bye, bye Minnie, Daisy's tablecloth

After two weeks, our dining table is back to its bare essence. We had Minnie Mouse team, my child loves Minnie.

Preparing my daughter's second birthday party wasn't exactly a breeze. But after the event I've grown up wiser and more enlightened about food (main dishes & desserts) tables, tablecloth, chairs, cutleries, balloons (no more helium balloons especially that we don't own a helium canister) drinks (buy dry ice before the event?) cakes, souvenirs and guests. Is it all about the guests?

Oh yes, the bulk of concern is the content of the guest list, primarily on those who didn't bother to come to those who should have been there but were tied up with work or vital circumstances. It's also baffling how a group of individuals have this one degree connection to each other but don't mingle or make small talk. In a party we'd rather talk with the people we know. Or we could forge lifetime friendship or interaction.

But it's a get together or a reunion, it should be enlightening.

addiction

For the past week and a half, my eyes and attention have been glued to the last of Sharon Cuneta's poor little rich girl roles, To Love Again, a Danny Zialcita scripted classic. Because it's from Danny Zialcita, the lines are crisp and witty. It's an addicting fairy tale of an arranged marriage. The protagonists are gorgeous and articulate. The support cast talks sense and sound intelligent.

I always like Sharon's early films, those done before her 18th birthday and her arrays of rags to riches tales of a wannabe singing superstar. They made me relax, enabled me to forget my poverty-stricken milieu. But they also provided a vista to the conflicting world of the very wealthy. Oh yes, the rich have problems and it's not their next meal.

In To Love Again, Sharon had Miguel Rodriguez as leading man. I remember the film was not as well-promoted as with her previous motion pictures. I might have been wrong, it was 31 years ago and at nine, more concerned with finishing up my vacation in my dad's hometown. I didn't see this movie in the cinema and only discovered its magic many years later. Maybe, with a far more vigorous packaging ( like Viva did with Sharon's career), Miguel could have given Richard Gomez some solid competition. But stuff happens. Richard is now into father roles. Do superstars eventually play support? Hopefully, not Nora, Vilma, Sharon.

happy birthday sweetie!

two years old!





She touched Mini's eyes before a proper picture. Money shot down the drain?

the kind that saves?

For the past weeks I've been watching back episodes of ANC On the Money, a great program encouraging families and individuals to save and invest. It features living below budget on episodes relating to building up funds while sections about spending on travel, art, beauty and education thwarts the quest to fill the savings account.

Unless the person has struck gold and earns gazillions, it's hard to allot specifics on spending between basic necessities and pure, unadulterated luxury.

On that notion, the cost of education strikes a cord. It's so damn expensive (I'm only talking about the tertiary level) yet people breed and breed as if they're billionaires. Children, as I've observed in most cultures, are used as trophies. Whether they'll grow up caring, kind and successful doesn't really matter. They could hardly be investments in the future if they turn out to be a challenge rather than the quintessential pride and joy of the family. Well.