Working on the Music for the Fashion Show

I've been slowly making up the playlist for the FABE LOVE Fashion Show on February 27 at the Metro Bar in Quezon City.  I already have a bit of the structure but we still have to meet the performers for the show so we can inform them how they will segue into the whole fashion show.  I will tell you which are the key tracks of the show as these things are being finalized.

FABE LOVE Fashion Show Model: Kimiko Miranda

Kimiko Miranda will be one of the models in the ramp in the FABE LOVE Fashion Show on February 27 at the Metro Bar. 

The models will ramp in their casual wear, gowns, swimwear and lingerie outfits.

Entertainment will be provided by Sherwin Marquez and Suy.

Tickets available at the gate for only 200 pesos.

FABE LOVE Fashion Show Model: Jayp Serillano

Jayp Serillano will be one of the models in the ramp in the FABE LOVE Fashion Show on February 27 at the Metro Bar.  The models will ramp in their formal, swimwear and underwear outfits.

Entertainment will be provided by Sherwin Marquez and Suy.

Tickets available at the gate for only 200 pesos.

Laura's Fabulous Cinderella Birthday Cake!

Laura celebrated her fourth birthday today and we bought her this huge Cinderella cake, which she herself picked!  The cake looked fabulous and dreamlike and Laura liked it a lot.  She was so beside herself when she saw it and wanted it opened pronto!  Everything in the cake looked great - except the cake itself.  Too bad it did not taste very good.  Anyhow, the icing and the Goya gold coin chocolates were tasty by themselves.

FABE LOVE Fashion Show Model: Karen Tanes

Khae Tanes will be one of the models in the ramp in the FABE LOVE Fashion Show on February 27 at the Metro Bar. 

The models will ramp in their casual wear, gowns, swimwear and lingerie outfits.

Entertainment will be provided by Sherwin Marquez and Suy.

Tickets available at the gate for only 200 pesos.

FABE LOVE Fashion Show Model: Massi

Massi Jam will be one of the models in the ramp in the FABE LOVE Fashion Show on February 27 at the Metro Bar.  The models will ramp in their formal, swimwear and underwear outfits.

Entertainment will be provided by Sherwin Marquez and Suy.

Tickets available at the gate for only 200 pesos.

Grooving to the New Body Jam 55

Body Jam 55 was launched in Fitness First ABS-CBN last Wednesday, and today, I got another chance to do it, and I'm already starting to have a feel of the songs. It does take me sometime to like the steps especially in songs which are not yet very familiar to me. Usually though, by the second week, I already am doing my best interpretation of the steps.

Leccion Espanol: More Exercises for the -ir and -er Verbs

What I love about Mila, my Spanish teacher, is that she gives us a lot of exercises to work on, and makes sure that those rules sink in properly.  That is pretty important since conjugation is an important skill especially when we communicate.  For today, we concentrated on doing the present tense conjugation of the -ir and the -er verbs.  I still make some errors in it since it can be confusing, especially for the vosotros part of -er verbs. 

Today, we also did several oral exercises, where Mila encouraged us to do dialogues in Spanish with several useful phrases, which can initiate conversation with a Spanish person.  Also, we did the longer version of our self-introduction and I included parts of my personal life story.  I just wanted to use the different conjugation of the verbs, using the Yo, Ello, and the Vosotros subjects.  That made my introduction more interesting, at least for myself.

FABE LOVE Fashion Show Model - Marian Tan Daang

Marian Tan Daang will be at the FABE LOVE Fashion Show on February 27 at the Metro Bar, West Avenue, Quezon City.  She will be strutting stuff in formal wear, sportswear, underwear and swimwear.  Entertainment will be provided by Wil B, Sherwin Marquez and Suy.

Tickets are available at the gate for only 200 pesos.

FABE LOVE Fashion Show Model - Arbie Silva

Indie actor RB Silva will be at the FABE LOVE Fashion Show on February 27 at the Metro Bar, West Avenue, Quezon City.  RB has appeared in several local indie movies and now wants to do some modeling on the side. 

The show will feature the models in formal wear, sportswear, underwear and swimwear.  Entertainment will be provided by Wil B, Sherwin Marquez and Suy.

Tickets are available at the gate.

FABE LOVE Fashion Show Model - Cuy Quinio

Cuy Quinio was one of the models in the FABE LOVE Fashion Show who ramped for us last February 27 at the Metro Bar, Quezon City.  

Cuy modeled Drezzee gowns, casual wear, lingerie and swimwear. 

FABE LOVE Fashion Show Model - Boh Brightside Martinez

Starting today, I am going to feature here ALL the models who are going to appear in the FABE LOVE Fashion Show on February 27, Metro Bar, Quezon City.  The show is going to feature a new batch of men and women who would love to model. 

The first model I'm featuring is Boh Brightside Martinez. 

Entertainment will be provided by Wil B, Sherwin Marquez and Suy.

Tickets are available at the gate for 200 pesos.

Spanish -ar Verb of the day - TENTAR

TENTAR means to tempt.

Here is it's present tense conjugation:

Tiento el destino. (I tempt the fates.)

Tu tientas.

Ella tienta.

Nosotros tentamos.

Vosotras tenteis

Ustedes tienten.

Loving Doing the Fashionista Look!

I am, admittedly, a bit lazy to dress up these past few months. Except for the excitement during Christmas, I have pretty much lied low in the dressing up aspect of my life - something which I used to like to do very much before!

Anyhow, now that I have two Spanish classes in a week, and one date day with Bhe, I guess those are the days when I decide to do the fashionista route!  It's fun, it's creative and it makes my mind work!  Also, it will make me work with my existing wardrobe, and find out which pieces to add to its already bulging quantity.  And also, which stuff to already donate!

I will be showing you pictures of those fashionista days, so I also see how I evolve - in terms of taste and creativity! 

Leccion Espanol: The Verbs -ir and -er

It was another busy day of conjugating - this time, we did the -er and the -ir verbs, mostly the regular ones.  We did both simultaneously, so it's taking a bit of time for me to have all these conjugations sink in.  To think this is just the present tense!  Also, there are some quirky verbs like coger (to put) which transforms to cojo when conjugated in the first person present!  Whew, so many things to remember!

What I like about our teacher Mila though, is she drills us with a lot of oral exercises.  Like today, we had to reintroduce ourselves, but this time, we had to use the verbs - conjugated properly of course, in our introductions!  So my five line introduction in the first day of class - has turned into a novel!  Anna, my seatmate even said, I already told the story of my life!  Oh well, that's me!  If I can use the word, I will.  Better to practice it when the teacher is there, so she can correct me if I'm wrong.

My Weekly Resolutions: Give Bigger Tips to People Who Give Me Service

When I travel to London or Paris, the waiters there really insist that you give them a good tip - even if the service sucks big time! So if my dinner was 70 pounds, I'd have to leave something like 7 pounds (that was around 1050 pesos at that time) as tip!  Imagine that!  And these Polish waiters don't even smile at you.  They are stern and cold and bored! 

So that got me thinking tonight to change my attitude towards tipping, at least here in Manila.  It used to be that I tipped bigger, years ago, since when I converted my tips abroad to my tips here, what I was giving here, was really a pittance.  But unfortunately, since I started living here again, my old Filipino attitude of tipping came back - meaning, I just give 20 pesos tops, even for a good meal!  I even just give one peso to the car watch boys or 5 pesos when I feel good. 

Shameful, isn't it?

Oh well, maybe, I increase the amount a little bit.  Life is still hard for me now, but I think these small people - like waiters, car watch boys, security guards, receive even lesser than me.  I did try living on a minimum wage allowance for days yet there were days that I had to spend more!  Other days, I just did not eat.  (Of course, I exaggerate.   Our food budget is separate from my personal budget.) I ate, but not outside anymore. I ate in the house.

Well, let's see how far I could go with this new resolution.  I really hope I can change my stingy attitude a bit. 

Seeing Fitness First Branches Around the World

One reason I have been loyal to Fitness First all these years is because they allow a local member here, to use their member clubs abroad!  That alone, was a good selling point for me, since at that time, Vic and I were just prancing all over the world - and this set up, where I can work out anywhere in the world, was just too tempting to pass!

I remember joining Fitness First this exact day eight years ago, and as soon as I learned that we could use their member clubs abroad, I did not hesitate to get an international passport and see how the other clubs operated! 

Of course, Hong Kong was the first place I went to - and I promptly fell in love with the GX exercises, especially Body Jam!  And of course, being a Step addict in Manila, I was happy to see that they also had Step classes in different clubs abroad - so it was a joy for me to see other people from other races love the same thing that I did! 

Bangkok, Singapore and KL were next.  Bangkok had a fantastic Step and Hi-lo teacher whose moves were so unique and so clever that I would always always attend her class when I was in Bangkok!  I would even time my visits to Bangkok, to coincide with the schedule of her classes there!  Singapore was ok, but not very interesting.  Kuala Lumpur was very interesting because it was the first time I saw women doing exercises with head scarves and long sleeved shirts!! Fully covered!!  In time I got used to it, of course!  And there were many Indians too - or maybe, Malaysians of Indian descent!

Then came the Paris, London and Manchester visits, which were a bit of a disappointment since the clubs were smaller although the yoga classes and the Body Pump class which I attended were ok.

Shanghai is the last on the list and it was a very plush club set in a very plush mall.  It was a very interesting club for salacious reasons but I'm not going into that here.  I did attend a very good Step class teacher there and I really enjoyed his class too!

Oh well, those were the days of my gallivanting around the world just to see their local Fitness First clubs.  However, for me, the best clubs are still here!  Surely, there's no place like home!

Fascinated by the Art of Joan Miro

I first learned about the works of Spanish painter Joan Miro, interestingly, in an exhibition of the works of another abstract painter, a more serene and ascetic one - Mark Rothko.  The contrast between the two was just so evident that I was curious to learn more about this Miro guy.  I ended buying several art books talking about the work of Miro, but I never got around reading any one of them - until a week ago.  I started with the book which had a more approachable explanation of this guy's genius. 

Armed only with a Humanities 2 sensibility and understanding of art - I plodded on reading the book and learning about the evolution of this guy's work.  It's really amazing!  He first started out drawing things as they are - and the slowly evolved into these fantastical shapes and colors - which are all figments of his imagination (but of course!)  Miro's world is dazzling and vibrant and sensual and bizarre! 

His transition was very gradual and as he matured as a painter, you could feel the free movement of his hands as it interpreted what was going on in that strange brain of his.  That painting above is entitled 'The Garden'.  Isn't it fantastical to see! 

My Daily Expenses: January 24

Today, I went out and watched a movie so I was able to spend a little bit than normal.

1.  movie - 190 pesos (US$4.26) - I don't know why the moviehouse for Hereafter would cost this much!
2. food - 211 pesos (US$4.73) - I bought a brownie from Mrs. Fields and an egg sandwich from Oliver's
               --------------------------------------
             401 pesos (US$8.99)

Food Is the Enemy! - My Diet Plan Nowadays

Since I weighed in last Thursday and found out I breached the 200 pound mark and I am now 2 pounds lesser than that, my mind went on a war freak overdrive!  Food is the enemy has been my mantra these past few weeks, since Christmas, that's why I didn't gain weight during the holidays.  The attitude continued up to now and I'm happy to see I have lost a little bit of the poundage.  

Yes, I want to lose more, but we all know how hard that is to do - what with all the delicious food there are out there!  So everytime I am tempted, I just say, 'Food is the enemy'!  I may have to say that a few more times since I'm aiming for 195 lbs by the end of February.  Not impossible, but very difficult to do.  One nice thing about this though is that the belly bulge is becoming less and less visible.  Now, if only I could just put my portions into baby sizes, I should be successful with my new goal!  I will keep you posted on this!

No Dates These Past Two Weeks!

I checked the calendar today and I found out it was already January 24!  Well, nothing alarming with that, it's just that, I haven't really gone out on a date these past few weeks, since the New Year!  Ever since I became single last year, I did try to develop a healthy attitude towards meeting new guys and it was fun for a time (ok, through most of the second half of 2010!), but suddenly this year, I am now starting to coccoon again, which really is not good!  I have been trying to self-analyze this bizzare behavior of mine and these are the reasons I came out with -

1.  I am tired (of the scene maybe).  I think all that partying last Christmas and smooching and flirting and humping really made me exhausted.  The truth is, twentysomething guys can really exhaust you physically!  In a good way of course!  Or maybe I just want a change of scene.  Or maybe I need someone who can talk like me and whose needs are like mine.

2.  I'm having my period! Yeah, like a woman!  There's just no one out there that currently interests me, I'm like facing a brick wall!  Ok, yes, there's two guys but they're both straight and unless I give them Ativan, we will just remain friends, and you know what a drag it is to be just friends.  "Marami na akong friends!"

3.  I am worried about something.  Partly true.  I've known all along that my libido matches my ability to make money.  I am a stockbroker, a money man, a man who loves money, a man who kneels both at the altar of God and the almighty dollar, and when that thing starts to trickle, all libido flies out the window.  Oh well, I hope not for long.  It's not like I'm going to be destitute but to someone used to the good life, there is nothing else!

Oh well, I hope this doesn't stay this way for the next four weeks, otherwise, I may have to slap myself silly and say to myself, "Snap out of it."  Also, it's going to be my birthday soon so I don't want to feel too frigid on that day, or cold!

My Daily Expenses: January 21

I did not spend much today, just basically the essentials, so that's good!

1.  taxi cab fare - 150 pesos (US$3.37) - that's how much it costs going from Roxas District to Taft in Instituto Cervantes

2.  snack - 141 pesos (US$3.17) - that's for a ham and cheese sandwich and a Mountain Dew soda can drink - very expensive! the two waffles I got in ABS just cost me 31 pesos!

3. Internet use - 20 pesos (US$0.45)  - I just had to check something in the Internet before I went up to the gym

Thank God I only spent 321 pesos today.  That's just about the minimum wage here.

Leccion Espanol: Lots of Exercises Today

Interestingly, after covering just a few pages in our textbook these past few meetings, today, we did a lot of exercises in conjugating several verbs with the form -ar and the verbs -ser, -estar and llamarse.  We also expanded our personal introduction to now include these verbs plus several new vocabularies, mostly adjectives, that we learned today.  The truth is, my knowledge of Bisaya really makes learning Spanish much much easier because the similarity in words is just mind-boggling.  It's like one in every ten Spanish word has assimilated into that dialect!   

Taxi Blues!

I admit I have been spoilt these past few years since Vic and I always had drivers to bring us around.  However, on Fridays, since my car is coding, and since I could also not drive the delivery van, I have to take a cab to Instituto Cervantes in Taft.  No problem there since I started school first week of January.  But today, I did not have such luck in finding a taxi!  It took me 20 minutes to look for one - and our neighborhood normally has lots of taxis, since many drivers eat around here.  Normally, it just takes 5 minutes.  Anyhow, I finally found one, but the problem was, there was a traffic jam around Taft and I almost arrived late for my class!  I still don't understand how they can allow big trucks to take routes around the Taft area!  Oh well, we have to drive dangerously close to them and to make matters worse, the roads around Taft are narrow!

My Fabulous Dermatologist: Dra. Ocson

My face really looked uneven now with red spots everywhere, a pimple here and a few warts so I decided to book an appointment with my dermatologist, Dra. Ocson (09102095696).  When she saw my face, she made some changes in my daily regimen, saying my Night Cream medicine might be too strong and it was causing allergic reactions on my face.  

So now, I have to use a Rejuvenating Solution, plus Oxcee which I think is an anti-oxidant, a Day Cream with strong SPF and a Glycolic Anti-Aging Cream.  Actually, after the facial, I think my face did lighten up a bit.  I should really do this facial regimen once a month.  

It just gives my face that certain glow.  I guess all those electrical things I feel that they do to my face gives such effect.  Anyhow, now that I'll be hitting forty in a few days, I should really prioritize these visits since the face is the first thing people see!

My Daily Expenses: January 19

Well, I didn't have too many expenses today.  I decided to bring baon and water to my Spanish class so I wouldn't have to spend too much on their expensive cafe there.  Today is massage day though so I did spend some money today.

1.  parking at Instituto - 115 pesos (US$2.59) - The parking fee of Instituto (60 pesos) is probably the most expensive parking place I know!  Imagine paying this much when I just parked between 12:30PM and 4:14PM!  Wow!  I could park at SM North the whole day and I'll just pay 45 pesos! The extra 55 pesos was for the ABS-CBN parking.

2.  massage at New York Spa - 850 pesos (US$19.10)  Actually the massage just costs 750 pesos.  The extra was my tip.

3.  food - 138 pesos (US$3.10) - I had the urge today to eat Yang Chow rice so I went to Chow King and mixed it with pork siomai.  Yum yum!

               --------------------------------------
            1103 pesos (US$24.80)

I also learned today that if I had my parking ticket validated at the New York Spa, I could get my parking for free, at least for the first three hours!  Cool!

Learning How to Drive to Taft!

I rarely go to Taft before since my university was in the Diliman area and most of my friends were in the Katipunan area.  Last year, because I wanted to attend Andre's Body Jam class in Robinson's Ermita, I learned how to go to that mall passing through a portion of Taft! However, now, with my Spanish classes at the Instituto Cervantes, I am finding ways to go that part of Taft where I did not have to pass through Quiapo.  I am now learning how to use the Quirino Avenue route and today, I decided to explore the UN avenue shortcut - and voila, I got to Instituto Cervantes in a jiffy!  I will most likely use the same route every time!

Leccion Espanol Day 4: Conjugating The Spanish Verb -ar

This is our fourth meeting today for my level 1 Spanish lessons and we have really buckled down to business.  After simple greetings and the Spanish alphabet and spelling in Spanish, today, we started conjugating the present form of all Spanish verbs ending in -ar.  For example, cantar, which means to sing, is conjugated as canto (I sing), cantas (You sing), canta (He sings), cantamos (We sing), cantais (You sing) and cantan (They sing).  We were told that we did not have to put the pronoun in front, anymore, since the language is designed in such a way that the form of the verb will tell you who the subject is.  Tres cool, don't you think? We did a lot of conjugating today, and after that, we had to translate several sentences into Spanish.  The good thing is, it wasn't so difficult to translate them!  Next meeting, we will do the verbs ending in -er and -ir.

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A Big Fan of Peking Garden Restaurant!

It's always a guilty pleasure among my Francophone friends to eat at Peking Garden Restaurant here in Greenbelt, well, to eat their famous Peking duck - which really is something you should do, since it really is delicious!  When we arrived there tonight, the place was full and initially, we were asked to wait for about 20 minutes since even the vacant tables had reservations.  Anyhow, with a twist of luck, someone canceled and we got their table!  Hurrah!  I was already really famished anyway so I really needed for us to get a table, pronto!

Well, we ordered duck, of course, and some broccoli, fried noodles and some lamb.  Everything was delicious!  I didn't even notice that the rice I ordered did not arrive yet, since I was able to eat everything sans the rice!  As usual, we had great conversation, good food, so what else is there to ask for?  The service was a bit sloppy though but it was a busy night so that can be forgiven.  Also the delicious food more than made up for all the missing orders.

My Daily Expenses: January 15, 2011

Today, I met up again with my Francophone friends so there was a bit of expenses, than the usual day.  Here are my expenses for today -

1.  movie - 200 pesos (US$4.52)
2.  food - 953 pesos (US$21.52)
3.  Larry - 100 pesos (US$2.26)
4.  gas - 300 pesos (US$6.78)
5.  GT magazine - 699 pesos (US$15.79)
6.  load - 100 pesos (US$2.26)
            ------------------------------------------

TOTAL - 2352 pesos (US$53.12)

It's really astonishing how much money passes through my hands in a day! And these expenses don't even include the basic items in the house and all our other house bills.  Oh well, dinners like these and the magazine are not normal things I do everyday, so it's ok to splurge once in a while.

Leccion Espanol Day 3: Spelling and the Spanish Alphabet

Today, Mila grilled us on the Spanish alphabet, especially emphasizing the letters g and j which both had that annoying guttural sound - a sound which she says, approximates a taxi driver who is about to spit!  What a metaphor!  We also got each and everyone's cell number and name.  We had to say our cell numbers in Spanish and we had to spell out our name to each person we met.  It was a good exercise since that way, I could clearly recall the sound of each letter of the Spanish alphabet.  In my French alphabet, up to now, I still could not distinguish if the sound [zhi} is for the letter g or the letter j.  How annoying!

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Leccion Espanol Day 2: Meeting Our Real Teacher

Today, our class of 24 was divided into two groups of 12 each.  I stayed in the same room with Anna, who is a 3rd year college student from La Salle.  Our teacher for this module is Mila Vieco and she's from Spain on the northern part.  She really is a teacher for beginner's class since her pacing is so relaxed!  Today, we did the greetings, and she really encouraged us to talk in front of everyone and do the dialogues.  That way, we could build our confidence in speaking in Spanish.  I like her method very much!

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Overcoming Shyness

Yeah, my friends would not really believe that I'm shy but I do get pangs of it sometimes and this year, I've really decided to be more friendly and more open to people.  Being shy really just robs you of getting to know more people and have a richer life!  These past two weeks, though not really 100% successful, I guess, I'm slowly bringing down that shy barrier.  

I am always afraid that I might embarrass myself in front of other people, but I've realized that it's true for everyone anyway.  So now, if I know someone or recognize someone, I really make sure to make eye contact or wave and say hi and make small talk.  Every day, I make it a conscious effort to get to know people and not be in the corner and be shy and quiet.  The world really becomes more interesting if we get to know more people since each person really is unique!