Ginger + Warm Bodies

I've been sick the past few days. Fever and sore throat, but I'm glad it didn't turn into cough.. or else, uggh. See, every year I get this cough that's very annoying, the kind that's so itchy you can't stop coughing wherever you are, be it in a bus, on a train, wherever. It's so embarassing that people start staring at you and think that you might be dying or something. But yeah, didn't happen! Because... I took meds. hehe. And! I had ginger tea in advance.

Last year that so-called embarassing cough haunted me for a week. It didn't even let me sleep, I kept coughing at night, I was taking meds, I was drinking water, I was sucking on lozenges, but none helped and I didn't know why, until my then colleague suggested that I take what Filipinos call salabat or ginger tea. I thought it was only for singers when they want to make their voices better, but apparently, it has a lot of healing properties too. So I made some, and just like magic, I got a lot better instantly the following day. And after 2 days, the cough was gone. Serious! Nothing heals better than mother nature.   So now Ginger tea is like my miracle potion! Ginger has a lot of healing properties and here are some that I took off from the internet:

1 Combats stomach discomfort
2 Improves immune system 
3 Treats colds 
4 Encourages normal blood circulation
5 Relieves morning sickness
6 Lowers risk of motion sickness
7 Reduces pain and inflammation
8 Relieves stress
9 Menstrual cramp relief 
10 Increases fertility

Full article here. -- maybe you should read it because too much of it also causes side effects they say.

It's very easy to prepare it too, let me show you.:) (lol trying my hand at doing this kind of stuff)

1. Wash the ginger and peel it.

2. Cut it up into slices- some say the thinner the better but I'm lazy so I just cut it up anyhow.

3. Boil it in water for around 10-15 mins.

4. Pour the juice into a cup

5. Add honey (I tell you, you would have to. Sugar is not good especially if you have cough, so honey would be better because it has anti-bacterial properties.) Mine is already Honey & Lemon. It's also good to add lemon to make it taste nicer and for the added Vitamin C :)

And that's it! :D

Me pretending to drink. Lol

They say ginger tea keeps you alert but I 100% do not agree! After drinking it I immediately felt sleepy and slept snuggly all throughout that night. Now I'm all better and I should be going back to the brochure I'm working on halfway before I got sick.

-----But feeling better and all, le bf and I decided to watch a movie, and we watched Warm Bodies! Not really a fan of zombie movies/shows, but this one's quite cute! Might be a bit of a turn off because it's something like Twilight and the female lead looks a bit like Twilight girl, but I find that Warm Bodies is a lot better, because there's humour. And the acting, of course. Never imagined zombies can be adorable. *a bit of a spoiler alert* Didn't also notice that the protagonists are named R and Julie until the balcony scene, because they're somewhat similar to Romeo and Juliet, star-crossed lovers and all that. His best friend is also M, and if you'll remember Romeo's best friend is Mercutio. It's all kinda silly but at the same time it's a feel-good movie that left us smiling on our way out of the cinema.

Not too bad looking eh?

Still a better love story than Twilight.

So yeah, that's what I've been up to the previous days!
Hope to post again soon!:D

Me, after the movie. Taken using crappy iphone front camera :(

Philippine Pride

In the PH, there are lots of contests: singing contests, dance contests, beauty pageants, sports competitions, academic competitions--be it as a school event or as a community occasion, from the barangay to nationwide events. And it's wonderful how we love to support our own "bet", our own family, our friends, friends of our friends. I find it a good trait of ours. And when things like these go global, we go crazy! Pacquiao is almost our national hero. Jessica Sanchez? You'd be amazed of how much support she got from the Filipino community, although you can say that she's actually an american now, despite having a Filipina mother. Name any celebrity, athlete or famous person, and if that person has a hint of Filipino blood, I assure you, it would likely be mentioned. And now I'm getting to my point.

There's nothing wrong with that. It's a good thing that we support our own kind. I just find it weird all the time that even though the person is already clearly american or british or australian or whatever foreign citizenship, we like to emphasize that he/she is still a Filipino by blood. Nicole Sherzinger, Bruno Mars, who else do you know has Filipino heritage? And while they usually do not deny that they do have Filipino blood and often even reach out to their Pinoy fans for their continuous support, there remains the fact that they weren't born and raised in our country, and technically, are not Filipinos anymore. But we like to think that part of them are.

I suppose we are desperate to put our nation's name forward, you know, to be recognized globally via these personalities. We long for something to be proud of. We want to tell the world, if you're Filipino, you're bound to be great!

That's not the way.

We must start doing it ourselves.

If we want to be proud of our country, we should start by showing the world that we have the potential to be a great nation. If most of us will start doing small things in great ways, we will finally not have to rely on other people's greatness to prove our own.

You must be saying that there's nothing wrong with us. Really? How many times have we been listed as having the most corrupt leaders? Compare our news to those of other countries, I tell you, ours is like watching a SAW movie, agonizing and painful, despite the usual cheer-you-up segments at the end of the headlines, our news always leaves me feeling heavy-hearted with all the murders, kidnapping and showbiz nonsense that our "top" television networks love to feed us.

I'm not saying that we all suck, no. In fact, we have a lot of good traits. Remember the bayanihan that was taught to us in school, where each man would help their neighbour to (literally) move their houses? We are known to be cheerful and hospitable people, we welcome everyone who visits our home. Not only are we good people, we are home to a lot of intelligent minds. Most filipinos are smart, hardworking and innovative. We've invented a lot of things that most of the world don't even know about. We are destined for greatness, but we forget. We forget all these and turn the good things for the worse. Instead of using innovative minds for improving lives of our country, they're being used to steal, to kidnap, to develop schemes to swindle a lot of people. In workplaces, we forget that we're supposed to help each other, and cling to crab mentality instead. We love chismis rather than just working hard and not minding the lives of those around us. How are we supposed to move forward like this?

I think the reason behind all these and all our failures is we lack discipline.

I remember after Ondoy, I lived in Manila for a while to review for my board exams. I was so angry because I saw the jeepney driver just carelessly throw the plastic bottle after drinking. On the road. And then they would all complain that the government is not doing anything when it's the citizens themselves who are causing all the drainage blockage when heavy rain comes! Our "leaders" may be corrupt, but the people also play a major role.

We lack the discipline to value education too, which is the key to our progress. Children, at such a young age, like cutting classes, and during college, a lot of students take their studies for granted and spend the money for tuition without going to school, not knowing that there are really a lot of youth who would die to be able to study.

But the worst of all, other than lack of discipline is that we are proud in every sense of the word. We are not humble. We do not admit our mistakes; we refuse to listen. When other nations say our country is "dirty" we immediately react and get angry without pondering, is our country really dirty? We feel that we are so high and mighty that we are always better than all the rest, we forget to reflect on what might be wrong with us so that we might learn to improve and thus, finally progress as did all the countries around us.

After all this chastising does this mean that I am not proud of my country? NO. A daughter cannot be ashamed of her mother if it is her offsprings who have done wrong. In fact, our country is so beautiful, it has so much potential, so much to offer us: Our beaches are one of the world's best, we have our natural resources, we are very diverse, we have so much land, but it makes me feel sad to see that we are not maintaining it the way we should. I was born and raised here and will forever be grateful for it. I am at fault as well for leaving it for the meantime, but what does a daughter have to do, if she and her parents are hungry and her brothers and sisters won't support her?

I also do not want to be misunderstood that I do not want to support big celebrities with Filipino genes. Nothing's wrong with that. But I want Filipinos to also recognize not only the big celebrities, but also the small people with great minds. Scientists, Architects, Engineers, Nurses, Doctors-- even Farmers, all of those who once dreamed of building us a greater country, but cannot because they lack appreciation and support. I hope we can one day fulfill these so that every single one of us will in all honesty be proud to say, "I am a Filipino".

proud

adjective
1. feeling pleasure or satisfaction over something regarded as highly honorable or creditable to oneself (often followed by of,  an infinitive, or a clause).

2. having, proceeding from, or showing a high opinion of one's own dignity, importance, or superiority.

3. having or showing self-respect or self-esteem.

4. highly gratifying to the feelings or self-esteem: It was a proud day for him when his son entered college.

5. highly honorable or creditable: a proud achievement.

Arnaud

My first male model shoot, and a very long delayed posting (delayed means I don't even remember what year this was taken, wth).

Let me be honest by saying that being face to face with a semi naked stranger is really awkward for me. Especially if the stranger is a guy. I mean, I don't mind looking at skimpy, bikini-clad ladies with great bods but men...? I'd rather not, it makes me feel very uncomfortable. I think I'm lesbian that way. :/

But I was very curious when MASP offered its first male model shoot, because it was uncommon. So I gave it a try. And it wasn't bad, not bad at all! I think the photos turned out great. We were lucky because the model was very professional: very patient, obedient and even managed to keep a straight face despite the girls' naughty giggles! I think there was no way to get a bad angle of him too, really, a perfect model!

Anyway, there were 200+ photos but below are a (very) few of the shots that made it to my "cut". lol. Enjoy!;)

I especially like this one, reminds me of a Guess Ad:

Aaaaand a photo of me with the model:

Totally unrelated photo: Here's a dog who was playing fetch with his owner while we were on the set. :) He really swam all the way just to get the ball, so cute!

I know you want to see more photos but it's a bit redundant because we only had one setting. Soooo. That's about it!:) Thanks again, MASP!:)

Piled up Prenup Photos

UPDATED MY LAYOUT!! YAY!!!

It's been a while since I've updated (I think I always write that as the first sentence in each blog post, haha--wait, let me check, nope, but it seems like it). Truth is, I've been paiseh ('shy', 'embarassed'.. ah, I may not speak it well but Singlish is rubbing off on me) to update this again. I don't want people to assume that I'm doing this for popularity reasons--which is the kind of race that blogging has become at present. I've always kept a blog since friendster days, and I've always enjoyed doing layouts and writing down random musings. And it gives me pleasure to see all of it unified in one blog site, readership isn't really a big deal; although knowing that your friends and family (sometimes strangers) understand and appreciate what you write are exceptional bonuses.

I've also reviewed this site and to my utter shame I saw all the horrors that was within the posts: typos, grammatical errors, and too much arrogance and haughtiness reflected in my writing. Apart from that I realized it was wrong to include personal pictures of my friends within this blog, a few is fine but to post A LOT here is not, because it is such a public place and we have social networking for that. So from now on I will try to use this blog properly. I mean, I would have to determine carefully which ones are facebook-worthy and which ones are blog-worthy. I might also have to edit my previous posts and choose which pictures I should keep.

Anyhoo. Back to the main topic. Below are photos I have taken during informal prenuptial photoshoots where I did the bride-to-bes' makeup. You know how, at a certain time while you are doing it, you think you're so good, but when you look back at the pictures, you think it was just, well, meh. That's how I feel now. Haha.

Disclaimer: I'm not a photographer nor a professional makeup artist. Photos below are for recreational purposes only and for me are still not real "photography" (as an art form).

E&E

First set is for Eloise and Edjohn. All pictures are from my friend Jade Tangpus' cam which I occasionally borrowed during the shoot and these are the shots that I post-processed (half of these were taken by him and half, by me).

So gorgeous! They were introduced to me by a friend who was the original makeup artist; but she wasn't available so she recommended me. Actually what I thought then was she was already pretty, she didn't need any makeup at all.

XYLA + RON

I met Xyla through our bosses who were friends and we worked together shortly on one project. We found out that we arrived in this country at exactly the same date, and for some reason, we hit it off after that! I immediately felt comfortable with her, she's just so natural and down-to-earth.

When she asked me if I could do her makeup, I agreed right away. I was a bit unprepared though because I don't usually do hair and didn't bring pins so during the shoot we had to fix her hair every now and then. It's still alright because she's naturally pretty and still looked good even through the humid, sticky weather :)

Arlene Briones (www.arlenebriones.com) was the photographer of this shoot. She's so nice and even gave tips on wedding photography! The shots below are just some of those I tried to take in between assisting Xyla and Ron. Of course, Arlene's photos are waaaay better (but I don't have copies)

I love this couple and they're perfect for each other. During the few times we got to hang out with them we already knew that they're the kind of friends for keeps.

Mica Building, Clarke Quay

I don't know what I was thinking, framing them up like this. But they look so cute!

at the Botanical Gardens.

FRANS + ANNE

In the course of my stay here I've met a lot of people: those I've met through this hobby of doing makeup, housemates of friends, colleagues of friends, etc. Anne and her husband are friends of our friends (acquaintances, then, to be exact) and also colleagues with le bf. Anyway, you get the picture, we're interconnected.

I of course agreed when our photographer friends asked if I could do her makeup. Thankfully, another friend (so many friends in one story! But that's a good thing, right?) did her hair, Irish, for whom I also did makeup before.

The couple's first child was born recently, congratulations anne and frans!

A behind the scenes look.

LEM + ANDREA

Ah, but who could forget Lem and Andrea. They're the couple closest to our hearts.:) They're the first couple I tried taking pictures of almost 2 years ago, and now they have a healthy, handsome little boy who I absolutely love and adore!

This was my first time doing makeup for a prenup and a lot of our friends have seen these already but I think my collection of these sets of pictures won't be complete without them!

Lem and Andrea's version of My Sassy Girl!

Well that's all folks! If you want me to do your makeup for a fun shoot or collaborate with me on anything, drop me an email (wynterflakes@gmail.com). I will be constantly updating from now on. Writing here takes my mind off negative things!:)