Today, Manila Bulletin turns 124 years old. This year also marks my 18th year as a member of this historic, venerable organization, as well as my 30th year in lifestyle journalism. When I think about it, my life is a dream come true. I was eight years old when, for reasons I don’t recall,...
A bite into paper-thin flower petals on double chocolates, followed by a sip into my tea cup and I’m in a place where, as Somerset Maugham put it, “all the fables of the exotic east” are. Well, in fact I am. I’m at the Writers Bar at Raffles, in Makati, not in Singapore, which has...
Sadness is a curious thing. The Cambridge dictionary defines it as “the feeling of being unhappy, especially because something bad has happened.” But I don’t mean sadness that accompanies a problem or sadness as a result of a problem, but sadness that sometimes strikes you without any reason....
MOOD QUEEN Fashion stylist and entrepreneur Liz Uy came up with the Mood Food Bar with her husband Raymond Racaza What happens when a fitness enthusiast, who’s always prepping for races, and a style maven, to whom every second is a fashion moment, get together to create something healthy? The...
Full steam ahead, that’s how 2024 is going, but where are we headed this year? Better yet, where are we aching to go? The Philippine Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) of the Department of Tourism (DOT), along with Tatler Philippines, threw an intimate cocktail party at the Samba Restaurant at...
Images NOEL PABALATE Marivic Vazquez, Benjamin Yap, and Edna Camcam I knew it! When Minguita Padilla, ophthalmologist, academician, author, health advocate, and also soulful singer, took the center of the room to take our breaths away with her rendition of “Somewhere in Time,” I knew she was...
Self-love is a dangerous proposition. If it is true that the Millennials have it in their nature to put self-love above all else, such as respect for tradition or their elders or their country, it is the result of the great struggle of the many generations ahead of them, from Mary Ann Evans...
A PLAYFUL COMPANION Wild macaques are commonly seen sitting along guardrails and benches in the park, sometimes interacting with tourists in hopes of getting food in return Life is stranger than fiction. In fact, without James Cameron’s blockbuster Avatar , the 2009 phenomenon that...
Images by the author LOS CUENTOS Reading John Cheever stories at cocktail hour at Plaça Catalunya in Barcelona If I were to recommend a book I haven’t read from my 2023 stash, I’d go for The Upstairs Delicatessen: On Eating, Reading, Reading About Eating, and Eating While Reading by Dwight...
(Photo Freepik) If I took a 60-minute video of your long walks Just your feet shod or bare in the act of walking On the red carpet in Los Angeles On the cobblestones of Montmarte On the gravel of the Belvedere Gardens On the powder-fine, sugar-colored sands of Boracay If I took a closeup of...
I’ve been told that one of the foundations of a nation’s progress is love for country. It is where malasakit comes from, a genuine concern for the welfare of the nation. I wish we can all work together to show our love for country more, envision the future, strategize our strengths, move...
TWO WOMEN IN ONE Two of the author's favorite women, Diana Vreeland and Cherie Gil, merge into one, as the latter plays the former in the one-woman play Full Gallop staged in Manila in 2014 (Photo by Jo-An Bitagcol) “If it isn’t passion, if it isn’t burning, if it isn’t on fire, you...
