lexxusa at Metrowalk, look for Maricel) If you're really "in" then you would know that in Manila today, Eyelashes are the new Lips. Ah, such nuggets of wisdom I am able to gather from mid-week meetings like these...

Cool Site

cool site. Now my work will live on and on and on... The 8 poems - I wrote for my Joy of Writing course last '05. The essays were written way before that, Boardroom Gaiety in 1998. No Roses in 2001. Time to make yabang to the world. My sitemeter tells me I have visitors from places like Norway and Lithuania. Para sa inyo po ito...

My Portfolio

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18 + 21 = 0 pictures

My son turned 18 yesterday and my daughter will turn 21 this Wednesday and we had a nice celebration over lunch with chocolate sansrival and candles and all. We smiled and posed and had nice cousin pictures, brother-sister pictures, lolo-lola pictures, ninong-inaanak pictures, and the best - posing with mom pictures. But unfortunately the world will never see these pictures as the files got corrupted this afternoon for some mysterious reason and just disappeared into thin cyber air. And I am absolutely pissed. Goodnight.

Of eagles and ducks

This makes me truly proud of my 'hyatt heritage', I don't think there has ever been a sales and marketing team like what we had back then. Read Bob Z's column:
http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=goodLife2_july5_2008

One beautiful ditzy day

One beautiful ditzy day in June a long table was laid out for 25 ladies who lunched and primped and posed and primped some more. And talked of nothing but tinted moisturizers, bionic mascaras, hydrating perfecting powders and a microcirculating lipgloss with Goji Berry C complex. Pure unadulterated ditz for these ladies who lunched. We oohed and aahed and played with makeup testers and watched ourselves in dresser mirrors that lined the table while partaking of the heavenly lunch (a choice of US prime rib or Baked Dory mmmm!). Common denominator? ditz. beauty. makeup. experts. Experts! Yes they were our guests - these experts on beauty. For they were all beauty and lifestyle editors, columnists and writers from the different glossies and broadsheets of cosmo manille who we wined (tea'd?) and dined with lipsticks and facepowders and a most relaxing, refreshingly different kind of lunch.
(press launch of new collection of Smashbox cosmetics, June 30, 2008 at Le Souffle, Rockwell Club)

Ex Hyatt, Ex Everything

The place card on our table simply said "Ex Hyatt", hilariously making us think of ourselves as has-beens, la-os na, wala na sa uso. Peggy's 50th birthday bash held at Paparazzi brought together friends from every stage of her life.. high school, college, the various posts in her career, till her present job as Regional VP for Marketing for the Shangri-La Hotels Asia Pacific. Whew some gal. But her formative years, so to speak, were spent with us, now gathered together in one table simply labelled as "Ex Hyatt". The girls were all fresh out of college then, sweet young things out on the road all day, doing the ubiquitous 8 sales calls on dirty old men, while boss Bob was happy with 38% occupancy at a 45 dollar average room rate. Simple joys, simple life. Now fast forward MORE THAN TWO DECADES later, and here we are, several lifetimes and a few ex-s later, the ex-Hyatts, hamming it up for dear Peggy weggy... Needless to say, we felt like irresponsible adults again, and ruined her cake by finishing all the cherries before the program began. AND we right away put up a school-like barrier between us, the Hyatt group, and the yabang Shang group headed by Jarlath whose table was positioned beside the roast beef carving, barring entry to the ex-Hyatts. Somebody quipped that the ex-Hyatts had to pay a premium to get to that part of the buffet! Now maybe that's why we wiped out all the cherries.
Now, roll call please, from left to right, standing: David de Padua, Benedict Lim, Bob Zozobrado, Cynthia Serrano, Raffy Camus. Seated, l-r, Ginny Banaag, me, Cory Quirino, Peggy Angeles, Gami Holazo Wilkinson, Val Palou Erana. Cheers, Pegs! And cheers to the Hyatt Regency Manila of the eightees!

Love and Marriage

Still on that nostalgia trip. This I found and must immortalize before the CD gets all moldy. Awwwwwww sooooooo cute, my mommy and daddy plus us their cute little tadpoles. Love and Marriage go together like a - horse and carriage! (really?).. ya can't have one, ya can't have none, ya can't have one without the other! (don't we just love the fifties!!)
Of course I posted it on Youtube! Enjoy!

Children, children

I sometimes get into these nostalgic moods and start scrounging though old photos, notes and memorabilia at home, and I get this heart-achy feeling for the past as I recall warm fuzzy times with my children when they were just that –- children.

But sometimes too, on rare occasions, I recall ANOTHER set of children. The ones I spend an average of ten hours with, every Monday to Friday. Since we all live and breathe beside one another every hour, every day, with me as their 'mother', we’ve formed our little office family whom I also share some nostalgic moments with. Here is an old video I found – from last year – which documents our good times. We gave it to Corinne (yup, one of my 'children') as a farewell present when she joined another ‘family’. AND I did the ultimate by posting it on You Tube!

bbbbbbbbbbb

beauties at a beauty-filled beauty event held last month on a beautiful afternoon at rockwell club, mc mag's prix de excellence de la beaute 2008 whatever that means. basta beautiful kami. That's Liza, me and Ayessa of beauty bar.

and yet another cocktail party

Last night I went to yet another cocktail party this time hosted by T magazine to launch their 100 best restos book for 08. Wonderful SFDV* crowd. I say wonderful because sometimes it's actually refreshing to mingle with these AB market GB4-5 faces after slugging it out in the office trenches bent over your computer the whole afternoon. So with a clink clink of your wine glass, by osmosis you also become a bonafide SFDV face. And sometimes, just sometimes, I see some familiar faces from twenty five years, ten lifetimes and a gazillion trips-to-the-confessional-box ago. Like tonight. one, two....three! One greeted me warmly like nothing happened, which was good, (for after all, we keep bumping into each other at these gatherings anyway, as in, ho-hum) and I beso-beso'd his stunning wife and asked her about her r business. Wonderful couple. You've done well, L. Another - OMG - this I do not believe - just looked right thru me and not even a hair on his eyebrow quivered with recognition, maybe because I reminded him of the a.h. he once upon a time was, and not the big time business leader with the genteel and gracious wife he now is. Hmph...him with the family name that dates back to those sailors on the first Chinese vessels that sailed to Manila in the 1600's and intermarried with the natives. But I did catch him glancing my way a few times, maybe thinking, hey, we're supposed to be the same age, why does whats-her-name-again look absolutely sensational and ten years younger than me now (yahoo!!! hehe) . Oh T, eat your heart out. And finally the third, a very friendly third. At least he was friendly, but might I say a wee bit tooo friendly, who remembered too many things. So without further ado, at 7:55pm sharp, I said my adieus.. Adieu!!


* same faces different venue

NOTE: All initials have been changed.

There's always a first time -

But I didn't think it would come this soon-- certainly not on the first week! My son, one week into driving class at A-1 driving academy, had his first taste of the real motoring world the other day - an honest to goodness BANGGAAN (That's collision in other words but for some reason the tagalog translation sounds more dramatic.) All the elements were there, from hungry cop asking for lagay (for the benefit of my int'l readers, lagay is the filipino word for "put". As in "put the money in my hand so I'll let you go, but do it discreetly") to the traffic reaching a standstill not because of the accident but because of curious onlookers slowing down to stare, gape, and even sneer.. to the PEDICAB who rammed into the car...and finally to the ominous looking 'lynch mob' (the neighborhood in that little esquinita way deep inside Pasig) that sided with the pedicab even if he was obviously in the wrong. Luis survived it, loved every second of it, and took pictures for posterity...

Award winning!

May Anne my advertising manager celebrated her birthday and look what ended up on the IFC spread of her birthday card/magazine!! This is what you get for your birthday when you work with the MarComm Department of company S:
That's all of our heads on the spring/summer 08 ad campaign of brand L -- Princess, Biboy (May Anne's husband), Jeboy, May Anne, Sunday, Liza, Sunday again, and meeee!!!

Now, a closeup - Click to appreciate... How we WISH our legs were really this thin.

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a door!

To see is to believe.... It really flew out!! I survived my graveyard shift and finally took a photo this morning.

Graveyard shift

Oh the travails of moving into an old new house. Old - as in built in the early 80's, and new - as in newly repainted, all white and sparkling. Like those rich matrons who've been around a very long time, but still have young taut faces. One huge gust of wind that came in through the open front door...and bam! the glass door leading to my mini garden flew off! Yes, folks, the offending door is now leaning peacefully against the concrete wall that separates my garden from Goldilocks bakeshop. Miraculously the glass is intact, but I now have a gaping hole in my old new house where this flying door used to be. This happened a few hours ago, at 7 in the evening. And as the workers can only come in tomorrow morning, we have decided to go on shifts guarding this house from cats and bats and snakes and rodents. Not to mention of course the akyat bahay's, magnanakaws, ex-convicts and rapists. Luis was in charge till midnight, then me till 3am (that's NOW), and Grace the maid from 3am to 6am. It is now only 1:40 in the morning and nobody's online in facebook, no overseas friends or relatives online in skype or yahoo to keep me company. I would take a picture of the hole left by the fallen door, but am too scared to, since it's very dark and spooky in the garden and that part of the house and who knows what may happen if I do. (Watch the movie "Shutter", you'll know what I mean.)

Fields of Gold

I can't stand it. It keeps ringing in my ears, so I might as well share it. Last Saturday, the ratwaks had a reunion at the University of Dama de Noche (the house of the principal Q) and just like high school students, somebody brought out a guitar.... and we started to... seriously...SING! Ricky surprised us all with his guitar prowess, while we surprised our own selves with our singing prowess after consuming a balde (balde as in orocan balde) of white wine. This song, this lovely, haunting song by Sting became our national anthem....



Of course the evening was not complete without the old favorites, which ran the gamut from James Taylor to Karen Carpenter to Minnie Ripperton and her high notes (where we sounded almost obscene during that famous climax!!) What an evening. See what a bit of wine can do to one's confidence and imagined talent.

A banana a day...

I feel so proud. Still can't get over the success of the BR launch we hosted last Friday, May 9. Simply amazing. Headcount an amazing 540, no rifraf, no gate crashers despite the mall venue. As Johanna of Biz World wrote, "it was packed with dignitaries and local bigwigs, more than the usual crowd of fashionistas and the odd rubberneck or two on the sidelines." (I LOVE that description! Rubbernecks!! hahaha)
150 bottles of champagne, 80 bottles white wine, endless tequila and vodka kept the cocktail party going till way, way past cocktail hour. Great music by Sinosikat, impressive fashion show, impeccable service (you see a waiter at every turn of the head!) and a delicious spread by Peninsula.. Everything perfect. The sales at the store over the first two hours was beyond belief!


Below are some very beautiful pictures taken by Rica of Heart2Heart online. I hope she won't mind my "stealing"... (Above likewise beautiful pics were taken by Daniel Tan)


And the rest of her entry on the BR party... Heart2HeartbyRica

And still MORE pics from the multiply site of one of the photographer guests that evening.... Banana Rep Launch

MJ!

At MJ launch last April 24 with Liza, blogger BB and Princess
with Liza, Princess and Karen

SSI, RMK, RCC unite!
me, Cessie Colayco of RMK and John Tanjangco of RCC

uy..kunwari daw...
And...ahem... so slim?

unsurprise surprise party

from ratwak classmate Jeannie:

Date: Tue, Apr 22, 2008 at 9:23 PM
Subject: Details: surprise party for Q & Malu . may 3 saturday.715pm
Dear All;
Our surprise party for Q & Malu is confirmed.
Date / Day: May 3 Saturday
Call Time: 7:15 - 7:25PM
Venue: Carusso
210 Nicanor Garcia St (formerly Reposo)
Bel Air Village
Menu: Family Style
Basket of freshly baked breads
Espadellata (Clams in white wine)
Arugula Salad
Aglio' Oglio
Carusso Pizza
Est Cost: PhP 7,000 or approximately Php1,000 to 1,250 per pax (or
share whatever you feel like)
Contact Person in Carusso: Chai
We will also invite Chef Alain Raye to join us for dinner.
Ginny/Ricky: Request - can you pick up Chef Alain from Dusit? give you
details before then
Ginny:Pls bring me a copy of the Fields of Gold lyrics tomorrow during
the MJ event. what time are you going 2mro...? textan tayo.
All: If you think that Q is familiar with your cars, I suggest
parking them at the back of the building. Suggestion lang...
If you feel like it, bring a bottle of your favorite bottle- wine,
single malt, haradura ha ha

A lovely suprise-but-I-wasn't-surprised belated birthday party was hosted by my dear dear ratwak friends last night at Carusso... As you can see it didn't turn out to be a suprise for me, not with my having gotten a copy of the email one week prior. Q was my co-birthday celebrant since his birthday also fell within the same period. Now HE was surprised, and I was part of the surprising team that jumped from behind the bar. We were like mice crouching in the dark...Ginny, Carmi, Jeannie, Vicky, Nilo, Ricky, Krip and Chef Alain... Surprise!!! Happy Birthday!!! (to me!)

Another one so soon?

We're all gearing up for the BR launch (again, the acronym so everything's blog-proof. If you google it you end up with entries about Barbados and Brazil. Hint: it's a fruit with lots of potassium and comes in two versions, lacatan and latundan). And I do hope I got the right combination this time, unlike MJ where we had so much white left over, as everybody guzzled down the champagne. This time I'm having them deliver one hundred bottles champagne and only eighty of the white wine. Plus the sponsored vodka, tequila, scotch, mango rhum..We shall see if this kind of fuel gets the party going... Abangan... that's May 9! Photo by the way is the left side of the invite, which is the theme of the collection.

New post

I finally posted my March 2 entry. Scroll down. Took me a while to post all the pics I took that Thursday, with the house move and all. Plus our intermittent internet service, which only got fixed the other day. These are the pictures of my latest Kythe friends. It's been two months though, and I haven't had the time to go back. I hope to God they're still there.

MJs, Bs, and others

The MJ launch which we (company S) hosted last night was such a delight. The turn out was quite good - ok mix of fashionistas, press, party people. The show was very well received although short. Two of my favorite bloggers were there, and I had my picture taken with the more famous one, the one named B. You know, I am using all these letters and acronyms so that if anybody googles their actual names, this blog will never show up on the screen and I stay out of blog trouble. Too much blog trouble going on now in Manila. So I refer to brand MJ as MJ. If you google it, you come up with Michael Jordan.
Now this link is not the link of B's blog, but an entry in somebody else's blog about him, which pretty much describes what he's famous for: About B

sige na nga, I'll post na nga his entry about last night: About last night by B

another angle

Home again

My world is slowly getting whole again.
From this....


To this....


Ok, ok, a bit cluttered. But remember the move was from a big house to a small house, and every little piece and borloloy had its own sentimental value I couldn't say goodbye to. So crowd and clutter I must. It's MY house. Minimalism? What's that? Candles, vases, frames, cute ashtrays (though nobody smokes), potpourri holders, resin angels, artificial plants ... each one has its history -- the giver, the occasion, the mood, my life at the time. The piano was from when I was 13. The sofa set and coffee table from mom's condo unit, early eightees. See those pitchers? from when I just gave birth to Luis and I had my own little house in BF homes. Assorted candles, "antique" jars and a chinese lamp (not in photo) from Christmases and friends past. Artificial plants - they're actually wilting from age (we're talking more than a decade here.) It's actually organized clutter, nothing random, everything justified. It feels like home once more.

Saying goodbye

The Goodwill truck came and left yesterday morning carting away a tonfull of memories - children's books from more than a decade ago (which have somehow followed us with each house move), broken printers, keyboards, a stringless guitar, a washer/dryer that had sat in my garage for four years as 'decor', two (dead) UPS units, 1 lamp shade with gaping holes, 1 tarnished kinakalawang chandelier, a TIRE (!), giant stuffed toys, moldy bags, moldy shoes, and CLOTHES, CLOTHES, and more CLOTHES.

This morning, two men came and pulled out my AC unit, cleaned it, prepared it for its one-year storage (the place I'm moving to has its own ACs with no more extra hole for the one I have).

This afternoon, I said goodbye to my backdoor neighbor - White Cross Children's Orphanage. I did the one thing I should have done four years ago - I inquired about their volunteer services and was given the grand tour by Gloria the social services officer. I met all the little kids whose shouts, cries and laughter I've lived with every morning when I have my breakfast and every evening before I go to bed. (It so happens the ward for the 1 to 2 yr old kids faces the back of my unit. I finally met all 19 babies!)

Tomorrow is our last day at Luxor. It's also Luis' Graduation day.

The end is near

I am surrounded by boxes. This is my environment for the next six days. We're all packed and ready to go but it seems that everyday there's a crazy reason why we can't...
Tomorrow - because it's Easter Sunday
Monday - because Nikki has an interview at school and I have something in Makati at 11:30 AND I don't have a car. My car is in the shop ONCE AGAIN. It made 'tirik' last Wednesday. Must delete that blog entry about the super SWAT team on EDSA.
Tuesday - because it's my color coding day (not that it matters since I don't have a car)
Wednesday - because it's Luis' graduation day. It starts at 3:30pm. I wonder if I'll have a car.
Thursday - because it's Nikki's final exams' last day. Maybe I'll get my car back.
Friday - aaah..finally..this is it!

So in the meantime, I sleep on the floor and live with my boxes. It is NOT a pretty sight.

chop chop

Yesterday the men came and chopped up my narra four-poster bed because it couldn't go through the door.

For the remaining nights of our stay here, I sleep on the floor. The big move is scheduled on March 27 Thursday - after Nikki's final exams and Luis' high school graduation.

I HATE MOVING.

So - once more with feeling ... I am longing for Luxor.

blog leave

Too many things going on - I've decided to take a blog leave. A very stressful, herculean project up ahead which will drain me of all time and energy (my house move). Visit me again in April after things settle down a bit.

New friends

I mentioned losing Knowell the other day. That same morning, I also gained a new batch of friends - and this time, for some strange reason, both short-stay and hema wards had lots of adorable 3-year olds! The cutest stage in a child's developing years is I think at the age of three or four. They laugh, play, giggle, chat incessantly and are already "sturdy" unlike their infant counterparts. Well maybe not that sturdy at Kythe since the children I met all had leukemia or some form of cancer. Nor chatty, as most of them had developed a phobia for bad and scary things like needles and big people in white (doctors!) But still very very cute. Here they are, immortalized in my blog, on a beautiful Thursday morning. I do hope somehow I was able to cheer them up even for a couple of hours.. That's 4-year old Adrian Orpo leafing thru the book "Ang Prinsipe ng mga Ibon". I think he enjoyed touching the pages more than listening to me stumble thru the Tagalog words. Antonio Anghel Quminales, 3-1/2, hemophilia patient, enjoyed his shape sorter blocks..but not as much as he enjoyed blowing those bubbles!! What a cute pouty face!! Ah, and there's Alexa Renzel Sordan, cute 3-1/2 year old princess, enjoying her princess doll dressed in a sky blue gown. But the one who stole the scene and everybody's hearts was Princess Navarro, see her here smiling like a future artista in her pale pink spaghetti blouse and floral peejays, she does have the makings of a child star!! Oh if only I could see her up on the silver screen 10, 15 years from now... Of course let's not forget the older kids. That morning, I had the pleasure of meeting again my friend from my visit last February 2, 14-year old Jessica Rebucion. And I was so glad that I had the chance to fulfill the promise I made to her - I gave her a showbiz magazine featuring her favorite artista Sarah Geronimo. Now that made her very happy! Twelve year old Roselle Gado had such beautiful, chic looking hair (without going to the parlor!) which just fell so nicely around her shoulders, I had to tell her she looked like a model! See her here, the girl in orange - don't you agree? And finally, the eldest of the lot... A 17 year old boy by the name of Gary Obasky. I tried my best to cheer him up by challenging him to put together a plastic car with many many small parts (the type I would NEVER be able to
do) and he put it together in a few minutes..
That was my morning at Kythe. I certainly hope I amused the kids and made them happy as much as they made me! They will forever live on in this blog, smiling, blowing bubbles and playing with their plastic cars and toy princesses!