Best of 2007

Maybe it was because I took so many photos, maybe it was because there were so many things to take photos of; maybe it was because I went out more, maybe it was because I ate at so many new restaurants; maybe it was because I watched so many disappointing movies, maybe it was because I watched so many good DVDs; maybe it was because I read so many good books, maybe it was because I read so many bad books; maybe it was because of my consistent bad luck with dates (blind or otherwise), maybe it was because of spending more time with people who love me (blindly or otherwise). Whatever it was about 2007, I have many vivid, mostly happy memories of the year past.

Firsts: my high school barkada went on a trip together; I went to Europe; became a godmother (to Vina's son Tyler); "caught" a wedding bouquet; got a photo op with Sir Tirol; attended mass at the Church of the Gesu; went on a trip abroad with Auntie Nene; toured Macau

Momentous and memorable: SATC was born; Angge, Yang and Jenny passed the Bar; the Harry Potter series came to a close; Malu Fernandez; Ateneo beat La Salle in the UAAP elimination round, TWICE, and then again in the semis; Portuguese men in New York; Loida gave birth to her third child; Trillanes and the Manila Peninsula “siege”; our company acquired a new brand, Elianto

Events: a cousin (Ahia Stib), 4 friends (Pame, Gail, Tangsoc and Juls), and 2 office staffers (Ivy and Abi) got married; our long-time sewing supervisor Ate Eres passed away; 2 friends’ sons turned 1 year old (Kaizer and Ty); Auntie Selena threw Shereen a surprise birthday party; Charity Fyrinx threw Maddy a surprise kiddie party; Tangsoc threw a post-wedding costume party, where AP-Annex dressed up as the Spice Girls; the LM girls threw a surprise bridal shower for Juls; the Family threw a semi-surprise baby shower for Pame

Reunions: with the Escalera brothers, with Marilyn, with half of my high school batch, with my soul sister Bel (we forgot to take pix =(), with my dad's side of the family

Despedidas and balikbayans: Ria left for the US; Maddy left for Singapore; Tangsoc came back then left, then came back and left again; Inigo the Shanghai gigolo came home for a visit; JT left to study in Toronto; Jen Ong returned from Lah-lah Land twice during her breaks from NUS

With so many milestones, celebrations and experiences shared with family and friends, it truly was a year worth remembering. And though my brother beat me to it, quoting Frank Sinatra seems the perfect way to sum up 2007:

"And now I think of my life as vintage wine
from fine old kegs
From the brim to the dregs,
it poured sweet and clear
It was a very good year."

Here's a list of the highlights of my very good year:

Best day: January 20
Best life-altering decision: resolving to return to teaching someday
Best (incomplete) family vacation: Europe
Best non-family vacation: the Family’s Tagaytay weekend
Best traveling companion: Hanks
Best wedding date: Abi
Best first date: Bri (we forgot to take pix =()
Best surprise: Openness living room invasion =D
Best gift received: an Exilim digicam from my parents
Best gift given: a Tittot dragon for my parents
Best party: JCA Batch ’97 10th Graduation Anniversary Reunion
Best luxury item purchased: Coach wallet
Best TV show: Heroes, tied with Boston Legal
Best sitcom to share with shobe: Two and a Half Men
Best movie: Hairspray
Best actor: Alan Rickman (for being one of the few bright spots in the 5th Harry Potter movie, and because I only watched Sense and Sensibility and Die Hard this year)
Best actress: Nicole Kidman (narrowly edging out Michelle Pfeiffer, who shone in both Hairspray and Stardust)
Best sports hero: Roger Federer
Best book: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
Best book that isn’t Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
Best author: John Updike
Best CD: Eye to the Telescope, KT Tunstall (released in 2004 but I only discovered it this year)
Best song: Other Side of the World, KT Tunstall
Best LSS (last song syndrome): Makes Me Wonder, Maroon 5
Best band: (technically not a band, and technically not even real, but…) the fictional Four Seasons, a.k.a. the Jersey Boys
Best imported object of lust: Gerard Butlerrrrr
Best local object of lust: Marc Nelsonnnnn
Best not-so-pedophiliac-anymore fixation: James and Oliver Phelps, a.k.a. Fred and George Weasley, the Weasley twins :)
Best miracle moment: Kirk Long’s buzzer-beater in the 2nd round game versus UST
Best reason ang sarap maging Atenista: my Upper Box buddies =D
Best fashion trend: kimono tops
Best fashion staple: denim minis
Best beauty aid: Mario Badescu Drying Lotion
Best caffeine fix: Double Vanilla Soy Tea Latte from the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf
Best sweet tooth treat: Sebastian’s Ice Cream
Best meal: dinner at Elbert's Steak Room
Best 15 minutes of fame: serving as an Oscars panelist for BBC.com
Best achievement: finishing my New York Times reading list
Best healthy pasttime: reading good books
Best unhealthy pasttime: reading Hollywood gossip blog IDontLikeYouInThatWay.com
Best new online preoccupation: playing Word Battle on www.king.com
Best blog post: again, I’ll let my adoring public decide this one :)

My version of the Christmas alphabet

C is for collecting Starbucks stickers
H is for handing out Elianto samples to my girlfriends
R is for rushing to find presents for my sibs
I is for inching forward in holiday traffic
S is for stuffing my face with Christmas goodies
T is for taking showers with Snowcake
M is for meeting up with different groups of friends
A is for attending one party after another
S is for spending the holidays in Hong Kong and Macau with my family and Auntie Nene

I'll be back in Manila on the 30th. 'Til then, I would like to wish all my loyal bloghounds a very merry Christmas. Happy Holidays, everyone!

10 things that have made me smile in the past week

1. Reading Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke.
   
2. Marc Nelson taking his shirt off before plunging into a mudbath in New Zealand (God I love this season of The Amazing Race Asia).
3. Exchanging Amazing Race Asia text commentary with Sir Tirol.
   
4. Clive Owen as Sir Walter Raleigh in Elizabeth: The Golden Age.
   
5. Sebastian's Ice Cream.
6. Spending Saturday night with my Rated R group.
7. Running into my student Mye at Yuujin.
   
8. My nephew Rafa.
9. Seeing Marc Nelson's face plastered all over SM's men's wear department (a most effective way to cheer me up during dreary store visits).
10. My godson Tyler. =D
    

I scream for Sebastian's Ice Cream

Discounting nutritional value and caloric content, if I could eat only one kind of food for the rest of my life, it would be ice cream. I just lovelovelove ice cream, from Haagen-Dazs to Ben & Jerry's to Selecta to FIC to Dairy Queen Blizzards to McDonalds sundaes to Wendy's Frosty to homemade gelato to frozen yogurt to "dirty" ice cream peddled in sorbetero carts.

Last weekend, I discovered something that sent the ice cream lover in me into paroxysms of rapture: Sebastian's Ice Cream Studio. I've heard of the brand before, as plugged by 103.5 Max FM DJ Vito Lazatin, who happens to be a part-owner. Also, my foodie friend Yang once told me about having received 2 pints of Sebastian's from someone. Since I was conducting store visits during the Podium's recently concluded 3-day sale, I decided to make a side trip to Sebastian's kiosk on the 4th floor of the mall. I tried 2 flavors, Chocoholics Anonymous and Swiss Chocolate Cheesecake, and simply put, they were 2 scoops of ice cream heaven. Chocolate is my absolute favorite flavor, and I declare Chocoholics Anonymous the mother of all chocolate ice creams. Don't let the dark color scare you off; it IS sweet, but not cloyingly so, and the fudge swirls and chocolate chunks both enhance and temper the richness of the velvety chocolate ice cream. As for the Swiss Chocolate Cheesecake, since cheesecake is possibly my second favorite dessert, converting it into ice cream form is about as good as it gets. Bits of graham crust and Toblerone accentuate this tasty treat. Although Baskin-Robbins' Raspberry Cheese Louise frozen yogurt still tops my cheesecake ice cream list, and Haagen-Dazs' Strawberry Cheesecake packs more cheesecake flavor in a pint, Sebastian's Swiss Chocolate Cheesecake comes a very close and yummy 3rd.

My first Sebastian's experience was such a terrific taste sensation that I returned to the same kiosk 2 days later (during another store visit), and I tried 2 more flavors: Dublin Fudge and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. The former was excellent, a smooth Bailey's-flavored ice cream laced with fudge ribbons, and the latter was all right, but I expected to find more cookie dough in the vanilla ice cream (the description does say "gobs" of cookie dough, after all). I also asked for a free taste of the Mango Sans Rival, of which I've read rave online reviews, and I think my next trip to the Podium calls for a full scoop. There were some flavors that weren't available during my first 2 forays that I also want to try: the Banana Bonanza, which is Sebastian's take on Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey (my favorite B & J flavor, banana ice cream with chocolate chunks), the Midnight Peanut Butter Cup (a sinful combination of dark chocolate ice cream and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups), and the Peanut Butter Cookie Dough (dark chocolate ice cream with peanut butter cookie dough). I'm crazy for peanut butter, so if Sebastian's comes up with a chocolate peanut butter cheesecake flavor, I'd probably schedule more frequent store visits to the Podium.

Sebastian's creamy concoctions don't come cheap, but P80 for a scoop and P145 for a double scoop serving aren't unreasonable for ice cream of this fine quality (Pagliacci on the 5th floor of the Podium sells gelato at P100 a scoop). I wish the Sebastian's kiosk sold ice cream in pints, so I could bring home the stuff and savor it slowly while watching TV. In all my years of ice cream consumption and appreciation, Sebastian's is the only local brand I've tried that could possibly unseat Haagen-Dazs from being the king of ice creams in my estimation. Long live Sebastian's!

Proof positive I love my brother

Last Tuesday night, I accompanied Bens to watch the movie Batanes, because he needed to write a paper on it for his Creative Writing elective. I hadn't gone to see a local film in ages, and this one reminded me of precisely why I tend to stay away from them in the first place. Everything made me wince, from the lame acting (why do bad Filipino actors deliver their lines in a weird, singsongy way that's meant to be sincere but just screams fake?) to the poorly translated, grammatically flawed subtitles. Moreover, the plot was both highly unoriginal and painfully contrived. A grieving widow (Iza Calzado) rescues a Taiwanese fisherman (F4's Ken Zhu, looking grubby and bored) who washes up on shore one stormy night. Despite the language barrier and the complete lack of any perceivable chemistry, the 2 fall in love (surprise of the century).

I've always found Iza Calzado pretty, but it turns out she's not much of an actress. Her performance in Batanes wasn't horrible, but it was mediocre at best, and boring at times. She was at least better than Ken Zhu, who was as wooden as the fishing boats that figured prominently in the movie (no wonder he didn't drown). Oh, and speaking of prominent, Iza should kill the camera man who kept using the most unflattering angles to focus on her butt, which, given her delicate features, is surprisingly big (and not in a J.Lo bootylicious way).

The only positive thing about the movie was the setting. I'm not sure if they really filmed all the scenes in Batanes, but the shots of the coastline and cliffs overlooking the sea were breathtaking. At one point Bens turned to me and whispered in a dubious tone, "Pilipinas pa rin ba 'yan?" It's a good thing his teacher asked him to write about how the sea was characterized in the movie, because to me the sea was the only respectable element in the whole thing.

I felt like the filmmakers were trying too hard to make Batanes an artsy movie (or were the subtitles for Ken Zhu's benefit?), but they only got the location right. Everything else sucked: the casting, the acting, the camera direction, the writing, even the music (Jolina sang the closing theme; 'nuff said). Based on this, it's going to take more than sibling love (and pity) to drag me back to see another Filipino film anytime soon.

The cellphone chronicles

Over a week ago, I discovered a crack in the casing of my Nokia 6108, near the bottom. It wasn't anything major, so I simply ignored it. Last weekend however, the crack split wide open until a sizeable piece of plastic broke off. Suddenly there was a gaping hole in my cellphone, through which I could actually see the circuit board inside. I tried to repair it with Mighty Bond, but I did a crap job of it and now my phone looks like, well, crap. At least crappier than it used to, because the keypad has been begging to be replaced for months. See for yourself:


My friends razz me about how ridiculously low-tech my cellphone is (it has no camera, no Bluetooth, can't play music, and can only use polytone ringtones), and my dad keeps persuading me to upgrade to a newer model (at his expense too), but I pay them no mind. I love this phone. It flips open to reveal a pad on which you can write Chinese characters using a stylus (although my stylus keeps sliding out of its holder, and is missing the rubber part in the middle), the only Nokia model with that feature. It also has an English-Chinese, Chinese-English dictionary which comes in handy when I'm traveling in China or Hong Kong. I've had this unit for about 4 years now, and it's never malfunctioned, the battery life is still decent (I can go about 2 days without recharging), and I see no reason to replace something that's perfectly serviceable. Even if it looks like crap.

I've never been one to look for fancy features in cellphones anyway. As long as I can call and text, I'm fine. This is part of the reason I have a track record of hanging onto phones for an abnormally long time. In the almost 10 years I've been using cellphones, I've only owned 5 models, to wit:

the Nokia 2110 - You never forget your First. This baby was big, black, and weighed a ton (and yes, it had a pull-up antenna). My parents gave it to me during my sophomore year in college, back when texting was still free of network charges and "message sending failed" was a regular occurrence. I learned how to speed-text on this bulky brick of a phone, and it became my omnipresent companion during late-night cramming for exams, when I'd text the few blockmates I had who also owned cellphones just to stay awake. Yes, the screen was monochrome, the font size ginormous, and the battery was heavy-duty (emphasis on "heavy"), but though it may be hard for the iPod generation to conceive of such a clunker being indispensable, I remember the 2110 with much fondness. The only reason I replaced it was that smaller, handier phones were being introduced in the market, and a girl's purse just cannot contain such a huge gadget.

the Nokia 6110 - Of all the cellphones I owned, this was The One. I started using it sometime during my junior year in college, and it saw me through the best and worst times of my college years. That phone was my lifeline to project groupmates, org members and co-officers, and even some teachers. It was so sturdy that despite dropping it on hard surfaces many, many times, it never gave me any problems. Back then it still had its original deep purplish-green casing, but eventually it got so chipped and the keypad got so worn that I had to replace both when I started working. Then the numbers and letters on the new keypad eventually got worn away too, and I didn't bother buying a new one (what for? I know all the numbers and letters by heart). THEN the display on the LCD started fading, and to see what was on the screen I had to press down on it ("touchscreen", I joked). until the screen literally cracked under pressure... and yet it still worked! I loved this phone with a passion, and the day I gave it up was truly a sad one. Until now I keep the unit in a place of honor inside my bedside drawer.

the Nokia 6310i - This one was The Fling. My dad forced this unit on me when I went to Beijing to study for several months in 2002. He didn't want me using the 6110 while I was in a foreign country, because at the time it looked like it should be in cellphone ICU and could die on me any minute. I used the 6110 for my Globe line and the 6310 for my China sim card. I liked the latter well enough; it was sleek and silver and resembled the 6110 in many ways-- it also had monochrome display and pretty much the same features, with the addition of Bluetooth (though I never really used it anyway). This unit didn't stay with me very long though. Once I got home from Beijing, I gave it to my sister and my dad gave me a new phone, the 6108 I'm still using now. However, the 6310 has the distinction of being the only phone I came closest to losing. I left it on the train my friends and I took from Inner Mongolia back to Beijing; thankfully, my friends who left the station later than me managed to go back to the train and retrieve it.

the Nokia 6108 - I call this The Keeper. If the 6110 was the love of my life I had to give up, then this one's the long-term relationship I can see myself settling down with forever. Although it pales in comparison to the more advanced models out there, I like the practical functions it offers and how they meet my needs. It's reliable, no-frills (hence, no technical glitches), and at least it's WAP-enabled so I can download ringtones and wallpapers (this is my first ever colored-display phone). The size is also ideal for my small bags, and it also fits snugly in the pockets of my jeans. Now that it's damaged, I know my dad will bug me even more about getting a new unit, but the only thing I'd consider replacing it with is another 6108. Just not a pink one.

the Nokia 2310 - My latest phone I refer to as The Office Affair. This was the unit that came free with my Sun line, which I got just this year. Mostly it's relegated to work-related calls and texts, and though I occasionally use it to chat with or exchange texts with friends, it's more owing to the unlimited calls/texts that Sun offers than the ease of using the actual unit. The 2310 means nothing to me, but it's convenient to have around as a back-up for my 6108. It also serves as a second alarm clock to jar me awake every morning. Though it's purse-friendly like my 6108, I remain emotionally detached from this model.

So there you have it, the 5 cellphones I've gone through in the past 9 or so years. You'll notice I've been loyal to Nokia ever since, and I don't think I'll ever be one to try a Sony Ericsson or a Samsung or even an iPhone. When it comes to cellphones, in case you haven't noticed, I believe in the saying, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". Or, if it's broke, fix it with Mighty Bond. But ask someone with a steadier hand to do it for you.

Not quite golden, but certainly not bad

Despite (or perhaps more accurately, in spite of?) calls to boycott the film, the cinema was pretty full when I went to see The Golden Compass. So are critics and enraged religious groups right to gnash their teeth and condemn this movie to the fiery depths of Christian hell? I think they would have been disappointed, actually. The film adaptation of Philip Pullman's book (a.k.a. Northern Lights, the first volume in the trilogy His Dark Materials) is pretty watered down, neither outrightly portraying the Church as the villains (opting to refer to them as "the Magisterium"), nor touching on any religious topic, for that matter. I certainly didn't see or hear anything that would have offended even the most sensitive, die-hard practitioner of the Christian faith. Then again, that uber-sensitive, die-hard Christian wouldn't have stepped into the theater in the first place.

Too bad, because he would be missing a pretty entertaining flick. As I predicted, the movie turned out to be more spectacular than subversive, emphasizing the details of the parallel universe created by Pullman instead of his antipathy toward the Church and its beliefs. This is unmistakably nothing more than a fantasy picture with a lot of fancy special effects, depicting a world where human souls take the form of animal companions called daemons, dirigibles and hot air balloons are not uncommon means of transport, witches look like Bond girls, and armored polar bears kick ass. Even the controversial "Dust", which in Pullman's books is denounced by the Magisterium as the source of original sin, is simply and vaguely explained as something "bad" in the film.

Because the movie is so diluted, I didn't enjoy it as much as the book. Specifically, a lot of the details about how the alethiometer (a.k.a. the golden compass) works, and how young heroine Lyra learns to use it, were left out. Perhaps because the filmmakers were trying to cram so much material into 2 hours, the transition between scenes was abrupt, and the story line moved along like a car driving over a road pockmarked with potholes. For someone who hasn't read the book (like the clueless woman seated next to me in the theater who kept asking her companion "ano yun?" or "sino yan?"), the plot would be a bit tough to follow.

I liked the casting though. Newcomer Dakota Blue Richards, who played Lyra, is a natural talent, and makes Emma Watson (Hermione in the Harry Potter franchise) look amateurish by comparison. Freddie Highmore, object of my pedophiliac affection, lent his voice (I think I detect the onset of puberty in the lower timbre) to Lyra's daemon Pantalaimon, while the great Ian McKellen lent his recognizable baritone to Iorek Byrnison the polar bear. Both Highmore and McKellen served as outstanding voice talents; on the other hand, Kristin Scott Thomas and Kathy Bates had about 4 lines between them as other daemons, and it makes me wonder how much they were paid for reciting those few sentences. For that matter, I wonder how much the producers paid Daniel Craig (of whom I have never been a fan) for a paltry handful of minutes on screen as Lord Asriel. Based on how he is described in the books, I expected the character to be harder and more haughty; in the movie, Asriel turned into frickin' James Bond (and not even the Bond I like). At least I now finally understand Eva Green's appeal. As queen witch Serafina Pekkala, she was majestic, mysterious, and mesmerizing, exotic accent, dark eyeliner and all.

But of course, there is no doubting who the star of the show was. Nicole Kidman was far more golden than the titular compass, outshining everyone in the cast with a spot-on turn as the calculating, cold and cruel Mrs. Coulter, and dazzling everyone in the audience with her stunning ice-queen beauty. If only for her performance, religious fanatics should give their Bible-thumping a rest and give this movie a chance.

There's really nothing incendiary about The Golden Compass film adaptation; if anything, I fault it for being too harmless. The power of Pullman's books (which in my opinion elevates them above the Harry Potter series) is precisely provocation-- the depth of meaning his fiction contains, as well as the radical and unpopular ideas it conveys, urges the reader to not just read, but think, and possibly reflect on his beliefs. The Golden Compass movie is the opposite: it encourages the viewer to not think, but just watch, and possibly reflect on how many more evil guy roles Christopher Lee will get to play in his lifetime.

Unveiled

A few blog posts back, I mentioned that our company has entered a new business venture that I was not yet at liberty to discuss. Now, all can be told: we recently acquired a new brand, Elianto, which carries makeup, skin care, body care, and nail care. It's from Malaysia, but we obtained the distribution rights from a local company. Since this is a VERY different industry from the one we're accustomed to, things have been a little crazy at the start. Not only was the turnover from the previous owners pretty messy, but getting oriented with completely new and unfamiliar product lines (with a dizzying number of variants and colors) has been discombobulating. Besides, my mom and I have never been the kikay type, and heaven knows my father knows zilch about cosmetics. Good thing we have Abi the makeup meister around. While she imparts product knowledge with us, we teach her about the retail aspect of the business. Hopefully, we strike gold not long after entering this unchartered territory.

Now comes the part where I do my obligatory plugging (and shameless begging): please tell all your family and friends about Elianto, with stores located in Mall of Asia, The Block, Robinsons Galleria, Landmark TriNoma, SM Manila, SM Fairview, and SM Clark. Elianto products are formulated specially for tropical skin, and made with quality botanical extracts. Christmas gift packs are available, perfect gifts for your mom, sister, girlfriend/s, wife, daughter, granddaughter, goddaughter (the nail care set-- nail clipper, nail buffer, and a bottle of nail polish-- is a steal at P199!). Do check out Elianto, the baby of our ever-growing family.

Click for product pix.

Je t'adore

Countless songs have been written about unrequited love and "the one that got away", and I'm no fan of so-called senti music, but when I heard this number on the Jersey Boys soundtrack, I couldn't help but be taken by the beautiful melody and plaintive lyrics of this 70s classic.

My Eyes Adored You
Frankie Valli

My eyes adored you
Though I never laid a hand on you,
My eyes adored you
Like a million miles away from me you couldn't see
How I adored you:
So close, so close and yet so far away

Carried your books from school,
Playing make-believe you're married to me:
You were fifth grade, I was sixth
When we came to be
Walking home every day over Barnegat Bridge and Bay,
Till we grew into the me and you
Who went our separate ways

My eyes adored you
Though I never laid a hand on you,
My eyes adored you
Like a million miles away from me you couldn't see
How I adored you:
So close, so close and yet so far

Headed for city lights,
Climbed the ladder up to fortune and fame,
I worked my fingers to the bone,
Made myself a name
Funny, I seem to find that no matter how the years unwind,
Still I reminisce about the girl I miss
And the love I left behind...

My eyes adored you
Though I never laid a hand on you,
My eyes adored you
Like a million miles away from me you couldn't see
How I adored you:
So close, so close and yet so far

All my life I will remember how warm and tender
We were way back then
Though I'm feeling sad regrets I know I won't ever forget
You, my childhood friend

My eyes adored you
Though I never laid a hand on you,
My eyes adored you
Like a million miles away from me you couldn't see
How I adored you:
So close, so close and yet so far

* * *

Speaking of which, my eyes are currently adoring up-and-coming actor Ben Barnes, who will be playing Prince Caspian in the next 2 Narnia movies. He first caught my eye in Stardust, where he had a brief role as young Dunstan Thorn. I am whole-heartedly reiterating my suggestion that he be cast as Bill Weasley in the next Harry Potter movie. I mean, LOOK at him:


No wonder I can't come up with a more respectable blog post. Between listening to the Jersey Boys soundtrack over and over, and staring at photos of pretty boys, my brain must be beginning to liquefy already.

Public service announcement

Attention, those collecting stickers for the crazedly coveted Starbucks planner:

In celebration of their 10th anniversary in the Philippines, Starbucks is giving double stickers for every beverage purchased from December 4 to 7, but only from 12:30-2:00PM and 8:00-9:30PM. I found out yesterday morning when I dropped by Starbucks Corinthian Hills for a much-needed caffeine fix on my way back to the office from a meeting. If like me you're still several stickers away from getting that pesky planner, I suggest you take advantage of this promotion for the next 4 days.

Caffeine overdose, here I come.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

It's ba-aaaaack!


After an agonizing 8-month wait, Lush has finally, finally started selling its creamy Christmas soap Snowcake again! Hanks and I got hooked on the ridiculously expensive, incredibly yummy shower treat last holiday season, and when we found out Lush doesn't carry it the whole year round, we resolved to hoard a huge batch of bars when it returns to stores the following Christmas. Yesterday, I walked into Lush at Shangri-la Plaza hoping, hoping, hoping that the 1st day of December would mark the return of our favorite bath product, and there they were in a pretty little pile, several slabs of the milky white, almond-scented soap we're just mad about. I swear I almost jumped for joy. I immediately asked for an entire slab of Snowcake (about the size of a small loaf of bread), and a sales assistant sliced it into 15 bars for me. The purchase cost me over P3,000, and some of you might think I'm insane to be shelling out so much for just soap (social sin, Maddy?), but i figure it's no worse than spending over P3,000 for Starbucks drinks and a planner. Besides, Snowcake lasts longer (and is less fattening) than a Peppermint Mocha. :p

I stored our stash of Snowcake in our closets so that our clothes pick up the delicious scent, and now every time I open a door or a drawer I get a wonderful whiff of the lovely stuff. I'm actually wondering if I bought enough to tide us over until next year, because I have a feeling I'll be taking longer and more frequent showers now. Call me materialistic, call me superficial, call me crazy, but I simply lovelovelove my Snowcake.

It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas...