Ready for the China Open 2011

It's gonna start soon and I'm soooo ready for it. Not to watch the matches but to see the superstar players off-court, especially the reigning champion, our friend Novak Djokovic. Yup, they're staying in Shangri-La Hotel Beijingl! :-)

Happy 12th birthday to our Princessette Selena!

Happy birthday to our unica hija and our inspiration in life... Her Royal Highness Princessette Selena! :) Today she's turning 12... the age when she's breaking into a young adolescent and the time when the fear for parents like us starts. It sucks for us that we are ALWAYS away on her birthdays, except last year when we had a long break back home. But we always give her gifts... that's what children's birthdays are for... oh and Christmases are for! :)

She's a bit sad though. Because last night, it was announced that because of the typhoon Pedring, there won't be classes today. And she was sooooo looking forward to this day because she wanted to spend it with her friends after classes before heading to my mom's place to have a small celebration and sleepover. I felt her sadness. Two years ago, nobody went to her birthday party because of the super typhoon Ondoy which flooded the whole metropolis. I wouldn't want that to happen on her 12th birthday... one of the important birthdays in a girl's life.

It's so heartbreaking that we weren't there to have a Plan B for her day. And since there's a typhoon raging over the city, I'd be scared for her to leave the condo to go to my mom's place and get stranded somewhere instead. But it wasn't raining hard yet in the evening, so I just asked my brother to pick her up from the condo so she can spend 2 nights with my mom and get to celebrate her big day with her cousins, uncles, and of course, my mom.

The pictures below are screencaps from a Skype video chat when she was unwrapping the gift that Marl decided to give to her...

"Close your eyes, baby"

"Ohhhh wow! Purple!"

Unwrapping her gift

A book that every girl would want

"I love it! Thank you, mom and dad!"

Taking her onstage... via Skype. :)

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! :)

Looking for talented solo performers

I'm helping out a friend who manages a series of clubs here in China. He wants to find talented Filipino singers, both male and female, to perform in his club. The artists should have experience in performing as solo artists. It would even be better if the artist is used to performing in his/her own entertaining shows. The artist should have good moral character and should have excellent PR skills. And I must reiterate that this is only for SOLO singers.

There will be a screening/audition for interested parties which will be held next week in Manila. My friend will be the one who will do that. If you're interested or you know somebody who is interested, please relay this post to them. Or for more details, you can send me an email or submit your profile, photos, and video links to: saritacarreon AT gmail DOT com.

If things go well, they will be signed for a minimum contract of 3 months which can be extended if both parties agree. Accommodation and food/transportation allowance provided. Since this is a rush booking, the artist must already have a valid passport.

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! ☺

Testing the official Blogger app

At last! The much-long awaited app for Blogger-blogger like me has already been released on AppStore. However, it's only available for iPhone as of this mo'. Will wait for the iPad version. Oh yeah, forgot to blog that after months of waiting, I've finally gotten my iPad2! Bought it in Beijing instead of having my friend Wayne to buy for me in Singapore or Sydney. And now, I'm enjoying it on and off work! Lovin' it! :)

Allura billboard of Ara Mina - shot by Mar Silverio

The Goddess Ara Mina is definitely back...

IT'S FINALLY UP!

Here's the billboard of Allura Body Contour and Slimming Center where the NEW Ara Mina is the new endorser (after Cristine Reyes). And the best part (for us) was it was shot by my hubby, Mar Silverio! The billboard is in EDSA corner Annapolis St. in Greenhills.

ALLURA BILLBOARD

It ain't as giant as other billboards that you may see along EDSA every day, but this billboard is so remarkable in couple of ways. Why? It's Mar Silverio's FIRST big published project and at the same it's the much-awaited comeback of the Sex Goddess of the 90's, Ms. Ara Mina, who have amazingly lost a lot of weight through Bikram yoga and her slimming sessions with Allura.

As I might have already mentioned here in my blog before, Ara Mina & Mar Silverio used to be members of That's Entertainment. And since we've gone traveling after the TV show ended, there were only few occasions when we'd meet up with Ara. But during our last vacation in June 2011, when she saw Mar's photography portfolio, she endorsed him to be her photographer for this project (and then some). The shoot was scheduled a day before we left for Beijing, with celebrity makeup artist Krist Bansuelo and celebrity stylist Marvin. 

Mar took the photos with him to work on them while in Beijing. But there was a problem -- MMDA took down a lot of billboards of huge brands, especially those showing too much of skin. Even the billboard of famous celebrities were brought down. In this billboard, Ara is endorsing a body contour and slimming center and it would be impossible not to show a little bit of flesh. So Mar had to do a lot of revisions on different photos that were submitted. He and Ara communicated through email, Skype, and Twitter regularly to update each other regarding the project. But after almost 2 months of work and wait, MMDA  finally approved this final product. At last! The above photo was an actual photo taken by Ara Mina using her iPhone and was sent to Mar through email. :)

NOT ONLY ON ALLURA BILLBOARD

Mar's photos of Ara Mina won't only be used on Allura's billboards but will also be printed in tarpaulins for other purposes to promote Ara Mina as their new endorser. In fact, Ara Mina has also used Mar's different shots as her display picture (profile photo) on her Twitter page. And also, the photos will be used in the product labels and promotional materials of Ara's beauty product line - Ara's Secrets Pure Glow. So basically, Mar's shots of her will be all over. :-)

And now that The Goddess is back - in a healthier and svelte figure - there are lots of projects and shows lined up for her. We wish her all the luck that she needs. Anyway, she is already a household name in Philippine showbiz. Goodluck, girl, and see you here in Beijing, soon! :)

A GREAT START

It would have been a great start in Mar's serious photography career had we not left the Philippines too soon, as he was asked to do other projects with other celebrities, too. But who knows? This might be a great "sign" for us to stay back in the Philippines... soon. :)

Watch out for the making of the Allura Billboard on video... and more sexy-and-sexier photos of Ara Mina coming soon on Mar Silverio's Facebook page. Peace out! =)

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! :)