TOPAZ HORIZON

Halloo, dear neglected readers!

It's been very cold in this neck of the woods--a season which is rare in the tropical paradise that is the Philippines and even rarer in the noisy, smelly, polluted jungle that is Manila. On one hand, my skin is parched and dry; on the other hand, my scarves, coats, thick stockings and cardigans have been dug out of the closet and seen the light of the watery sun.

December to February, being the cool months, is also the season for weddings and parties. In the past few weeks alone, we've gotten so many party and wedding invitations. Hence, I've been away from y'all. And now I just discovered I've nothing to wear anymore to the next round of parties so my sister Jacqui and I are off to get some brand new threads! Will update with a real nice post soonest!

Take care!

I am still alive. Spent the last 13 days...

... having a wonderful party with my high school friends Tatin, Stephanie and May
... exploring the walkways in Makati with Vince and resolving to exercise more because, dammit, those stairs took our breath away!
... paying for overdue bills!!!
... opening a checking account because I will no longer use credit cards and will instead pay with checks! NO TO HSBC CREDIT CARDS! The damn bank refused to reverse the charges.
... cleaning the house for the Real Living photo shoot
... having a great time at the Real Living shoot, the staff of which taught me how to arrange flowers and how to arrange our shoe collection
... going to my stylist Louis Kee at his fantabulous uber posh new salon and getting a sexy haircut, great new color and highlights, a terrific hair treatment, and an hour-long massage... bliss!
... buying new bedsheets at SM Makati with Vince
... and trying to avoid all the malls (unsuccessfully, too) because of all the sales! Imagine that--pretty dresses, fab shoes, great books, discount furniture, and a lot more!

That's it. Just checking in while I catch my breath!

... because in a few days, our home will be the subject of a photo shoot for Real Living magazine! I've always said that I live in a beautiful home, and the editors seem to agree because they've scheduled the home feature already. But over the long holiday, as I've been busily tidying up, I worry that my house isn't ready yet.

For one thing, I don't have lamps. The walls need more pictures. The living room needs a statement chair. The foyer needs a console table. The bedroom needs a slipper chair, side tables and new sheets. I need to buy flowers and fruits. And I'm thinking my bathroom needs new faucets. Vince's bathroom has these cute ceramic faucets. Mine, well I chose my bath fixtures to be simple and functional, not for any design merit.
Then I have to take down the Christmas tree. Have I told you about my fantabulous vivid pink tree? I don't think so. It was Vince's birthday gift to me so it's been up since November. I've wanted this tree for a looooong time but he kept saying, "Christmas trees are green. Maybe white once in a while but never pink." So I was just about screaming my head off when I opened the huge box on my birthday and saw the shocking pink peeking through the box!


And each time I felt sad because this was our first holidays without Mama, I looked at my pink tree and remembered how Mama decorated her tree with strange pink poinsettia flowers and I got really happy, knowing she'd have approved of my pink tree.


I'm so happy with it, I want to keep it up the entire year! I was thinking I'll put pale pink cherry blossoms for spring, big white daisies for summer, ripe fruits for fall, then the silver balls again for Christmas! But Real Living's editor took one look at it and said, "You have to take down that crazy tree." Boo!