I have been a "non-gimik" girl for the past few weeks, not because its tiring...well, actually it is. Its just that I've been watching tv alot and bumming around at home cooking food and eating Minute Burger "Sylvanna's".

And during my days of bumming, I watched alot of TV and did some paintings... I completed 3 paintings, one of which is a gift to a friend whom I owe one. It will be a suprise, im still designing a 20x30 painting that I am going to give to another friend who's going to live in Austria already.

And also, my friend TJ gave me a complete 2 season of "THE OC" which stars Mischa Barton (which is famous for her role as the girl under the bed in Sixth Sense, and the young actress being interviewed by Hugh Grant in Nottinghill), Benjamin McKenzie, Adam Brody (the guy who is aspiring to be a spy in Mr. and Mrs. Smith) and Rachel Bilson ( another Fil-Am actress). I will probably write something about that in my next blog...

Last Saturday (March 4), my other friend Toby (the GayLord Focker!!!) hehehehe... asked me if I can join him and his cousin (another GayLord Focker!!!) Mitch to hit the greens in Alabang... I am a terrible golf player, I swear!!! I had a couple of lessons from one of the pro's that my friends recommends, but more often than not, I wouldn't be able to hit anything at all. Im more into billiards and basketball, never golf. I mean, its a nice-relaxation but quite an expensive sport.

So basically, my life has become a routine of Makati-Alabang-Makati. Not unless good friends asks me to accompany them from time to time, like in the case of Princess Em...she was in South and she asked me to meet her up in ATC. I was in my friend Timmy's house helping her paint their garage roof when Emily texted that she was on her way to ATC. Doinkssss!!! Panic mode, i told Tim that I need to go home immediately and promised her mom that I would finish my task come Sunday. hehehehe.

I met with her and we ate dessert in Cibo then she introduced me to Charles & Keith (okay, before you guys go crazy... its not the name of Em's boylets...they are a shoe company). Then I ate my delicious Jamaican Pattie...then we went to Fino (where Em's buys her leather thingy ma-jiggy) and we saw her old IBM colleagues... and then we went to look for antique stuffs... :) We ended the day by me hitching a ride to Makati, coz I was going to meet my mum and shobe who are in Grappa's eating dinner.

I ended my Saturday singing till 2am in IO in Jupiter with April, while our mother went out with her "separatist group" :)

But I can still happily say that I am no longer a certified gimikera, meaning my life has been so boring for quite sometime now... hehehehehe. Nah! I really do feel like becoming a coach potato is actually more exciting that drinking margaritas in Nuvo. :-) No pun intended for those who still love to go gimik :)

This valentines day, I will write a couple of love story that I witnessed happened between my friends...

Love Story #1

Anna is a snob, witty and a certified fashionista... Shawn is a geeky-do gooder, avid golfer and hates spending so much time on thinking what to wear... so what does this two have in common to find love?

And the answer is... Boracay...

Although they met a couple of times during the early days of our high-school, they never really noticed each other until all four of us (Anna, Shawn, me and my then boyfriend Stephen) went to Bora for the weekened, Stephen also an avid golfer invited his buddy Shawn to play golf in Bora coz I pleaded him to treat me and my friend for the first time in Bora... On our 2nd day, I took Stephen for a walk which basically forced Shawn and Anna to be alone for the first time in their life... Shawn although he has an obvious dislike in Anna for her being so "maarte", was a perfect gentleman, he never once made a snotty remark behind her back, always boldly say it to her face if he finds her actions offending... during that day, Anna insisted that she and Shawn go look for shells for her aquarium...

Anna doesn't really go often to the beach unless I ask her to, so when she saw a small crab going in and out of the sand...she really got so excited. So much that her excitement led her to grab Shawn's hand and showed him the crablets...Shawn told me that night that "Apple, Anna's very cute when she gets all excited no?!" (while smiling) so when I told Stephen what Shawn told me, "wow, that's a first for him ah! I think Shawnie boy is starting to like her..."

Which became a known fact after the Bora trip... Shawn even called me first and asked me personally if I think he has a chance with her... and as a good friend I told him..."I don't like seeing her sad Shawn, coz she is naturally a happy person..." and that night I told him, theres no one else I'd rather pick to be her first boyfriend...

They have been dating since then... and last year before Anna started to work for a firm in Switzerland... they went skiing in Davos, and there before hitting the slopes he went down on one knee and proposed. Anna of course said yes, and during the entire time of their vacation, they planned their wedding.

They got married in December of last year in the same resort in Bora where they first fell for each other...

Love Story #2

My dear friend Peter met Gabrielle in a polo game in Cirencester, England...she was a cousin of a common friend of ours. Both never entertained any romantic notion since they were still seeing other people, Peter with his American girlfriend Kelly, and Gabrielle has been dating her middle-school sweetheart Joseph. In June of 2002, they both found themselves working in the same investment firm in Canary Wharf (the financial district in London) and started seeing alot of each other, actually they often eats lunch together at a nearby italian restaurant Zizzi...

When Joseph and Gabrielle finally got separated in the same year, she poured her heart out to Peter, Peter being Peter, listened and never once came into his mind about taking an advantage of the situation...even if I know that he is starting to fell for her...

I mean who wouldn't... impeccable breeding, good manners, highly intelligent and very down to earth Gabrielle... very much the English lady I would have imagined to be...

When Peter finally had the guts to ask her out... she was already planning on leaving the company and migrating to Canada... Peter got heartbroken, we spoke for about 3 hours on the phone when he learned the news, so as a friend... I did the impossible...

Nah...I didn't go to London... instead I ask Gabrielle to join me and my cousins (my cousin Charlotte is an old blockmate of hers from Downe House) to our annual COUSIN's OUTING here in the Philippines... luckily she agreed... so I invited Peter as well... I did not tell anyone about my plan (coz I really didn't have a plan, I was just hoping that as soon as Peter see's Gabrielle, he would tell her how about how he feels)...

Gabrielle arrived in Manila one day before Peter and my cousin Robert did, she joined Charlotte, me, my sister April and my friends Lily, Regina and Olive for a weekend in Batangas before heading to a resort in Tayabas, Quezon...

The next morning, Robert arrived in Quezon with Peter in tow, Gabe was still sleeping when Peter went to our room thinking that I was the only one there...to his suprise he found her sleeping soundly in the bamboo bed... so I was assuming that he got excited that he decided to just suddenly kisses her...

Of course, she immediately woke up thinking that a "rapist" would have already gained access in our room...when she realized that it was Peter, she just held her lips with her hand and smiled... (well that was just she told me) when they went out of the room, Peter was already holding her hand to his heart, while kissing it (shet...romantic!!!)

Of course Gabe isn't going to migrate anymore in Canada, but she still is resigning so that there wouldn't be any conflict of interest within the company...

Two months ago, Peter treated Gabe to a hot-balloon ride for their anniversary...by the time they got back and landed to their destination, a romantic candlit-dinner for two is waiting for them as well a 1920-family heirloom engagement ring that once belonged to Peter's great-grandmother...

So to end this story, Peter proposed to her, and she cried with so much joy... and a very nice wedding will be held next year in London... which I am part of the entourage... (My goodness...its very expensive to go there...so goodluck to me... hehehehe)

I don't know if these stories moved you and made you think how much happiness love can truly bring... I may have had my share of not so nice boyfriends, but I am still glad that I met them...coz I can still tell myself that I have found love, and it had found me... although as a hopeless romantic that I think I would always be, I still have yet to discover the one God had planned for me... it will come on its own time, so I won't rush... :)

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone....

My barkada Anna, came by the house yesterday with a bottle of tequilla on one hand and book on the other... She was in a bad-state during the weekened, coz she dreadfully misses her husband Shawn who is in Lesotho for a medical mission...

So I promised to cook her Chicken Tequila if she promised to sleepover, coz I am quite getting bored in living alone... when she arrived with a big smile on he r face, I was thinking...what's with face, I was sure she forgot something...but it turned out, she just got a call from Shawn and he said he is flying in for tomorrow's Valentines Day...(ahhh...so sweet!!! shet!!!)

Like what we do everytime she stays overnight, mega-DVD movie showdown ito...we started watching the last season of Friends and Sex and the City, before watching our last movie at 4am...which was PRIME (a very nice romantic movie about a 24 year old boy and a 37 year old successful woman); of course, even while watching, mega-comment kami about of course Ms. Carrie Bradshaw and how obliviously in love Samantha is with Steve.... hehehehe...

When we are about to sleep, she told me about the book she was reading; "In Her Shoes" by Jennifer Weiner, if you think its kinda familiar, well it is... they already made it a movie showing Cameron Diaz and Toni Collete. It is a story about 2 sisters, with two different characters but with a common grief... because they both lost their mother at a very young age, and the fact that their father lost sight of what he was supposed to do with his life when his wife died.

I have read Weiner's previous book called "Good In Bed", so when I read In Her Shoes, it amazes me how much she was able to write about the character so well and how she interpreted a certain fact that you wouldn't be able to know anything about one person until you had placed yourself in their shoes even for a day. So that basically how the story goes, Rose and Maggie were inseperable since birth, and when Maggie realized that she had dyslexia that was the time she became the carefree, I don't care if the world hate me attitude kind of person, while Rose, who as an elder sister did everything what elder should do...taking care of Maggie. Although she is a lawyer by profession, she was unhappy, mainly because of an unfulfilling lovelife and low self-esteem...

The two sisters got into a huge fight which led Maggie's trip down to Florida and see their long-lost grandmother... And in the process of Maggie self-internalization, Rose met Simon also a lawyer from her old firm... and found herself engaged... but she misses Maggie terribly and when her wicked stepmother threw an utterly boring wedding shower, Rose just went mad...mad simply because she wanted to have a party thrown by someone who know her inside and out...

It's a very good book to read, and highly recommended for someone who feels that they have the whole world on their shoulders... as my good friend Frederick once said..."Life is just as it should be, see it differently is entirely up to you...but it is as good as it can probably get."

On Rose's wedding day, Maggie reads a poem written by the great American poet E.E. Cummings:

"I carry your heart with me, I am never without it.
I fear no fate, for you are my fate my sweet.
I want no world, for beautiful you are my world, my true.

Here is the deepest secret nobody knows,
here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)

And this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
I carry your heart.
I carry it in my heart."

Last night, I went home around 1am from visiting both my uncle and my mum who are in the hospital for their monthly sugar-count check-up; I got my very late dinner at McDo in ATC (sometimes, I am very grateful to CallCenters coz they forced all fastfood chains to open 24hours), then I opened the tv for a late night movie...

They were showing a British film called "I Capture the Castle", which is set in a 1930 England. It is based from the same novel written by English writer Dodie Smith, who also wrote the famous 101 Dalmatians. The story basically revolves around the main character which is Cassandra... she was writing about her family, an eccentric one I might add; her father used to be a famous writer, but had a decade of writers block (literally! there was a point in the movie that he broke all the china's thinking that this would make a good story)... her step-mother Topaz is another eccentric artist who cannot lived without being with another artist, so no matter how much writer's block her father gets, she stays with him. Her sister Rose (which played one of the maidens in Star Wars, Episode 2) only wanted to be rich...quite typical reaction from someone who isn't used in living in poverty.

Cassandra, escapes reality by writing a journal...which basically far longer than one that her father is writing about. One day, their life changed because of two american brothers who inherited the castle they are occupying. Neil and Simon Cotton are two brothers who got separated because of their parent's divorce, so when Simon fell for Rose, Neil thought that she was only after his money. But Cassandra wrote Neil telling him about how much she values Rose' truthfulness, and that if she was honest enough to tell her that she once hated Simon for his arrogrance, her feelings for him is as real as it can get.

But the twist of story came when Cassandra found herself falling in love with Simon, and never found the courage to tell Simon and most of all to Rose. But she then realized that Rose is falling out of love, which was evident with her letters... she once written..."I spent today going to Simpsons (which was a major shopping center in London, and is equivalent now to Harrods) buying this..." and never mentioning about Simon at all, and even writing how much she is excited about her upcoming wedding...

So what does she has to do about it? she hated the idea that Rose is only sticking on being engaged for the sake of having money, she abhors the idea at all. As being the only one who really thinks among her family, she decided to stay in castle and forced her father to write something, for their sake. So she locked him up in tower, so that he can find inspiration. In a turn of event, he was able to... with the help of Cassandra, he was able to write another hit novel for children called "The Cat in the Mat"; and as for her sister Rose, she can only hope that she will do what is best for her.

What is nice about this film is that fact that they are as real as they can get, they cope with situation as best as they can. It's not often you find films that the character both adopts good adaptation and good acting.

If you have seen the mellow-dramatic Nicholas Nickleby, you would love this film as well. :)

I like british film more than american films, simply because they have more humor and their comedy's are well written and has be digested thoroughly to be understood and appreciate. I don't know its just me, but of course, its different if Adam Sandler is part of the film, I'd laugh as hell whether it made sense or not.