NO ROSES

2009-10-02T07:59:00.001+08:00

So there's this boy.

2009-07-31T00:10:00.003+08:00

Camera trick - or treat

2009-06-12T18:09:00.034+08:00

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.

2009-05-31T10:33:00.018+08:00

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.

2009-05-17T06:22:00.010+08:00

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

2009-02-14T22:56:00.012+08:00

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

2008-11-29T11:04:00.002+08:00

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

"before" pictures

2008-11-24T23:48:00.008+08:00

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.

2008-11-18T23:28:00.007+08:00

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

2008-11-14T07:11:00.009+08:00

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

2008-11-13T06:48:00.005+08:00

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??!

2008-11-10T23:32:00.007+08:00

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

2008-11-08T13:05:00.008+08:00

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

2008-11-05T22:58:00.008+08:00

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

2008-11-04T22:13:00.018+08:00

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!

2008-11-04T22:02:00.004+08:00

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

SF 80th Anniv

she captured the grandeur of it all

2008-10-31T07:19:00.010+08:00

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

2008-10-26T08:17:00.017+08:00

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

2008-10-21T23:22:00.009+08:00

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

2008-10-16T22:32:00.018+08:00

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.

2008-10-16T21:49:00.001+08:00

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

Mea culpa

2008-10-14T21:48:00.036+08:00

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

2008-10-12T23:41:00.054+08:00

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

2008-09-28T23:30:00.009+08:00

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

2008-09-12T07:48:00.022+08:00

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

2008-09-06T10:36:00.013+08:00

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

2008-08-31T18:47:00.044+08:00

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

2008-08-28T02:15:00.007+08:00

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

2008-07-27T07:47:00.004+08:00

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

2008-07-19T18:44:00.011+08:00

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

.

18 + 21 = 0 pictures

2008-07-06T19:58:00.005+08:00

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

2008-07-05T15:46:00.008+08:00

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

2008-07-03T06:02:00.025+08:00

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

2008-06-26T23:20:00.025+08:00

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

2008-06-23T08:26:00.003+08:00

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

2008-06-20T21:15:00.012+08:00

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

2008-06-01T14:42:00.006+08:00

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

2008-05-29T06:50:00.014+08:00

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 -

2008-05-23T22:10:00.019+08:00

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!

2008-05-22T22:36:00.013+08:00

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!

2008-05-17T09:35:00.005+08:00

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

Graveyard shift

2008-05-17T01:16:00.015+08:00

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

2008-05-13T22:16:00.018+08:00

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...

2008-05-11T21:40:00.027+08:00

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!

2008-05-08T07:00:00.019+08:00

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

2008-05-04T16:25:00.022+08:00

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?

2008-05-03T07:03:00.011+08:00

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

2008-05-02T07:23:00.004+08:00

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.

Goldilocks and my new home

2008-04-29T21:35:00.020+08:00

I can't stop blogging about my new home. That's blogging, not bragging. This is my home for the next eleven months. Yes just eleven months, as I can't wait till my contract's over. What a fluke, it's like looking at a beautiful lady who's got dirty underwear pala. The inside at first glance is all cute and homey and pretty. But stay a few days and you'll know that from 3am to 9am..hold it...the entire day in fact!!.. all the HUGE delivery trucks are idling next door, waiting for their next load and emitting foul smelling fumes - deadly carbon monoxide. The back of my unit happens to be right next to the driveway / delivery area of the Goldilocks cake plant, and if you open the windows on THAT half of the house, you smell - not cakes - but FUMES from idling trucks, fumes from their noisy tambuchos. There's noise pollution as well in the wee hours of the morning, as the drivers are joking around and partying with their loud AM music like there's no tomorrow. WHILE their trucks are idling. AND of course the noice of the motors of the cake plant itself. And so I have absolutely forbidden anyone to open the windows and sliding doors on that half of the house -- which are actually our only source of ventilation apart from my bedroom window and the front door. No wonder the house is riddled with airconditioning units. All the bedrooms, the living/dining, and the small study room have AC units. It's insanely hot in one half of the house as I keep all windows closed to keep pollution out (and AC's off to keep my electric bill down), and we all sleep in the master's bedroom as that is the only place where one can breathe at night since it's facing the other way. (Both my children's rooms are in the half of the house that get the brunt of the deadly fumes. Their windows have a clear view of the trays of mamons being loaded into those fume-emitting six wheelers.)

I spent months looking for a home and I ended up with a... hindi lemon, goldilocks mamon. Decided to just blog about it since there's nothing else I can do. Pre-terminating my contract means goodbye to three months deposit. So I gripe. Blogs are made for griping when there is nothing else to do. Maybe some kind soul from a first world country will chance upon this blog and take pity on me and buy me a beautiful house in never never land.

MJs, Bs, and others

2008-04-25T22:53:00.011+08:00

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

2008-04-16T22:15:00.002+08:00

Home again

2008-04-13T07:12:00.021+08:00

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

2008-03-25T16:00:00.006+08:00

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

2008-03-22T20:11:00.009+08:00

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

2008-03-20T07:40:00.010+08:00

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

2008-03-16T08:35:00.002+08:00

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

2008-03-02T06:26:00.048+08:00

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!

Huh?

2008-03-01T15:05:00.021+08:00

As people took to the streets yesterday, numbering almost a million, clamoring for the resignation of our president, and burning with zeal and passion for the future of our country.... all I could really think about were my very heavy false eyelashes that were in danger of falling on my salad plate as I attended the Natori Gala Dinner / Fashion Show at the ballroom of Makati Shangri-La hotel last night...dum dee dum....

My first Knowell

2008-02-28T20:10:00.010+08:00

I sometimes ask myself how much longer I can keep up with the Thursday visits, especially when bad news hits you like the update we got this morning from Cynthia the Kythe coordinator. My friend Knowell Placero, my smiling friend who loved posing for my camera in his trademark 'feeling guapo' style.. who I promised - TWICE at that - that I would print out and give him his pictures, finally left us. I was unable to do my visits early February. He died February 8, the day after Chinese New Year. I thought all the while he looked healthy and was getting better, but then they said the added weight was a result of the steroids. I never sent him all those pictures I took of him, I kept postponing, I kept telling myself I'd save them in a CD and bring them to Kameraworld in Shang Mall but I never got around to doing it. He asked for them and I promised him, and I never did it. I am posing your pictures here now, Knowell. I bid you farewell my friend, you're in a much happier place now and you can keep on smiling your big sunshiny smile the way I will always remember you.

I - HEART - DRIVING

2008-02-28T07:06:00.012+08:00

Yes, I love it. You can make me drive all the way to Tagaytay and back, lagari, everyday. Driving for me now is such a relaxing activity, almost Zen like; the half hour behind the wheel in the morning and another half hour in the evening are my quiet times of thought and meditation. Yesterday as I snapped out of my faux (or kunwa- kunwariang) trance, I got a bit disoriented - I didn't know which side of Pasig River I was on - the JP Rizal side or the side after Mandaluyong bridge. Both look so alike!

What I'm trying to say is - it is simply incredible how smooth my engine runs, I DO NOT remember ever having driven it like this before. Maybe that was a long time ago when it was brand new. But what that SWAT team on Connecticut street did last month was something close to a miracle. Honestly, I find myself having to blow my horn a lot now -- at pedestrians. My car is so quiet that on busy streets, these bagay-mag-pasyal-sa-luneta pedestrians don't know that I'm just an inch away from their butt or hip or shoulder (for pandaks) so I have to HONK HONK!!

So...once more...with feeling - I HEART DRIVING. Click and check out the blog entry I finally completed.

Brothers and Sisters

2008-02-27T22:36:00.013+08:00

With our impending move to a much smaller house, I've started the herculean task of cleaning out all the accumulated junk, mementos, odds & ends, and white elephants in my closets ... And in the middle of everything last weekend, I found this note written by Luis some 11 or 12 years ago about his big sister Ate Nikki. Nagsusumbong.

Those were the days of our lives

2008-02-26T07:28:00.002+08:00

My new idol, Freddie Mercury, from the group Queen. Kaso he's dead na. This is from 1991. Just listen to the words, nakakaiyak, perfect for matanda people who've been through a lot, like moi. "...the days were endless, we were crazy, we were young..".

This video was filmed on May 30, 1991. It was Mercury's last filmed performance, as he died of AIDS on November 24th of that year. He knew he was going to die soon when he recorded this and did not tell the public about his disease until shortly before he died.

For cleansing or 'detox'

2008-02-25T12:01:00.002+08:00

Posting this here. later na I'll explain.

POTASSIUM ESSENCE BROTH

If you don't have a juicer, make a potassium broth in a soup pot. While not as concentrated or pure, it is still an excellent source of energy, minerals and electrolytes.
For a 2 day supply: Cover with water in a soup pot 3 to 4 Carrots, 3 Stalks Celery, 1/2 Bunch Parsley, 2 Potatoes with skins, 1/2 Head Cabbage, 1 Onion, and 1/2 Bunch Broccoli.
Simmer covered 30 minutes. Strain and discard solids.
Add 2 teasp. Bragg Liquid Aminos or 1 teasp. Miso. Store in the fridge, covered.

Cozy cousins

2008-02-21T08:41:00.041+08:00

me, Peachy, Johay and Ichi

I had a very relaxing evening the other night as cousins Peachy, Ichi, Johay and I held our bi-annual (meaning - because kuno of our super hectic superstar superdiva schedules, we see one another only twice a year - when balikbayan cousin Johay is in town) girls night out at this very homey pinoy resto in Greenbelt 5, Fely J's. Yes it was a very relaxing and hilarious conversation among four female cousins hanging on to their forties by a thread or two (or three, sige na nga!). As we were touching up after dinner (complete with kurlash) in prep for our bi-annual photo ops turista style to be taken by the waiter, somebody made a very interesting remark. This was after we had spent a few seconds people watching and noticing men of varied shapes, sizes and vintage. Do you realize, one of us said, wala na tayong karapatan to call any man a DOM dahil kasing edad na natin sila?* Now THAT is just about the scariest remark I have heard ever since I crossed over to the upper side of forty. We all agreed. These men are just one or two multiples of five away, they are OUR generation! The ones we had all the karapatan to call DOMs are now in Manila Memorial Park, if not in some hospital bed lying incontinent and harmless. Scary scary SCARY! This was all the justification we needed to walk over to Cafe Damaso to gorge on very sinful desserts and pretend we were still twenty five (age and waistline).

* translation - we have absolutely NO RIGHT to call any living man now a Dirty Old Man since they are about as old as we are!

Longing for Luxor

2008-02-17T22:59:00.039+08:00

My commitment when I started this blog was that it would be a happy blog, and thus far I have never written anything to merit a tear or anybody's sympathy. However once in a great great while - such as now - I feel compelled to write about something sad. But the sad (or funny) part about it is that it doesn't even concern a person. Nothing romantic or tragic. No deep angst or emotion. No cheating by a lover or unrequited love. No suicidal urges. It is simply about a place. A thing. Four walls. A house. I've grown accustomed to this house.

I live in a spacious high-ceilinged three-story 3-bedroom/5-bathroom (one for each room plus the guest and the servants') / 1 maid's room/1 drivers quarters(which we converted into a bodega or storage room) /1 roof deck /1 big bright kitchen / 1 receiving area / 1 spacious living room and dining room Townhouse. (My unit is the one next to the unit with the white car in the driveway photo below.) I am one among ten townhouses nestled cozily amidst the woody tree-filled area beside White Cross Children's Orphanage. I call it luxurious luxor. The name is Luxor Villas. It has been a villa of peace and luxury for us. Located right beside the main road - BUT secluded enough in the sense that you would need to go down a long long driveway in order to reach us (click on this google earth image to enlarge). You don't even see us from the road, all you see is a tall peach gate manned by either Mang Rene or the security guard on duty. I hear the orphan kids either laughing and playing or howling and crying when I have my breakfast in the mornings, since at the back of my unit is the tall concrete wall overlooking their nursery. I hear cocks crowing as the sun rises, just like in the province! I hear my gay neighbor Pocholo screaming at his maids, I hear my neighbor's spoiled little girl whining next door. These have been the sounds of my home the past four years.

As the end of my contract approaches (with my contrabidang landlord not willing to extend), I am frantically looking for a replacement. Most that I've seen fall short in comparison, and the few that come close are twice as expensive. Daughter Nikki says that's because our Luxor is a 'fluke'. The broker must have made a mistake in the price four years ago and never corrected it, or my landlord probably didn't care about the potential income lost when he priced it WAY below market value. Whatever it was, I was lucky to get this piece of spacious heaven at rental that I simply CAN'T find anywhere else, something that will probably now just get me a studio in Boni or an up & down in Lot xxx Block xxx Barangay xyz.

And so as we spend our last few days here, I linger just a few seconds longer in each area of my house as I go about my daily routine, I stroke the banisters slowly as I go up the stairs, I breathe the fresh air on my roofdeck, I recline on the sofa in my living room and my heart takes a picture of every corner, every wall. I love, I lust for, I'm longing for Luxor.

Code Red

2008-02-15T07:10:00.037+08:00

What else could one expect? In keeping with tradition, our office family of simple joys (and simple minds) donned RED on Valentine's and had a blast posing for this very cheesy theme, complete with toy bears, baduy hearts and long stemmed roses. That's Sunday perched on top of the ladder, and from left to right - Princess, May, Eliza and moi. Not content with that, we e-mail blasted the entire Midland Buendia Bldg attaching our group pics and wishing our co-workaholics and "stress mates" a heart-y, heart-ful, happy Valentine's!!

That kinakalawang steel ladder is always part of any shoot in our office ...

check this out: White is right

V day

2008-02-14T23:30:00.020+08:00

Every mother experiences Valentine surprises -- a normal yearly thing ... be it from their cute little devils who make crude handmade cards with their lagpas lagpas drawings to their grown up young men who send them gigantic bouquets as thank you for all those back breaking, nerve rattling years... Well, my in-between/not kid /not adult/ young /but feeling old teenager still managed to surprise me today. I spent the day thinking that at 17, he had grown jaded like a middle aged man. With a "bah-humbug!" tone early in the morning as I drove him to school this morning, he said he found the whole valentine idea "cheesy". End of story. Nope, no card, no greeting, no nothing. I thought to myself, yeah, maybe this is what happens in the end as boys grow up, they just forget about their poky old moms. I thought about all those sweet, crudely made cards year after year, the hugs and the sweetness, and felt a pang of...nostalgia? I got home from the office, it was the usual 'hi mom' greeting, but no card. I went upstairs to my bedroom, glanced at my dressing table, computer table... still no card. Well, I decided to just forget about it and get ready for bed, me, the poky old mom. And guess what - I saw it! a sweet, crudely made valentine card from my very practical son -- attached to the shelf at eye level in the bathroom right infront of the TOILET SEAT.

Absolutely horrifying!

2008-02-11T09:25:00.002+08:00

Sis-in-law Mel sent me this horrifying piece from Good Housekeeping circa May 1955... Apparently this has been doing the rounds over the internet and has sown world wide terror amidst the hearts of the women of the 21st century. CLICK to enlarge.

Memorable photos

2008-02-09T20:09:00.001+08:00

Joel my friend from Bulletin finally sent me photos from last Saturday! ... Posted them two entries down... "From presidents to cabdrivers"

EUREKA!!

2008-02-06T23:55:00.017+08:00

I had a eureka moment over the weekend. "I FOUND HIM! Where has he been all my life?"

"Him" here refers to a place - a SHOP - actually, a CAR REPAIR SHOP. Where has this shop been all through my car's life and its many near-death experiences? It was the same feeling I had when I finally found the perfect dentist for my root canals or pedicurista for my in-growns, and swore undying loyalty on the spot.

I thought my 18 year old car had sputtered its last breath last Friday when it suddenly died in my arms without warning. The classic 'TUMIRIK' situation - the nightmare of any female driver, the quick plunge into that dark world with the foreign sounding language -- where scary words like ignition coils, cylinder heads, clutch cables and oil seals abound. After I did some mental exercise and reviewed my options, I thought it best to take a leap of faith and entrust my dying car to a man named "Joemer". It so happened that for many months now, Joemer, one of the trainors in my gym, had actively been promoting his car repair shop to me, but for some reason it was the classic case of I-can't-break-up-with- my-boyfriend-of-15-years- syndrome -- I just couldn't, simply couldn't say goodbye to "Oasis" - my talyer for more than a decade.. Oh so many memories - this band of merry little men was there during the many instances my car would break down at odd hours... timing belt that snapped at midnight along Ortigas (good thing I had the presence of mind to glide it towards the Lasalle gate), battery that conked out amidst torrential rains outside Santuario de San Antonio, engine that died for no reason at all right after the Shaw Blvd underpass (timing belt again. TWICE in a span of three years, why kaya), simple flat tire inside Valle Verde 6 at 10pm (Ryan came to me, reeking pa of pabango! sweet guy. He had obviously splashed himself with it when my frantic call came in. By the way, he's a stock clerk, not a mechanic. Those Oasis guys got tired of sending me real mechanics at some point I think.). The list goes on. Melchor, Jerson, Ding, Jason... All of them had had their hand at my car and I honestly believe they were sick and tired of it. No, of ME. In fact whenever they saw my car coming back for yet another complaint (on a monthly basis, without fail) -- pumapalya, nag-ooverheat, parang may "sound", and so on, from afar I could already see the smirk on their faces as they shoved one another to be the one this time. Yes, indeed it was time for me to make a clean break from this relationship gone sour....

Enter Joemer's team.. a new band of no-nonsense men who swooped down on my car like a SWAT team. The whole process took close to a week, as they undid all the bad stuff the merry men had been inflicting on my car for years! What I really appreciated was the way Joemer himself would take pains to avoid the usual car gobbledy gook jargon and resort to simple baby-talk (or woman talk?) analogies like... "just imagine a garden hose riddled with holes so the water can't pass thru smoothly"(telling me why my high tension wires weren't conducting electricty properly).. OR .. "it's like a one year old trying to blow out all the candles on his cake" (some nut in the past had replaced my original auxiliary fan with a much much smaller fan, the type used for aircons, that's why my car kept over heating because nga, the fan was too small, like a one year old kid). He very patiently showed me each and every part that had to be replaced and calmly explained why. For example - and this is just one among many - he pointed out all the cracks and frayed edges of the poor quality timing belt which the merry men had just installed last year (it would have snapped a THIRD time this year!).

My car is now back with me, and has never run better. I still have to pinch myself to make sure it isn't a dream; I love the way the engine just purrs and runs as smooth as a new car! Problems of pumapalya, nag-ooverheat, ayaw-mag-start, humahatak -- all these are a thing of the past. It is unbelievable how this old jalopy has come back to life, all thanks to that SWAT team by the corner of EDSA and Connecticut street. A million, gazillion thanks to my new hero "Joemer"! Let me type out his full name here so in case somebody googles him , it leads to this entry: Joemer de Leon. That's him, folks, look for him at the Petron Service Station on Connecticut corner EDSA if your dying fit-for-the-ICU car needs a new lease on life.

Bag lady

2008-02-06T22:04:00.002+08:00

No this is NOT the head of the marketing communications department. This is probably some contractual clerk/data encoder who went crazy encoding the whole day and decided to live out some fantasy mow-delling moments...

From presidents to cabdrivers

2008-02-03T09:04:00.000+08:00

It was the cocktail party to end all cocktail parties, and for once NOT a trace of the fashionista, party hopping, 'it' girls and 'it' boys, posing-by-the-logo-wall and smiling-for-Alex kind of crowd, ... JUST the likes of - ahem - President GMA and her cabinet members, senators and congressmen, the diplomatic corp, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court along with a tropa of judges and justices galore, former presidents Cory Aquino, Fidel Ramos, and a host of others, if you get the drift... I was at my poise-est best of course although I must say alighting from a dilapidated taxi cab onto the red carpet amidst the flash of a hundred million bulbs was a wee bit off. You see my car, true to form, made tirik YET AGAIN last Friday and had to be towed from Makati all the way to the shop in Mandaluyong. But that is another story for another blog entry. Yesterday, Saturday, having no other alternative, I had to hail a cab to take me in all my cocktail dress finery to the heart of Intramuros where the 108th anniversary of Manila Bulletin was being celebrated.

And so the evening wore on as I exchanged pleasantries with this refreshingly different sort of crowd, the geriatric society looking men, and the women who called me "hija"... Some of them were judges, some were deans of colleges from notable universities, some were the chapter presidents of this and that association, having retired from their real jobs decades ago . "HIJA"!!!?? It's been AGES since anybody called me that .. me... this forty plus (as in plus plus plus) matronly me... suddenly felt young again when the lady from the Board of Regents of Chaing Kai Shek College turned to me and asked in a very soft motherly manner "And what do you do, hija?" When I mentioned the Rustan's group, she and the rest started reminiscing about the San Marcelino days!

Highlight of my evening - Joel Ontong (a young gay fashion stylist, my favorite person in all of Bulletin) and I had a blast posing for photo-ops with President Ramos - one on each side, we linked our arms thru his, and then the three of us made a thumbs up sign, as Joel and I posed nangangampanya style. Of course we were more demure with Senator Mar Roxas who we found so handsome especially when he extended his hand and in his deep guapo voice said "Hi! I'm Mar."
I died.

Going home. Problem number 1: I had to hail a cab from SOMEWHERE. Number 2: Those guys at the lobby couldn't help me because Pres. Arroyo's car was still parked at the driveway and taxicabs were absolutely OFFLIMITS in the area. (This was at Muralla cor. Recoletos Street, way inside Intramuros. The Bulletin office. ) Number 3: My feet were killing me after standing for two hours in four inch heels, and no way was I going to walk to 'doon sa rotunda' where they said I could easily grab a cab.

Well, prayers ALWAYS work, and before I knew it, I had actually struck up a conversation with two kindhearted guests who happened to be going home to Quezon City. They dropped me off at the very busy corner of Timog Avenue and Quezon Boulevard. So there I was, standing all alone on this busy intersection in my spaghetti strap evening dress and high heels, waving frantically at cab drivers on a Saturday night...

From presidents to cab drivers...what an exciting life!

---

The legend of Mariang Alimango

2008-02-02T00:17:00.000+08:00

Michael Perico's favorite color is yellow. His wishlist included a set of crayons, but it could very well have been a set of YELLOW crayons. He grabbed the coloring book I brought and proceeded to shade everything bright yellow...the leaves of the trees, the petals, the bee. Michael is a cute 4-year old boy with dark eyes and the longest lashes, cute dimples and a sunshiny smile. He has ALL (acute lymphoblastic leukemia).

9 year old Cassandra Capispisan, also with leukemia, listened intently to the story book I read to her in TAGALOG, and was enthralled by the legend of MARIANG ALIMANGO, a story about an orphan girl and the magical giant crab that granted her wishes. It was fun dramatizing the important scenes, from the facial expressions of the sungit step mom and step sisters, to the losing of the shoe as Maria rushed out of the palace at midnight, to the dramatic fitting of the shoe by everyone in the family and finally by Maria. By coincidence, Cassandra had a bridal doll from last week's visit - in full wedding gear, with veil and tiny white shoes! So as I held the tiny white shoe dramatically, she was in total awe and absolutely delighted when i tried fitting it onto her big toe to check if she had a chance with the prince!

Marl's another cute one. That's Marl Antonio Villareal, 5 years old, surrounded by colorful pillows. His limbs, actually his knee caps, are very very painful. Every few minutes he would moan to his mommy who was at his bedside to massage his legs. Very painful limbs are one of the symptoms of ALL. He is due for his first round of chemo soon.

Jessica Rebusion is almost a lady...but not quite...at 14, lying on the bed, she still looked like a helpless little girl. No toys for her please. All things showbiz - yes. When I mentioned I might be able to send her a showbiz magazine or two, her eyes lit up, as her mom said she was an avid fan of Sarah Geronimo.

And finally Rexon. Rexon Endaya from my visit last October!! I felt good when he recognized me, and I recognized him too, as -- the number one jigsaw puzzle maker! It was so heartening to learn from his mom that he was much better now. That's him beaming happily, in the bright orange shirt.

And thus concludes another Thursday morning at Kythe. How I wish I could give each of these kids a magical Mariang Alimango that would grant them their wishes, make Jessica an actress, Cassandra a princess, and the boys - boys who could spend the day flying kites or even just fighting with other boys!

Check these out:
What is Kythe?
Kythe Volunteers' Experiences (click on the three No Roses articles. They're mine!!)

--

Is France a country?

2008-01-31T00:03:00.000+08:00

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!

2008-01-29T07:20:00.000+08:00

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

2008-01-27T23:14:00.000+08:00

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

2008-01-13T20:53:00.000+08:00

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

2008-01-01T18:22:00.001+08:00

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...

2008-01-01T18:20:00.001+08:00

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...

2008-01-01T18:19:00.001+08:00

2008-01-01T18:18:00.001+08:00

2008-01-01T18:17:00.001+08:00

2008-01-01T18:16:00.001+08:00

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

2008-01-01T18:15:00.001+08:00

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...

Office cheer

2007-12-20T23:15:00.000+08:00

My department's official christmas portrait. Sunday couldn't join us, but he lent us his two boys..

Amy, May, Liza, boy #1, Michelle, boy#2, and me. Cheers!

Incomunicado

2007-12-18T07:35:00.001+08:00

The stars have aligned, and planets neptune and jupiter plus the rest of the constellation, including all the signs of the chinese horoscope have decided that today December 18 will be a day of complete rest, stillness, and zen meditation. I still have to pinch myself to make sure this is real .... our dear dear IT guys, bless their souls, decided to pull out my computer yesterday afternoon for 'isolation' and repair, and the service unit will not be available till tonight -- which means -- NO EMAILS THE WHOLE DAY! YAHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Out-of-office Asssistant - Monday, December 17, 5:00 pm: My PC has been pulled out for repair, and replacement will not be available till tomorrow afternoon. Thus I will not be able to respond to your emails till Wednesday, December 19. If urgent, kindly re-direct to either of my staff ecdrilon@rgoc.com.ph or pegomez@rgoc.com.ph. You can also send me an sms message. Thank you.

Ah...bliss!

Christmas won't be Christmas....

2007-12-17T23:23:00.000+08:00

"Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents," grumbled poor Jo lying on the rug. I remember reading Little Women one million times when I was 12, and that was the very first line of this classic story. I couldn't agree with Jo more. Christmas really won't be Christmas without any presents, which accounts for December being my most stressful month, I honestly wish I could strike it out from my calendar. It isn't the money, really, since you can actually find real cool stuff for only Pxx.50 now. (Found some super cute pot holders shaped like huge fish..where you insert your hand in the belly and your fingers into the head..and the mouth actually moves, so you can use it as hand puppet at the same time.) Pxx.50!!! Am giving it to sooooooooooooooo many people. In fact, I better erase the price now and just put xx's instead, in case they get to read this and think I'm a cheapskate. Another steal was this "mini spa" which, again, I got only for Pxx.75. I bought the entire mound of mini spas stacked one on top of the other in the aisle in Robinson's. It consists of a cute painted ceramic burner, 2 votive candles, and 2 tiny bottles of oil, in cute packaging. with ribbon pa, so you don't need to wrap the box. What a steal! I dread to think what the oil smells like...

So.. As i was saying, it isn't so much the money, but the TIME and ENERGY spent in looking for these 'steals' (because I don't have enough money).

Please don't ask me to explain.

A Ratwak Christmas

2007-12-13T23:08:00.000+08:00

I'm tamad to make kuwento, it's enough that I relate the after-effects of the Ratwakan Christmas Party held last Friday December 7. Vicky never got home. She doesn't remember much, she just suddenly woke up in Carmi's house.

Q called the next day declaring he was about to check into Makati Medical.

I had to nurse a muscle-strained right arm for staying too long in one position (holding the airsickness bag right infront of Carmi's mouth) during the 45 minute ride from Alabang to Makati. My head was leaning against the window with eyes closed, but I was scared stiff she would vomit all over me. So I held the bag in mid-air the whole time.

It seems the only sane and sober person in the group was our unsung hero Ricky. Since it is his duty now to ferry all of us rat girls to and from ratwakans, we make sure he gets to drink ONLY diet coke during the last hour of the party. We call him our bus driver. Ginny is supposed to be his navigator or the only girl who cannot fall asleep on the way home. Part of her wifely duties of course.

The party was another record breaker in terms of enjoyment decibels. Shouting, screaming, laughing, guffawing, giggling, snorting, drinking, AND .. dancing to eightees music! -- See pics -- Carmi as Carmi and Malu as Alma Moreno!

Who killed my door?

2007-12-06T17:43:00.003+08:00

Oh no, another question that's up there with the likes of Who killed Ninoy. This time, why is the door of my bedroom getting too big for its hole? About two months ago, Luis boxed the center of my bedroom door with herculean force when he lost his temper while engaged in a verbal battle with moi. So I guess instead of boxing me, he boxed the door, which is definitely the lesser of two evils I suppose. ANYWAY, nothing happened to the door - or so I thought. But we noticed that little by little, as the days and weeks wore on, the door became tighter and tighter.. as though it were expanding horizontally! The tightness was coming from the width, not the height of the door.. meaning it wasn't dropping. It was just growing sideways! We at first tried SANDING OFF a good portion - which improved the situation a bit for a few days, till it mysteriously grew again. And so, with a vengeance we borrowed a CHISEL and started slicing off layers of wood from the side. That improved things tremendously, what a relief ... till...after a week... just like some gremlin or monster or blob from a horror film, the door slowly started increasing its width again. As of TODAY, it WILL NOT CLOSE.

Luis thought of posting this very mysterious problem in yahooquestions - And so one fine afternoon I did just that, and voila..got a slew of mean replies ranging from I should have boxed my kid instead to why not enroll him in anger management courses -- all pointing to the fact that I screwed up this whole motherhood business...and THAT is why my door will not close. Total of eleven replies in 24 hours... Click on the link below and you be the judge.
My Yahoo Question

Cupcake wishes

2007-12-02T22:50:00.000+08:00

The idea of making birthday wishes over lit cupcakes is not exactly an original but who cares, all 15 of us had such a warm fuzzy feeling this afternoon as we celebrated Mommy's 78th birthday doing the candle-on-a-cupcake wishing thing. The kids (we call them kids but they're ages range from 13 to 20 years old) organized everything with a little help from their youthful auntie Mel. And the result was a tear jerking, heartwarming ceremony where each of us recited our special message for Mom while holding our lit cupcakes. Mom blew out the candles after each message. And of course the most special candle was the one held by Dad who gave a lengthy, candle-melting, long and winding but very touching speech that left us all teary eyed. And he ended it with a passionate kiss ma-la Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr.. pant pant... see pic below.

In memoriam

2007-11-30T11:49:00.000+08:00

This is in memory of what would have been a successful party last night - something we, together with our Ayala Land friends, had been meticulously planning for months! We cancelled it shortly after lunch. To my understanding the attendance would have been stellar... a wonderful mix of fashionistas, society pillars, our press friends, the diplomatic corp, and the corporate world... all GONE because of some nutcase who stormed the Peninsula hotel yesterday and nag agaw eksena. Oh well. such is the exciting world we live in. Next, please.

My bagger boy

2007-11-22T22:54:00.001+08:00

He explicitly said DO NOT TAKE PICTURES. DO NOT TALK TO ME. and DON'T EVEN SMILE AT ME.

Of course I did all three and more. It was a major shoot - with me taking pictures from every angle .. I was smiling and waving at him like a madwoman; I bought a loaf of bread and queued up at his counter, I made friends with the cashier and asked her how my son was performing, and proudly beamed at everyone, wanting to shout Hey this is MY son!!

Yes, my son the SM bagger at counter no. 34.

Every year, Xavier School exposes its graduating students to an actual work environment for four whole days. The 30 to 40 students per section per month take over as real, honest to goodness baggers assigned to specific counters (after getting a thorough training of course) for the entire eight-hour shift for four days. And so you have 30 to 40 families or excited mothers trooping to SM supermarket every month, acting like fans or paparazzi -- this, despite the very clear instructions in the school circular that state: You are welcome to visit your son. However, please do not talk, help or give food/drinks to your son or to his classmates during working hours. We request you to stay away from the counter ... we discourage your from taking pictures of your son while he is on duty.

Ha ha, sez who. Whoever wrote that circular has obviously never been a mother.

Village lore...

2007-11-22T07:45:00.000+08:00

The mundane existence of the ten townhouse units here in our quiet neighborhood was given a jolt last Tuesday by the presence of a SNAKE that was slithering its way across my garage and towards my front door! It had come out of the drainage, and probably lived in the empty, grassy lot beside us. Immediately, no less than fifteen carpenters swooped down from the units under construction and started chasing the snake, pumelling its head and tail with large blocks of wood, steel bars, and whatever makeshift weapons they could find (see photo with squashed tail)...Indeed it was a scene straight from Beauty and the Beast - you know that part when the village suddenly comes alive as the angry menfolk head toward the beast's castle holding their pick axes and shovels, led by Gaston the guy in love with Beauty. There, of course, the analogy ends. The only guy who remotely resembled Gaston that afternoon was our maintenance man Mang Rene - not in looks but in role...he was the one who gave the orders to fling the dead squashed snake out into Santolan Road under the mercy of the careening jeepneys and G-liner buses travelling the Quiapo-Taytay route.

Anyway...the three of us - Niks, Luis and I - are now safely ensconced back in our castle awaiting our next fairy tale.. Such exciting times we live in!

Elixir

2007-11-16T22:55:00.000+08:00

Eureka!! Thanks to friend Ginny B I've discovered the elixir to a sexy bod this Christmas. One tbsp. apple cider vinegar, one tbsp. honey and one tbsp. extra virgin coconut oil... simply mix together and take twice a day - morning and evening either before or after meals. Watch and see what happens. Strip and look at the mirror two months from now... oooh hey there sexy bod!! You know, the taste isn't so bad, for a miracle drug. It's like salad without the greens. In other words it tastes like vinaigrette dressing. The oil is supposed to line your stomach and make you feel very full apart from giving you the nutrients VCO is known to give, while the honey gives you energy plus a lot of other health benefits. Click on these three links and you'll KNOW this powerhouse trio is THE miracle drug to beat!

http://www.applecidervinegarweightloss.com/
http://www.benefits-of-honey.com/
http://www.thevirgincoconutoil.com/articleitem.php?articleid=160

Sunday A. and I have made a solemn pact to religiously take this combo every day till Christmas. Together our waist lines measure a TOTAL of 58 inches (I am NOT disclosing the "% share"). And we hope to achieve a combined waist loss of...hmmm...6 inches in 40 days - puwede na... Should be easy with this new discovery... And the diet starts NOW.

My halloween mask

2007-11-16T22:50:00.002+08:00

Do NOT ask me what I was doing at a cocktail function of the "Spouses of Heads of Mission". I am not a spouse, I am not a head, I was not on a mission for anything. I simply had to represent our president a few nights ago and hob nob with a wonderfully different crowd..the genteel, diplomatic crowd that wasn't downing cosmos, martini and tequilas and wolfing down canapes. AND who had never heard of facebook. Apparently my boss had been generously supporting their various fund raising activities through the years and they decided to hold an intimate cocktail reception at the residence of the head of the European Union in appreciation for the donations. And so since she could not make it due to a prior engagement, I received my copy of the letter informing them that she would send MRS. Francisco, her - ehem - Vice President for Public Relations. So not only was I transformed into a respectable married woman that would blend in with the 'spouses' crowd, I was given a temporary promotion to boot! Of course I carried my new dignified spouse role with such elan that night, I almost believed it to be true... yeah..that was my version of halloween, a belated one, where I had the chance to wear a mask and adapt a totally different persona... I must say it was fun, and so refreshing to do everything in moderation - from talking to drinking to canape-munching... but I guess everything has its limits. I got home that night, immediately shed off this new persona and wolfed down a whole platter of adobo.

And now...

2007-11-11T09:25:00.001+08:00

It's not that I want to make gaya the many bloggers out there who provide us with regular fashion news updates ... This is actually just an excuse for me to post a very pretty picture of a Marc Jacobs bag which we took in the office last Friday during one of our 'fantasy' moments. (The legs are -- ahem -- writer's own.)

The store opens next week.

The Man

2007-11-10T14:09:00.000+08:00

Last night the Ratwak Gang got together at Carmi's place with a special guest, someone we have decided to induct into Ratwak membership as he seems to have all the required attributes - good looks, wit, intelligence, charisma.. and a goofy, shallow, dirty, irreverent, and weird sense of humor like the rest of us ...bwahahahaha!

He thoroughly enjoyed our company and we his, but he is a man whose name must not be mentioned.

We are all under oath. Sorry folks, end of story.

The Angels wear Prada

2007-11-07T07:10:00.001+08:00

Fantasy \Fan"ta*sy\, n.; pl. Fantasies. [See Fancy.]
1. Fancy; imagination; especially, a whimsical or fanciful conception; a
vagary of the imagination; whim; caprice;humor.
2. Imagination unrestricted by reality; "a schoolgirl fantasy" [syn: phantasy]
3. Something many people believe that is false; "they have the illusion
that I am very wealthy" [syn: illusion, phantasy, fancy]


In our office of simple joys (and
simple minds) "fantasy" means 
donning press samples head to toe
before they go off to the magazines
for shoots. Ahh...fashion bliss..
So here we are, my assistant Liza
and I, two women dreaming of ano-
ther world, possibly another lifetime
..escaping from the trenches of day-to-day routine...dreaming of traipsing
along the catwalks of Milan, or posing for the likes of Barker or Demarchelier
- an over-aged forty something, and a very ambitious four feet something...
(or maybe we can be Miranda Priestley and her loyal assistant Emily?)


Prada 2007 Fall/Winter Press Collection

Ratwak rocks!

2007-11-04T21:47:00.000+08:00

This just about says it all -
... Above photo was taken in the wee hours of the morning, after an evening with the most delightful company, a most congenial host, a truly sumptuous dinner, an endless stream of red wine, tequila, beer and scotch AND... the zaniest, most inane, irreverent, side splitting, howl emitting jokes only people of twisted, regressing, but absolutely brilliant minds (at 2am) are capable of spewing .... The occasion? to celebrate the Ratwak principal's return to Manila!!! Men are requested to come in dinner jackets,no need of tie, the text message read. We had also been asked if we preferred grilled lapu lapu or osso buco. It was off to a formal start with a special four course menu prepared by Billy King's The French Corner ... The seven of us gathered for yet another tryst at that memorable spot in Dama de Noche Street, Ayala Alabang -- Mr. Q's dinner table. The ladies in their cocktail wear, the men looking debonair in their dinner jackets .. sipping martinis, red wine, engaging in light banter first hour of the evening ... and then slowly, slowly letting our barbarian selves surface with each passing hour. The ratwaks, for everybody's information has an official membership roster of SEVEN (7), with Mr. Q as our Pinuno. The head. Don Vito. The Principal. Our tribal history dates back to the early 80's when some of us were but mere tribesmen at the Hyatt Regency, reporting to Mr. Q who was already then the chieftain (a.k.a. hotel GM). We acquired new members along the way.. Never mind the origin of the name Ratwak - too complicated (actually, too mababaw it's nakakahiya). Suffice it to say that we have 'formal' meetings such as this every few months and regardless of the state of the nation, we all have a blast and are able to regress and bring back the 80's and be our childlike selves all over again. By the time the clock struck midnight and we started playing Truth or Consequence (which was weird because we already knew so many scandalous Truths about one another), all hell had broken loose and our stomachs ached with laughter. When the arroz caldo breakfast was served close to 3am, we knew it was time to wrap up, cool down, and prepare to face the real world again. Eight hours (!!!) of non-stop jokes, kabastusan, irrationality, and just plain bigay-na-bigay laughter was such an unimaginable treat...and everything does have an end... sigh...

So we ended the evening by making plans for the next session -- Nilo's birthday? Send off party for Mr. Q's maid Arlene who leaves for Dubai? A Golf game? (only Ginny and Nilo play golf but we all agreed it was a cool idea) A barbecue at Nilo's place without Nilo? (this guy is ALWAYS late)... Whatever it is, this blog will certainly hear about the Ratwaks for years to come. Ok, roll call - the membership roster of seven consists of... the lovely ladies Ginny, Jeannie, Carmi and moi, and our debonair men Ricky, Nilo and of course, Mr. Q.

WIN-TUH??!

2007-11-01T16:22:00.000+08:00

WINTER is here na daw? Yes, in this tropical country of ours, with the sun blessed, palm fringed Roxas Boulevard, the dusty smog-filled EDSA, the hot and humid tiangges and malls exploding (!?) with sweaty shoppers -- a little office by Buendia churns out dreams of a nippy, chilly, winter wonderland, preparing yet another 'press release' for the fashionistas of manila to read and imbibe.. for after all it's.. ehem.. WINTER TIME!!!

"...A smile crosses her face as she remembers her recent travels through Eastern Europe; a rich tapestry of architecture museum masterpieces, people’s faces as well as the colors of the landscapes, have inspired her to think of her look for this season. She is always traveling, so her wardrobe and accessories are incredibly important to her, they have become the furniture of her life...Winter allows her to layer her pieces and create a striking silhouette that makes her feel wonderful. She favors pieces rich in detail. Her felted wool coat has inserts of satin and velvet embroidered with metal stitching that almost appears beaded. Her tuxedo trousers, tulip skirts and delicate jackets all have velvet and satin inserts where even the stitching becomes art of the detail. A foundation of soft knits, almost as light as chiffon, becomes the canvas on top of which she adds pieces such as a satin bustier that acts almost as a belt. Her dresses have appliquéd embroidery in black on top of sumptuous jewel toned satins that create a modern silhouette with a slightly retro feel...She appreciates quality, needs beautifully fitted clothes, and adores sumptuous materials. Luckily this season all her desires are met...."

Of course even the men aren't spared...

"....His clothes have an almost vintage feel reminiscent of a time when fashion moved away from the uptight three-piece suit to mix and match separates. In trousers of houndstooth, or the finest alpaca tweed he feels sexy, chic and casual. He opts for a warm winter palette of creams, slate grey, olive and Bordeaux mixed with crisp denim, or classic black. His look is completed with a shearling jacket or p-coat in vintage cavalry twill with velvet trim detailing for a luxurious touch....."

- Bally Men's / Women's 2007 Autumn Winter Collection

Soooo....excuse me while I slip into my felted wool coat with velvet and satin inserts and metal stitching. Am off to meet a man dressed in the finest alpaca tweed and vintage cavalry twill p-coat..