Short Cuts

It seems like everybody is chopping off their hair! Even Boogie has decided to cut off his famous locks! I'm so happy, it's a refreshing change! The look we were going for was a longer version of Brad Pitt a.k.a Rusty Ryan in Ocean's 13. Now his only problem is finding the patience to apply product to his hair every morning! I think cutting off a significant amount of hair is very liberating, and can also signify letting go of a lot of issues of the past and looking at what it's front of you now and at the future.

Now let's go blonde! ;p

GIRLS, GIRLS, GIRLS

Girls can be really petty, catty and mean to each other. That's why growing up, I had a lot of male friends. Guys are less complicated. If you piss them off or act like a bitch, they tell you to your face, whereas girls will talk and talk and talk-to everybody except you. Most of my arguements with my male friends last all of 15 minutes, while some fights with girl friends have resulted to months of the silent treatment and complaining to family and other friends.

Don't get me wrong, I am not rejecting my own, I just wish women could be more 1. HONEST 2. FORGIVING and less 1. CATTY 2. VENGEFUL and in general just be nicer to each other. I feel like girls always look at other girls as competition: Who has the better job? Who's prettier? and everyone's favorite Who's skinnier? Who's getting married first? Who's having a baby first? Who got a better deal at the last sale? Who has a hotter boyfriend?
Furthermore, women also have very obvious defense mechanisms when they are feeling insecure: Eew she sucks. Don't worry about her, she's so not pretty. oooh, is that ****? She's so fat now. She can do so much better than that guy. Look at her, she's so hung up on *** and again, everyone's favorite God she's such a slut.

Face it, girls-yes me, you and every female out there, can be REALLY mean. And besides, didn't they say in Mean Girls that calling someone ugly doesn't make you prettier, calling someone fat doesn't make you thinner and calling someone stupid doesn't make you smarter.

What I despise most is the whole ring leader syndrome. There's this one girl I see occassionally, and when she's alone and I know most of the people around, she's all "Hi Erica! how are You?" *Smile smile* but when she's with *ringleader* she completely ignores me, because I suppose ringleader doesn't like me for reasons I believe speak more about her hangups then me.

Speaking of which, I also dislike when you have been introduced to somebody, you've spoken to them, and sometimes even hung out with them, and whenever they see you, they act like they don't know you. It pisses me off like anything because you know in all honesty, I can be a major bitch if I chose to be, but if I know that i know you, I won't think twice about aknowledging your presence.

Cliquish girls annoy me. Are we in high school?

I'm just really happy that somewhere along the way, I found a some girls, who are unique,smart confident, honest, fun, and don't take themselves too seriously.

Life is too short to have to deal with drama.

We heart Baguio

So what did you all do for the long weekend? I took my daughter to Baguio. The last time I was there was 4 and a half years ago, long before I had her. It was so nice to be back in our house, to feel the cold, clean Baguio air, the warmth of our fireplace and to buy fresh fruits and veg in the Baguio Public market! Ananda's first market experience. If you ask her she'll say "What market? That icky place that smelled like suka?" hahaha! OF course I had to take her to do all the traditional Baguio things. My dad always says that when you have children, you go through childhood all over again, and he's right. I found myself going to Wright Park (Twice!) to ride horses, Burnham park to see the boats and Mine's View Park-all for the benefit of my daughter. We've had out Baguio house for about a decade now and not once do I remember going to most of the tourist spots. The first time we went to Wright Park, she wanted a big horse and for me to ride with her. The next day she wanted to ride a horse all by herself. And it had to be one with Pink hair. The one we originally wanted had nice long hair, like Starlight from Rainbow Brite. Unfortunately some other kid was riding it and we'd have to wait 30 minutes, so she settled for Strawberry. We spent two of our three nights in front of the fireplace at home, with Gina and I eating cheese and crackers and drinking wine and Ananda devouring marshmallows and slurping down hot chocolate. She was so excited the whole time we were there that she actually had eye bags from lack of sleep. She'd wake up so early, already shouting for the horses! We had a whole ginormous bag or giant marshamallows in two nights. That can't be good! Of course, I HAD to go to Good Sheperd and get strawberry jam (I'm not a fan of Ube! Although it smells heavenly when newly cooked!) I also got home made peanut butter (w/c is alwys good), guava jam, guava jelly, mango jam and guava candy. Can you tell I like Guava? All I drank when I was preggers with Ananda was Guava juice and it just stuck. The ironic thing is, I don't care so much for the actual fruit. Anyway, it was fun and I'm looking forward to going up there more often. I can't believe I waited this long! I love our house and I love the weather!

BOO!

Before we left for the mountains, I went out for Halloween! We just roamed around the Fort area. It was fun.

Bea as a...actually I don't know what, Me as Alice in wonderland (in Navy Blue!) and Gina as a Japanese Girl-in Piedra
Alice, Alexi as a witch (too cute to be a witch!), 2 baduy costume-less guys Rob and Pao , Monique and Ginasachiko at Cuisine.
Alice, Jena, Ginasachiko and Unfinished Dress Patring- a little detour to Jaipur!

I love Halloween and I'll dres sup every year forever and ever!

Chuvaness

To Cecille Zamora, I don't know you but I'm borrowing this title hehe

Last night, despite my horrible digestive issues, I had to attend this Champagne tasting event at Cuisine hosted by Mumm Champagne. I tried this Champagne at The Tides launch in Boracay, which is good because I didn't want to drink last night. Instead, Gina, Vicky and I took 65 (yes SIXTY FIVE) pictures of ourselves with different themes. This particular one is called "THE PAM" after our friend, superstylist Pam Quinones.
This is mine and Vicky's version of "THE GINA" after crazy girl Gina Reyes-who always manages to look like this in pictures after a few drinks-and also when sober.
This particular shot is entitled "The Catfight" starring Vicky and Gina hahaha!
And of course our forever "Nanalo sa lotto/Wowowee/Deal or no deal/Kitchen Showcase pose"

See Kids, you don't need alcohol in your system to act like a retard ;p

HAIR TODAY, GONE TOMORROW!

This was me last night at the opening of the Kiehl's store in Greenbelt 5
Early in the evening with Gina and our fashion assistant at Metro, Andrea!
And with Pam and Vicy. As usual, my hair wa sin a boring old ponytail because I didn't know what else to do with it!

And this is me right NOW!
I finally chopped my hair off. Yay for me! It's so liberating! The under layer is actually really cropped, to add volume to the back, then the front is a bit longer, right below the chin. On the left side of my face there's a part right above my ear that's cut shorter and i can kind of scrunch it up to make it look messy.

I asked Drea Zulueta (of Piandre) to give me a cut that was FUN, PLAYFUL, EASY TO MANAGE, FUNKY but not TOO MUCH that I'll hate it after a week. Loves it!
Buti nalang I have an event tonight, so I can make a hair debut! hahaha!

that's all for now haha. I'm just happy about my hair!

Hafa Adai!

I'm back from a fun but VERY TIRING trip to Guam. I left Friday night at 1030 pm, arrived at 430 am Guam time (They are ahead 2 hours) checked in and got settled by 630 am and had to be ready for breakfast-and all the activities of the day by 9 am!

So, with barely an hour of sleep...We-

...Toured the hotel wth the rest of the Philippine journalists-from beside me: Judith from High Life, Becca from Philippine Star and Cheryl from Lifestyle Asia.

We stayed at a hotel called Pacific Islands Club. It had something like 7 swimming pools and all these water activities. I think it would be the perfect place if you had your kids with you. There is so much for them to do. Otherwise, I'd book a room at the Hyatt (for couples and lone travelers)

...Went to Two Lovers Point. Legend is that this Chamorro (Native Guamanian) Chief wanted his daughter to marry this Spanish guy, but she was in love with a strong Chamorro Warrior. So, much like Romeo and Juliet, they deviced a plan to die together because death was preferable to a life without each other. They tied their hair together in a knot and jumped off a cliff-now known as Two Lovers Point.This is where the two lovers supposedly jumped to their deaths! Young people are crazy, eh?

...Attended this super cool, super yummy event called Pastries in Paradise in another hotel. It was like a contest/exhibit of desserts from all the hotels and restaurants in Guam (I'm actually not sure if it's just the Tumon area or literally the entire Guam) Anyway in these photos are Strawberries dipped in chocolate and rolled in pistachios and a spread of cookies! There were also mini pavlovas, macaroons, panacottas and lots more.


...and as if we weren't stuffed enough from the pastries, we went straight to Jamaican Grill for yummy jerk chicken. The food was like a fusion of Jamaican and Chamorro cuisine. Too bad i was so stuffed, I could only manage half a piece and some rice.

...To cap off our already tiring day, we were brought to two clubs to experience Guam's Night life. In the picture above, we were at Club Pash and below was 80's night at the Globe with Bryan (our Manila GVB Representative) and his friend Vince. We were SO tired already then.

The next day was filled with activity as well. As early as 8 am, we were having breakfast already because we were scheduled to ride a submarine!
I was excited but then disappointed because we didn't see anything cool like sharks or even an octopus or a manta ray or something. At one point we were 140 metres underwater and all I saw was...water-whoopee! haha.

Next we went to Underwater World after lunch. It's like an aquarium. It's kind of small but cool nonetheless because they ahve these giant turtles, mantarays and stuff. It's like the Sydney Aquarium where you walk through a tunnel and the marine life is all above you.
A Shark A shark! Oh btw, on the submarine ride, they started playing the music from Jaws WTF?
Me touching a baby shark. I swear, whenever I'm at aquariums or zoos, I turn into this little kid. I get so excited!
Camwhoring at the Underwater World sign before leaving for DFS (Duty Free!)

Behind us are stores like Hermes (in photos) beside it Louis Vuitton, Chanel,Bally, Bulgari etc. We drooled, we lusted over, but sadly, we were all too short on funds to each nab ourselves a Chanel bag (The ultimate, mother of all bags! Screw Hermes. I don't even like the Birkin!)

We went to the Micronesian Fair after, but I was too tired to take pictures-I thought I was going to pass out so I begged for an early dinner, we all ate in our rooms and rested a little bit-then went to K mart after to splurge on American food that we can't find here.

I got Apple Jacks, Twinkies and Funyuns among other things woohoo. I love it. Bring on the calories.

On our last full day, we SLEPT IN! I still didn't sleep THAT much (around 6 1/2 hours) and we had the morning free. After lunch at Hyatt, we went to GPO (Guam Premier Outlet) and Micronesia Mall to go shopping.

After a really good buffet lunch at Hyatt. I checked my weight here when i got home and I gained three pounds in three days! Ack! Starvation for the next two days!

After the mall, we had our last group dinner at Capricciossa, a Japanese owned Italian restaurant chain (I believe there is one in GB) This is the last photo I have of all the Philippine delagates to Guam on this trip-
Aside from us print media people, the Sports Unlimited crew was there as well. Here we are with Corey Wills, Mark Nelson, Jackie Castillejo (Dianne not in picture) as well as the GVB Philippines marketting Reps Bryan and Michelle and GVB Guam people-who were such good hosts :)

LAst minute shopping at Kmart followed and we had to be ready to go to the airport at 4am. No sleep-again. Today was spent alternating between playign with dada and sleeping. Still not fully recovered. Tonight I will get real rest.

It's always good to be home. I wonder where my feet will take me next :)

Happy Birthday B!

Guess who is back in town?
Bea a.k.a B Joe. This was at Mamou in Serendra last Saturday, before we went out to drink!

We went out for Bea's belated birthday. We were all out of town for some reason on the weekend of her real birthday so Vicky, Gina, Jocelle and I decided to have a small dinner, gossip and alcohol session last Saturday.

She's actually been back for about a month now but this was the first time we hung out because it's just been crazy hectic. It's always nice to see old friends :) specially when everyone is always bouncing in and out of Manila.

Gina, Vicky, Jocelle, Moi and birthday girl Bea at Mamou. We're so old, we didn't even go to Cuisine or the club. We were sitting outside Cafeteria the whole time drinking and watching people walk by and feeling old!

Everyone was out for some reason. It was nice seeing people I hadn't seen in years! Like last time was pre-Ananda pa. Crazy!

Guam on friday! yay!

From Boracay to Tagaytay

These days I feel like I'm out of Manila more than I am in it. I'm not complaining though, I love going out of town and checking out new places. Last week it was the newest and hottest new hang out/hotel in Boracay-The Tides.

It was a 3 day affair, with parties, an all day buffet, open bar at any time of the day, nice, cozy beds and POOL THROWING! Thank God I was sick (haha I'm thanking God for being sick) and that was my excuse the entire time (Don't throw me in, I'm sick *cough cough*-see?!)
Danielle, Me and Vicky at The Tides' Launch party entitled "Golden Tides" Drink of the night? Bubbly of course!
Boracay White beach during Habagat. For those who say you wanna live on that island-go there during storm season first, then decide! haha!
I can never leave the island before eating at REAL COFFEE and ordering calamansi muffins to take home! They deliver now!

A few days after I got back from Bora, Ananda and I left for Tagaytay for a little trip-just the two of us. We stayed at T House, a nice little Bed and Breakfast spot, away from the main area of Tagaytay city-it's actually on the other side, on the way to People's Park.

I really liked it. The room we stayed at was EARTH themed (the 15 rooms are divided into clusters named after the elements) Ours was a suite, mostly black and white accented with brown, rust and beige. It was so relaxing and I readily spent the entire rainy (stormy!) day curled up in bed reading a book, while Ananda watched cartoons and read books of her own.
Our little recieving area. I have no idea what Ananda is doing! haha!
Our bed. The place is nice. I liked the room. I'm actually inspired to paint my room all black and white and just use colors as accents.

The food was good too! Man I ate so much! Their Tribecca crepe is the best for breakfast. It's a creamy mushroom crepe accented with truffle oil. So rich but so so good. Their set menus are only P550+ but I never finished any of my meals because the servings were huge. Sulit!
Bagong Gising! hahaha


So I'm back in Manila for the next week. Next stop-Guam! :)