Life, Day by Day

I am not a fan girl but when Greenwich invited the Negros Bloggers to a meet and greet with John Lloyd Cruz last October 18,  I decided to go.  The invitation was for 7 PM, but I was there early because I had everybody's VIP passes with me and so that we can get good seats, but to my chagrin the cordoned off fountain area was almost full.  It's a good thing that Ms. Charo, Marketing Head for Greenwich Vis-Min area was there and she brought me to our reserved seats.

The whole province of Bohol has been devastated by the 7.2 magnitude earthquake last October 15, 2013 . Centuries old churches have been totally destroyed or damaged and 200 people have lost their lives. Damage to infrastructure, property and agriculture is estimated to be P900 M.  Aftershocks continue to this day.

In the aftermath of the devastating earthquake today , October 15, 2013, I  remembered I had this draft post on Bohol which I started writing last month.  I was going to write about my first visit to this province in 1997 but somehow I got sidetracked by so many other concerns that it remained unfinished.  But now, many of the things I was going to write about has disappeared.  I am devastated, angry, inconsolable, sad and a million other emotions as I look at the pictures of the destruction of the century-old churches, part of our national heritage and culture.  I am at a loss for words, but I feel I have to get the heavy feeling off my chest by writing about this tragedy. 

The 2013 Masskara Festival is under new management!  This is the 33rd year of the festival and the new organizer is the Kasadya Bacolod Foundation, Inc . led by its chairman and MassKara Festival Director Mr. Rhoderick Samonte, who according to news feeds, has said that they are working with a minimum budget but, they will try their best to make this year’s festival distinct from past festivals.  For one, they are returning the Trini Lopez Medley , which was used first in 1988. Admittedly the latino medley is very upbeat and rhythmic, but the original music created for last year's Masskara had a distinct local beat and is Bacolod's own. And so, I think the 2012 music should have been retained, given some improvement and remixed.  Listen to both versions which I uploaded below and let me know what you think.

Today, August 18 is the first death anniversary of Secretary Jesus "Jesse" Manalastas Robredo, one of the Philippines' promising leaders. A few days after that fatal accident last year, I wrote about how the death of a good leader can set a country back, especially when that leader is someone like Jesse. There are only a few good men in politics today, the type that can lead, manage and carry out good governance. We just had elections last May and once again, the results were a big disappointment to people like me who had hoped that there would be new faces in the Senate, Congress and local government who would bring about dynamic changes for the country.

I hate pink.  I would never consciously wear pink except if I really have to.  The very first time I did was during my high school prom and only because I was a junior and pink was our assigned color (blue was for the seniors).  The second and third times were the occasions when I was a wedding sponsor.  I avoided this color like the plague, mainly because I thought that being fair skinned, I did not look pretty in pink. Besides that, I associated the color with sweet and girly things, both of which did not appeal to me.  And so, you can just imagine who, what and why my world suddenly turned all shades of pink! photo retrieved from http://www.squidoo.com/celebrationofpink

I am not a big fan of conducting business online, because basically I like to do things on a personal level and I am not a risk taker.  That is until I discovered ZALORA , Asia's biggest online fashion store. I have seen their ads on Facebook but it was only when I got two Zalora Insta-Prize coupons from BPI that I finally took notice. My curiosity got the better of me and before I knew it, I was browsing through the website which was easy to navigate with good descriptions and images of their products.  The choices were varied and surprisingly the prices were very affordable.  Best of all they had several payment options which includes COD, my preferred mode of payment for online shopping.  Last July 18, I placed my first order of a Typify Corneby Genuine Leather Satchel (from P1,999.00 to P1, 699.00, after using my discount code) and three days later, the bag arrived through LBC. The bag was everything I needed - classy design, made of soft, genuine leather wi...