Hehe, not really but it's getting there!
Observe my URL. It's now www.topazhorizon.com! It's like a real website! It's part of my plans for this blog. I've already edited out my too personal posts from the last two years (that was painful, I must admit) and I've begun steering this blog to what matters to me most outside my marriage--the things that make me happy, like movies, magazines, TV shows, music, shopping, etc! Yes, I'm not going to be unhappy and heavy and gloomy anymore. I want to be fun and light and, er, shallow!
This is super exciting for me! This blog has been a great source of release for me in the past when it came to dealing with life's harsh realities, but now, since I'm older and hopefully more mature, I want this blog to start being something else--be a good and happy place, where I can be thrilled about the stuff and ideas that tickle me most, to delight the readers that often stumble upon it, to inform these same readers about how wonderful life is and the fabulous things that make it wonderful.
So good luck to me! And hope you can stick around while I deal with the birth pains. I'm not really good with the Internet and websites and all things related to that. But one must keep learning! If you have any suggestions, please email me at frances@topazhorizon.com. Wow, I have a personal email address! Isn't that great? It excites me a lot but actually, I don't know if that email address works (haha!) so please email me there so I can see! So many things I have to learn with this new beginning!
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Getting ready for the UK!
So, like I said, Vince and I will be flying off to the United Kingdom (I won't say where exactly because I have an ongoing contest) in two weeks. We just bought luggage. Thank goodness Robinsons Galleria has a Bag and Shoe Fair this whole month of May because we were able to buy beautiful luggage from Echolac. Actually, I was content to buy a cheap local brand but Vince said, "If we must buy something, let's check out the expensive brands first then we'll work our way down." He's right; we may actually be able to afford it! And we did!
Echolac is a Japanese brand and from the moment we heard that line, "This is from Japan..." we were sold. So we're super duper happy because we now have lovely respectable luggage that we're sure won't get mangled at the baggage area.
Echolac is a Japanese brand and from the moment we heard that line, "This is from Japan..." we were sold. So we're super duper happy because we now have lovely respectable luggage that we're sure won't get mangled at the baggage area.
I've booked the hotel, too. For six nights! I really like the Trip Advisor site because customer reviews are honest and brutal so you know which hotels to avoid. Their tag line is "Get the truth. Then go." And so that's where I got the bulk of my research. While I booked a hotel that was GBP 20 over budget (multiply that with six nights and that's P8,000 I didn't want to spend), I'm confident I made the right choice. I was looking for a hotel that had a GBP 100/night rate but Travel Advisor reviews on those hotels were really bad so I'm going with Premier Travel Inn. Not the most cheap for what is supposed to be a budget hotel line but certainly good. Look at how clean it is. I stayed in a Premier Travel Inn in 2006, and I liked it there. Simple, no fuss, convenient. And the breakfast buffet (at a painful GBP 7++) was amazing!
I'm giddy with anticipation. I've just bought a Lonely Planet guide book and it's pretty good since the book tells us what sights are really good to see and what tourist traps we should avoid. I'm also studying travel insurance options. Right now, I'm seriously considering World Nomads. The coverage is USD 300,000 each for Vince and me, and it's quite comprehensive. The sweetest thing about it is I pay just USD 30 for both of us!
Yes, everything's ready for Vince and me! We're super duper excited!
All I worry about now is the rabbits.
*image from Premier Travel Inn website.
I'm giddy with anticipation. I've just bought a Lonely Planet guide book and it's pretty good since the book tells us what sights are really good to see and what tourist traps we should avoid. I'm also studying travel insurance options. Right now, I'm seriously considering World Nomads. The coverage is USD 300,000 each for Vince and me, and it's quite comprehensive. The sweetest thing about it is I pay just USD 30 for both of us!
Yes, everything's ready for Vince and me! We're super duper excited!
All I worry about now is the rabbits.
*image from Premier Travel Inn website.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Off with her head!
But I don't want her to lose that pretty devious head!
While everyone I know is losing their own heads over TV shows Gossip Girl and before that Grey's Anatomy, I've been losing myself to Rome, Battlestar Galactica, Dexter, Weeds, 30 Rock, and--my super duper current favorite--Showtime's The Tudors.
With only 2 episodes left for The Tudors second season, I am really despondent. It's like a dear friend of mine is going to go on vacation and I'm really not sure if she's coming back. Well, there will definitely be a third season but the Tudor dynasty doesn't end with Henry and his wives so I wonder if there'll be enough public interest to see the series through to Edward, Mary, and finally Elizabeth. You never know with these series. For example, cult favorites sci-fi Firefly and comedy Arrested Development just quietly died, despite being two of the best written and best-acted shows on television. Sigh... It sucks to have the general public dictate their taste really.
Anyway, back to The Tudors. So last week, Anne Boleyn finally confirms that her husband, Henry VIII, is in love with another woman, that vile Jane Seymour. In contrast to the passionate and extremely intelligent Anne, Jane is virginal and submissive. But like Anne, Jane is utterly the same when it comes to stealing husbands. What makes her worse in my mind is this: Anne asked Henry to divorce Katherine; Jane mutely wanted Anne dead. She wasn't going to wait for a divorce the way Anne did (who waited seven long years); she'd rather her royal rival was conveniently dead and this was accomplished in five weeks! Murderess! In fact, she married the king 10 days after Anne was beheaded! Ooooh, I can't stand Jane Seymour!
While everyone I know is losing their own heads over TV shows Gossip Girl and before that Grey's Anatomy, I've been losing myself to Rome, Battlestar Galactica, Dexter, Weeds, 30 Rock, and--my super duper current favorite--Showtime's The Tudors.
With only 2 episodes left for The Tudors second season, I am really despondent. It's like a dear friend of mine is going to go on vacation and I'm really not sure if she's coming back. Well, there will definitely be a third season but the Tudor dynasty doesn't end with Henry and his wives so I wonder if there'll be enough public interest to see the series through to Edward, Mary, and finally Elizabeth. You never know with these series. For example, cult favorites sci-fi Firefly and comedy Arrested Development just quietly died, despite being two of the best written and best-acted shows on television. Sigh... It sucks to have the general public dictate their taste really.
Anyway, back to The Tudors. So last week, Anne Boleyn finally confirms that her husband, Henry VIII, is in love with another woman, that vile Jane Seymour. In contrast to the passionate and extremely intelligent Anne, Jane is virginal and submissive. But like Anne, Jane is utterly the same when it comes to stealing husbands. What makes her worse in my mind is this: Anne asked Henry to divorce Katherine; Jane mutely wanted Anne dead. She wasn't going to wait for a divorce the way Anne did (who waited seven long years); she'd rather her royal rival was conveniently dead and this was accomplished in five weeks! Murderess! In fact, she married the king 10 days after Anne was beheaded! Ooooh, I can't stand Jane Seymour!
The problem with being very familiar with English history is that you know how the story's going to play out so there's no real suspense. And since I'm a bit knowledgeable about it, I can also spot right away if the writers deviated from fact. But despite those annoying things, the brilliance with this series is the tight writing and the amazing acting. So I'm always caught up in the emotion, the very moment of it all even though I know what's going to happen next--which Vince hates since I sometimes can't help saying aloud, "Don't hug the queen, you moron, because you'll go to the Tower for that!" and he'll grumble, "Now you ruined it for me... Who's that moron anyway?" and I'd be happy to fill him in on the history. Though he hates it when I spoil episodes, Vince gave me David Starkey's very thick book, Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII, anyway. It was his first present to me as my husband. What an ominous first gift, I say!
I've always been interested in this part of English history not just because of everyone's reason (the story of a king who had six wives is always juicy) but because I was raised a Born-Again Christian. So Henry VIII, in breaking with the Roman Catholic Church, was a hero of the Reformation. Of course, since I was also raised a Catholic by my grandparents and I studied in a convent, I was told that Thomas More, who Henry beheaded, was the hero of the time and that Henry was the devil incarnate. Yeah, it can get confusing for a kid so the kid (that's me) hit the books and just let history decide for me.
I've always been interested in this part of English history not just because of everyone's reason (the story of a king who had six wives is always juicy) but because I was raised a Born-Again Christian. So Henry VIII, in breaking with the Roman Catholic Church, was a hero of the Reformation. Of course, since I was also raised a Catholic by my grandparents and I studied in a convent, I was told that Thomas More, who Henry beheaded, was the hero of the time and that Henry was the devil incarnate. Yeah, it can get confusing for a kid so the kid (that's me) hit the books and just let history decide for me.
Seeing history books now come alive in sumptuous costumes and divine acting is mesmerizing for me. I understand history even better and I have a better and deeper appreciation for politics, religion, faith, and the relationship between a man and a woman. Yes, The Tudors will show you that! As the exceedingly bewitching and talented Natalie Dormer (who plays Anne Boleyn) said on her podcast on the website, "You're looking at such a turbulent time dramatically in history. All these fiercely strong charismatic individuals, be they Henry, More, Anne... the seriousness of the situation--the Reformation for C****'s sake--that they're faced with and what it does, they all handle it differently. And some come out of it better than others."
Too bad for Anne, she came out of it headless. Though she did end up the mother of her country's greatest monarch, Elizabeth I, and, without Henry realizing it, Anne was also the mother of the English Reformation. Of course, in the show, Pope Paul III (played by a really cool Peter O'Toole) realizes this and caustically remarks, "Why doesn't someone just get rid of her?" And Henry, the great hero of schism, unwittingly obeys him.
*The Tudor images from abcnews.com and Showtime. Book image from Blackwell Bookshop.
Too bad for Anne, she came out of it headless. Though she did end up the mother of her country's greatest monarch, Elizabeth I, and, without Henry realizing it, Anne was also the mother of the English Reformation. Of course, in the show, Pope Paul III (played by a really cool Peter O'Toole) realizes this and caustically remarks, "Why doesn't someone just get rid of her?" And Henry, the great hero of schism, unwittingly obeys him.
*The Tudor images from abcnews.com and Showtime. Book image from Blackwell Bookshop.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
