Lucky threesome..

And there was 3. I decided to get a new puppy since I heard that having even and not odd numbers as pets is very unlucky. I need to break the series of unfortunate events in my life. I am already on my 23rd week of hearing mass daily, and it has done wonders. I just received a call that I won P30,000 in cold cash from a promo, not bad. I am a sucker for raffles, and I have joined a lot. The most I got was a rice cooker which I never get to claim, I won an electric fan from a rigged office raffle, and won a gift certificate or two. Due to my addiction to raffle and shopping, which is a bad combination, I raked my credit card usage just to earn points and join in Mastercard or Visa raffle. I already got an overnight stay from Oakwood Hotel due to high points from Ayala Discount Plus. Even if I don’t smoke Philip Morris or Hope, I made sure that I get from the trash bin or from the “takatak’ boys (medicant cigarette vendors) the empty packs. Name it, I have joined it, Myra E Blooming Everyday, Halls Pera Sa Wrapper, La-Cash Tama Extra Joss, BIR’s Pera Sa Resibo, the daily lottery. Out of compulsion, I always place a bet under “lucky pick”, so far, I have won 4 numbers out of 6 combinations, to think the factorial is 1 out of 42 million, 45 million or 49 million, depending whether it is 6/42, 6/45 or 6/49, and I don’t even check out the results religiously, maybe I have won already millions and PCSO just kept my winnings since I didn’t claim the pot prize.

Well, I have named the 3rd dog Alberta, she is a mongrel I bought along Session Road for P500, not bad to think I won P30,000 with just an envelope and empty Myra E packs as capital. The luck continues…

Hermes Shoulder Birkin JPG 42 cms. Found!

NEWS!!!

Lindsay Lohan has pricey bag stolen!

Lindsay Lohan had a pretty bad day yesterday. She had her orange Hermès Birkin bag stolen at Heathrow Airport in London. Now ordinarily just losing a bag worth almost $10,000 would be bad enough, but she apparently had contents inside, including "a quantity of jewelry," valued at upwards of $1 million (!). Lindsay's rep, Leslie Sloane, says Lindsay is extremely upset about the loss. "She is begging for the return of the items," Sloane says. "She doesn't care how she gets them back, she just wants her stuff back." Yeah, good luck with that.

Update: Wow. A paparazzo helped locate Lindsay's bag, apparently with everything still inside. Lindsay's attorney said, "Lindsay wants to say a massive thank you to Mr. Paparazzi Darryn Lyons for handing back her bag to her today after his paparazzi film crew helped catch the thief and return her belongings. "She feels that maybe justice has been served, and karma may have played a role in the return of her bag today given that the paparazzi are usually a pest to her and today they have been a Godsend."

Hermes’ new designer Jean Paul Gaultier on the helm has redesigned the infamous ‘Birkin’ bag for spring/summer ‘05. This is no small innovation, given that the original is in such demand that there is a wait to get on the waiting list. But JPG’s changes work — now you can actually get the bag over your shoulder. Due to its shortened height, the bag seems as long as an eighteen wheeler semi! Like Luella with her Baby Gisele, the logic step to an already successful handbag was to adding a shoulder design and appeal to a wider audience. Among the large variety of carry-alls that we’ve seen, this new shoulder Birkin sure is in contention for the throne. So damned appealing! As shown on the right in the new “pumpkin orange” shade, the bag will go for £4,000 (~$7,500). Stores around the globe hesitated with the large orders for the bag, unsure about how the new low profile would appeal to the customer base. In addition, a limited production is running on these treasures as well. Hence, the new Hermes Shoulder Birkins are even more scarce than the legendary regular Birkins.

And lucky me!!! I got a Birkin Shoulder JPG in tan, if interested to buy, please let me know, let's work it out.

Cosmopolitan Bachelor Bash 2007

The annual beefcake fest dubbed as “Cosmopilitan Bachelor Bash” was again, a success. Cosmopolitan Philippines, who recently celebrated its 10th year anniversary in the country, and Saga Productions, pulled all the stop to mount 2007 Cosmopolitan 69 at NBC Tent in The Fort. This year’s theme is a ripped off from “Lost” and “Survivor”, wherein an airplane full of hunks crashed and the survivors got stranded in the island, with the audience, of course! A pleasant flight attendant voice continuously spoke on the start of the show mentioning the sponsors over and over again, and let me do that for you, “Air Cosmopolitan 69 Flight is brought to you by Premiere Condoms, Guess, Moschino Funny, Artic Vodka, Samsung and Caronia”. The stage was designed as a jungle, and all hell break loose when the boys started parading onstage, girls and gays alike screamed on top of their voice, they cajoled the boys to show more skin, and boy! These boys were pros, they titillated the crowd as if they were just wearing their Moschino scent, nothing else.

Previous awardees such as Richard Gutierriez, Jericho Rosales, Dennis Trillo, Marco Alcaraz, Zanjoe Marudo, and host of others became bigger star afterwards. This year’s awardees, as voted thru texting, were Dingdong Dantes, Jake Cuenca, Alfred Vargas, Derek Ramsey, Paolo Paraiso, Joem Bascon, Jon Avila (formerly Mullaly), Marvin Raymundo (formerly Wijangco) and Luke Jickain. Fortunately, the girlfriends of the awardees such as Karylle and Angelika Panganiban were not around, or they will go home with bragging rights that they got the best specimen of Pinoy manhood, as proven by the endless shrieks of girls and fags that night. Only Mylene Dizon was around to lend support to the father of her son Tomas, Paolo Paraiso. Tickets were so hard to procur as if it’s a holy grail, again, thanks to Nelson Canlas of GMA 7 for getting me in to the VIP area. I bumped into former Cosmopolitan editor-in-chief who’s now at the helm of Marie Claire Philippines, Myrza Sison, who started this search in the country. Her successor, Ianne Evangelista, resigned already to raise a family of her own, and the acting Editor-In-Chief, Zo Aguila, was my Boracay buddy when we took the ro-ro going to the island in June 2002 and stayed for 4 days with a storm raging, and how I wish the fabulous 69 bachelor hunks were with us that time. Well, too late for wishes, they still come true, at least for this year’s Cosmo Bash, heavy rains poured outside NBC Tent after the show, so we got stranded with the boys.

Goodbye Marc Jacobs! Hello Junya Watanabe!!!

Poverty is a curse, and I am poor as a rat. It was like a bitter pill that I had to swallow, to kiss my Marc Jacobs leather shoes goodbye. Someone bought it on eBay for a song, and it was a tough decision for me to let it go. Marc Jacobs, the sitting Creative Director for Louis Vuitton and fashion's "wonder boy", has been consistently serving highly-successful collections every Fashion Week, whether for LV or for his own lines, Marc Jacobs and Marc by Marc Jacobs.

To console myself, I have to make it up by keeping my Comme Des Garcons by Junya Watanabe. Comme, dubbed as "Hiroshima Chic" and founded by designer Rei Kawakubo in 1973, was among the avant-garde japanese to introduce black as an everday fashion staple. Her much-feted protege, Junya Watanabe, joined Comme Des Garcons in 1984 as a pattern cutter. He presented his first solo collection in 1993 at Paris Fashion Week. and despite the wealth of creativity on display, Watanabe's clothes were a response to more fundamental issues: a practical answer to prevailing conditions and lifestyles. Junya Watanabe is one of the celebrated designers in Paris fashion.

To be fashionable and poor, what a predicament.

Kiehl's Greenbelt 5

At long last, one of the most awaited and highly anticipated brands in the history of cosmetics will be finally arriving on Philippine shores. Kiehl’s since 1851 will be in October 2007 at Greenbelt 5. Founded as an old world apothecary in New York’s East Village over 150 years ago, the brand is going strong as it steadily expands around the globe. As it launches simultaneously in Malaysia and Thailand, Kiehl’s will have its 40 sqm. maiden store at the ground floor drop off area of the soon-to-open Greenbelt 5. Celebrities such as Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes love their Crème with Silk Groom (SRP: P1,175.00), Mischa Barton favors the Blue Astringent Herbal Lotion (SRP: P700.00 for 4.2 oz.), Amino Acid Shampoo (SRP: P750.00 for 4.2 oz.) is Kirsten Dunst’s fave, while me and Julia Roberts can’t live without our Lip Balm # 1 (SRP: P450.00 for . 5 oz.)

The soft launch was held in the lobby of Greenbelt 3 with Shu Uemura’s Tina Tinio in attendance, who is now based in Singapore, and Kiehl’s product manager in the Philippines, Sheena Dy. We savored hotdogs from Muscle Beach, ice cream from Haagen-Dazs, and popcorn from Chimera. Beauty editors and leading editors-in-chief such as Lorraine Belmonte of Mega, Sari Yap of Lifestyle Asia and Myrza Sison of Marie Claire Philippines were in attendance. We were treated with samples of Kiehl’s Facial Fuel and Blue Astringent Herbal Lotion. Receptionists started taking our orders, in a form of prscriptions, as we enter the event. The items will be picked up once the store opens this October. I can’t hardly wait for my orders. Thanks to Tina Daniac, who designed Tina Tinio’s handpainted dress for the launch, and she decided to tag me along.

On hindsight, I even attended the FGD (focus group discussion) for Kiehl’s back in 2004. I got free L’Oreal items after attending it. Kiehl’s is the sister brand of L’Oreal and Shu Uemura worldwide.

The "It" Bag

While watching one of the episodes of “Ugly Betty”, I cried a bucket. The topic was fashion, and how it was good for one’s soul. The bone of contention between Betty and her conscience was about a Gucci bag. It was deemed as the “it” bag of the moment, and everyone at her office wanted to have it from the “sale”. The wardrobe keeper, who happens to be Betty’s friend, reserved it especially for her. When Betty finally received it, it brought back memories of her mother, who gave her a handbag similar to the Gucci one. As mentioned by her sister, it sealed Betty’s position as their mother’s favorite daughter. The sad part came when Betty had to part with the Gucci bag to buy important medicines for her dad since the neighborhood drugstore won’t let them use a credit line anymore. Betty used the bag as “pawn” and exchanged the bag for medicines. And along the way, she bought a fake one to sell to Mark, the gay officemate who wanted it so badly, and she bought one herself as well as to not disappoint the wardrobe mistress about letting go of the “it” bag. Eventually, the wardrobe assistant noticed that Betty was not carrying the genuine article, and Betty was forced to confess about her predicament.

This particular episode tugged a special chord in my heart. Yes, I cried a river, about Betty’s financial woes and my own. That I had to part with my “it” bags as well, my beloved “babies”, because I have to survive. Friends won’t lend me money anymore, and the way Betty can’t buy medicines for her dad, I can’t anymore pay my mortgages. I had to kiss them goodbye, under the positive impression that I will one day earn money to buy them again.

Recently, I got myself a Tod’s “it” bag, an authentic one, from a thrift store./. And I am embarrassed that why bags such as this Tod’s affected thousand of girls one way or the other. Fashion is really good for one’s soul, it uplifts them when things are not going well. Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, the inventor of “poor chic”, lifted the spirits of women who just emerged with the bitter remnants of second World War, and gave them jersey knit, usually reserved for men’s underwear, because raw materials were still in short supply. To Coco Chanel, Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton, Balenciaga, and a host of other great designers, thank you so much for feeding our souls.

Persevere in running the race..

Hebrews 12:1-4

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction from evil people, and you will not be discouraged or grow weary. Have you already shed your blood in the struggle against sin?"

Lately, I have been reading passages from Bible, especially from the Hebrews. It is all about faith and about perseverance. I can't help it. I only have now faith to keep me running, I have lost a lot of so-called friends. And I am bitter about the series of unfortunate events that have taken place in my life.

Sometimes, people will kill your spirit with their words or actions. It is all about letting them pass unnoticed for they will just weigh you down. Most of the times, what other people will pass on as truth will stop us from doing things. Fear is something that is all in the mind. Fear will stop as from doing things. Today, I have found it out myself. I am a fearless person, quite independent, and as much as possible, try to find things out of my own. However, at times, I don’t know if its plain stupidity that I rely on others. They say no man is an island, that we need others to survive. This led to my own downfall. I relied on others lately, thus losing my own identity. Prior to meeting these people, I was on my own, I lasted 7 years without them around, some of them I don’t even know. You hear phrases such as “Jake, it is not that easy, you need capital”, “Jake, to set up a company requires logistics”, and such. Getting a DTI Business Permit took me 3 hours to get, from application to releasing of the papers. I should have done it before, on my own. I should not have relied on business partners who just took my earnings, prospective partners that even asked for my birth signs and yet, I have never seen them again. Another even suggested a glitzy business address such as Makati ShangriLa, and yet, after 6 months, it never materialized. I guess It can make it on my own, the way I survived without these people. My name and my talents are my proprietary trademarks, God gave me a purpose, and I am thankful that despite the setbacks, I have learned everything out of His own goodness. Now, I have to do everything on my own. I tried asking for help from these so-called friends, and it went unheeded and fell on deaf ears. As they say, “Charity delayed is charity denied”. As they say, “Treat anyone with kindness, even those who are rude to you, not because they are not good, but because you are good”. And I am so fucking good, that is beyond dispute. Enough said.