What’s behind Shalani Soledad’s Gioconda smile? Perhaps only Roman Romulo knows for sure. In any case, there’s no doubting that the Pasig City Representative and former presidential girlfriend, television game show host and Valenzuela City Councilor are the couple du jour.
He describes his six-month stint as a Unesco consultant in the beleaguered West Bank in Palestine as “loads of fun,” so you can tell that Leif-Erik Hannikainen can deftly handle any corpulent client who insists on dressing like Carrie Bradshaw for the Polo Club ball.
It’s the season to be jolly – and to forget one’s diet. Not only because the food is so tempting it’s a pain to ignore it, but also because family reunions are all about sharing – and to refuse to partake of a feast that took Mom and Grandma days to prepare is to risk being disinherited and disowned by the clan.
Because she was a Miss International title-holder (crowned in Osaka, Japan in 1970), Aurora Pijuan is unimpeachable when she tweets about the beauty pageant, like she did at the height of the hoopla at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1 (NAIA1) on the afternoon of November 15, 2011.
Sun, sand and surf may not exactly be your first images of Christmas. For most people, December in Manila means overindulging in cholesterol-rich party food, getting stuck in snarled traffic, getting harassed over last-minute shopping and gritting their teeth over the parking crunch in jam-packed malls.
The happy shrieks of children blend with the sonorous mooing of the cows. The striking green of the fields compete with the blueness of the sky. The patter of little feet, the chorus of voices in the classrooms, the rising of the nuns’ chanted prayers at eventide…
What’s not to like? You’re sitting before your computer updating your Facebook account and suddenly realize it’s almost Christmas, and that you can’t get away with playing Scrooge two years in a row. Do you: (a) Rush to the nearest mall and risk life and limb wading through deadly traffic (b) Unwittingly donate to the seasonal clutch of pickpockets and bag slashers by squeezing in through half the city’s population in the malls, or c) leisurely open the online shopping sites and get your business done without sweat? It’s a no-brainer of course.
Jose Rizal is cool again. Once upon a time, it seemed, he was hopelessly passé. Generations of blind idol worship by old men in funny hats had turned young Filipinos off the pride of the Malay race.
Surrounded by taller, decidedly more modern structures, the Solidaridad Bookshop stands along Padre Faura Street in Ermita, Manila, as welcoming as it did when it first opened its doors in 1965.
In retrospect, flying into Kathmandu ensconced in Thai Airways’ superb Royal Silk business class was probably not the best way to get acclimatized to the Nepali capital’s unique atmosphere.
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