proud of you, mom!

My mom was mentioned in an article by Reggie Aspiras in the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Egg flan

For the debut, Representative Lorna Silverio brought egg flans she ordered from Eya Cabanos all the way from Ilocos Norte. They are real eggs drained off their content, filled with flan mixture and steamed. A novelty!

Cabanos also makes saluyot pancit canton noodles and the famous Ilocos garlic longganisa.

She sends them fresh from San Nicolas as you order (tel. 0918-5299085). The eggs make perfect Christmas tokens.

If there's even any doubt about my mom's kitchen prowess one needs only one look at any of her four children to quell it. We are all trying to lose weight! I've been living alone in Manila for the last five years, away from my mother's glorious cooking but it takes me months to recover from the devastation on my weight loss regimen caused by holidays and birthdays that I do make it home to Ilocos. 

Read the rest of the article here:

To Do

I used to like making lists. I was obssesive about it. I think I should pick up the habit again, it might be the only way for me to actually accomplish what is truly, truly essential.

1. Read more books. Le Sigh. I haven't the time! Books are my dearest friends. I mean it. While getting over a particularly nasty break up I would force myself to read to help keep the depression at bay. It was the summer after college, no school or work to throw myself into. The slightest shift of mood and I would grab the nearest book/ magazine/ pamphlet/ instruction manual closest to me. To think I don't normally read instruction manuals.

2. Finish all the Books I've started. This would have to include my collection of nat.geo that I have yet to read from cover to cover. So many books. So little time. And my eyes, my poor eyes. They're not as young as they used to be. I'm getting all sorts of pains, aches and fuzzy spots when I strain them too much.

3. Watch all the good movies in the world. Most likely, this will never happen. But trying should be fun.

4. Lose 100 pounds. Effortlessly Ok, maybe not 100...

5. Study. Don't ask me what or where or who's paying. Sometimes I feel like chosing one thing will close the door to everything else. Such sense of permanence is scary and this deciscion deserves more reflection than my usual, impetuous self would give.

6. Cook that 6-course meal I've been planning since forever. Cooking takes too much time. But anything less is cheating. Long live the slow food movement.

random beach nostalgia...

In the middle of updating my online portfolio I was hit with a sudden longing for the sand and surf, which, in itself, isn't surprising since I was uploading pieces I did about/related to in some way to Boracay, the beach destination du jour. However, I'm not exactly a big beach person. I can't stand the sun, nor the sand, nor the masses I end up sharing the shore with (at least in the more popular beaches). Maybe it will all change once I get the bikini body I've been dreaming of since...its been far too long!

I just realized, the last time I went to the beach it was (December)2008! Meh...beaches, deserted ones, aren't that bad.

Here's something I found in my multiply...

I spent the tail end of July in Boracay with my favorite person in the world and best travel buddy ever, ever, ever.

Here’s to first among many, Toni <3

I vowed once before never to visit during the summer months and I mean it. The island teeming with people loses much of its appeal. It’s gorgeous, to be sure. None of Boracay’s famed beauty is exaggerated but until recently, I never thought it was magical.

Last time I was there was exactly a year ago when I was at my most depressed. I remember crying on the beach and crying myself to sleep and charvic getting so wasted she almost missed her flight back. I cant believe I walked the same shoreline a year later the happiest I’ve ever been, ever, ever, ever.

Toni and I didn’t get to swim until dusk on the day we flew in. Right at that moment when the sun has gone down but the stars have yet to pop out, according to him. True to form, the little prince wanted to catch the sunset but his rose took too long arranging her petals.

It was the most perfect of nights. After all, its not every day we get to take a twilight dip in a deserted stretch of the very embodiment of a tropical paradise.

He lost his shirt. The sea took it away. I told him to leave it on the shore but he wouldn’t listen. The next morning the sea almost got his shades after a massive wave. I saved it. Yay.

He also let me smoke but the sea kept on putting it out. For all intents and purposes I quit smoking after his birthday. And after 3 years of smoking, my body doesn’t even look for it. Not the nicotine. It is a hard habit to break, nonetheless.

We went home without a tan but with 28 hours worth of memories from our first tonkatsu trip after 5 glorious months of being together. Thanks to Patty for coining our compounded couple name. I wont apologize for the mush. I know you all can understand. Sigh…love…Woe betied the poor creature not afflicted.



Toni in Boracay

002. I Love This Site!! www.cuteboysmakemenervous.blogspot.com

Actually, cute boys don't make me nervous. I'm not one to fall head over heels for a pretty face. I need personality, verve, humour. and wit!

Nonetheless, being pretty wont hurt your cause.

I sent Toni's pic to Cute Boys Make Me Nervous

He makes my toes curl!!!

001. I Love This Site!! www.looklet.com

Let me tell you a secret. I never grew out of paper dolls and Barbies and playing dress-up. I think I never will. Its just too much fun! Its not hard to imagine why I took to www.looket.com like a duck to water!

This is the very first look that I created...



And this is my friend's... we picked the same moodel



A look by Mena....I'm loving the Doc Martens!

holding out for a hero...

my boyfriend shares a slight resemblance to Milo Ventimiglia aka Peter Petrelli of Heroes. A friend even went as far as to dub him Toni Petrelli, Peter and Nathan's Filipino-born half brother.

Anyway, I have pieced together a montage of photos of both guys because I didn't go down for lunch because Toni has been really, really perfect lately. *tear* I don't know Milo but he seems like a sweet guy too. :p

"Kiehl's" is Love

Is Kiehl's cheaper in Singapore? Is it? Is it? I hope it or or my boyfriend will feel bad. :(

He got me this...



...during a recent trip.

Actually what I really wanted was this...



But you know what, it doesn't matter. He's a man's man and the fact that he braved walking into Kiehl's alone, well, that's really brave and noble of him.

In any case, I love it! My peepers have never looked more refreshed and rested. I goes well under make up. I think I'm going to become a Kiehl's Junkie....*woebegone sigh* My poor wallet....

That's all I have time for today....

One of these days I'll make an honest to goodness review of the best products I've tried.

Louis, Louis

Perestroika! Mikhail Gorbachev for LV. I know its an old ad but...brilliant, isn't it?


Back when I was really young and still developing my awareness of the world, I thought bags/purses were called Louis Vuittons. My mom is to blame. In my earliest memories of her, she would ask me to get her Louis Vuitton from her bedroom, or to hand her her Louis Vuitton, or get some cash from her Louis Vuitton. I thought that's what you called that "thing" adult females lugged around all day. Oh well. Wouldn't we love that if we all could carry LVs?
Got this from my best friend...

Ang Pekeng LV ni Giselle Sanchez

Fourteen years ago, I was also in the same place, but I was not smiling
like this. The Spanish Steps is a very popular place, especially to
tourists and Europe's Rich and Famous, because this is where all the
designer shops are located.

Fourteen years ago, I was also invited to hold a comedy concert for the
Filipinos in Rome through a group of Batangeño producers. Pagkatapos ng
concert ko, sumama ang sosyalita kong kaibigan na si Cutie del Mar sa akin
para mag-bakpak at libutin ang buong Italya.

Palibhasa, hindi ako sanay na isang bakpak lang ang dadalhin ko para sa
isang linggong paglilibot. Di ko yata kayang magsuot ng parehong Tshirt
sa loob ng tatlong araw. YUCK! Ang baho na nun ng over! Kaya dinala ko ang
isang Louis Vuitton na hand carry. Pero, ito ay isang Louis Vuitton na
peke, japeyks, class triple-A, galing Greenhills. Alam ko na mali ang
bumili at gumamit ng peke pero sana maintindihan ninyo ako. Fourteen years
ago, nag-uumpisa pa lang ang career ko. Kapiranggot lang ang kinikita ko
at nagandahan lang ako dun sa maleta kaya binili ko. Wala pa akong malay
sa brands noon. Kaya ganito na lang ang pagkukutya ng kaibigan ko sa akin.

Cutie: Oh my god! Is that a fake I see!

Giselle: Sorry, hindi ako anak ng Congressman tulad mo!

Cutie: Giselle, ano ka ba! Giselle Sanchez ka na! You can?t be seen with a
fake! You already perform for the rich and famous not only in the
Philippines but all over the world! When In Rome , do as the Romans do!
Halika, punta tayo sa Louis Vuitton diyan sa Spanish Steps and buy
yourself an original!

Ang bilis lumakad ng sosyalera, wala ako choice kundi sumunod kahit wala
akong planong bumili. Plano ko lang tumingin at bilhin yung usong model sa
Greenhills uli. O.A. kaya ang presyo ng Louis Vuitton bags. The cheapest,
smallest bag will cost you P25, 000. Regular bags range from P35,000-90,000.
And the big and real nice ones cost P125,000-P180,000. Sa
pinakamurang bag, mapapakain ko na ang pamilya ko nang limang linggo. At
sa pinakamahal na bag ay mapapa-aral ko na ang kapatid ko ng college! Ako
pa naman ang breadwinner ng pamilya.. Why would I waste my money with such
over priced bags?

Eto na, pumasok na kami sa napakarangyang Louis Vuitton Shop. Siyempre,
hindi ko naman maiwan yung peke kong maleta sa labas, so sama si japeyks
sa loob. At pagkakita ng mahaderang manager sa bag ko, bigla akong
nilapitan, inikutan at tinignan mula ulo hanggang paa.

LV manager: Excuse me, but what is your Nationality?

Giselle: I'm Fil?(hindi pa nga tapos)

LV manager: (whispering but loud enough for me and Cutie to hear) I knew
it! You Filipina maids come in here to copy our designs. Get out of my
store!

Giselle: Excuse me! I am not a maid! I am an actress and I came here in
Italy to perform for these 'maids' you were referring to. And don?t you
ever call them that!
They are called Overseas Filipino Workers. Do not look down on our OFWs
because they have dignity in labor. Do you work on commission, what's your
most expensive here?
LV Manager: (Points to this type of a cabinet where the bags are
displayed). This one! It cost ___ million lira. (Nakalimutan ko na yung value, basta
million-million kasi lira yung currency. Basta halaga ng tatlong buhay
ko.)

Giselle: Ganun! What?s your second most expensive?

LV Manager: (Points to a luggage na kapalit ang dalawang buhay ko)

Giselle: Forget it! You! (pointing to a cute salesman in the counter) I
will not buy from you, Mr. Manager. I will buy from him so he can take the
commission! I?ll buy this, that, this, that, and this! It's too bad I'm
not an overseas Filipino worker because they can buy more than what I can!

So what is the price of dignity? P500, 000.00 maxed on my credit card;
paid slowly for three years; with my mom screaming on my ears every now
and then.

In fairness to these overpriced bags, they are very durable. I started
using them fourteen years ago and I still use them up to now! People think
I'm so classy using coordinated Louis Vuitton handbags, make-up kit, and
shoe bags. Little do they know that Giselle became classy because of her
being crassy. Moral of the story, kung di niyo kaya, huwag manggaya at
baka mapahiya. I never realized that paying for your sins can be quite
expensive! Di bale, basta mapagtanggol ang dangal ng minamahal kong
Overseas Filipino Workers! Mabuhay kayo?kahit mamatay na ako sa utang!

Mulling Over Harem Pants

I swore to myself this was one trend I wasn't going to fall victim to. HAREM PANTS!
I can never own a pair on account that I am as PEAR SHAPED as they come and I'll look hideous in them....




But then this......

Diane Kruger (LOVES HER!).

And suddenly I'm on the fence on this one... If I do succumb I'll be buying a pair in BLACK. That should be safer.


I swore I would never wear harem pants, like I swore I wound never wear rompers before that, or skinny jeans before, before that.

I do own / wear rompers and skinny jeans and I'm pretty happy with them.

001. I Love This Blog

I love the internet! Don't You? And I love blogs. Its a wellspring of contemporary wisdom! Apocalypstic's blog for instance, is one of my current faves. The blog is maintained by an aspiring actress living in LA who is not Kat Dennings. She's very particular about that. She's beautiful and smart-mouthed and funny and so far, she has nothing new to say and I don't mean that as a criticism. Quite the opposite. Her blog is peppered with timeless bits of wisdom and common sense (the stuff our mothers tried to teach us!) retold in her uniquely brassy and witty style. We've heard it all before, of course, but somehow we manage to forget. We need constant reminding, and this blog does it for me.

5. Don't compare your progress to someone else's. This one is hard for
me because, as we all know, I am super jealous. If I were a super hero,
jealousy would be my superpower. And what a dumb superpower,
it wouldn't even be able to help anyone! It's tempting to want to
look at Sally Mae and say, "Wow, Sally Mae has a boyfriend and a job
and washboard abs" and then to cry about it, but don't! Because for
everything Sally Mae has, there's something YOU have that SHE doesn't.
There always is! Because if she didn't...SHE'D BE YOU.
DID I JUST BLOW YOUR MIND? Really though, we're all doing our
best in this world and some people get there faster than others,
but we all get there. Again, just look at the odds! Odds
are by the time you die you'll have done something great in your life!
Even Phil Spector, who is now sitting in jail for murder,

still changed music forever!! Wow!!

Her posts are about a wide range of topics including the secret to success; dating; manners and etiquette for the modern high-heeled, be-lipsticked woman (because Emily Post did not have to deal with Twitter or Facebook); and the hotness that is David Bowie.

Boys SHOULD treat us like "Audrey Fucking Hepburn" on dates and we SHOULDN'T abandon our girl friends when we get into a relationship and FACEBOOK IS A LIFE RUINER!

If you've been keeping up with my blog or if you are even
a vaguely observant person, you may have come to the
conclusion that I am vapid, insecure, and a raging egomaniac.

I just want to assure you that you are indeed correct.

Read up! She is awesome Every visit is an inch closer to becoming Audrey Heburn!

so much food, so little space

Expect a miracle every day.

I'm expecting a little big one of my own and I've enlisted a friend's help in praying for it. I told her if things go favorably I'll treat her to KFC. If things go really, really favorably then I'll treat her to 7 Corners in Crowne Plaza, the best buffet I've been to thus far. I'm somewhat of an expert on buffets, lord knows I've been to enough of them.

That's where my beloved and I went for our anniversary. I made myself sick and I stayed that way throughout the whole night until morning because I ate too much. It was awesome! I definitely recommend it!

browbeaten

It just dawned on me that I haven’t set foot out of the house without groomed brows since I was 14 years old. It was then that I first discovered the wonders that well-define brows can do for an ordinary face. It doesn’t matter if I’m going to a party or to the Mini-Stop outside my village or to P.E. class, I’d sooner go braless than brow-less.

I knew it was true love when I finally felt comfortable enough to face my fiance sans eyebrows.

Neither my face nor my brows have changed significantly over the years, not that I can tell. You’d think that after a decade of filling in the same pair of sparse brows I’d have it right down to a pat. For some reason, I don’t. There’s still a lot of trial and error involved. My tools of the trade include a small brow brush, dark brown eye-shadow, brow pencils (black, dark-brown and blonde), brow gel and a clean mascara wand. Sounds heardcore, right? But actually I hardly have time for the whole shebang. Especially when I want to look like I’m not wearing any make-up, a few swift strokes of the blonde eye pencil usually does the trick.

I’m glad heavy, brushed up brows circa 1980s are all the rage again. I think women, myself included, generally look better with thicker brows to frame their eyes.

Case in point: Drew Barrymore! I remember she wore those thin, penciled in brows for several years in the mid 90s!



Woe for those like me who must perpetually fake it. I tell you, every morning is a struggle not to look like a bad Brooke Shields wannabe.

So I’ve been contemplating a visit to the Browhaus in Serendra, since eyebrows are such a huge deal for me. But I’m scared!!! Their services are kinda pricey and after reading a bad review I’m not sure it’s worth it? Thoughts?

Breaking Dawn Induces Migraness

A long overdue review of Stephenie Meyer's Breaking Dawn

Spoilers.

Yuck.

I love the Twilight Saga. I'm not very highbrow in my taste of literature. I read what I find absorbing, the first three books in the Twilight Saga included.

However, the fourth book, I'm almost out of words. Almost. There are times when "it sucks" just wont suffice, like when you're talking about Breaking Dawn, the last, the least (though not in volume what with its 1 million odd pages) of the series.

The plot is predictable, and that's not the worst of it. If anything, that is its charm and Stephenie Meyer should have stuck with the formula that worked so well for her in the past, instead of trying something new.

It has all the elements of cute, which makes it, well, cute. That is, until Meyer over estimates her writing prowess and attempts, in vain, to turn it into an epic of sorts. What used to be a straightforward, cute, teen vampire romance book, morphed into this baffling hybrid fantasy, action, adventure, fake passport-producing suspense, sci-fi mess which all takes place in the last 4 or so chapters.

The story lines are linear and yet it manages to be unnecessarily wordy and utterly chaotic. Every tedious line just screams "trying hard!"

Bella is unremarkably flat even for a teen romance novel protagonist. Which is pretty believable and even tolerable. That is, until she transforms into a vampire and you sort of expect something more...more activity...more dimensions. Her mind remains frustratingly shallow. Its not very pleasant, considering most of the book is written through her perspective.

Edward is both underused and misused. So for those such as I whose sole reason for reading is to get a much needed Edward Cullen fix I would say don't bother. If you must then I advice that you stop reading the book after the feathers. You'll know what I'm talking about when you get to that part. It really is such a shame, the meager times when he is in a scene he seems more like a parody of the Edward I so dearly loved from the 1st 3 books.

I don't know what Stephenie Meyer was on when she wrote the ending for Breaking Dawn but like all mind altering drugs, it took her on a different plane of existence where everything, no matter how mindless, makes absolute sense. Its just too much. When you've already suspended your disbelief enough to accommodate the existence of a vampire who looks like an underwear model, she strings together an ending like THAT! It will leave you thinking "wtf?????" Not the good kind of wtf, mind you.

Suddenly all the vampires in the world converge in Forks and they all go through vampire boot camp to prepare for a looming vampire war and each of their vampire super power more ridiculous than the next. When time comes for the good vampires to come face to face with the bad vampires, its already snowballed into to this insane spectacle that you'd half expect Gandalf et al. and maybe even the Harry Potter crew to arrive, brandishing wands. Nothing will surprised you now, or so you thought because this previously unheard of vampire breaks into a corny, impromptu speech about love and how love is all that matters and love is all around and love makes the world go 'round and love conquers all.

Oh, then Bella's measly power, which was hinted in earlier chapters, develops exponentially right on time for her to end up saving everydamnedone's damned lives. Edward can now read her mind when she lets him, they fool around, and they lived happily ever after, forever and ever.

PS. They had a freaky baby girl that she named Renesmee. What'd I tell you? Crazy!