Welcome to New York

For the sake of easier comprehension, let's categorize the 3 families into Valles of US, Valles of Australia, and Valle - Peraltas of the Philippines. The last 2 families drove to New York to supposedly attend the famous Ball Drop in time for the New Year Celebration however, as later on proven, New York is not suitable for kids. Which makes me wonder how Kevin had so much fun all by himself. I digress. Prior to the trip, I've been most excited to visit New York. Suffice to say, I've had the most fun in there as it was only in New York that all my usual selfish reasoning and babbles had the chance to come alive (hehehehe I particularly indulged my selfish side when my parents ordered my brothers to accompany me in Saks Fifth Avenue). Just kidding. My Mom didn't fall short in reminding me that the main purpose of the entire trip has been to "build memories with the Valles".

Trench coat: Atmosphere | Top: borrowed jacket | White pants: Stradivarius | Boots: from department store in US | Bag: Balenciaga

I've always loved the energy in New York. Kind locals to tourists? Forget it. Everyone seems to always be chasing after something. That pedestrian light that goes on and off? It's just there to serve as 'guidance' so it is generally up to you when you'll cross the street (very much like in the Philippines). Respectful private drivers? "Get out of my way beep beep" (another very much like the Philippines). 'It's orderly in the US' ideology? Oh come on, don't fool me. Pet-friendly? The only animals I see there are rodents the size of a cat. Still want to go there? YES, BY A HUNDREDFOLD!

My aunts think that New York is the fulfillment of the illusory American Dream, depicted by movies and songs as this 'concrete jungle where dreams are made of' when in fact, it's nothing but a hype. For me, though, New York IS among those places I'd want to go back to over and over again. Everywhere I looked amazed me: the Christmas display of Saks and Macy's, the cold winter breeze, the seemingly 'uprooted' trees due to the season, the different languages that fill one's ears, the high taxes added to every purchase no matter where you shop, the long walks, the dreadful traffic, the yellow cab driver who demanded for "Christmas tip" on top of the meter, the snobbish sales associates who would look at you from head to toe and reluctantly give you your size so when you actually buy the pair without asking for its price they seem surprised and eventually treat you as though you're their best friend, the equally snobbish other shopper whom you saw looked at you with judgmental eyes and was equally surprised when she heard you ask for the designer pair using its actual name and evenly more surprised when you whipped out your wallet and handed payment for the pair she knew costed a lot, the once rude sales associate from the other brand which you initially visited who gave you the once over and decided you're not worth her time so she chose to talk to the next customer who walked in the shop only to give you the second glance when you returned to the shop with the paperbag containing the recent purchase which is a statement on its own and so she left another customer in favor of you, the entrepreneurial guy who sold "dope candies for adults" beside his van painted with different flavors of his "doped" lollies despite knowing that drugs are not legal in the state, and lastly, the Rockefeller Center which clearly failed to serve as the perfect background for my Kevin-McAllister-in-New-York-dreams as the tourists littering the area just wouldn't stop pushing.

Just the same, New York is known to be the place where you can be whoever you wish to be if you only have the guts to do so. Say what you want about NYC but it still holds my complete devotion captive. Whereas others see its snobbishness as a con, I consider it among NYC's best characteristics. See, that's the thing about New York. You can judge whatever and whomever you want to judge and still end up being proven wrong.

I LOVE NEW YORK!

On a side note, I bought the pair of boots I'm wearing in this set with this design from King Ranch Saddle Shop as inspiration:

The title's from Taylor Swift's 1989 album, which I was able to completely listen to

for the 1st time on the plane ride from Manila to Washington Dulles. Also,

Taylor's billboards are all over Times Square so it's fitting that her song's

been made the title

Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I still have plenty of  travel-related posts pending from 2016 namely: February – Hong Kong, March – China and Japan, May – Singapore, October – Hong Kong and Macau plus a few in-betweens that all took place here in the Philippines. But let me set them aside for a “few” more posts to give way to a 3-post about my Holiday 2016. Without a doubt, seeing my Valle cousins has been the highlight of Holiday 2016 if not the entire 2016.

Snow jacket - Puffer: Guess / Pants and gloves: Uniqlo / Snow boots: borrowed from my Tita /

My younger brother Gio, being in the US for his practicum, paved way for the happenstance of the entire family’s Holiday vacation. My cousins from Australia flew in a week earlier than we did. Once everyone was in the US, the riot began. The snow, much to the disappointment of all the adults and the annoyance of my younger cousin Alexandra, only showed up in the morning of 6 January; by then, everyone else had returned to their respective home countries save for Gio and I. Just the same, we all drove to Wisp Resort to ski and just to enjoy in and the snow.

This will be the 1st of numerous USA-related posts.

Folk In Those Stories Had Lots of Chances Of Turning Back, Only They Didn't

I wasn't supposed to write an entire post about my obsession with Middle-earth but then just like how junkies of whatever sorts undergo closure to treat their obsessions, I've to put a dot on my month long The Hobbit - LOTR movies and books marathon by quickly gushing over them here.


Top: Zara | Necklace: from Bangkok | Shoes: Skechers | Skirt: Zara | Sunglasses: Ray-ban

These photos were taken last 8 December. Almost all classes all over the country were suspended then leaving the streets bereft of the usual Manila traffic, which my Dad and I took opportunity of. We drove all the way to Clark to oversee some of his pressing projects there. I tagged along because I'm an opportunistic little daughter who saw this chance as a way to sweet-talk my Dad into buying me all the stuff I believe I need (but really do not. As he said, "I'm not working so hard just to buy you your fur vest when it's not practical in the kind of climate we have" but as always, I got what I wanted.) hahahahaha


It emotionally drains me just thinking of seeing the end of The Hobbit. (Come on, admit it. We all probably have a fanclub we've sworn allegiance to.) Long before I became a fan of the Harry Potter series, I was already obsessing heavily on J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. All my brothers, my uncles, and my boy-cousins dragged me to the cinemas to watch the first three instalments and successfully turned me into another Middle-earth geek. When the great Peter Jackson translated The Hobbit into movies two years ago, the fans club in my family was resurrected. For purposes of this post, I'm focusing on the films over the books. I've read all 3 of the LOTR and The Hobbit but when I saw Jackson's idea of them, I was completely won over. The books were great, what with all of Tolkien's lovely words and ideas that are difficult to translate into action, but Jackson's was legendary on its own as well.

As if hearing Pippin's song in the Return of the King played as the background music for the trailer of The Battle of the Five Armies wasn't enough to get me emotionally invested, the movie used Pippin's voice once more to sing the final farewell song played at the end credits of the last movie. By then, I was already sobbing in the movie house, to my brother's dismay.

On a scale of 1 to Stephen Colbert, I'm not really sure where I stand as a fan. But I can lengthily explain why the wise Gandalf couldn't do the missions (... quest... thing) in both The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings or why the eagles only showed up at the last minute. Or the name of Gandalf's horse and sword. Or the riddle behind Gandalf's famous "Fly, you fools" line. Or other not so obvious occurrences and objects concerning not only Gandalf but the other characters as well. I'll gladly discuss themes in the books and films with anyone, seriously. There are plenty of conventions where fans gather in the US and UK and I'm very positive that if I ever get the chance to be there, I'll proudly wear a costume. No, really.


I understand why there was an uproar amongst the Tolkien fans when the character of Tauriel was introduced in The Desolation of Smaug (which, by the way, is my favorite among the Hobbit trilogy). She didn't spring forth from Tolkien's mind, instead she came from Jackson's interpretation of Tolkien's Middle-earth world. Nonetheless, I like her and how substantial the films made her character out to be. Seeing a female persona in an otherwise male-dominated world is empowering. Not to mention, her existence provided a romantic plot to the story.  Besides, I believe the main plot wasn't altered substantially and some of the poignant scenes and lines in the books of all the Middle-earth stories were included. Every battle with the Orcs and the Goblins were theatrically orchestrated injected with Legolas and Gimli's humorous competition against each other (in LOTR), that instead of my usual recoiling response to war scenes, I enjoy every death on the battle field (The battle of Helm's Deep or The Battle of Hornburg is my favorite sequence from the 6 movies but I used a photo from The Battle of Pelennor Fields as emphasis).

Knowing that the character you've rooted for from the start will eventually get killed doesn't lessen the impact once you actually see it. Although the circumstances of the characters' death were different from what happened in the book, the end-result was the same so cut Jackson some slack, you high and mighty Tolkien fanatics. I wasn't so invested in Kili in the book but who wouldn't like Tolkien's version of Kili?




images from Iconic Fictional Characters

The thing with epic adventures is that, they leave a mark. Sometimes it completely intertwines with the rest of our lives, other times it becomes a constant reminder in a form of a scar, tattoo, or deformity of what we've underwent at a certain time. Very seldom does it leave us. And very seldom does it not make us evaluate where we currently stand.

I'm not yet ready to bid Middle-earth farewell. For now, let me go back to doing my LOTR marathon then cap everything off with Billy Boyd's The Last Goodbye to shed some more tears. Peace out!

In With the Old

Photos are starting to pile up in my Photo album so even though my brain is still on haywire, aggravating my already existing tendency to spout out incoherent thoughts, I'll try to be insightful.


Top: Bayo | Necklace: Aldo | Body Bag: Nine West | Shorts: Bench | Shoes: Aldo

First off, Happy New Year to everyone!!! I had a great holidays celebration spent with my relatives residing in the country and a few meet-ups with my closest friends in town so I hope you had an equally fantastic time.

Probably the reason a quality movie graces the Philippine mainstream cinema screen only once in a few years is that, the audience is not yet ready for anything that requires us to think, evaluate, and respond. No, really. It's the truth. The commercial aspect of producing a film outweighs its need of story depth. In a way it's understandable because sometimes, when our brains are too tired to function after a day of work, we want to see a film that will only make us laugh upfront and leave us feeling light-hearted. Who needs ideas that resonate, ideas that deconstruct, ideas that give birth to other ideas? This reasoning is exactly why we'll thrive endlessly on simple romantic comedies and rely on Hollywood films for more intellectual enlightening.


The Golden Rule in Criticizing: Don't criticise if you won't offer an alternative. I've no idea how movies are created but I know that in our country, their success is measured by the money they've generated, with reviews merely affecting a little percentage of the audience. Producers should make a pact. For every 4-5 hits they've produced, they should invest in a story-driven film. It's just fair, I think. Since they make money out of people who love going to the cinemas, they should in turn educate them. Give and take, remember? Last night, my Tito, brother, baby cousin, and I watched Bonifacio. It was great because it's the first film I've seen for so long that tells about the life of one of our national heroes, reminding me of what I learned in elementary. It had its flaws, of course. The tiniest of details were overlooked but I was willing to let it go.

Bonifacio reminded me of how rich our history as a nation is and at the same time frustrated me because I know more about other countries' history than ours.


Sometimes our closets are a big gift box. I was surprised to see a few stuff that I've long forgotten such as this green top. I wore it once in my frosh year in college and before that, during my retreat in HS. I didn't grow, did you notice?

The Irony of It All

These pictures were taken a few days before Christmas and though it's supposed to be cold and chilly, weather in Manila was the exact opposite. The blazing heat from the sun felt like that of the heat emanating every summer time. It was ridiculous. I decided to wear this seemingly hot wool dress for that Christmas-prefect vibe and intentionally left my pants at home (my dad kept on commenting that I looked as if I've forgotten to wear pants) to lessen the discomfort brought about by the weather. Extra point for the dress for its polka dots which as we all know is a sign for good luck. Maybe this is why my 2013 is by far proving to be a good one :)

Dress: hand-me-down| Shoes: Aldo| Belt: The Ramp| Hat: from Bangkok

And the irony of it all is that, the weather now is what I've been asking for since the Christmas season kicked in - it's perfectly chilly now! 

Coxswain

2012 is almost at its finishing line. I'm wishing all of you a very happy holiday. My greetings are kind of late but still, let me have this chance to wish you all happiness, peace, and contentment; the same things that I'm wishing for myself at the moment. You reap what you sow. Clearly, there are a lot of aphorisms that I know of but vaguely understand. Let this Christmas season heal all that has to be healed. Believe in what the coming year has in store for all of us. And for what it's worth, learn from everything that has happened for they happened because they have to make us realize things that we wouldn't have thought of had they not slapped us in the face, figuratively I hope.

But anyway, Happy Holidays everyone! From the bottom of my "small and hardened" heart, thank you for being a part of my 2012. Yes, it isn't one that I'd dream of reliving but it's definitely something that made me stronger and wiser. Thank you!!! :)


More of this next year!

My Happiness Project

I thought I could make do without blogging in the entire length of December because I'm so lazy to attend to some technical problems such as: my photo server (Photobucket) seems to have crashed without giving me any prior notice, leaving me in panic as I have uploaded a lot of pictures there that are yet to be published here; my photos have to be sorted out first but since the hard drive where I saved them is infected with virus, I can't use them; and lastly, I am absolutely at a loss for things to say. I reckon it's the Christmas spirit that has convinced me to do otherwise.

I've been to Fully Booked plenty of times this month and in all those times, I found myself looking at this blue book called The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. Instead of buying it though, I put it back on the shelf and look for another read. The way I see it, the book came into fruition because people are actually in desperate search of happiness. I bought the book yesterday, finally giving in to curiosity. It's a good book, I found out. But really, since when did happiness become so elusive? I'm not saying I'm always happy nor am I always in a good mood. It's far from it. I'm mostly indifferent and uncaring. Every now and then, I fall into manic depression. What can I say, wallowing in self-pity is addictive. But the thing is, I know when I have to snap out of it. I know when to regain control of the situation. Happiness, for me, is not a part of the journey but rather, the destination. Like others, I seek for it. Unlike others, I know where to find it - within me. After all, what stops all of us from truly being happy is ourselves. All the boundaries we set, the walls we build, and the reservations we limit ourselves with, they hinder us from doing things that could make us happy. It's always just a matter of acceptance.





Top: Espada| Necklace: H&M| Skirt: from my Lala Ester| Shoes: Topshop