Ang pagbabalik ng...

DA WHO!

1. This recently-elected political hotshot certainly knows how to throw parties and give gifts to his supporters. After winning the recent elections, he threw a party at a 5-star hotel for his family and campaign volunteers. It's quite certain that he didn't pay a single centavo for the said party, as is his usual custom. Last Saturday, Mr. Hotshot hosted a birthday party of the spouse of one Presidential relative, who he gifted w/ a brand-new car. He also added to the merriment, held at a public university, by giving out expensive raffle prizes including trips abroad. Bingo!

2. Ms. Separada looks like she's depressed right now, but our sources have it, she is actually playing the romantic card w/ a very much married politician, said to have his sights on a higher political office in 2016. What she may not know is Mr. Married Politico has also been regularly seeing another woman (aside from her and his wife) who works in the hotel industry. We're pretty sure he's not just out to investigate the problems of the workers in her industry. Bam!

3. When a major scam hit the former occupant of Malacañang, this former head of a govt agency was said to have fled to country supposedly due to threats on his life, bec. of what he supposedly knew about said scam. The truth is, the scam became a convenient cover for his own personal scandal. Apparently, Mr. Ex-govt agency head was caught having an affair w/ a woman connected to a food testing lab.

Stumbling on the truth of her husband's les affaires, Mr. Ex-govt agency head's wife supposedly made sumbong to her cousin, a Senator who recently ran in the May elections, who promptly gave the ex-agency head a dressing down. Forced to see the error of his ways, Mr. Ex-govt agency head tried to woo his wife back by bringing her to the States. During their stay there, he privately told his close relatives and friends that he had been playing "driver" to his wife. Btw, there's no truth to the rumor that Mr. Ex-gov't agency head's favorite color is Pink.

Our pal Al

(Al Gore receives a plaque of appreciation from Hans Sy, president of SM Prime Holdings. SM Prime Holdings brought the former US Vice President to the country for the third leg of the Leadership Conference Series, with the theme "The Leader as Environment Steward." Photo courtesy Campaigns & Grey)

FOR those who’ve been asking, no, I don’t have a photo with former US Vice President Al Gore. The Nobel laureate was in town on Tuesday giving an updated Asian version of his global-warming lecture.

Unfortunately, unlike last year when former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair came over and I managed to have two photos taken, there was no press conference that followed our pal Al’s lecture. I understand a provision in his contract prohibited press interviews. (Suplado naman.)

So sorry, friends, you won’t be seeing any photos of me and Al showing up on my Facebook profile anytime soon. True, I could’ve attended the postdinner lecture and photo-op with him, but duty called and I had to write the news story about his lecture. Rats. (Click Something Like Life for the rest. My column is published every Friday in the Life section of the BusinessMirror.)

* * * *
WHILE work commitments prevented me from attending the festivities after the lecture, I managed to get hold of the much talked about "sustainable menu" of dishes served during the cocktails which was prepared by the Makati Shangri-La Hotel.

"Sustainability-Makati Shangri-a's social responsibility extends to the way we value history, tradition, culture and environmental impact.

"This evening's glocal cocktail menu prepared by our creative chefs celebrates Filipino ingenuity at its best - social entrepreneurs that bring only the best of locally-grown Filipino ingredients whilst catering to an exquisite global palate."

Menu

Seared yellow fin tuna with wasabi mayonnaise of japanese cucumber
-Sourced from the fishermen of Mindoro, traditional hand-line fishing method was used to catch the tuna as opposed to open cast net - the first sustainable fish source from the Coral Triangle.

Kesong Puti with Cherry Tomato Salsa
-The kesong puti is sourced from organically-fed water buffalos in the province of Laguna

Blue cheese flan with caramelized onion and candied walnuts
-the low-emission blue cheese is sourced from a local cheese maker in Bulacan

Shredded Pork Adobo Puff
-Meat is sourced from a local piggery farm in Rizal.

Strawberry tartlets, calamansi sacher lollipop, tres leches and banana crumble stew
-The organically grown calamansi and banana are sourced locally from the province of La Union and Pangasinan while the sweetness of the strawberries are grown naturally from the highlands of Bukidnon

Sustainable cuisine is the current rage among environmental folk and these are dishes basically made from ingredients that have the least impact on the environment, i.e. beef from cows not injected w/ hormones, organic vegetables, fish raised from fishponds, etc. Not only will these help protect the environment, the dishes are supposed to be healthier as well as the ingredients don't have any of those preservatives and pesticides normally found in meats and greens.

So congratulations to the Makati Shang's chefs for coming up with these interesting pica-pica. I hope I have the chance to try the same in some future event. But first, can someone please explain to me just what "low emission" blue cheese" is about? ;p

When it's time to walk away

If all there is in the relationship are unfulfilled promises, unmet expectations and acrimony, perhaps it’s time to call it quits. The presumption is that both of you are all talked-out, and the solutions undertaken to save the relationship have not achieved anything significant. When staying in the relationship makes you feel like you’re paddling furiously so as not be drowned in an abyss of emptiness, it’s probably time to swim back to dry land. (Click here for the rest. Photo from Beauteous.)

It must be love, Sabel

Sure, I admit that I was among those who were cynical about their relationship in the beginning. Those of us in the sidelines watching his career in government and were aware of the chismis surrounding Roxas’s and Sanchez’s respective love lives before they encountered each other, didn’t give the coupling a high batting average, so to speak. (Click Something Like Life for the rest.)

(Sen. Mar Roxas serenades fiancée Korina Sanchez with the song “Gaano Ko Ikaw Kamahal” in a traditional Filipino pamanhikan to the Sanchez family in Merville, Parañaque, with entertainers Tado, lef, and Jason Gainza. Roxas formally asked for permission from the Sanchez family to marry Korina on June 14, 2009. PHOTOS COURTESY OF SEN. MAR ROXAS’S OFFICE)

(That's certainly not the Cha-Cha!)
(Sanchez with friends: former beauty queen Dang Cecilio and ABS-CBN head of special projects, Chit Guerrero)
(The couple's respective families pose for a souvenir shot. From left, seated, Roxas' aunts Stella Marquez-Araneta and Baby Araneta Fores, mom Judy Araneta Roxas, aunt Ruby Roxas, Sanchez' aunt Leticia Baluyut, and civic leader, possible ninang Rosa Rosal; Standing, from left: Roxas' uncle Vicente Roxas, Sen. Roxas, Sanchez, Roxas' uncle Jorge Araneta, and Sanchez' uncle Eduardo Baluyut.)

Date night

(Photo from Type A Mom.)

It takes a lot of work to keep a marriage interesting, especially in this fast-paced world with too many “distractions.” I’ve listened to many husbands and wives tell me how they sometimes feel just brotherly or sisterly toward their spouses. After several years of marriage, with the kids and all the responsibilities to the family, spouses sometimes just lose touch with each other. Everything becomes so familiar and so boring. (Click Something Like Life for the rest.)