There are SO many things going on right now. Unbelievably major change in lifestyle…which I’ll share with you when things settle down. It’s an exciting period, albeit tiring. From being mostly at home, I am now about to have a more vibrant lifestyle. It’s amazing how fast things are moving, and how fast things will be moving ahead as well.

Michael Schumacher has just announced his retirement after winning the Italian Grand Prix today.

So, oh no. Kimi Raikkonen has signed with Ferrari and will be driving for them starting next season. Still not a Ferrari fan, but still a Kimi fan. I can only hope that this move will bring him more wins, and hopefully a championship, just as Ferrari gave Michael all those championships.

*sigh*

Godspeak

Did God send me a message today? I was blowdrying my hair earlier, and out of the blue, as clear as day, this thought rang in my head:

“Choose your battles wisely.”

So timely and so profound, it must be God’s way of helping me through. Hope I can always keep it in mind.

Suri Watch

Well folks, Suri watch is over. Vanity Fair’s new cover shows the proud parents with their adorable baby, with the banner Yes, Suri, She’s Our Baby!

After months of anticipation and speculation, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes have finally shown their baby to the world.

Sarkin reports that Cruise and Holmes coo over the baby like any new parents. “She has Kate’s lips and eyes,” Tom says of the baby. “I think she looks like Kate.” Holmes counters, “I think she has Tom’s eyes. I think she looks like Tom.”

“I was overjoyed in being pregnant,” Holmes tells Sarkin, “and then had to withstand ridicule about my pregnancy when it was the most normal, non-controversial thing imaginable.” Of speculation in the press, Holmes says, “All those things were invented.”

source: http://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/pressroom/

Whether people believe this is TomKat’s real baby or not is still up in the air. Conspiracy theories will always abound about Suri, I think, given how “crazy” Tom’s seemed like lately. But maybe it’s about time to give them a break.

Imeldific

Noooooo!

Imelda Marcos may run for mayor of Manila in 2007

Are you kidding me??? Are you friggin kidding me? Hasn’t she ruined the Philippines enough? So what’s she planning, start small then work her way up, getting more and more money along the way?

“My mother has a solid vote in the depressed areas of Manila,” said Imee Marcos, a congresswoman representing her late father’s northern province of Ilocos Norte, adding her mother was “seriously contemplating” running as mayor of Manila in 2007.

Imee said her mother would formally announce her decision whether to return to politics in the coming months because she may want to consult local leaders in Manila.

The current mayor, Jose “Lito” Atienza, a staunch ally of President
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, is no longer eligible to run after serving as mayor for three straight terms.

Some of Arroyo’s political enemies in the upper house of Congress, Senators Panfilo Lacson and Alfredo Lim, have announced their intention to enter the mayoral race.

“If all of them would vie for mayor, my mother obviously has the advantage,” Imee told reporters, adding the former first lady was former governor of Metropolitan Manila in the 1980s and was the city’s beauty queen in the 1960s.

For Manila’s sake, I sure hope she doesn’t. In the same vein though, there are so many politicians that you just hope don’t run for anything at all. If all of these hope-you-don’t-run politicians actually don’t, I’m guessing you can pretty much count the remaining in one hand..maybe two.

Don’t you wish there was a magic potion that you can give our local politicians so that they’d end up just doing what’s really best for their constituents? One that would make them forgo dipping into their pork barrels for personal use and actually using this money for worthwhile projects. One that would let them make legislation that wouldn’t pursue their own agenda, but is actually for the common good?

Wishes.

Grandpa

My grandfather-in-law is really such a nice man. He is 93 years old, and spends most of his day watching Chinese dramas/movies/tv shows in his room, usually going out only to eat. We usually don’t get to eat together since he eats a lot earlier than we do, but when he does see me, he’ll usually motion to me, inviting me to come and eat. When we have Chinese guests over, he will be the first to tell them to speak in English, as I don’t speak/understand Chinese. I really feel that he likes me.

I was quite surprised yesterday, though, when my mother-in-law called me to tell me that Grandpa wanted to talk to me. So I went downstairs and headed to his room. He told me to get a chair so I could sit down right beside him. Not knowing why he wanted to talk to me, I didn’t quite know what to expect.

Grandpa: I want you to ask your parents, grandparents, and great grandparents, if you’re Chinese. Do you know if you have Chinese blood?

Me: (Knowing that I undeniably look as though I do have a lot of Chinese blood in me, and as H insists that I must be Chinese given how I look) I think I must have Chinese blood, but I just don’t know how to trace it, or where I got it.

Grandpa: (Points to a family picture taken during his most recent birthday, then telling me to get it) Look, you look very Chinese. You look like you are one of us. See (pointing from left to right)…all the same. Chinese. Your eyes…very singkit. And not just your eyes..your complexion also very Chinese.

Me: Yes.

Grandpa: When my first cousin from China came here a few months ago, your mother-in-law told her that you’re a Filipina. But my cousin, she said you look nice, and Chinese.

Me: Oh…

Grandpa: Is your father Chinese?

Me: Um, I don’t think so..but my mom looks Chinese and my grandmother also looks Chinese, so it might have come from their side.

Grandpa: (Pointing at me and my sister-in-law in the picture) See…you look like you can be sisters. Both Chinese, ah. I will ask my friend to print this picture again, so you can send it to your parents and show them you look Chinese.

Me: Ok…

He continued to talk about how Marcos also has Chinese blood (as well as a long side story about how he knows this is true, because he had a nephew who had a business approved by Marcos..but that’s another story). He also talked about how Cory, being a Cojuangco, is also Chinese, and that she went to Amoy, to visit her ancestral home.

I really don’t think he minds that I’m Filipino. But I also don’t think he’d mind at all if I turned out to be Chinese, heh. But as even more proof that he’s just really a very, very nice man:

Grandpa: Do you like Singapore?

Me: Yes, I do

Grandpa: It’s very nice here..no typhoon, no earthquake, very nice weather..

Me: Yup!

Grandpa: What about here with us? Are you ok here?

Me: Yes, of course..

Grandpa: (Nodding) Good. I want your parents to see that you’re ok here.

Me: (Smiling) Yes, I’m very ok here.

Aww, isn’t he so nice??

Croc Hunter

I can’t believe that Croc Hunter Steve Irwin is dead.

It just seems so unlikely that this seemingly bigger-than-life Australian with such a passion and enthusiasm for crocs and all sorts of wildlife is no longer around. He was killed while filming a segment for a series called Ocean’s Deadliest, and well…it’s so sad that he had to prove the title right.

At least he died doing what he loved best. But it’s sad that he was taken at the prime of his life. Crikey.