Reciprocity – My WORD for 2011

If there is one word that can describe my 2011, it can be summed up by the word that my friend Kat have mentioned in one of our most recent face-to-face conversations. Reciprocity.

I think I cannot finish what I meant to say in here but let me tell you this, it has been a realization and life-learning filled year for me. Lets just leave it at that for now. I will be on a week of internet hiatus (I hope) and will be back on the eve of the 6th of January 2012.

May everybody have a meaningful and safe 2012 beginning!! Mwah!!

Geevie Lou Palec – Personal Shopper for Hire

A week ago I received this personal message from a friend. She saw pictures of the stuff I bought for some friends before. Because she has no time to do some personal shopping for her loved ones and at the very least for herself, she decided to employ my services to do those things for her.

I told her to do a “peg” board in order for me to see what her fashion aesthetics was. But it so happened that I was participating in a bazaar. And for the last week of it, I decided to take pictures of the items I was selling and post them online. I wasn’t expecting the response I got but more than 50% of the items I had were sold. This friend of mine got 3 from the lot I was offering. Because of this, I had a little idea of what things she really liked. She messaged me today asking how much she should pay me for my services. I told her that anything she deemed appropriate for the fare and the time I spent in buying for her will suffice. I haven’t really figured how much to charge in these cases I’m getting.

Later today, a friend/relative asked if I had more empire cut mini dresses or blouses. I offered to buy more for her. We agreed to see each other later this week. I will bring her the 6 items she wanted as well as some of the clothes I suggested for her to wear.

See, Im on a roll! Thus I decided to embrace these opportunities. A few hours ago, also in my facebook pagel, I made a great announcement. I am adding another title under my belt, Geevie Lou Palec – Personal Shopper for Hire.

Here is a copy of that announcement.

I have been buying stuff for friends and for friends’ friends in the past and even until now. I did not take the suggestions on becoming a real personal shopper seriously because who would pay me to do that? But now, I think I’m changing that initial decision I had.

I should have done this announcement earlier but as they say, better late than never. Friends, I am now a personal shopper for hire!!

If you are engulfed with a lot of Christmas shopping to do and you can’t do them all before the season ends or you really dont have the time to do the shopping, you can hire me to do that for you! PM me!!!!

Karen and Matt Tie the Knot (Part Two)

When Kawen gave me the invite and with the knowledge that the theme was yellow, I immediately thought of this golden-hued dress I bought from the Celine store in Eastwood mall during their midyear sale. When I got home that day, I asked my sister where she placed the dress. She said it was under the bed. Still in its paper bag, the dress was really there.

Now I have a dress, the next thing to think about was what shoes to wear. I immediately thought of my leopard printed, open-toed sling back sandals. I got it last 2008 but they are still in good condition. When you really do take good care of your shoes, they will last longer. When I tried it on with the dress, it was a little bit too much. I was going for something simple this time. So I decided to wear my black strappy sandals, the one I wore in Nong Rex’s wedding.

On the “the” day, because of the incident with the hair iron, I decided to wear flats. With all that stress, I could not handle wearing high heels and even the necessary body shaper.  So I went to the event wearing my flats and all my natural curves.

How the buffet line was organized was genius! The table numbers were called starting from the last to the first. After the numbers were announced, the guests occupying that table has to come to the front to have some photos with the couple. After which, buffet attack.

After the allotted time for the guests to eat, the customary wedding games started. They called in people. Initially I thought it was another photo opportunity with the couple. I really had no idea because if I was not eating, I was blabbering (read: my usual self). So I went to have my photo taken but while others weren’t looking, I got away! Hahhhahhaha! Yay for the stealthy me!

I left Rachelle there. Sorry girl! I had to! Here she is with all the girls. Each of them were given sunflowers. They passed them around while the music was on and they were stuck with the flower they were holding when the music was turned off. The winning girl was holding the flower with something in it. I cannot remember what it was. I really wanted it to be Rachelle because the guy who got the garter was really cute.

Rachelle said she wasn’t prepared to be chosen because she was not able to do a touch up prior to the game. Because of that she had some head shots taken with the daisy from the game without and with lipstick on.

Below is the picture of Matt taking the garter off Kawen’s leg. This part of the wedding program never fails to amuse the audience. But for me, what caught my eye was Kawen’s dress. It was beautiful beyond words!!! If ever I get the chance to walk down the isle, my dress has to be done with ostrich plumes.

Let me show you how obsessed I was with Kawen’s dress. Atleast four of the less than twenty pictures I have in my phone that day was focused on her and her dress.

Isn’t the dress lovely? Super!!!!!

The day was wonderful as whole. Let us just say that the dress was the icing on top of the cake. Witnessing two people come together to be united as one is one special thing. Seeing it happen with friends is another that makes it extra fabulous. Let me introduce you to the people that I was with all through out that day.

Mommy Mayet and Daddy IC.

Janey and Red.

You have seen the pictures of Rache above. Those were the only solo pictures I have of her. Here she is with me, Mommy Mayet and Daddy IC.

It was not only the dress which was the star of the last remaining minutes of the reception.  See the flowers in Mommy Mayet and Janey’s ears from the previous pictures? They came from the center piece in our table. We decided to get them for hair adornment.

When we initially got to our tables, aside from the center pieces, we saw these souvenir items for the wedding. A two-photo collage of the couple.

And also, we were able to enjoy the photo booth in the receiving area of the venue and below are some of the souvenir shots we took home.

Photo booths are FUN! We were on it for a short while but it was great nonetheless.

To end this post, let me tell you something that happened before we were called to the buffet. Ill have you see the picture first.

The catering guy gave me this. Of all the people in our table, why me? Is it because I was a lot more healthy than the rest in the table? A little foul right? But what the heck, I totally embrace my curves.

To Matt and Kawen (Khaye), congratulations and best wishes!! May the good Lord bless you with a whole lifetime of happiness together and lots of beautiful kids to spoil. Mwah!!

Karen and Matt Tie the Knot (Part One)

I love weddings! Super! I am thrilled every time I receive a wedding invite. I cannot express how much but I am! Imagine me just glowing like a firefly.

Recently I have been invited by a girlfriend from the office. Actually, it was months ago but I just had the time to write about it. I was super not expecting it. That morning she just said that she has something for me. I said, what is it? She wouldn’t tell me what but she said, its yellow. I immediately combed my hair (read: I just arrived) and went to their area. Then she handed me the invite. Then I was thinking, really??? I was super touched! Thanks Kawen!

The day of the wedding, I woke up later than I wanted to but it was 2hours before the start of the ceremony and my place is super near the church. I was done cleaning myself and was in the process of doing my hair when the hair iron and the blower just exploded. I dunno what caused it because the extension line was still working after that. Overloading or just plain wear and tear. There was no current on all the upstairs room after that. I had to make some contraption just for us to make the fans working. It was after I got home from the reception that I was able to get the next two photos.

Back to my preparations, I was super stressed. I ended up arriving an hour late. Good thing I was able to see part of the ceremony. Outside the venue, I saw the groom’s Lola with her assistant. The assistant was having a hard time using the camera so I helped her. One of the photo below I took of Lola posing for the camera. After this, I asked the assistant if she wants to have her photo taken with Lola and she said yes. I took their photo.

The area outside of the church was super wide! Outside the gate, you will think that the area was not as big as it really was. You can host a party here,  super spacious!

Here are some pictures after the ceremony which I took from Jane’s Facebook album (Thanks Janey!) . I didn’t took any because I decided not to bring a camera that day. The pictures above and some of the next ones were taken using my phone.

I love this picture of the couple. Who wouldn’t? Its so sweet!

Here are pictures taken before the bride and groom went out of the church. Group pictures are fun!

I have another story. I got lost on my way to the church. The taxi went past it a couple of times before I was able to spot it. It was so hidden but at the same time not. It was along the way but was surrounded by trees. I went inside and I looked around for familiar faces but I saw no one. For some time I was just outside the venue but just to make sure, I asked people if I were in the right wedding. And I was. I went in through the leftmost door. There was this guy standing beside the door and when I looked at him, he was somebody I knew! IC! I did not recognize him because he was wearing this polo and he said he had his hair cut the day before. He totally looked different.

Here is another picture of the groom and bride on their way out of the church. Couple kiss alert!

I super loved Kawen’s wedding dress. I loved it! I wasn’t able to contain myself, I asked her if I could touch it.

After the ceremony, it was time to go to the reception, its somewhere near SM Marikina. The trip to the Glass Garden was a fun trip because I got the chance to ride in with Rachelle and bond with her. When we got there, we were given welcome drinks. Later on I saw that there were appetizers being served. That day was one of my palengkera days. I went to the appetizer table atleast three or four times.

Here is our table. Look at that center piece! Awesome!

Below are the pictures of the appetizers I kept coming back to the table for.

The first one is some sort of a baked appetizer with chicken ala king as stuffing. The next ones are mushroom topped version of the first one with some pita. The last one is crusty bread slice with chicken ala king toppings. Below is the main entree. Three kinds of viand were served in the buffet. Chicken, pork, ox tongue and some vegetables for sidings.

I was a little full even from the appetizers so this serving was enough for me already. Besides that, I have to make room for the desserts. May I just say, the selection was to die for! There was so many I wasn’t able to consume all of them. After trying some of them, my palette was so overwhelmed that other than the leche flan, I wasn’t able to consume all of them! The following pictures is not all of the selection but the one’s I got for myself.

See what I mean? A lot of sweets for everybody! I really enjoyed myself going to the dessert table. We also got some pasta but I was not able to take a photo of it.

This entry is a little longer than usual. But I have a lot more to tell you that went on to happen this day so I’m going to partition this entry in two. Please see the next post for the continuation.

The Esquire Ball

Fashion in the Philippines has now improved so much. I don’t berate the sense of style of my people but as an observant for the last two decades, I have seen that we were always been behind. Recently, that is not the case. Filipinos have been abreast of all the trends if not ahead. I admit that I have not been aware of the high end brands before, but the times and the fashion scene in the country has opened up lots of information. Television, radios and the internet has made the spread of the information easier. Following the blogs and twitter accounts of people from the television and advertising industry as well as the designers and stylists have helped a lot as well.

Aside from being in tune to the tides of the worldwide fashion, Filipinos have become more risqué. This is very evident with the launch of the Esquire magazine. Those invited to the ball were all abuzz in twitter. Everybody was worrying on what to wear for that day. All were saying that a lot of skin will be shown that night and so it was as can be seen in the succeeding pictures.

I don’t know what may have caused this to be so. It can be that the US dollar is dwindling that is why people can now afford high end fashion. It can also be that the designers here have been trained better, went to the best fashion schools, thus their works are at the very least at par with the international ones. I can think of so many things that may be the possible reason why the local fashion industry is ablaze now but I can’t really put a finger as to which of it is the main cause. I don’t really care of which was it, don’t get me wrong. The truth is I am very thankful for all the changes that this industry is going through now because I am enjoying it so much. I just can’t put it into words how much.

The Great UP Diliman Experience

This is a story of another experience I had with my sister and her friends, and by extension mine. I have been telling them of a restaurant that I went to in UP Diliman. You see, I was really fascinated by the fact that there is a very nice and cozy restaurant in the heart of a University. And they serve good food and great desserts!

I have heard of Chocolate Kiss the first time when I was brought there by my previous officemates. I was so enamored by it that from time to time, my sister and I go there to eat. The weekend of the great SM Megamall sale, I was thinking of things that I can do to avoid going to the mall. Initially I planned to watch PBA games, Saturday in San Juan and Sunday in Cubao. For some reason, I wasn’t able to go.

Saturday afternoon, I was told by my sister that I have promised her friends that we were going to UP the next day, Sunday. I was really tempted to beg off because I don’t have the budget yet but I didn’t have the heart to tell them. And so we went.

In asking for directions, I know better now how to get there. We rode the taxi from our place. Since we usually ride the bus to commonwealth and then take the UP ikot, we had to ask from the guards in UP for directions to the Bahay ng Alumni.

When we got there, I wanted to bring my friends at the upstairs restaurant but I just then knew that the place was for reservations and that we can only go to the one located on the first floor.

We wanted to order something for starters but since we were also ordering desserts, we decided not to. For drinks, I told them to order the iced tea, a special house blend.

The sweetener is diluted honey! You can have as much honey as you want since its refillable.

The following pictures will be the dishes that we ordered. There were four of us but only three kinds of dishes since my sister and one of her friends, Lene, decided to get the same entrée. Please excuse the photos; once again they were taken using my BB phone.  [EDIT: Most of the pictures are Kamla's.]

They ordered the Salisbury steak. It was ground beef patty with mushroom gravy sauce served with mixed vegetables. You have the option to have it served with rice or mashed potatoes. Though the mashed potatoes in this place is divine, for this dish, rice is more apt. The patty is a little moist inside and is so full of flavor; it will be too much if you will have it with the potatoes.

Kamla had the Shrimp Pasta Aligue. It was shrimp sautéed in crab fat sprinkled with black olives and freshly chopped cilantro. Since I was not really into testing my allergy levels that day, I opted not to take a bit but Lene and my sister did. Up until today, Diane is still telling me that she really liked the dish and the next time that we go back to the place, she will have to order it.

What I ordered was the Hickory Smoked Spareribs. It was grilled pork spareribs served with hickory sauce and corn kernels. Again you have the option to have it with rice or mashed potatoes. That day, I wasn’t in the mood to eat rice, so I went to have the potatoes. My sister from the time my food was served got the first sample of my potatoes; she loved it so much she got more, multiple times.

The picture may not look that much tempting but believe me when I say that it was great for its super cheap price! The ribs dish was great and so were the potatoes!!

It was dessert time. I was thinking we cannot finish four desserts so I suggested we take three or just the samplers. But we ended up ordering one cake each. I decided to get the carrot cake since I cannot remember what it tasted like the first time we got it. My sister said that the cake was a bit different. The carrot design before was made of fondant but now, it was made of the same material as the icing. This was actually a part of the revisit of the carrot cakes I have tried before. The verdict was, I have tried a cake better than this one.

Lene got the famous devils cake. It was a chocolate cake inside with a generous amount of white frosting slathered all over it.

Kamla got the Oreo Cheesecake. It was great! I mean, the oreo base of the cake was evidently new. The cheesecake itself was moist, very good.

My sister got the blueberry cheesecake. Though the base was a little overdone, I am very partial to this dessert for every time I think of cheesecake, what always comes to mind is the blueberry cheesecake.

We had a nice walk from the restaurant to the sunken garden after the brunch. I love the place! I wasn’t wearing tinted glasses so I wasn’t able to do boy-watching that much. Hahhaaha! Next time! Hahahahah!

This was after we asked from a street vendor for directions going to the sunken garden.

This is the main circular road. The street where we were facing at is going to the oblation while that one on the back is going to the sunken garden. We just went to the garden and didn’t have that much time to go back for a photo-op at the infamous oblation statue.

I took a better picture. This looks more like a scene from another place. Look at the trees!

When we got to the sunken garden, we enjoyed the scenery and ofcourse had some picture taken. It wasnt us but the tree who starred in these succeeding pictures.

After the walk, we were supposed to go to Tiendesitas. Instead, my companions decided that we go to SM Megamall. We went to so many shops I can’t remember them all. Bayo, Celine, Charles and Keith, Payless, People are People and many many more.

Ofcourse we couldn’t miss the trip to Forever 21. While I was lining up to pay for my loot, Diane and Lene where sitting in some of the boxes where the mannequins were placed. Here is a photo of my sister trying on one of the blazers in the store. We are kind of into blazers now but the thing is, we only have an ancient one.

Here is a photo of a very tired Lene.

We went to Celine twice. The second time, Kamla was deciding on what color to get of the shoes she really liked but was having second thoughts when we were there first. This lovely grandma told her to get the peach ones because as she said, they looked “smart.”

And so Kamla did.

Look how cute she is! At that time, she was trying on a bedazzled wedge sandal. At this time when the photo was taken, she was telling the saleslady that she disliked the size because her soles were beyond the edge of the soles of the shoe. Super funky grandma, I love her!