Our Post-Christmas Celebration at Nanshan Ski Resort

Valentine, me, and Marl at Nanshan Ski Resort

Yesterday was one of those days that started off wrongly but ended up really great. I wasn't feeling so well, but made it a point to go on with the plan because Marl has been very excited about it since last week. We woke up at 7AM and took the breakfast buffet.

The jinx started when I left both of my iPhone and Blackberry in the hotel. We were already in the taxi when I found out about it and it was too late to go back to the hotel. All the information about the Nanshan Ski and the booking number for shuttle bus ride and tickets were all in the SMS on my Blackberry. I felt soooo bad and sick but we had to move on. But seeing the long traffic going to Wudaokou, where we would be meeting up with our friend Valentine and taking the shuttle bus from, we opted to take the subway train. But since I didn't have my iPhone with me (where I have the Beijing subway app), we took the wrong line. I got really confused and my mind just stopped to work and I was already getting frustrated as we transferred to 3 different subway lines just to get to Wudaokou. We were scared to miss the shuttle bus because we'd be left with no choice but to waste all our effort of waking up and going through all the hassles and stress.

But it started to get better when we met up with Valentine, who looked so radiant morning. Her smile and soft-spoken voice that was filled with excitement turned everything around. And I knew then that everything would get better. And yes, we were able to catch the shuttle bus!

The shuttle bus ride was around an hour trip to Nanshan Ski Resort and we had to pay RMB 20 each for a one-way trip. When we reached the ski resort, we got all excited and we even bought gloves to get ready for some action. But we encountered another dilemma: we would need to deposit RMB 400 for each person and we didn't bring enough money for that! Ridiculous! Good thing that Valentine could speak Chinese and was able to call her friend to find out about it. Turns out, we'd only need pay individual deposit of RMB 200 + RMB 120 for a 2-hour skiing and ski equipment rental. Oh, plus RMB 10 for the locker. :)

This was my second time to ski. My first skiing experience last Winter with my friend was so much fun though I did some tumbling stunts most of the time (view the funny video HERE). Well this time wasn't different at all. I struggled with my Lumix camera (attached to a vanity monopod) most of the time because it wouldn't fit perfectly in my jacket's pocket. But I did try the slopes twice - and I fell twice! LOL! My camera ate some snow and I was thinking, "Oh, my camera will hate me today!". After a bad fall on my second try, I felt a cramp on my right thigh and hip so I decided to just give it up. I took off my skis and just walked all the way down the hill. Marl did some tumbling stunts, too, and so did his Sony Alpha camera. LOL! On the brighter side, Valentine certainly enjoyed it and surprisingly, she is a natural skier, although it was just her first time to ski. As for me, it's not a sports for me. Nah-ah. I'd rather go bungee jumping. And hello?!?! I'm not a sports type of a girl. I've always had great compliments that I'm the girl that can do almost everything. But now they can finally rejoice and add, "except skiing". LOLLL!

Anyway, after skiing, we had lunch at the restaurant there. We all looked exhausted and tired. I surely got tired from "Rolling In The Deep" hahaha!!! We took a taxi to the bus station at RMB 30. Another blooper that happened was we hopped in on the Bus 980 which would take us to back to Beijing. We had some moment of confusion as to how much we'd be paying for the ride. We thought it's RMB 40 per person. It took around 2 minutes until we finally understood that it's actually RMB 14 per person... and it was sooooo funny to hear and see how relieved the whole bus was when finally understood. Hahaha! We got off at a subway station and just went back to the hotel at around 4PM. But I couldn't rest because I have lots of inquiries regarding the Wondlan products. Geeezzzz!

I really had soooo much fun spending time with Valentine. She's like a sister to me and we will surely miss her and her radiant energy. Watch out for our cool photos and fun video. I can only edit the video when I'm back in the Philippines. Busy packing now. Three more days left in Beijing. No, three more nights and two more days... Time flies soooooo fast!!!

Working on Christmas eve

It's 8:30pm and we've already done two Christmas sets at the Café Chá restaurant of Shangri-La Beijing. We have two more sets at the Cloud Nine Bar, but thankfully, we're gonna be finishing off before midnight. Big cheers and salute to the hardworking musicians and other people who are workig on Christmas, too! Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Babushka Christmas 2011 in Beijing!

Left: During Christmas eve at Shangri-La Beijing
Right: At The Place with the giant LCD canopy

Christmas eve at the bar was surprisingly busy than expected. In fact, we got pretty good Christmas tips from the guests, too. Isn't that cool? :) We were supposed to finish at 11:45AM, but since everyone was in a celebratory mood, we just extended a little over after midnight. Then we hurriedly changed into our casual clothes and went to the Westin hotel where our friends, the Soundforge band, has prepared a little Christmas meal for us to share together. And we just had fun eating chicken adobo, sotanghon, and biko for noche buena while talking and just sharing stories. We went back to the hotel at 5AM, which is already considered a bit late since we've started sleeping at 3AM last night.

Christmas Day... and we're off! Yessss! We woke up past noontime and we chatted with our unica hija, who's actually vacationing with my friends Claire and Dior and the latter's kids. Selena is really having a good time there. I'm happy because she has some friends to play with and spend time with during this Christmas vacation. My mom is sad that her granddaughter won't spend this Christmas with her, but I know she understands. :)

Anyway, we went out to go to this mall with a huge LCD canopy - it's actually like the one in Las Vegas, but then again I can't compare because I haven't been to Vegas yet. But we had a great time, I took some videos. I got all emotional when they showed a Christmas presentation for a few minutes. It was beautiful and it felt so magical! I just wished that Selena was with me to see it... she would have loved it. In fact, I sent her an SMS right after that, only to know that she's enjoying herself watching DVD movies with her friends, too.

We then went to Wangfujing and strolled along the famous Wangfujing road which was filled with malls. We went to one of the malls to find a Skechers shop to get Marl's Christmas shoes. Yes, I got him a pair of Skechers Shape-Ups for Christmas! He wanted it after knowing about it from our friend Jonathan, so he's happy about it. He got me a Blackberry anyway and I'm happy about it even though I don't have a local sim with BIS that would go with it. Can't wait to get a Globe simpack for it when I reach Manila. :)

So there we have it... I guess, I had a good and peaceful Christmas this year. Not the best one, but it's good to keep it lie-low sometimes. Maybe I'm growing too old for parties and such. Nahhhh, I'm forever 25! I can't turn old, not a hair! Oh wait, lemme take care of that grey hair for now. LOL! Hope you guys had great Christmas celebrations and parties with your loved ones, families, and friends.

Next celebration in line which I'm very very very excited about is the New Year's Eve!!! I can't wait to spill it out and let you all know about it... but let's keep the excitement hangin' there for a while, okay? :) Five more days left in Beijing... time flies so fast indeed...

Feeling the Christmas spirit in Beijing

On the way to the Philippine Embassy Christmas
party where I had so much fun with friends :)

I guess nobody can argue on the fact that no one celebrates the real Christmas like Filipinos do. And I'm proud of that and I'm always flattered whenever foreigners say that. Of course! Filipinos have a special way of celebrating Christmas. Back home, you can already hear Christmas songs being played everywhere and Christmas decors being sold in shopping places as early as September. We'd always refer the 1st of September as the start of -BER months and that would sometimes mark the start of the countdown to Christmas. We'd all start putting up Christmas trees and decorations right after All Saints' Day on the 1st of November, doing some early Christmas shopping by mid-November to avoid the Christmas rush. And when December comes, you'd get invited to different Christmas parties here and there - where you will really appreciate and see the joy and happiness that the holiday season would really bring.

For some of us who have always been away from home for quite some time, we have already learned how to deal with the extreme sadness and homesickness we feel when December comes around. Some generous families would often offer their abodes to be the venue for Christmas parties. This year, I have already been to two Christmas parties. And even though we are the ones who live the farthest, we made sure to attend those parties.

The first Christmas party we've been to was organized by some Filipinos we haven't met, which was held at a restaurant they have rented. We just got invited to attend and join the Kris Kringle or Exchange Gift or Monito-Monita. Basically, you'd draw names before the occasion and you'd shop for gift for the person you have drawn. We haven't met both of our 'monitas' personally so hubby and I just bought some cute portable speakers as our gifts. Hubby got a Hard Rock Cafe cap while I got a very nice Zara shoulder bag. Most of our musician friends in Beijing attended the party and we all had such a great time chatting, drinking, and singing.

The second party was organized by the Philippine Embassy in Beijing. It was well-attended by Filipinos and non-Filipinos. In fact, you won't have any idea how many Filipinos live in Beijing if you missed the occasion. There were lots of performances - very typical of Filipinos. The funny and witty host, Omar Lacap, who has always been the host of Filipino gatherings in Beijing, has made the party more engaging and entertaining. There were party games which I joined in for the sake of fun. One of the games was the "pambansang laro ng Pilipinas" (national game of the Philippines) --- Pinoy Henyo. My funny friend Darren and I joined the said game and it was really fun! We almost won but have tied with another team. Oh well, it was my first time to play Pinoy Henyo ever and I really had great fun! :)

Not even the most expensive hotel dish can beat the
satisfaction I had when I had these Filipino dishes! :)

There were also raffle draws of roundtrip tickets courtesy of Cebu Pacific and Philippine Airlines - which we didn't win again. There were free food like arroz caldo, pancit bihon, tokwa and dinuguan, sponsored by some generous individuals, and although they weren't the best dishes I have tasted ever, they became the highlight of my Christmas. Why? It's the essence of what it was for --- Christmas food. And sharing the moment with your good friends is something that even the most expensive hotel dishes can't beat. :)

Even though Christmas is exactly one week away from today, I can say that I have already celebrated it during the two Filipino gatherings we've been to. Iba talaga ang Paskong Pinoy! :)


PS: To those who have been waiting for the photos that I've taken with friends this year, I will be posting them soon on our Facebook profile! :)

December Freebies!

Yes, December is here and in a couple of weeks, it'll be Christmas! :) And yayyyy... I got my first freebies from my friends in Qingdao, Rhoda and Donna!!! They are actually working for a company that makes awesome fashion accessories for exporting to major bands.

Four years ago, they also gave me some samples of wonderful fashion accessories. I was supposed to start selling accessories in my small RTW store, which didn't last long that's why the plan to sell accessories was scraped off. I really love their accessories! I still use some of them till now. They are mostly in sets of necklaces, bracelets, rings, and earrings. I promised them that I will use this new collection for my future shoots and gigs. :)

And yes, I guess I really am a lucky girl... look at how beautiful these accessories are!!! Who wouldn't be jealous of that??!!! Even Marl is jealous! Hahaha! Thank you so much to my "vaklush" friendships... Rhoda and Donna - the unbeatable tandem hahaha!

click to appreciate it more :)

Sarita goes to... Summer Palace

Here's the video that I've taken my sweet time in editing of using Final Cut Pro. I've been reading quite a lot on DSLR videography and I know that I still have a loooooot of things to learn about it and the whole Final Cut Studio. And I must say, I'm proud that I was able to come up with this output. Here's a travelogue video of my trip to Summer Palace here in Bejing. Please do watch it in HD (720p) and let me know by your comments and suggestions! :) ENJOY!

11.11.11

Woahhh! Time flies so fast indeed! I remember that I just had my birthday then suddenly now it's almost mid-November. If we don't get extended here, that means we only have six weeks left here in Beijing. My oh my!

Well, I haven't been blogging for quite some time, breaking my own promise to blog everyday about anything. But you see, I've been very very busy. Since I got my Baby Nikki D., I've always been buried with my tutorial books and videos. I somehow have learned a lot on video editing already, but I still need to learn a lot more. I know I have backlogged on lots of our adventures, but I want the current video that I'm editing right now to have the right 'treatment'. My next video is distinctively different with last video that I posted - which was actually just a test shoot for my Nikon D7000 during the China Opens 2011

But of course, even if I haven't been blogging, my daily adventures continue on Twitter. I guess, that's a good excuse to not blog so often... "I'm tweeting anyway". :)

Anyway, here are my recent photos posted by Marl on his Facebook page for his 365 Project. So if you want to get updated with his posted photos of other people, too,  better go and 'Like' Mar Silverio's page. But it's okay if you don't. You can always continue viewing them here on my blog. Be my guest! :)

Happy November!

Block Eye Peace :)

Today, I'd like to share with you a photo that hubby and I did last night after gig. Since he has loads of studio (and outdoor) lighting equipment, he's experimenting on different lighting setup almost everyday. And he's so lucky that he has a model-at-hand whenever he wants to shoot.

All for art's sake :)

What's special about this shoot is that after retouching my gig makeup to make it finer for the shoot, I realized that since hubby wants me to do this pose, I would need to paint my 2 nails with a dark color. But I don't have any dark colored nail polish as I'm not really a manicure-and-pedicure kinda kikay girl. I only have some light colored nail polishes and nail coats.

But I needed to paint them dark.


So what I did was I took a black marker pen and marked my 2 nails with it. It sure looked unattractive and blah so I put some glittery nail coat over it. Voila! Instant black nails! :)

But the problem came the next day after. I couldn't get it off since I don't have nail polish remover or acetone. So I resorted to painting the rest of my nails with a black marker but I couldn't find where I put it last night! LOL. So I had to endure performing tonight with only 2 painted nails! LOLLLLL!

All for art's sake, huh? :)

Plants vs. Sars :)

I've spent the last 30 minutes trying to upload this photo to be my new 'display picture' or 'profile photo' on Twitter. But it just won't get uploaded! Too scary, maybe? :) Anyway, here's Marl's successful creation to make me ugly and scary. I gave him full right to do that to me... for Halloween's sake! :)

Plants vs Sars

Problem with my visa extension... solved!

The wait is finally over after waiting for my new passport for six whole weeks. As I have previously blogged, I had to renew my 1-year old new e-passport because it got torn. And the Philippine Embassy in Beijing was kind enough to shoulder all expenses in replacing it. They didn't let me pay for it! Hooray! :)

So anyway, already got my new passport and they also gave me back my old passport with punched holes (for cancellation) and was asked to surrender my old passport once my visa has been transferred to the new one. I kept my passports in the safe while waiting for the hotel to take them for our visa extension.

Our lounge manager took our passports on Monday afternoon and gave me a shocking news just before we went to work. There's a problem with my passports and visa! Oh my!!! Apparently, the Chinese government strict rule about renewed passports is that you would have a 10-day allowance for me to transfer my current visa (in my old passport) to my new visa. WHAAAAT?!?!?! Nobody informed me about that!

For the past three nights, Marl and I have been talking about the worst possible scenario that would happen if my problem won't be resolved... that is to go back to Manila wayyyy before schedule when our current visa expires on October 31st. We even contacted our friend who has a courier company in Shanghai and sent couple of boxes of our stuff. And we even have slowly packed our stuff, too. LOL.

Not the kind of star where you
can say, "Look Ma, I got a star!"

Yesterday, we went to the Police Security Bureau (PSB) where we would be applying for our visa extension, together with a representative from the hotel's HR department. And I was told that in usual cases, I'd pay a fine for "breaking the rule" on visa transferring. I told them that it was an honest mistake and I really didn't know about this and had I known about it, I would have gone to the PSB directly after getting my new passport. I gave the certificate that the Philippine Embassy issued along with my new passport. I even wanted to pull a Christopher-Lao and say, "I should have been informed!". But guess my lucky star never left me and was even shining on me even at noon time... the bureau officials just gave me a 'warning'. They made me sign a paper in Chinese character with a big red stamp with a big star. And I didn't have to pay a fine at all! Weeeeee! But I better be careful next time.

Anyway, our visa extension has already been processed and we will have our passports back next week. Thank God! Now, time to unpack again and just cherish my remaining working time here in Beijing while I still can... until the end of December!

Are we ready for another early winter?

The cold northern breeze has started blowing towards Beijing when September came, with temperature running from 16-20ºC. Then it became warmer during the last half of September with a fine weather of about 23-26ºC. But October came and suddenly the temperature dropped to its lowest this autumn at 5ºC tonight. Will it be another early winter in Beijing like last year? Well, I guess I just didn't get the memo.

I should have been informed - just borrowing your line, Christopher Lao. :)

At the art streets in Beijing

We were supposed to have a our long-time planned shoot at the Great Wall yesterday. But due to some inevitable circumstances, we had to cancel it or should I say, postpone it. So not intending to waste our
off day, hubby and I went to the art streets in Beijing.

First, we went to Liulichang Art Street to find some beautiful paintings. We bought some paintings there before in 2009, but they were stolen in the boxes that we sent via post. But we couldn't find a good one for our taste as most of the shops have already changed. There were lesser shops that sell paintings in that art street. Most of the shops left were antique shops and some shops that sell canvas and paint brushes. Boo.

Then we went to the small alley near the Yonghegong Lama Temple, where hubby has already been to during their photowalk the day before. He wanted to show the vinyl player that he wanted to buy from a vintage store. But turns out that the player isn't vintage or antique at all. It's a custom-made vinyl player, with built-in speakers and AM/FM radio. We pre-ordered one because it's so cool! In fact, what's cooler
about it was it's playing an LP with Philippine kundiman songs - which the store didn't want to sell. :-)

There weren't a lot of choices with the LP albums available there. But we chose the original cast LP album of the musical Chicago and the original soundtrack of the movie Flashdance. We will be searching for more LPs. I tweeted about it last night and I received a few replies from my favorite tweeps on where to get old vinyl LP albums in Manila. Excited! :)

World's Most Beautiful Marriage Proposal

I'm such a sucker for beautiful romance. I saw this on Facebook and I've got to agree that this is yet, the most beautiful marriage proposal I have ever seen on TV. I'd be hyperventilating if this had happened to me, too! :)

An effort to blog

Why is blogging so hard for me these days? I tend to blog more about the big events and announcements nowadays. But I've been thinking why it's quite hard for me blog now.

Hmmm.... because maybe I have lots of outputs to my thoughts nowadays. There's Facebook, Foursquare, Instagram among others... oh, and yes of course, Twitter. And for somebody who has a fast-paced brain like me which changes its thoughts every 1/1000th of a second, it's difficult to hold that certain thought and thus, blogging has become such an effort... to think that I have been blogging for 8 years now. Oh well, I spent the first two years doing my own online journal, complete with writing the date, the day, and what happened. It was something that my friends would rave about. Then shifted to Blogger/Blogspot in 2005. I also used to have a Livejournal and a Wordpress blog and other blog-syncing sites like Multiply and Friendster. I remember when I had my HP PDA/smartphone before... all I wanted was to blog and blog using WAP internet... Oh, those were the days.

So since hubby is doing a 365 project on his Facebook page (like the pic above), I'm making an effort to just blog about anything daily. Yeah, I think that's it. I hope I'll find my lost blogger soul with this. :)

Changing to a healthier lifestyle

Change is good, especially if it will bring a lot of benefits in your life. That is why hubby and I decided to sleep early and wake up for breakfast. Why not? Breakfast buffet at the Shangri-La has most of our favorite stuff such as baked beans, croissants, baked tomatoes, egg benedict, donuts, cereals, yogurts, etc.

But what really made us this sudden change in our lifestyle was the wheatgrass shot in the breakfast buffet. That alone can beat all the benefits of whatever food I'm going to take in a day.

I don't mind sleeping at 2AM and waking up at 9AM daily at all. I've got nothing to do the whole day anyway. Though I might start working out again. Wish me luck. Cheers for good health! ☺

All's Well That Ends Well

I just got my E-passport in September 2010 from meticulous and long processing in DFA Manila and with barely a year of seldom use, the cover has already come off. As you can see on the photo above, the rest of the passport pages - which are intact by paper sewing - was already detached from the hard cover. It's the second case that Philippine Embassy in Beijing has faced. So when I went to the embassy, they weren't surprised with its condition and immediately offered for us to renew the passport ASAP so that I won't face any problems should I need to use it.

But there's a bit of a conflict. Our current visa is only until the end of October and soon, the hotel will be asking for our passport for visa extension. Yes, we are extended here until the end of the year. So if I had my passport renewed, I will have to wait 6 weeks for my new passport and only then, I can apply for a visa extension. So I need to have the new passport back 2-3 weeks before my visa expires.

I even contacted Ambassador Romy Ong, whom I have met in Kuala Lumpur few years ago and would always come to the lobby lounge of Shangri-La KL to watch us, and relayed my problem to him. We have always been in constant contact since then, he would always check on my health as I was always sickly in the past and he has become a good friend of mine. My husband and I even had lunch with him and his son in Makati few years ago.

Anyway, he told me to contact certain people in the embassy here, as he used to be the Philippine Ambassador to China. He can't promise that he can expedite the processing but at least, I get to talk to the right people. So when I went back to the embassy, they told me that although they cannot promise if I'll have it in a month's time, they said that  I wouldn't need to pay for it. How nice is that?!!! They're replacing my e-passport for FREE!!! They took my photo, my signature, and thumb marks and VOILA! No more waking up early and long queues like in DFA Manila. :-)

Now all I have to do is enjoy work, relax and wait for my new passport. Hope it won't take too long. :)

Chillaxing in Tianjin

Faye, Ronnie, Mar, Sarita, Elaine, Grace & Sam at Wei Ha Pub

It has been almost two months since we got back in Beijing but we haven't done our Sunday trips yet. Besides, we have loads of stuff to do even during our offdays. Okay, I'm just a bit exaggerrating. :-)

Our friends Sam, Faye, and Ronnie from Tianjin have already visited us in Beijing couple of times during the past few weeks. So I called our other friends Grace & Elaine and we made a plan to visit them in Tianjin instead.

A TOILET HUMOR

They have a new procedure in booking train tickets. They now need our passports so I wasn't able to buy a ticket for my friend Grace. She had to take a 2-hour bus trip to Tianjin while Marl and I took the bullet train to Tanggu, a municipality in TEDA, which is not in the main part of Tianjin City. 

We were supposed to meet Elaine in the train upon its stop at Tianjin. She was already in the queue but needed to pee so she went to the toilet. While she was doing her business in the toilet, she didn't know that the train had already arrived for its quick stop. When she got back to the queue, she didn't know she was already queuing for the next train. Needless to say, she was actually left by our train! LOL! So all her effort of waking up early to secure a ticket for the fast train and waiting for 2 hours in the station were all wasted. Well, not really. Because we now have some real 'toilet humor' to remember and laugh about. Thanks, Elaine! Hahahahaha!

RELAXING DAY BY THE BEACH

Faye and Sam picked us up from the station and Elaine just took the hard and more expensive way --- a 100-yuan taxi all the way from Tianjin downtown to where we would be spending a relaxing afternoon... Tianjin's man-made beach! As for us, we had to pay 100 yuan for the taxi from Tanggu train station to the beach. It's THAT far. 

We had to pay another 50 yuan each person to get into the man-made beach. The beach was kept clean and the fine golden sand, which was imported all the way from Australia (!) felt great against our bare feet. I find it really ripping expensive but it didn't matter at that time because all we wanted was to spend time with each other - under the sun. I wasn't even expecting to swim, didn't even bring a swimsuit. But what the heck, we already paid entrance fees! So Sam and I just bought cheap swimming shorts so we can take a dip in the water and just had sooooo much fun like kids wading in the beach! LOL! Marl, Elaine, and Faye just chitchatted while sitting in the sand and watching us playing in the water.

RENAISSANCE TIME

We went back to the hotel to rest while Sam, Faye, and Ronnie had to prepare for work since they had to sing on Sunday night. I had a satisfying nap while Marl, Elaine, and Grace went out to look for something to eat. I was just so so so tired. 

I got up at 9PM and took a shower and went down to the lobby to meet up with the rest of the pack and to watch my friends perform. I also took some of their performance videos. They finished very early - at 10:45PM!

SHOOT, POOL, PASTA, PIZZA & ICE CREAM

After their show, we went to Wei Ha Pub to grab some dinner. Marl have this photography project that he wanted to do with Sam as the model - or should I say, models? :) Click HERE to see their "Multiplicity" project. After their brief shoot, we all enjoyed talking over dinner of pasta and pizza. Oh, Sam and I played pool. I really miss playing pool!!!

Upon walking back to the hotel, we passed by at a concenience store and bought something to eat and drink - non-alcoholic ones of course. We all bought ice cream and enjoyed it while walking back to the hotel. Really fun bonding time with my friends!

CHUBBY BUNNY, DR. KWAK KWAK, ETC.

First thing we did when we got back in the hotel was make use of the marshmallows Sam bought. We did the very famous game 'Chubby Bunny' - where we would stuff in as much mallows in our mouths while saying "Chubby Bunny" in between. It was so funny and all had a great laugh about it!

We then started talking AGAIN about different stuff like our fear of cockroaches, gecko, rats, snakes, and experiences with those creatures. We also talked about how lucky kids are nowadays. Then we reminisced all our childhood memories in playing different games like piko, patintero, tex, tagu-taguan, Chinese garter, jumping rope, luksong tinik, luksong baka, etc! Then it got really interesting when Lola Ronnie reminisced the different exhibitions in the Jack-Stones game and Chinese Jack-Stones. We were laughing so hard and just had lots of fun sharing stories. Someone mentioned Doctor Kwak Kwak and Grace doesn't have an idea what that game was. So at 4AM, we played Doctor Kwak Kwak to show her how the game is. We really had a great laugh!

THE SECRET

Just before we all went to bed, I suggested all of us to watch The Secret, because couple of our friends haven't watched it. It just feels great spending a day of fun with friends. Just purely bonding and just plainly having fun. I already miss them! :-(

Watch out for our videos and more photos coming out soon! :-)

Fun at the beach with Mar, Sam, Elaine & Faye

Sam, Faye, Elaine & Me

Ice cream time with the special children LOL! :)

Back to Beijing for the 3rd time

Yes, we're finally back in Beijing... for the 3rd time! :)

After more than a month of holiday back in Manila and a little hassle with the processing of our Chinese visas and OEC's, we are finally back to perform at the Shangri-La Hotel Beijing... with a new twist! Marl and I are performing as a duo. Really exciting as we have more than enough in our repertoire to play as a duo but nervous coz I have to do the songs that my ex-colleagues used to sing. Who else would sing their songs anyway? :)

We've been performing for almost 2 weeks now and I guess, we're doing a pretty good job. The sets are more relaxing as there's no pressure for us to get the people expect for more. I mean, what can a duo do aside from a singing songs? I get to wear my beautiful long gowns again and I get to really do a makeover every night. I chose to have my hair styled in a way that it would be easy for me to curl it every night. I found a perfect curl volumizing gel and it really makes my hair beautiful.

I like our current setup. I like that I get to sing while my microphone is on its stand, too. The freedom of expression is different. Although I was known to be an energetic live performer, I don't really miss dancing onstage at all. I can do it in the room, anyway. I'm willing to 'transfer' that energy into something else... that is to make us a perfect dynamic duo. :)

Selena in Beijing - Issue#1

At laaaaaast! Here's the video of our daughter's adventure here in Beijing. In this video, we took her to these places:

• The Village at Sanlitun
• Beijing Zoo
• Olympic Park
• Chaoyang Park
• Beijing Planetarium

.... and many more other places in the next issues! ENJOY! :)

Levitation

Our newest trick: Levitating

I have had an out-of-body experience when I was 16. And it was overwhelming and scary at the same time. And I've always been into these kinds of stuff since then. Levitating is one of the things I've always wanted to try. But thanks to Badeedadee, he was able to help me try it and he even captured it. :-) Click on the pic to view the photo, 'like', or comment. :)