Maraisms Answers Binibining Pilipinas GOLD Top 15 Questions - Internet Meme Style!

I have a confession to make: I caught the Binibining Pilipinas Gold 2013 Bug.


You wouldn't be able to help it if the company you work for is the official beauty partner of this year's pageant. It practically felt like I was friends with all the 50 Binibinis, editing their photos and all for a poll I ran for Bb. Avon. Close lang ba. (I am happy to report that Bb. Avon, Bea Rose Santiago, won the title Binibining Pilipinas - International).

Everyone had their favorite part of the night. I for one literally had goosebumps when Martin Nievera said  "Philippines, behold your Queens!" during the parade of all the Binibini Queens. Wouldn't it be awesome to have a monarchy of Beauty QUEENS in the Philippines?

Among the queens, my personal favorites are Alice Dixon, our Anew Genics endorser, because I was with her in a shoot once and she really Does.Not.Age. Also Janine Tugonon, Avon's  newest Fragrance and Makeup endorser because she was so candid and so warm when she went to visit us in the office for Valentine's. And, oh, Lia Ramos because she answered all my kulit emails for Glamourbox :)


Another favorite for me is the Question and Answer portion. The questions are pretty interesting this year, I might say, but the answers more so! And because I have a penchant for answering those chain Q&As that went around in the 90s, here's my own take on the Binibining Pilipinas Gold Top 15 Questions Internet Meme Style!

March Madness

Dear March,

Why do you always have to do this to me?

 source

A Night at The Blind Pig Speakeasy, Salcedo, Makati

Source: Lynn-Enroute

"There's this place near my condo where you tell the bartenders how you feel and they will mix a drink based on your feelings," I remember my office mate Dawn once said in passing. I was intrigued then, but I never made an effort to go there. Besides, you have to make a reservation beforehand, to a number that is rumored to change ever so often. Bars + snotty place = not my thing. So I forgot about it.

But then came Valentine's Day. My lunch friends and I have been planning an Instagramable, Pinterestable, rooftop, candle-lit dinner for months, only for it to be near cancellation because it turned out Dawn shouldn't even be at her condo's rooftop. Long story.

I, Sheng, Me-an, Kat, Sandra, and Dawn already cleared our schedules for a Post Valentine's GNO (girls' night out for the abbreviation challenged), so what are we left to do?

We threw caution to the wind and had our feelings interpreted through a cocktail.

Valentine's Schmalentines: So What About Valentine's Day?

Someone just got proposed to yesterday while we were having dinner. Two guys started dancing in front of a girl and we couldn't figure out who was the soon-to-be-ex-BF. Turned out it was neither! The guy hired dancers to "flash mob" his girlfriend :)

I cannot remember Valentine's being celebrated so grandly in the Philippines except when I was still in La Salle. In college, the University chorale and orchestra would lend their services to lovestruck co-eds and serenade girls (and sometimes guys!) in between classes.

After I joined the rat race, the Valentine ambiance seemed to die down together with my will to date the hustle and bustle of the city. Rihanna says she found love in a hopeless place, but I never had to find far to find love. I just have to look around me. Naks!

So how was my Valentine's Day?

Five Hundred Twenty Five Thousand Six Hundred Minutes

525,000 Moments So Dear...

Pardon me if I have to quote Rent yet again, but nothing sums up a year ender best than Rent's Seasons of Love. Although quite frankly, I cannot say my 2012 was a Season of Love. Aptly, it was a Season of Yearning for More. Whatever more I could do with my life, I wanted it - travel, grow, and, even unfortunately, spend.

If 2009 was my Year of Great Lull, 2010 was my Year of Great Push, 2011 was my Year of Running Around Breathless and Dizzy and All at the Same Time Ecstatic, 2012 is hereby dubbed thee as my Year of More Please, Thank You.

I wanted more because the end of 2011 promised me more: I had a great trip slated for March but due to some circumstances, it had to be cancelled. In a way, I think that trip burdened me to overcompensate. I traveled more, although locally. I shopped and dined more, to my bank account's remorse. I reassessed my life choices more, something I have to carry on to 2013.

So what about 2012?