TOPAZ HORIZON

Let's continue with our Uniquely Singapore Series, shall we? This is me at the Royal Selangor cafe in Singapore having chai and a siopao. This was my breakfast. The siopao was so tiny, I almost wanted my money back. It's a good thing the chai was amazing. Rich and bitter and sweet and full-bodied. Wonderful way to start any day!

When you're in Singapore, you have to try the chili crab. That's what everyone told me and, because I always have to eat the best when I'm somewhere new, I let my friend Ana (that's her in black in the middle of the photo) lead me to No Signboard. That's the name of the restaurant. And if it looks like a posh place, then your eyes aren't deceiving you.

This chili crab was the bomb. It looks tiny in the photo but the crab was actually as huge as a dinner plate. It was also frikkin' expensive. I literally felt the crab crawl up my esophagus when I saw the bill. I just slipped my credit card to the waitress, hoping my husband won't kill me. When I did get home, still stuffed with crab and the amazing mushroom salad, and told Vince about my wildly expensive meal, he said, "Was the crab good?"

"Unbelievably good."

He smiled, "Well then, that's okay."

OMG. I tell you I have the best husband. Ever!!!

It's a good thing then that the chili crab was last on my to-eat-in-Singapore list because I still had a huge appetite for these:

Marinated Smoked Tuna
with Feta and Balsamic Olive Oil salad

Light Cream of Asparagus with Green Peas
topped with Chive Mousseline

Rosemary Marinated Chicken Breast
with Saffron Cheesy Mash Potato

Praline Hazelnut Gateau with Raspberry Jelly

These were all served at the Nuffnang Asia-Pacific Blog Awards. And they were all a delight. Thanks to Franny Haw for the photos!

Now, not all of my meals were so haughty. We bloggers feasted on the hawker stuff--cheap and edible but not exactly the kind that would make your eyes roll in ecstasy, like this bland pork rice topping meal I had (I could tell Anton Diaz was disappointed with my safe choice!).But that nasty-looking crab that's insanely priced? Heaven. I spent an indecent amount on that crab. Well, it was worth it!

I would like to thank Nuffnang and the Singapore Tourism Board for this Uniquely Singapore Series.

This is Figaro Cafe on Emerald Avenue in Ortigas Center.
It's dark and cool and quiet. It has the feel of a gentleman's library, with the dark paneled walls and deep leather couches. I love the coffee here and the pasta and the vanilla pudding. I love how being here relaxes me. These photos were taken last month. I should've gone there today. I should've hidden away from the world.

Woke up today to urgent messages on the phone but couldn't really call back. Our apartment is strange--even though we're in the heart of the city and surrounded by cell towers, the signal is incredibly weak. So not being able to call back to other people when they're freaking out adds to my stress.

Then this day wasn't so cool... although it ended much better than how it started. I hope this means things will indeed get better. Since Galady got her stroke and then recently died, I've been feeling melancholy and easily bothered and annoyed. Then stuff has been happening that I can't disclose just right now and I am now more agitated than usual.

This of course meant I said some things to some people that I shouldn't have had. Even though what I did say was true, sometimes it's best to just shut up. Unfortunately, when I'm feeling sad and crabby, I'm not the best person to be with.

I should also just avoid Facebook. Or maybe I should just erase all my relatives on Facebook. Or maybe I should just grow up and not be fake and just erase all the people I don't like but accepted as my friends anyway. Why am I pretending we're friends anyway? Why do I let people bully me into accepting them just because we're related or we met at some obscure time in my life?

I am not in a good mood. I think I'm going to shut off my phones, avoid Facebook and my email, and just blog about happy things. Because my life is actually happy. If only some people didn't belong in it or meddle with it, it would be perfect!

My favorite story is the one on the third wedding anniversary of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. Read that again--third wedding anniversary. Imagine that! The photo album we made on their marriage shows the couple so in love that I was ashamed for thinking they wouldn't last a heartbeat. Oh well, I do like to be proven wrong and seeing a happily married couple go on and on being happily married is always a good thing.

The November issue is also our Power Issue so we gathered the juiciest trivia about how many Hollywood celebs are just so demanding! It's fascinating! And a little disgusting, if you ask my honest opinion. Remember my fury a few weeks back? Get the November issue to find out who the star was!

Right now, the staff and I are starting on 2010. We're planning a more exciting OK! magazine for you--featuring anything and everything Hollywood plus how to get that celeb look and lifestyle! Yes, expect to see more beauty tips and tricks, fashion how-to's, and thorough reviews on everything from the perfect shade of lipstick and the most trustworthy medical spas to how to burn belly fat and buy the best running shoes!

Anyway, I wasn't able to go on my monthly TV guestings and radio tours to promote this issue. I've been feeling very depressed since Galady died and just can't work up the energy needed for TV and radio. So I'll just share these pics from my radio tours for the October issue at one of my favorite radio stations to visit:Danielle and Rico are sweethearts. They make my job easy. I hope you also all help make my job easy and make me feel better by buying the November issue. Thanks everybody!

Galadriel Amper Sales Rabbit finally said good-bye to us yesterday morning. Since suffering from a stroke in August, Galady hung on because every day I asked her to stay. On my birthday, we stayed home all weekend because she was slipping away but when my birthday came and went and she still greeted us with those big brown eyes, I thanked her for staying with me still.

But she was tired. I knew that. And with half her body paralyzed, that was no way to live. Vince and I sat by her in her final hours and when she started crying, we told her, "It's okay, baby. You can go, you can go." So at 2:40 AM, she finally followed the exit signs she's probably been seeing since August and went on her way.

The last 7 years and 6 months were filled with cuddles and love from the most adorable rabbit we've ever had. For once, I can't find any words to describe the heartache Vince and I are suffering. She was our baby girl. And we miss her so.



Galady, Mommy, Daddy and Matilda love you and miss you. We hope you're running free again in a land that's hopefully filled with all the Haagen Dazs ice cream, chocolate chip cookies, carrots, apples and bananas that you can eat. And be nice to Gandalf when you see her again. We miss you so.

My darling friend Kissa sent me this photo she took of an ad at a Tokyo MRT station. She said at first glance, she thought I was the leftmost girl. My husband and I (and not a few of our friends) are as shocked as Kissa when she saw this pic.
OMG! Someone out there looks exactly like me. Except she's a model and she likes hugging and touching women. Scandal indeed!

UPDATE: Fellow blogger tHiAmErE just told me Scandal is a Japanese TV show very similar to Desperate Housewives. And that the girl who looks like me is Kazue Fukuiishi. I googled her and, nope, we look nothing alike. Just that one pose on that particular poster. Relief! Thanks, tHiAmErE!

I am feeling slightly better. Been down with a nasty cold bug that I am finally finally shaking off. So we continue with the Singapore series...

The morning after the Nuffnang blog awards, the Singapore Tourism Board scheduled a city tour... at 8 in the morning. Now I am not a morning person. Never have been. My mother used to tell me I would never be a successful person because successful people wake up with the sun. I'd always reply I'd find a night job and my father would always retort that women who work at night are... well, I am digressing.

So the bus leaves at 8. I woke up at 8:30. My roommate, Jen Juan, woke up at about the same time. The next 10 minutes were a flurry of panic. But to our relief, we weren't so late. True, we were the very last to climb aboard the bus at about 8:45 but there were also a few stragglers and everybody hid their groggy eyes behind dark glasses. Except me. I'm stuck with my eyeglasses, which didn't hide how sleepy I was.

While we went to several places, today I'll talk about my favorite one. The Royal Selangor. It's a pewter shop. What's pewter? See the background of my photo above? That's pewter. Despite the entire wall of it behind me, it's not used for metal buildings. Pewter is like silver but it's really tin and in olden times, pewter was used chiefly for tableware so if you watch all those Middle Ages movies and people are eating and drinking from metal plates and glasses, well, that's pewter they're eating and drinking from. The Royal Selangor is world famous for their pewter products and I really wanted to buy these rabbits but they were way over my budget:
However, we didn't leave empty-handed since we all had a chance to make our own pewter bowl! Pewter is a malleable alloy so we were given wooden hammers, a flat pewter disc and a set of letters and numerals and told to hammer away!
This was my design:
Obviously I was thinking of only one person the entire time. Anyway, after hammering my disc into a perfect bowl, I felt really satisfied and rediscovered something about myself: I like working with my hands. Aside from cooking and housework, I've never really done anything with my hands. Sewing and knitting were hard on my eyes. I used to be able to draw well but my parents didn't encourage us kids to take up the arts because artists starve (funny then that my brother is a musician, I'm a writer and my sister is an actress--something wonderful does come out of disobedience).
When I was 17, I made the bookshelves for my tiny bedroom, measuring, sawing the plywood, hammering in the nails... I felt a great sense of accomplishment with carpentry but of course, my parents didn't raise me to be a carpenter or to be anyone who worked with their hands. I was supposed to be a rich housewife and a doting mother to at least 4 kids. I remember telling Papa I wanted to be a writer because I can create stories, he said, "Create? The only thing a woman should be creating is babies!" Now, I have nothing against women who embrace this creative aspect but I think, in this aspect, I will continue to be a happy disappointment.

So lately, I've been drawn to shoe and jewelry design. It's something I think I'd like to do. When I see and touch my little pewter bowl, which Vince now uses as the house keys container, I believe I've found another thing to do. And I'm really really excited about this!

I would like to thank Nuffnang and the Singapore Tourism Board for this Uniquely Singapore Series.

Okay, I know I still have to continue my Uniquely Singapore Series but let me get these out of the way first. I had promised to announce some promos, events and contests and you may be interested to support them...

You can help out and rock out at the same time! Join my friend Kate Torralba and her other fierce musician pals tonight for Girls Go Tik Tok Rockin', an evening with some of the finest femme-fronted acts in town: TECHY ROMANTICS, SARAH of TAKEN BY CARS, DUSTER, UP DHARMA DOWN, TURBO GOTH and of course KATE TORRALBA!

Pass-the-hat and in-kind donations welcome! Proceeds go to typhoon victims via Rock Ed Relief. Kate will tell you more about the Tik Tok Pilipinas Campaign and how it can help mitigate Climate Change. This event is presented by KT Designs and Cafe Saguijo. In cooperation with Rock Ed Philippines, DAKILA Philippines, Tik Tok Pilipinas, Stylebible.ph and Jam 88.3 FM.

God bless you, Kate, for doing this. I'd love to go but I'm down with a really nasty bug. But I'll be sending my warmest thoughts your way!



These newlyweds are finalists in the Ultimate Thailand Explorers: Ultimate Travel Competition. Michael Paul and Jennifer have the cutest long-distance relationship love story ever! I, for one, don't believe in LDRs and then these two came along and my faith is restored! Reward their love by giving these two adventurers the ultimate honeymoon. And your good will may just win you $2,500, a Thailand travel package and HTC phones. Vote now!

I haven't gone to Thailand myself but Vince and I are planning a trip. Watched Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations visit to Chiang Mai and my mouth watered just looking at all the food he ate! Ya, I'm a food and culture traveler. Not a shopping person at all.

• Food bloggers! Share your best yummy discOVIry! Email it to fooddiscOVIry@ovi.com.
• Fashion and beauty bloggers! Share your most fashionable and beautiful discOVIry! Email it to fashiondiscOVIry@ovi.com.
• Tech bloggers! Share your best tech/gadget/game discOVIry! Email it to techdiscOVIry@ovi.com.

You'll have to create an OVI account first, though. Register here. Contest period is from October 27 to November 20. There will be 10 winners per category and each wins P1,000 Ayala e-GC. That's not a lot, if you ask me. Come on, Nokia, you're so rich, you can give more--perhaps P5,000 each?

Did you know you can now enjoy free downloads of Asphalt 4, Prince of Persia, and other premium games on your Nokia device? Ovi Store lets you download up to 10 premium games for free! These games have never before been made freely available, but you can download them for a limited time only! Too good to be true? It's possible now thanks to Nokia's partnership with Gameloft, the maverick creators of unrivaled gaming experiences. Game for it? Check out the Ovi store now!

I don't have an OVI phone but I do play Asphalt 4 on my Samsung Omnia, which I won in a contest and am loving now. Anyway, Asphalt 4 is such an annoying game! Cars... I'll never understand them!

Well, that's that. Regular programming commences tonight. Or tomorrow. I'm kinda sleepy... need to rest. Must get well before my 33rd birthday!

In response to some OK! magazine readers who want us to print sensational stories, I want to share this video to give them and you an idea of how I run my magazine:



I know that creating sensational stories and scandals will definitely boost my mag's circulation. We're doing very well, sure, but stories like "Stars and Their Cellulite Revealed!" will get people's attention and their money. But I have directed my staff that we will never print anything ugly. For some celebrity watchers, this means we're not showing the whole truth. But do we really need to see these people naked in every possible way? Well, if you do, there are a lot of magazines out there that will satisfy your curiosity.

Every day, we get photos of the stars and a lot of them are not flattering. Some of them are alarming. I've seen some stars naked or canoodling with someone they shouldn't be canoodling with. These never see print. Do we Photoshop? Yes. A stray hair, a powdery armpit, a sanitary napkin that got displaced, a pimple, a visible panty line. My policy with Photoshop is if it's not a permanent feature, then we can gently remove it. But if she's really fat, wrinkly, veiny, then we choose the photos that show a star's best angle.

Sometimes we really do need to report on something ugly (panty-less outings anyone?) but we carefully choose photos and we carefully choose words that will still treat the star gently. If we must raise an eyebrow or tease, we draw attention to the star's choice. For example, "The red dress is not flattering on her" is loads different from "Her fashion sense is clearly terrible."

Why do I do this? In Spanish/Tagalog, it's called delicadeza. Conchita Razon defines it as thus:

A deliberate effort to forego one’s pleasure to avoid someone else’s pain. When I look at an incriminating photo, the question is "Do we print this, destroy this star and sell copies or do we protect our investment?"

Investment. As you all know, I earn my living from these stars and their work. Yes, I also make money from their lives. Some people think my job is despicable. They're certainly entitled to their opinion. My opinion, however, is to treat the stars with respect. As public figures, they've allowed us to pry and, yes, we do see some things that are not for public consumption. When this happens, we respectfully withdraw. For allowing us access, our response should be respect.

In today's society where ravenous curiosity cannot be sated thus the popularity of venomous celebrity blogs, reality shows and tabloids, it seems the response should be to satisfy the demand. My response is, OK!'s response is: Dear celebrities, thank you for letting us in your lives. For that, we repay you with the respect that you deserve.

The reason I got to be in Singapore in the first place was because of the first ever Nuffnang Asia-Pacific Blog Awards. Nuffnang is an advertising platform for blogs and I've been a member of Nuffnang for less than a year but already I've enjoyed a lot of things from them: bags, trips, educational excursions and income, of course! If I weren't so busy, I'd be more involved in all their activities. Hmmm, perhaps I'll start doing just that...

Anyway, back to the awards! I'll just be posting fashion shots here, okay? I think you'll enjoy those more! That's me and my fellow Summit Media friend, Franny Haw.

Nuffnang was founded by two really fun guys, Timothy Tiah Ewe Tiam and Cheo Ming Shen. Or Tim and Ming. Don't ask me to pronounce their full names! In just two years, their little online venture has become a lucrative advertising business straddling four countries, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and Australia, and with almost 100,000 bloggers registered in the Nuffnang community.


Ming said, "Bloggers today are getting recognized for their work, invited to events and offered product or service trials--all in a bid by companies to woo the Internet generation." Ten thousand blogs were nominated and about 60 blogs made it to the finals. Nope, Topaz Horizon didn't make it; that wasn't why I was there--I came as a member of the media so thank goodness for my job!


Anyway, after meeting the finalists from the Philippines and reading the blogs from the other countries, I am really beginning to think of taking this blogging thing seriously! Some bloggers earn thousands of dollars. That's insane money for just typing away your thoughts. Journalists--usually following a strict code of journalistic ethics--don't even earn that much. I'm not complaining, being an earning blogger myself, but I do have reservations about financially rewarding bloggers who are not guided by journalistic principles. Just because your blog is popular (usually through controversy) does not mean it's the authority on certain issues.


Ming understands this and says, "Bloggers need to carry the responsibility that comes with the power they have over society's opinions and day-to-day decisions. We hope that through Nuffnang Asia-Pacific Blog Awards, bloggers will realize the importance of quality content in blogs. Tonight's winners are great examples of blogs which attracted a huge following through uploading quality content."


So congratulations to the 12 winners:
Best Blog Shop: Bonito Chico
Best Food Blog: I Eat, I Shoot, I Post
Best Fashion Blog: Lady Melbourne
Best Parenting Blog: Childhood 101
Best Travel Blog: En Route
Best Celebrity Blog: A Jolly Affair
Best Entertainment Blog: Kenny Sia
Best Geek Blog: Mr. Gadget
Best Hidden Gem: The Doodle Blog
Best Original Blog Design: Xia Xue
Most Influential Blog: Xia Xue
Region’s Best Blog: Xia Xue


And did I mention the fabulous prizes? Anywhere from top-of-the-line Canon cameras to a whopping SGD 5,000 from Pringles! That's PHP 169,971.75 (USD 3,573.43), people!

I did enjoy the glamorous awards night and I laud the efforts of Nuffnang to honor quality content--I do hope that they will truly recognize quality content more than just popularity but I don't want to talk about that. As for my opinion on advertising on blogs, well, let me get through this entire series first before I talk about that! More tomorrow!


More awards night photos here. I would like to thank Nuffnang and the Singapore Tourism Board for this Uniquely Singapore Series.