Not sure if I’m a typical Assumptionist, but pretty sure I am very Assumption, because surely all the growing up years I spend in that school must’ve imbibed in me something.
I also think I may have been born in the wrong batch because Batch ’86 is way cooler and more up my alley (no offence to my Batch ’84).
I didn’t make it to my own velada for personal reasons. I do regret not having accepted Malu Gamboa’s invitation to attend theirs (my cousin Monette Quiogue was “the brains behind the velada”).
Just check out the opening of the reunion show, which features very vintage Assumption cheers that are cheesy, nostalgic, and fun at the same time.

For more on Assumption Batch ’86 velada, go to http://heart-2-heart-online.com/.

Originally published at Chuvaness.com. Please leave any comments there.

Up until a recent Céleteque event at SM Makati, I used to think Céleteque was a foreign skincare brand.
Must be the name and simple packaging.

Photo: Sasha Manuel

I first heard about Celeteque when my dermatologist recommended to me. I was surprised to find out it comes from Unilab, a local company of healthcare products.

In 2002, Celeteque started in a small division in Unilab with only two products: a facial wash and a moisturizer. The products were well received by consumers that they eventually expanded the line to nine products. This year, Unilab launches Celeteque Dermoscience with 26 different products under six distinct color-coded skincare lines, co-developed with top dermatologists to answer different skin care needs. Besides the color-coding, packaging is kept simple and modern with a clinical feel.

The Hydration line is blue—designed to restore skin’s healthy suppleness

Acne Solutions is green—to effectively control excess sebum and clarify acne

Brightening products are pink— targets melanin concentration and evens out skin tone

Sun Care is yellow—provides daily protection from UVA/UVB rays with a broad spectrum coverage

Advanced Anti-Aging is purple—to erase fine lines and wrinkes

Restorative is maroon—designed to lift and refirm loose, sagging, aged skin

During the launch hosted by Angel Jacob, beauty editors, broadcast and print media, plus a ton of bloggers were invited to go around, test the products and ask questions to Céleteque skincare experts.

A skin analysis machine allowed them to identify their skin type and the suggested Celeteque regimen to address their skin concerns.  The highlight of the launch was the extra-heavy (read: bonggang-bongga) swag bag everyone got to take home containing the entire product range.  You can guess that everyone who went there came home happy.

The Celeteque, Watsons and Unilab Distribution Team

The complete line of Celeteque DermoScience is available now at Watsons stores and SM Department Store’s Beauty Section.
Watch this blog for your chance to take home your swag bag very soon!

To get updated, like Céleteque’s Facebook page.

Originally published at Chuvaness.com. Please leave any comments there.

I was looking for a decent dual-time watch for the longest time. I’ll admit to owning one Philip Stein watch which is so not me, but was the only thing available in Manila. That’s why I’m really glad Jeremy Scott created the Double Vision Swatch—so Hitchcock, so me!!

He’s so crazy!

Jeroen got it for me at Swatch Rockwell today—supposedly the last piece.
I know they are going, going fast, so I’m happy I got one. This is my prize after being sick.
I’m off to Tokyo next month, so I’m excited not to have a gurangler watch on my wrist

Still on the same collection, Tita Virgie Ramos of Swatch Philippines recently sent me Jeremy Scott’s Melted Minutes, which is one the most beautiful Swatches I own. This is so up my alley, with the clear face and strap.

I love this

Here’s the complete Jeremy Scott x Swatch 2nd collection.
I believe the photos do no justice to the actual pieces, so find them at a Swatch store near you.

Originally published at Chuvaness.com. Please leave any comments there.

A few people have been asking to me to show what’s inside my bag.
The thing is, I change my bag maybe twice a week, according to mood, occasion or outfit, so it’s useless to keep documenting it.
My current bag is a T.A.T.A. Baby purchased in the Liger store at Silvercord in Hong Kong.

A T.A.T.A. Baby is a chic version of the Banane Taipei bags that have been copied everywhere. They are made in Japan, and therefore pricier.
They are not mass-produced so it’s good to buy it when you walk into one.
They are lightweight and pack a LOT.

Inside:

1. Wallet
2. Organizer of gift checks (read: media ako) + favorite Goody comb (I have three)
3. Muji clear organizer/pen case
4. Wet and dry tissues (I’m a mom)
5. Louis Vuitton agenda and keys
6. Rootote Grande shopping bag

7. Sangkatutak na shopping cards (4 pages yan)
8. Pill organizer
9. Rosary from Lourdes from Jay Abalos
10. Muji mints and gumballs

But oh, can I just show you my wallet? I found it at Team Manila Rockwell and couldn’t bilibit.
This thing is almost Margielic, with the distressed leather and painted surface.
It is 11.5″ long and simply stylish

It opens up to this Margielic thing to organize your money, skinny pen, receipts, checkbook, with 8 card slots

The stitching isn’t perfect, but for Php 995, how can you complain? I bought the last one at the Rockwell store, but hoping to find more because Grace wants one.

Originally published at Chuvaness.com. Please leave any comments there.

Filipinos love giving food gifts during the holidays. Most of the time they give food they personally love, hoping the recipient will love them too. But while most food gifts come from people’s home-based businesses, we forget that some great companies also offer Christmas treats that won’t go to waste.
Take for example Häagen-Dazs Christmas cakes, made of super premium ice cream.
Although Häagen-Dazs has a good selection of ice cream cakes to choose from all year-round, they have created three limited edition cakes just for the holidays.
The Christmas Wreath is raspberry sorbet plus green tea, chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, and mango ice cream on a bed of cereals and dark chocolate, topped with white chocolate shavings.

The Rainbow Log is made of Häagen-Dazs’ most special ice cream and sorbet flavors, housed between thin layers of dark chocolate and topped with berries.

Yuletide Charm is luscious strawberry cheesecake ice cream, surrounded by snowflake-patterned chocolate, swirly chocolate décor, strawberry stars, mango bauble, and kiwi wedges on top of strawberry coulee.

To order, visit Häagen-Dazs stores at SM Mall of Asia (Tel. 556-1111), SM Mega Atrium (638-2971), and Robinsons Place Ermita (353-2972).
For updates and special promos, “like” the official Häagen-Dazs Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/HaagenDazsPH.

Originally published at Chuvaness.com. Please leave any comments there.

Today we found out that SM Hypermart doesn’t only use paper bags and recycle boxes for groceries on Wednesdays—they do this everyday now, according to a Pasig ordinance.

Yes, I was shocked because in other supermarkets (Unimart, for instance) they sell their cardboard boxes instead of just recycling them.

S&R Price Club used to have all these boxes available for groceries; now they are hard to find.
So hurray, SM!

Originally published at Chuvaness.com. Please leave any comments there.

There ought to be a law against naming your child Lucho. Especially if it happens to be this cute.

According to my cousin RJ, Jejomar and Benhur are already filing a bill. Good luck to that.

Originally published at Chuvaness.com. Please leave any comments there.

Funny how everyone except the government, it seems, dreams of improving our airport. Everyone from Team Manila to Kenneth Cobonpue, Budji Layug and Royal Pineda have all offered their services for free to do something about it.
The following video comes from Kenneth Cobonpue’s Facebook—a pro-bono proposal from Layug, Pineda and Cobonpue in cooperation with the National Competitiveness Council of the Philippines.

“It’s time someone did something about the worst airport in the world. We made this design because we believe that no matter how beautiful our country is, our airports give the first and last impressions. The plan is relatively inexpensive and simple to adapt, and involves renovating the interiors to allow faster flow of travelers between security, immigration and departure. The first step has been done. Lets hope our government moves on this proposal quickly.”
Source

Originally published at Chuvaness.com. Please leave any comments there.

Not sure if I’ll be in Manila on November 11 and 12, but if I were, I would really love to be here.
Go West gives me the warm fuzzies. I truly love Go West.

English pop duo Go West was formed in 1982 by lead vocalist and drummer Peter Cox and guitarist/vocalist Richard Drummie.
Among their top hits: “We Close Our Eyes” and “Call Me” (1984), “King of Wishful Thinking” (1990) and “What You Won’t Do for Love” (1992).

Megaworld Lifestyle Malls presents GO WEST LIVE!
11 November 2011 Friday 7:00PM at Eastwood Mall Open Park
12 November 2011 Saturday 7:00PM at The Venice Piazza at McKinley Hill

Tickets/Reserved Seats: Php 1,350
For inquiries, call Megaworld Concierge: 709-0888/ 709-9888

http://www.gowest.org.uk/

Originally published at Chuvaness.com. Please leave any comments there.

I have always wondered. I’m so naive, tell you the truth I have to watch this to find out.
In ENSLAVED: An MTV EXIT Special, Jared Leto of Thirty Seconds to Mars talks about real-life issues on human trafficking and exploitation.

Originally published at Chuvaness.com. Please leave any comments there.

Spotted at Glorietta 5

Ely Buendia for Bench Fix

That’s hot!

Music icon beyond his years, rockstar Ely Buendia joins the Bench family as Bench Fix’s latest endorser of styling products.
The songwriter, guitarist and former lead vocalist of the legendary Eraserheads helped defined a generation and, perhaps, the very sound of OPM in the ’90s. Today, his music continues to evolve with his current band Pupil.
In the realm of movies, Ely recently appeared in Quark Henares’ Rakenrol and has directed a 13-minute independent film entitled Waiting Shed, which was featured as part of Cinemanila’s Sine Barangay Festival.
As an endorser of Bench Fix products, Ely’s current favorite is Clay Doh Lite Molding Clay.

This lightweight product has an easy washout formula that allows you to restyle your hair any time of day—and the ability to keep hair intact while rocking and head banging all night long.
To achieve Ely’s rockability, rub a small amount of clay in your palms and work through the hair for that desired hairstyle.
Available in all Bench Stores, Bench Fix Salon, Watsons, and all leading supermarket and department stores.

http://www.fixsalon.com/

Originally published at Chuvaness.com. Please leave any comments there.

If Hollywood has Avatar (highest grossing movie of all time at US$ 760,505,847), then Star Cinema x Viva Films have No Other Woman, highest grossing Tagalog movie of all time at Php 267 million (roughly US$ 6,260,257).
Now that it has made that much money, it won’t hurt if I give it an honest review, would it?

Last Saturday night, I dragged Grace and Jay to watch the movie everyone has seen (except us) and has left people either raving or wondering why people are raving about it. Naturally I wanted to know which category I would fall into.
Luckily, I am neither a friend nor hater of Anne Curtis so I can tell the truth (unlike all her Twitter friends who called it the best movie they have ever seen = sad).

Megamall is one of the last cinemas that is still screening the movie up to now. Got ourselves dropped off at the Bench/National Bookstore entrance, and saw something mind-boggling—someone was actually sleeping on bench right in front of Bench (coincidentally) which is right smack at the main entrance of the mall.

WTF is going on? This would never happen in Singapore. I remember when Ana and I were waiting for my mom and sister at Takashimaya, we briefly sat on the floor to wait. A guard immediately spotted us and told us we were not allowed to sit there. So this could never happen in Singapore.

The odd thing is, in another part of the mall, I saw another guy sleeping on the stairwell.
Was there a midnight sale I didn’t know about and these employees are simply exhausted or taking a break?
And who is that kid guarding the sleeping giant? Bizarro.

Anyway, moving along, we spotted Hayden’s cute picture in the mall.

Jay says it has the feel of Takeshi Kaneshiro for Biotherm Homme

We proceeded to the box office where I lined up for tickets. That’s three tickets for Php 540 or Php 180 per person.
At Php 267,000,000 divided by Php 180 = that means more than 1,483,000 paid to watch the movie.
That’s almost the same number as Anne Curtis’s Twitter followers!!

(To be continued)

Originally published at Chuvaness.com. Please leave any comments there.

No Other Woman is about a love triangle between a young married (childless) couple (Derek Ramsay + Cristine Reyes) and a jetskiing resort world heiress (Anne Curtis).
Derek plays Ram Escaler whose day job is Artistic Director of uglyfurniture.com.

He is married to Sharmaine, a simple girl housewife who crochets on her free time (Cristine Reyes).

The couple live in a gaudy, gilded house, along with Sharmaine’s family. Her father looks like a truck driver and her mother is a very simian-looking Carmi Martin. One wonders what the family business is.
While the whole house may have been decorated by April Boy Regino, luckily, Ram and Sharmaine’s bedroom remain in good taste.
One day, a very gay designer walks into Ram’s showroom to place a big order of furniture for a new resort owned by Tirso Cruz (not the third, but the Pip).
Ram gets to fly out into the island/resort to meet the boss (Pip) who turns out to be his father’s old frienemy. Here it is revealed that Ram has real baggage as he is estranged from his loser father.
During his free time, Ram dives into the water, where the jetskiing heiress, Kara Zalderiaga (Anne Curtis) almost hits him. For some reason, she chooses to dive into the water, where she loses her bikini top.

Fortunately, the bikini top is conveniently floating very near to Ram. He fishes this out of the water, while Kara encourages him to put it on her. (Here starts the grossfest. Sorry but I’m one of the minority who doesn’t find Derek cute. I find him short, dark, and bald. Plus the whole bikini top scene is so Pinoy komiks—cringe!!)
They meet again at the boss’s office where Ram finds out that the girl he flirted with in the water is actually the boss’s daughter (read: Tirso). It doesn’t hurt that she’s dressed like a Preview cover girl 24/7.

Through Kara’s help, Ram gets the green light to design and manufacture furniture for the resort.
Because of this, the two have to meet up and work together. This includes teaching Kara how to play golf in a bathing suit.
During one of their business meetings in their swim suits in the water at sunset, Ram informs Kara that he’s married. She replies in the tone of Friends With Benefits: no problem, no falling in love, now kiss me you fool (Cringefest #2!!).
Meanwhile, simple housewife Sharmaine has dialed too many missed calls to her husband. She decides to go to the laundry section of her house to inspect his garments, where she finds the wedding ring inside one of his trousers.

He is so in trouble!! The suspicious housewife further investigates and opens his agenda where he conveniently left a Post-It note of his dinner date at 7th High. This is where Simple Girl goes to meet Preview Girl in the restroom, and where the two lovers are nearly caught in the act of a dinner date—to which I say: if you’re having an affair, you do not have dinner at Bonifacio High Street, you go to St. Lucia East.

(To be continued….napagod ako)

Originally published at Chuvaness.com. Please leave any comments there.

Warning: Contains spoilers

Ram Escaler has a problem. He’s having an affair and yet he doesn’t ever hide his phone.

So while he falls asleep, he fails to read a message from his mistress.
His wife picks up the phone and texts the mistress back to call back: “Wife is here, can’t talk. Please call me. Just wanna hear your voice.”
Kara calls Ram’s phone, wife hears her voice and confirms the affair.
The revelation turns the simple housewife into another Preview Girl—she suddenly becomes chicer!

It also encourages her to turn their bedroom into a boudoir while she tries to seduce her husband who is not in the mood, due to the fact that he already had some.

A chance encounter at a department store finds Kara and Sharmaine both wearing Barney (not Barneys) purple and fighting over a very ugly bag, which Grace and Jay point out is by YSL. (It could’ve come from Secosana or uglybags.com, as far as I’m concerned. As far as my brother Dennis is concerned, they should’ve been fighting over a Valextra bag—don’t ask.)
Wife convinces mistress to have coffee, which leads to dinner at home.
Why a beautiful, strong-will heiress would allow herself to be humiliated by her lover’s wife in their home is beyond me.
The whole scene is a mess and I cannot stand all of Sharmaine’s lines.
Dinner is a disaster. Ram scolds his wife, then mistress runs to her BFFs where screams (a must in Pinoy movies) why she has to fall in love with a married man.

It is unclear why after scolding his wife, Ram decides to end his affair with Kara, who happens to have a bed inside her living room.

In a very insensitive move, Ram decides to take his wife to the resort when he delivers the orders from uglyfurniture.com. They also indulge in foreplay in a very public swimming pool—in full view of the heiress who owns the resort.
Here’s where the two women have a showdown in bathing suits, and we are very much distracted by Anne Curtis’s wardrobe malfunction which lasts more than one scene. (Did anyone notice that her boobs were falling off her flimsy top?)
After a very ugly cat fight, the Escalers pack up and go home and Sharmaine decides to leave her husband.

Ram’s cottage industry closes down. In short, karma is taking its course.
Then Kara turns into Fatal Attraction and stalks him like a lunatic while he completely ignores her. It doesn’t matter if she’s screaming her head off or falling apart—she is always the perfect cover girl 24/7. Meaning—she is never really ugly.

In a final scene, we predict a very bad car accident which will have a casualty—will it be Ram or Kara?
The car accident is so horrible, Ram crashes into a truck carrying iron bars, which penetrate his windshield and enter his body.
This is where Jay and Grace are officially grossed out, while I kind of enjoyed it
Unfortunately the gory scene was borrowed from the Korean horror movie, The Wig.
Check this out.

Happy Halloween!

The grossest part is when Ram is wheeled into the E.R. with a rod sticking out of his chest— I seriously don’t know how he survived it because that would mean someone had the time to saw off the iron bar very carefully=tons of blood loss. But he did survive, because hey, this is a Tagalog movie.
Here’s where Kara has a change of heart and decides to give up the man and leave for New York with very minimal luggage.

In one last predictable Pinoy movie scene, the three meet up by chance at Mercato Centrale (of all places) where we finally find out what the family business is: they sell Angry Bird cupcakes.

To let us know time has elapsed, Kara dons an ugly wig, while the Escalers are toting an ugly kid (sorry, God!) #truth.
I have seen this scene before in Minsan Lang Kitang Iibigin and other Pinoy movies where a broken love affair/couple bumps into each other randomly after a couple of years, and one of them has a child.

From a scale of 1-10, I would give the movie a 5.
While that is average, it is worth noting that while we were cringing the whole time, none of us three ever mentioned walking out of the movie like we have done in past Pinoy movies.

Originally published at Chuvaness.com. Please leave any comments there.

Oops, the commenting feature of this Disqus has a glitch and reset all my comment counters to zero—even though the comments are all there.
While looking for a solution to the problem, please click on “O” or Discuss to read the juicy comments.
Thank you.

Originally published at Chuvaness.com. Please leave any comments there.

Oops, the commenting feature of this Disqus has a glitch and reset all my comment counters to zero—even though the comments are all there.
While looking for a solution to the problem, please click on “O” or Discuss to read the juicy comments.
Thank you.

Originally published at Chuvaness.com. Please leave any comments there.

Dear kind reader,
I was able to fix my comments counter by myself. It took hours of trial and error. But God is good. I prayed and He helped me.
During the process, I discovered just a few hours ago that I had hundreds of pending comments that I had never seen before. I was able to approve up to 30 days only. The rest are probably gone. And all I can say is, sayang.
There were days I wondered how come not much comments were coming in, when all the while they were there, hiding under a “pending” button I had never bothered to click before. And for that, I am so, so sorry.
I’m sorry I didn’t see your comments, but I’m more sorry for myself because sayang ang comments.
The Disqus commenting feature seems to be more complicated than it looks.
Love,
Me

Originally published at Chuvaness.com. Please leave any comments there.

I’m not laughing at the beauty contestant. I’m laughing at KC Montero, who tries to keep a straight face while the beauty contestant struggles with a very difficult question (hell, even I couldn’t answer it). Kawawa naman! (Si KC)

Source

Originally published at Chuvaness.com. Please leave any comments there.

Our Dutch uncle Hans died yesterday in his home in Driebergen. He was 67.
I first met him in Holland in 2000, before Jeroen and I got married, when Jeroen’s mom passed away and he delivered a eulogy during Mass.
He was crazy, funny, lived life to the fullest, and loved to smoke and drink.
He made Jeroen’s mom laugh so much while she was in the hospital.

He first came to the Philippines in November 2000, for our wedding. After that we would come often and stay with us.
He would cook Jeroen’s favorite dish, hachee, whose smell drove me insane when I was pregnant.

Dutch hachee, pronounced “ha-shay”

He loved coming to the Philippines and hanging out with Jeroen until he contracted a mysterious disease on his leg, which they couldn’t figure out in the Netherlands.
He thought he got it in the Philippines and was afraid to come back. But I didn’t think so. I wanted to bring him back here and have him treated and taken care of at home, but he never made it back.
I cannot remember the last time I saw him. Maybe it was 2005. This was taken in Kimpura.

He was devoted to Our Lady. I gave him a beautiful statue of Our Lady, which he took home to Holland. On one of his trips he also brought back a Christmas parol to Holland.

Uncle Hans (L) in his home with Opa

I woke up this noon when Jeroen came home for lunch, and he told me that Uncle Hans had died in his bed at home.
He didn’t die from the skin disease, but basically poor health.
I truly wish he had died in his sleep and that Our Lady and Jeroen’s mom welcomed him to heaven.
It felt like Steve Jobs all over again, just a dark feeling of gloom and sadness. Jeroen and I went to the 6 PM mass today where I cried for Uncle Hans as I want to say I’m sorry for my shortcomings. I’m sorry I cannot hug you and hear you say “ik hou van jou.” But most of all, we miss and thank you for all the help and love you gave our family.

Originally published at Chuvaness.com. Please leave any comments there.

I was supposed to be in Singapore with my boys. I was supposed to watch Chris Botti at Ayala Triangle. But when my mom mentioned Tokyo, I had a sudden change of plans.

Narita is an old airport, but thanks to upkeep and renovations, it’s not that bad. More functional than anything, but busy, busy

Spotted: Indian version of Pan Am.

Every public toilet here has extra rolls. Sana tayo din.

Had a quick snack while waiting for my sister come out of interrogation (don’t ask)

At Narita your luggage can go up and down the escalator (just like Shopwise). My sister was shocked it could do that.

Even the public smoking areas are enclosed here

Waiting for the shuttle. Oops, one of my bags has bagteria

That’s my mom

(To be continued)

Originally published at Chuvaness.com. Please leave any comments there.