Is France a country?

Ok, this is dedicated to all the blondes in the world, genuine blondes, chemical blondes, just-the-roots blondes, vavavoom blondes, girl-next-door blondes....
After that absolutely harrowing experience last week, watching this wonderful video makes me feel very MENSA-ish!

DO YOUR HOMEWORK!

I should have taken that long forgotten line from my grade school days seriously. In fact, I should paste it on my computer screen, my forehead, my car dashboard AND hang it from my rear view mirror whenever I march off to those never ending cocktails where I am wont to commit yet another faux pax in my life as a faux PR (!!) and communications (!!) manager. When I got that invitation from x society magazine more than a week ago, do you think I even bothered to call my contact and find out who exactly this bloke was that they were honoring with cocktails? Or WHY they were honoring him for that matter by inviting the magazine's top advertisers? (like moi?) Nah.. For me it was yet another cocktail function to get over with, a show-my-face-affair -- a hi and hello, smile for the photo op, nurse one glass, gulp-down-a-canape-or-two kind of affair... Well, as it happened, I lingered. And lingered and lingered (blame it on the delicious peking duck rolled in wanton wrapper, where Mario K and I had a secret competition as to who could wolf down the highest quantity in x number of minutes. He and I were the FIRST guests to arrive and thus had all the time to linger and discover the culinary delights of the evening.) And so in the process of lingering I found myself face to face with the esteemed honoree, the guy whose name, position and company was printed right smack in the center of the invitation, which of course I didn't bother to read much less absorb. After the introductions, armed with my flirty but still elegant, ready-for-Mon's-camera kind of smile, I asked him how long he had been working for the magazine. WELL, as it turned out, he never worked FOR the magazine. Mr. Honoree's company had just actually BOUGHT (bought. as in acquired) this international magazine and he was of course- ahem - the CEO. And THAT was the reason for the cocktail party in his honor, why I was holding my drink, why I was munching on the peking duck. I found myself staring at an olive, with the room getting smaller and smaller, and from the corner of my eye I think I saw the host's eyebrows shoot up and hit the chandelier.

I am right now still trying to wash off the imaginary blonde dye in my hair. In the meantime, I have sworn to always do my homework and never again face a social occasion unprepared. Another incident like this, and my boss will surely move me from lifestyle to... hard news. (Actually - from the exciting ma-fasyon marketing to some dark and scary place like audit, operations or msd.) And I may never see another champagne flute again.

Rose Ann and Mary Anne

That's my new friend Rose Ann Baluyot playing with the doll I gave her last Thursday, which we both named "Mary Anne". Rose Ann is 4 years old and has leukemia and stays in one of the wards in NCH. "Mary Anne" would be about...hmm..16, is one foot tall, has a lovely pink dress with long blonde hair (which I said needed rebonding), and will follow whatever Rose Ann says. When I said goodbye to Rose Ann, she was completely engrossed in Mary Anne, and again I felt such a lump in my throat, an old familiar feeling by now whenever I think of the Kythe kids and the little time I have with them. Beautiful Kimberly Saure from last October passed away before Christmas, and I was never able to give her the toy piano she wanted. http://msfrancisco.blogspot.com/2007/10/big-people-suck.html In fact, as work kept me very busy the past two months, I was never able to visit NCH anymore, till last Thursday, when I met Rose Ann.

So I'm seeing Rose Ann again come Thursday morning. And the rest of the Kythe kids -- all new friends, as most of my old ones have gone 'home' now to a much happier place.

The Angels wear Tod's

Here we are again with yet another opportunity to live out a fantasy... You see, a press preview isn't really complete without us previewing (ok - modelling) the products ourselves when nobody's looking. By "us" I mean me and and two of my angels - Liza L and newbie Princess G. And so when the last of our press friends left that afternoon of January 8, the temptation to ham it up before the cameras with the 2008 Spring Summer press collection of Tod's was too hard to resist. So, in keeping with 'tradition' (check out fall winter 07 and prada angels) we posed, we smiled, we emoted and fantasized for photos that will (and should) only get as far as this blog.

Good morning 2008

The start of a new year. Some marathon sleeping was in order to signify the end of a three week period of holiday STRESS, exhaustion, puyatan. It is now late afternoon of January 1 and I have just roused myself from 15 hours of sleep. Actually, the three of us woke up for an hour or two to go to mass and have lunch, then went right back to dreamland. Now, at 6:00 PM, I am disoriented and still trying to decide whether to have breakfast or dinner. And no, I don't feel bad that I spent the first day of the year in a horizontal position. It's Tradition --- from way back when we were teenagers till our early twenties and mom used to host 'open house' parties at home for ALL friends, relatives, neighbors, friends of friends, and practically the whole world from 1:00 to 7:00 AM every January 1. We do not have that anymore of course, but the tradition of sleeping on the first day of the year remains.

As I get ready to face 08 (am half asleep), let me just post pictures of the past family get togethers.. our Christmas Eve with the entire tribe (where we held the traditional gift-agawan 'white elephant' game - which gets more hilarious with each passing year), and our send-off (and New Year's) party for Titoy and family.

(more pics to follow. these take soooooooooo long to upload! I fall asleep every batch of five pics - which is the max per uploading. low tech blog.)

The Francisco Men, The Francisco Women...

Jose, Carlo, Luis, Dad, Toddy, Titoy, Jomie, Pancho

Meg, Isa, Denise, Nicole, Mom, Lia, me, Nikki, Mel

Pics from New Year's Eve, Send-off party for Titoy's family, and Christmas Eve...

Walang tampu-an!! (No hard feelings!)

And here are the white elephant pictures taken on Christmas Eve. Fast becoming a tradition with us (it started only two years ago, evolving from the previous barbaric "agawan" game), this game requires each person to bring ONE white elephant to the party, wrapped in newspaper (to differentiate it from the other legit christmas gifts). A white elephant is anything lying around your house you absolutely don't need or like but is still working or presentable looking - something you feel somebody else might still appreciate. Based on the principle that one man's trash may be another man's treasure... This could be christmas gifts you received which you want to get rid of fast. OR gifts from previous white elephant games. Or your broken TV. Or even a worn out vibrator (which Tita Nilda ended up with two years ago) Anyway, everybody gathers round the table and puts his or her newspaper-wrapped white elephant in the center. A pair of dice is rolled by each, turn by turn going clockwise. Throw EVEN, get a gift from the center. Throw ODD, nothing happens. You throw a DOUBLE, get two gifts from the center. This goes on until ALL the gifts from the center are gone. But wait, those aren't yours yet! Now, each one ceremoniously unwraps the gifts infront of him/her and displays them prominently for all to see (note that some players may have nothing, some may have a mountain infront of them) and the real FUN begins. Set the timer for exactly ten minutes. Throw EVEN - you can reach across the table and GRAB any gift from anyone, throw ODD - nothing. On and on and on.. .clockwise, throw the dice, even number and grab..grab..grab..bastusan na..grab pa rin... At the end of ten minutes, whatever you have infront of you is... YOURS!! That simple! In other words, agawan, pakyawan, gulangan, laro ng barbarian!! No tampu-an allowed! After all, you brought only your trash to the table...