Kris Aquino, giving up on her marriage

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““Remember that a successful marriage depends on two things: (1) finding the right person and (2) being the right person”

kris-aquino-james-yap-separateIt must be hard being both public figures. Only Kris Aquino and James Yap know their situation. I cannot count the times I, too, gave up on our marriage. Butch never gave up even at the time I gave up on our marriage.

That’s how our married life is. bati, galit, bati, galit and probably will always be, hopefully more good days than bad. The reasons behind some of our spats are immaterial. I believe that more marriages might survive if the partners realized that sometimes the better comes after the worse is hurdled. Then, again coping mechanisms vary among couples.

I pray for all those in the same marital situation as Kris.

Below are the videos and the transcript of Kris Aquino’s interview on “The Buzz,” Sunday (June 27) where she disclosed that she has given up on her marriage to basketball star James Yap.


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The politics of motherhood

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mom-bloggers6

I cringe every time someone outside the blogging world, asks me “what exactly do you do? or How long do you spend at your computer?” Well, let me just say, that we, mom Bloggers are not frumpy women that hang out with our computers all day. There’s more to being a mom blogger than one might think. Some of us are former career women, and professionals who decided to spend more time with our kids and blog because we are passionate about something and not as our primary job.

We also know when to have fun, to take time away from our kids and to take care of ourselves. When someone feels rotten about their day or asks me “what should I do? we had a fight” , I often say “take care of yourself first. Love yourself. ”

A famous Dalai Lama quote says it all ““If you don’t love yourself, you cannot love others. You will not be able to love others. If you have no compassion for yourself then you are not able of developing compassion for others.” I believe one cannot give what one does not have.
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A Chance to win a National Geographic Expeditions trip to the Greek isles

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A Jewish proverb says “No matter what happens, travel gives you a story to tell. ” I just came from my husband’s hometown for a Father’s day weekend. It might just be an ordinary place to travel for most of you but see, there is a story to tell. Since we moved to our new home in Pasig in 2007, my husband felt our new home was the ultimate vacation destination. Except for a brief trip to Singapore, we never traveled within the Philippines as we used to in the past. I nagged him to take us back to his birthplace because the kids missed travelling with us. Unfortunately, only one daughter could join us as the second daughter couldn’t leave work. Being in a different place is always an opportunity to take a break from the computer, bond with my husband and daughter. This is just the beginning of a series of travel in the Philippines and elsewhere for the year 2010. Of course, a travel is never complete without photos and I took lots of them. Above are just a few.

National Geographic Energizer Ultimate Photo ContestI am back in Manila and eager to start work when I saw this email in my inbox. The sender, the awareness campaign of National Geographic and Energizer who asked me if I was interested to share the Energizer Ultimate Photo Contest with my readers. The thought of travelling to the Greek Isles will surely interest everyone. I thought you might be interested in this unique opportunity which is now in its third year so I am sharing it with you.

What is it about? (EDIT: Found out the contest rules are “open only to legal residents of the fifty (50) United States and the District of Columbia who are at least eighteen (18) years old “)

1. Send in your best photos – in categories like Animals/Wildlife, Travel and Weather – for a chance to win a National Geographic Expeditions trip for two to the Greek isles and a featured in an Energizer ad in the December issue of National Geographic magazine.

2. Entry is open until June 30th at http://www.nationalgeographic.com/pictela. National Geographic photographer Jim Richardson serves as a contest judge, and will also be doling out photography tips and participating in a Q&A session on the contest website.

3. ALL photography skill levels are encouraged to enter – one of last year’s winners was shot by a zoo employee on a regular point-and-shoot camera!

The deadline is next week, June 30. Send your photos here at http://www.nationalgeographic.com/pictela

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Clubbing 101 for a clueless, hip mom

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It’s been a trend over the last few years, but it’s just getting bigger and bigger. It’s the clubbing, party-going crowd, and it gives people an excuse to dress up how they normally wouldn’t. Shari Maxwell


Receiving an invitation to a launch is nothing new to me and with my busy schedule, I am quite picky. The cool invite to attend the launch of the new Republiq , a club, a venue of sorts located at the Plaza, Resorts World Manila, Newport City in Pasay City piqued my interest because it was Tim Yap’s latest venture. I met Tim Yap in Singapore last year at the height of Ondoy and got to know him beyond his celebrity status.

I appreciated the invite because I have never experienced the clubbing scene in Manila. Who says I can’t have good clean fun at my age? Having a little adventure is always fun. Bringing my husband was out of the question. It was a week day. Good thing the hubby didn’t complain when I told him that I’ll bringing the girls out on thursday night. Off we went to Republiq club in long dresses, a rarity. It was a good 40 minutes drive away from home.

Like I told you earlier, I thought it was a media event so I brought along my Nikon DSLR. The lady at the entrance told me that my DSLR had to be deposited. No problem, I didn’t feel like dragging my chunky camera along anyway. She placed a stamp on my hand.

At the entrance, the guards inspected the hands of my girls. I looked horrified as I stared at my right hand, ” look, the stamp on my hand disappeared. Let me go back to the counter…”

My daughter, the “club authority” whispered, “Mom….UV light will detect it.”

I chuckled at clueless me.

The Republiq was not ready for the guests so I just sat down and looked around for my media friends.

Noting my disappointment, another daughter rolled her eyes “Mom, this is not a media invite. You were invited. Didn’t you read the invitation? Private launch?”

Then another daughter piped in “You may be hip and cool,mom but still a mom. Clueless about clubs”.

Laughing at my faux pax, I chimed in “I know, haha. well, what I know about clubs are disco clubs…we actually dance.”

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Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been

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You don’t stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing. Michael Pritchard


Life is good. I am 53 years old today. I’ve never felt so great, so young and happy! I know the past had come and gone. I know I wasted parts of it. Once upon a time, life looked gloomy. The clouds always looked grey. The sun never shone. The birds never sang. The colors of the world was just black and white. I never knew there was life after a death of a precious child. I forgot how to smile. I guess in each one of us there resides some survival or coping mechanism… or perhaps I was just touched by my angel. We get touched at some point in our lives if we allow it to happen.

Like my age, I don’t mind if people ask my age. After all, age is an issue of mind over matter. “If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter” said Mark Twain. I think it is a compliment when college friends tell me that I look so much better now than before. I can say that confidence played a role. Taking care of oneself is important. Love yourself first before you can love others.

Smiling is easy now even as I wake up with the sunlight streaming down my face and the birds chirping by the bay window. It is the smile that adds sparkle in my heart and the twinkle in my eyes. It is what makes me who I am today that I could not achieve in my youth.

I am out of words today yet grateful for all the blessings God has given me. I am thankful for the second blooming in life. Life at the age of 53 is indeed just the beginning of a new life that has opened before me.

To celebrate the smile and the laughter, here is a 10-second video.
Thank you Nuffnang for the lovely birthday birthday present (the LED billboard for this blog)

Dancing with the feet is one thing, but dancing with the heart is another

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““You’ve got to dance like nobody’s watching and love like it’s never going to hurt.”

dancing
I guess nobody is perfect. My husband is handsome, cute, romantic, passionate (hot-headed too), smart, crazy, weird…and that’s just some of the reasons I fell for him when he “drooled” all over me in 1978. When we were seated at the restaurant as the disco music played in the air, he’d sway his body left and right or shake his head. Wow, this guy can groove, I thought. When we were finally steadies, I brought him to “Birds of the Same Feather”, a small disco place in Timog ( it was Ozone a few years later). As I dragged him to the dance floor, he sort of stood there, with his left feet stuck on the floor. With a sheepish grin, he confessed ” I don’t dance, eh. ”

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Freedom, Victory of the people lies in our hands

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“In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.”
– by Franklin D. Roosevelt

noemi-flagToday, we celebrate the 112th Independence day amidst grandeur display of our president’s so-called achievements. Never mind that the Freedom House downgraded our “Free” status to “partly free” since 2006. The sad reality is that 112 years after the declaration of independence, our nation has still to assert its sovereignty. We lack an indpendent foreign policy,our government is beholden or subservient to foreign interests, and foreign troops are still based on Philippine soil.

I have always considered freedom such a precious word. Living most of my teen-age life under a Martial law and a dictatorship, I learned to adjust to our limited freedom and to party only till just before midnight. A breath of freedom during the EDSA 1 People Power was wonderful break only to be broken once again with corruption that seems rooted in our culture. The Philippines “partly free” status makes me vigilant that there is a benchmark, that I can play a part in achieving the “free” status of our country.

To be truly free, we have to be vigilant to make sure we do our duty as good citizens to keep watch on the government and make sure that election promises are actually fulfilled. This is only the first step. The journey to complete freedom is still ahead of us.

Freedom, Victory of the people lies in our hands.

The Kamaganak Inc mapping project

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The presence of the Kamaganak Inc. in the Cory administration was a huge turn-off in the past and it is one of the other reason that I didn’t choose Noynoy as my presidential candidate. We all know that the Aquino-Cojuangco feudal clans (and their extended network of cronies) arguably make up the single biggest oligarchic bloc in Philippine society which is called the Kamaganak Inc..

Noynoy will soon be our new president. Vigilance is the key and we hope that the Kamaganak Inc will not be a strong force in the new administration. In the spirit of transparency and good governance, I think the Kamaganak Inc. Mapping Project is a wonderful initiative.

The the Kamaganak Inc. Mapping Project reveals some of these Kamaganak

Some of the factions within Kamaganak Inc are already scrambling for the spoils of Noynoy’s ““landslide” win in the polls, to name a few:

– The Aquino Siblings (Kris, Ballsy, etc.).
– The ““Hyatt 10″ – emo officials who resigned at the height of the Great ““Hello Garci Scandal” of 2005
– The cast and crew of Noynoy’s Hindi ka Nag-iisa campaign video (Ding Dong Dantes, Ogie Alcasid, Regine Velasquez, etc.)
– Peping Cojuangco – who is a power bloc in hig own individual right
– The ““New Media Bureau” of the campaign headed by Enteng Romano that delivered Noynoy his million-strong ““fan” base on Facebook.com among others.

You can also view the map here.

Who killed Jennifer?

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The invite read “You’re invited to a dinner to die for” and along with it came a magnifying glass. How nifty.

“Some know me by name. Some have eluded my deathly grip. But there are still more women out there – unsuspecting, unaware, ignorant that I am lurking at the sidelines. Eyeing them. Waiting to surprise them when they least expect it.”

jennifer

I was told to dress-to-kill in 1950’s attire but found none in my wardrobe. I ended up wearing a thick belt over my top and skirt. The theme definitely piqued my curiosity. Never mind if I was pissed off at the drama starring Speaker Nograles, Rep Romualdo and Rep Art Defensor for their show “ Kill the Freedom of Information Bill (FOI)” a few hours earlier. Nothing was going to prevent me from enjoying the night with my blogger-friends.

party

It was a night for searching clues to find out who this female serial murderer on the prowl is – before it strikes to claim the next victim.”
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