Tuesday 28 April 2009

Platform 9 3/4?

Erskine and his colleague Jake after a month of training in Ireland “stopped over” in London for two days before going back to our motherland. Of course I offered my services to show them around, in which I was paid with a packet of Chocnut and a box of Curly Tops. I had never thought that Erskine and I would hang out again in London, no less!, after all these years. Is the world shrinking or what?

Jake, a Harry Potter fan (Though I regard him as not a 100% HP fan because he has not completed all the films - just the books, he claimed. That's surprising, a guy who likes reading more than oogling at special effects?), asked me to take them to Platform 9 ¾. I agreed and then warned him not to expect anything because I had not been to platforms beyond 8 at King’s Cross. So yeah even if I read all the books and seen all films (and watched again Prisoner of Azkaban twice), I realized I was not a 100% fan either. Why I never had had any urge in my 1.5 years stay here in UK to go see if 9 ¾ did exist still baffles me!

So we went to King’s Cross Station last Sunday and got lost. But this sign was an indication that we were not the first HP fans to do so...


We followed the directions and voila, found it! Yipee yeah yey!

Kudos to King’s Cross Station’s management for wasting a good trolley just to make HP fans like us smile. I hope they can be persuaded to donate a good train and turn it into a Hogwarts Express.

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Friday 24 April 2009

An Interesting Wedding Commercial

A dear friend sent this to me, this made me smile. I want to share this to all brides-to-be out there, especially the Blogging Brides, in case you haven't yet seen this.



Planning is really a mental challenge. So don't stress yourselves too much with the preparations. Have fun. Relax - at least force yourself to relax =P
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Tuesday 21 April 2009

I’m getting physical

Let’s get physical (physical). I wanna get physical.

I just enrolled in a gym. Oh let me correct that – we enrolled in a gym. Separately, of course.

Harley did it first. (Sssh, don’t tell him I told you because this is supposed to be our little secret - haha!). I followed suit because it was a challenge I could not ignore. When he announced he's joining a health club I started imagining that if I didn't start going to a gym too the guests would say on our wedding “Wow, ang swerte naman ng bride!” (Wow, the bride is so lucky!). Yikes, no! I don’t want that to happen. Although really, in all honesty, without a doubt I am very lucky of Harley, but my pride just want him to be luckier to have me =P

The first day at the gym was interesting. The first sight that greeted when I entered the locker room was a girl wearing just a bra on her top, drying her hair. I just couldn’t help noticing her ample bosom and seemingly slim waist relative to her bosom. After changing to my gym getup, I bumped into another girl who came from the direction of the pool. She was just wearing a conservative two-piece but the simplicity accentuated her assets – well rounded butt and more than D cup. I went out of the locker feeling weird, self-concious that compared to them I seemed under-developed. I couldn't help myself praying for a second puberty!

The gym, Virgin Active, is the best gym I have ever been to. (Though I haven’t tried Gold’s Gym yet, been only to Slimmer’s World and Fitness First in the Philippines). There are enough equipments for everybody that even during peak hours no one is left twiddling his/her thumbs, queuing for someone to finish using an equipment. I personally observed this yesterday evening. One of the personal trainer said Mondays and Tuesdays after work are the gym’s busiest when most members rush to the gym, anxious to burn all the excess food and booze they consumed over the weekend.


It’s pricey – as expected here in UK. Good thing I was given the discounted rate as our company is a corporate partner. One thing I really like about the membership that I’ve got is that it’s very flexible. I can cancel it. No x-months minimum membership required, yipee! Never again will I fall into another Fitness First trap.

What really lured me into this gym is the pool. There’s a pool, wohoo! I have not tried it yet because I still have to buy a swimming cap (Where art thou, my dear swimming cap?). I am really excited to swim again. It’s been 5 years since I last practiced (not counting the beach holidays) and now that my asthma is gone I am hoping to improve my mediocre skills. Oh you know not just managing to float and spend most of the time clutching the pool’s edge, but really, do proper swimming.


The pool is for both women and men. Being petite/short compared to people here, I think I should start practicing holding my head up high lest I notice something that should not be noticed =P

Another thing I also like is that they have a separate gymnasium for women only, complete with the gym equipments women fancy using. So if you like some peace and quiet or just find the loud grunts of men outdoing themselves in weightlifting distracting, this is the place for you.

I am very much looking forward to the dance lessons, which reminds me I have to check the schedules after posting this :)
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Friday 17 April 2009

A Wedding Dress at Harrods

I was awestruck when I saw this wedding dress (below) displayed at Harrods. It is beautiful, really beautiful. And I was not the only one who was enamoured of it because almost every girl who passed by did a double take and then gushed that it’s gorgeous.



This was the wedding dress of my dreams – lace and mermaid silhouette. Sigh. Emphasis on the word “was” because uhh hellooo reality check – Georgia you are not slim, not at all tall and you don’t have a shockingly flat tummy as if it is being molded with an invisible corset. Dream on. Ha! My bestfriend pointed out when I had told her I dream of wearing a mermaid cut wedding dress that I will definitely look like a budbud (suman in Tagalog). Huhu. Some bestfriend eh?

The dress is by Pronovias. I visited their site and wow, I absolutely adore their dresses! But I had to stop browsing for after few minutes I started sighing and wishing for the impossible again. Oh you know, if only I am tall and skinny and all that nonsense. I don’t want to be an insecure bride. No no!

Well the plan is just to choose a dress that perfectly fits me. I promise never to drive my body into exhaustion or starve myself in an attempt to fit myself into a dream dress. A dream dress on a model might turn out to be a nightmare on me. A nightmare that will be forever immortalize in pictures and videos. Well that is scary.

Pronovias also sell wedding couture by Manuel Mota, Valentino and Ellie Saab. Yeah... expensive.

Mohammed Al Fayed (owner of Harrods and the father of the late Dodi Al Fayed, the late Princess Diana's boyfriend who died with her) gave a £3500 Manuel Mota wedding dress (equivalent to 245k in Philippine pesos) to the late Jade Goody, a British personality who emerged from the Big Brother fame who died from cervical cancer last month. Jade married Jack Tweed while terminally ill, exactly a month before she passed away. Hmmm, I wonder what will make Mr. Al Fayed to give me a designer wedding dress for free?

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Wednesday 1 April 2009

Catching again the DWTS bug

I am hooked again to Dancing With The Stars (DWTS), now on its 8th season - my favourite season thus far. Last season was a bit of a bore because since from first week it was clear that Brooke Burke would come out as the champion. This season on the other hand is more exciting with five couples emerging as contenders. The bar is set so high that the judges had to prematurely bring up not just one but six 10s during last night's show.

The frontrunners, in no particular order, are Ty Murray (Rodeo Champion and Jewel’s husband) and Chelsia Hightower, Shawn Johnson (Beijing Olympic Gold Medalist Gymnast) and Mark Ballas, Lil’ Kim (Grammy Award Winning Rapper) and Derek Hough, Gilles Marini (Actor) and Cheryl Burke, and Melissa Rycroft (the one who got jilted at the altar by The Bachelor) and Tony Dovolani.

Among them I am rooting for the Gilles and Cheryl team. Oh okay I admit since before watching the first show that I was already a bit biased towards Gilles because he is Samantha’s sexy naked neighbour in Sex and the City movie... hello! So imagine my glee when I saw that ooh la la he can shake those lovely buns and look hotter in sequins than showering naked with a garden hose (if that’s possible). I already raised my 10 paddle for him even before the judges gave their long overdue ones.



But Gilles is not the only reason, though he is enough reason, why I am cheering their tandem on. Cheryl Burke is of Filipino descent. I don’t know if half or less but she was awarded the Role Model Award at the 7th Annual Filipino/American Library Gala on 2007. Aside from winning accolades in ballroom dancing, she has proved that she is a superb dance coach. In fact she already won the DWTS mirror-ball trophy twice - first with Drew Lachey and second with Emmit Smith. It seems like with Gilles she will win it again this season. Wikipedia says she is currently dating Abercrombie & Fitch and Levi’s model Maxwell Zagorski...


Drool. Sigh. Swoon.

Now why hadn’t I thought of becoming a professional ballroom dancer?

He truly is the stuff of dreams...
Yeah I know. This blog should have been only about DWTS.
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