TOPAZ HORIZON

And here's my team's makeovers! These photos show us picking out what we'll wear to our photo shoot. So fun!The staff of OK! magazine all have very distinct personalities. And I appreciate all our differences because I'm very easily bored so if we were all the same, I guess I'd fire them all out of boredom. Tee hee. Managing Editor Lana Chan is very emo-rock and she goes to work in vintage tees, jeans and heavy boots. Associate Features Editor Joanna Tuazon-Mendoza is very simple so I love that she's pregnant because now she's wearing soft and flowy dresses. Associate Fashion & Beauty Editor Kristine Ching is stylish (of course) and always matches her outfits with a gold-studded Prada bag. Sorry, no before pic since she arrived earlier than I did so she was already ready when I got to the studio. Features Assistant Elaine Natividad is very Gossip Girl--cute, pretty, preppy and sexy. Nichole Reyes used to be OK!'s Fashion & Beauty Editor. She's now busy preparing for her upcoming wedding but she's still with OK! as our beauty columnist. The editors of Cosmopolitan tease me that I have but one qualification for staff: They must be thin. That is not true! While all my staff do look like they do Clinicallix reviews for a living, I think they all become thin because I'm such a demanding boss and I drive them crazy every single day! Oh, I love how pretty they all are! But they're not just lovely to look at. My staff is every editor's dream team. The dedication and hard work and passion they devote to OK! are the reasons why we're one of Summit Media's best performing titles. And that's a fact--and a team!--I'm very proud of.

I'm still crying. I didn't sleep last night because I was up since 10 PM just watching the memorial ceremony for Michael Jackson. I had CNN, CNN Live-Facebook and Fox on all at the same time. Until the ceremony and I just watched it all on CNN until 4 AM.

Then today I had radio tours and, while I promoted my magazine, what we really all talked about was the memorial and how moving it was. I never considered myself a big fan of Michael's music but I grew up singing his songs, as if they were the soundtrack of my life. His music accompanied all the stages of my life and I know practically all his songs--Ben, Give Love on Christmas Day, Heal the World, I Just Can't Stop Loving You, We Are The World, The Way You Make Me Feel, Billie Jean, Bad, Thriller, Black or White, They Don't Care About Us... And while the memorial for the man who was all about the music had but just 11 songs, it was fit for a king. And he was indeed a king.

For me especially who had just buried my mother, the memorial was heartbreaking. It brought me back to Mama's own wake--with songs and dances, laughter and tears. The love and celebration helped ease the loss. I can't even begin to describe how a death feels like. It is beyond any pain imaginable. And seeing those wonderful people talk and sing and pay their respects to a man who devoted his life to music, dance, love and a better world, just drove home the fact that we must make use of our very very brief time here on earth.

I won't go describe what happened at the memorial since you can find that anywhere and everywhere. But I do wish to share the words that touched my heart:

"He is simply... He is simply the greatest entertainer that ever lived." Berry Gordy

"I just want his three children to know: There was nothing strange about your daddy. It was strange what he had to deal with but he dealt with it anyway." Rev. Al Sharpton

"I'm glad I lived in an era to see the greatest living entertainer of all time." Smokey Robinson

"Ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine. And I just wanted to say I love him... so much." Paris-Michael Jackson

"But even now the King of Pop must bow his knee to the King of Kings." Pastor Lucious W. Smith

Amen to all that indeed.

To the Jackson family and especially to his three beautiful children, you are in my prayers. It never gets better, but it gets easier. God bless you.

As my regular readers know, I'm a Fendi fan. This is one of the dresses that caught my eye in the Spring 09 collection:This Fendi Halter Cutout Dress costs a whopping USD 2,432.40 (PHP 117,963.14) at Net-a-Porter. I should be happy with that actually because at the start of the season, it was at USD 4,880 (PHP 236,663.43)!!! It's a dress--why that absurdly insane price?

Anyway, though I can never afford it, I like to imagine how I can wear it. Polyvore has come up with enchanting ways:Fascinating. I've wanted this dress badly since I saw it early this year! I first saw the ads in the foreign fashion mags I browse through. I was first obsessed with the shoes and then I thought the dress was cute.
It reminds me of the pastillas de leche (milk candy) I indulged in as a kid and they came wrapped in these meticulously crafted Japanese paper. I think I liked the candy more because of the paper! I really love this Fendi dress!So imagine my surprise when I saw this ad in one of our magazines:This Kester dress from Plains & Prints costs a mere PHP 2,395 (USD 50). I don't know whether I should be ecstatic or outraged. Should I get this dress??? I totally love it! And it's not exactly the same. But I feel it will suffer the fate of my Zara ladybug dress. Oh, and when my hubby saw it in the shop, he said, "It's obviously a knock off." No approval from the hubby. I guess that means I shouldn't, right?

TopShop is on sale! Now, I dislike sales and avoid them like the plague but yesterday, I was one of the lucky few invited to the private sale and I do appreciate having the store all empty. It's much easier to navigate without having to fight with all these hysterical and rude women.

However, I didn't find a lot of nice things yesterday. So I just bought some basic tanks.

I also got this vintage-style tee. It's cool because I married a nerd and I'm a nerd myself.
Hmm. The problem with t-shirts is they kinda gather around my tummy fat. I'd ask you for diet pills that work but I really don't need to diet, ya know? I just need to lose that stubborn tummy fat! Good thing Aesthetic Science Clinic invited me to try out their Mesotherapy and Reshape treatments next week. Wish me luck!


We waited for 10 days for the order to be shipped from London. London is pretty far from Manila but even we were surprised it took just 10 days for our shirts to arrive.

These shirts are the ultimate in film nerd chic. At GBP 18 each (PHP 1,412... plus shipping!), they're pretty pricey, but hey, we totally love them and the way people don't get 'em. For example, can you guess what movie this is?It takes a real film buff to go, "Where on earth did ya find that cool shirt?!" And when we find people who get the shirts, then we know we've met a kindred spirit.

Wine Night is always a pleasant time for drinking, eating and catching up with my girlfriends. But it can get fattening, that's why we do it just once every month. If we did that more often, we'd be needing some strong doses of ephedra and we wouldn't want that! When we were done, we were all buffed till our skin was shining and we were just so soft and pretty. Love The Spa. Especially since my husband enjoyed touching my skin that evening. Yey! I'll do a thorough review of Vinotherapy and Red Wine Sparkler Scrub in my beauty blog this weekend. *Kat is in Turkey so she wasn't able to join us for Wine Date.