An Intimate affair for the Winter Solstice

I love weddings! I thought I was over that phase when I had mine, almost 3 years ago now. But for some reason, I always manage to get excited and all passionate when a friend talks to me about her upcoming wedding or engagement party! And the inner party-planning goddess in me, just can't help but inject some of my meaningful albeit unsolicited advice at times ( sue me... ).

And with that in mind, I have often been jokingly commented on, that I seem to have a penchant for themes to the small parties I throw, and yet for me this is just as important as the food! Yep, yep I said it.. the non-cook in me said it. I personally think that having a theme, a motiff or atleast a color scheme keeps things clean, fluid and a big help on the Menu!

A good example would be, the husband's ( or as I fondly call him, THE COMPLAINT RECEPTACLE or THE TANTRUM BUFFER)  29th birthday last year. I know how much he loved his beer, meat and his night out with the guys, so instead of having just a guys night out at the Pub.. I transformed our home into a Pub, invited our tribe ( with the girls ofcourse) wherein we all had a good time, without having to think of an astronimical bar tab at the end of the night. So at this said party, I had the The Tantrum Buffer Chef cook up a storm ( yes I made him cook for his own birthday, but you would actually think kindly of me, once you have tasted one of my infamous inedible dishes). I gave him an idea of what we should serve the guests as befits our Pub-themed party.. or as it is "famously" known now as The CRANKY CHEF PUB. It was pub grub through and through, giving us a very wide selection of food, but I for one would know, that you can't serve caviar at a party like this ( not that we can afford caviar). In saying that, you will actually have an idea as to what decor,food, cutlery and the general feel for the night, what is expected of your guest and what they will be expecting as well. So hence my love for themed parties.

But going back, a girlfriend who's been engaged since I knew her, decided to jump the shark and get married over the weekend. Just like that! I know she always wanted to have the big, white, beach wedding at home in the Philippines, but for personal reasons, they decided to have an impromptu small wedding here in Auckland first. She got their license, invited our few close friends and she had a wedding!

The first thing I asked her was, what will your theme be? ( and when I say theme, it doesn't have to be an all out theme with a costume feel.. like I said, it could just be a color scheme). I for one as a guest would love to know what to wear, without upstaging the bride, but not be under dressed so as not to insult your hosts. ( Yes please, common courtesy and good etiquette is still very much a big plus for anyone,)

So she picked a theme but wasn't too fussed about it, but being a very good NAGGING friend, I encouraged her to insist ( yes, she knows how much of a shrew I can be with party details) that her guests stick to the theme!

TWINKLE AND ICE.. I couldn't have thought of a much better theme very fitting to the season, which unbeknownstly fell on WINTER SOLSTICE, the 21st of June.

So armed with an impromptu budget and with less than a week to prepare, we went straight to our local dollar store deals and came out with really good cheap finds. And the end product as I will gingerly post here as well, was more than what I expected! It was a small and intimate wedding but far from lacking in taste! Less is always more and It was as how she likes it, clean and beautiful in its stark simplicity with an intimate group of people, who we endearingly call family in this home away from home!

To Brad and Mikko! I am genuinely very happy for you guys, that you have both finally got to this day unscathed and still full of love. We love you and your whanau will always be here for you! Be it here, or across the ditch!

Congratulations and best wishes!

TWINKLE AND ICE FOR WINTER SOLSTICE

Trestle tables and benches to maximize seating for the limited space

One of the wedding must-dos was to sign/decorate/paint/cut/paste into their WEDDING GUESTBOOK/SCRAPBOOK

Old friends and older friends..with the beautiful bride

With family from the Philippines who flew all the way here to be with them on this day

Their son the cheeky page boy

We didn't lack for entertainment either when we had a handful of oafs, who could easily do that!

Not that we need entertaining, when we could easily just do it ourselves with this Come-Hither Pirranha look that we mastered! 😂

Who needs a band, when you've got these folks fumbling over a song lyrics..

A page from my book: Our well wishes for the bride and groom in their Wedding guestbook/scrapbook

BRAD & MIKKO Congratulations and Best Wishes you guys! We love you!

My inner party-planner-goddess was on full gear last night..after years of quietly celebrating my birthday..I've decided to bite the bullet and celebrate the last year of my 20s with one last big hurrah!mexican style! Here's pebbles with his mexican douche mo' in on the fiesta, thanking our friends for being such good sports! And for making the last 5years away from home..feel like home! To the crankychef..thank you for my personalized sombrero cake which you have labored well into a feverish night 😜 . Again, a big thank you to my family for keeping me grounded and for this special tribe of people here who I choose to call my KIWI WHANAU...

Neil Gaiman 2012 Commencement Speech "Make Good Art"

"MAKE INTERESTING, AMAZING, GLORIOUS MISTAKES." - NEIL GAIMAN

This video inspired me to break the rules and write, even if I know that I may sound like a lot of people, because eventually I know I will find my own voice. 

To my future children..

MACKLEMORE & RYAN LEWIS - SAME LOVE feat. MARY LAMBERT (OFFICIAL VIDEO)

http://youtu.be/hlVBg7_08n0



   I can't stress enough how strongly I feel for this cause..but it always manages to pull my heart strings.. And this song just gives me a little bit of hope for humanity, and this world that I would one day love for you to see.
   To my future children, I will always, always, always love you no matter your sexual orientation. Forgive me if at first I may disappoint you with the shock of my initial reaction, as you tell me over dinner. But let this song guide you, or use this song as a binding contract to hold me to my word.. that I will always be here for you.
I love you!

Vicissitudes.. my premise on being..

Funny how life turns out.. From childhood you are led to believe that you are the most special human being on earth. Led on by this fantastical web of tall tales that all your dreams can come true. And that you can do everything you like, and be anything you want to be and still come out the special human being you were born and raised to believe.
But then, in comes major life altering decisions, and we try to make these decisions with this same sense of invincibility ofcourse.. Only to be scoffed at and faced with this hard blunt truth, that this demigod image of yourself, whom your parents idolized (until you decided you wanted to wear sneakers instead of your pink-ribboned maryjanes) was in fact that, just a demigod. Nothing more, nothing less. Bound by earthly rules, stuck in limbo between heaven and earth with this bloated sense of self-worship. Always out to prove something worthy of a god.
And as one task after another fails and disappoints, one grows old. And they simply resign to the big fat fact circle of life.. 
To nest, procreate, raise little demigods, crush the poor little buggers spirits, because heaven forbid, they might think their special, and just might sit out the first 25 years of their lives down at your basement, waiting for that special break that they so rightly and adamantly think they deserve. And then where would you be? Back to sqaure one, pondering on how a special person like you, could spawn such a disappointment ;P 
Funny how life turns out.. Cause if only someone told you right from the start, that you were here on your own terms, god, demigod, or even the commonest of serfs.. their wouldn't have been room for disappointment.

Here's to jobs that pay the rent! Cheers!


9tha Jan 2010 

Post Sabbatical

After that last soul-baring post.. It took me a while to get over myself and bare it all again. It doesn't mean I haven't been writing. I have.. always have always will, but I just wasn't inclined to post anymore of that gushy-free-for-all-rip-my-heart-open-letter to my first love.
I still have those mind you, but I guess it will take another emotionally derranged sleepless night for me to have the courage to post something so brutally honest. Again, I might be eating my words tomorrow.. but what the heck..all the world's a stage..and this is mine. As the saying goes " The people that matter don't mind, and the people that mind, don't matter".
And the previous year has been one helluva chaotic stage, but life goes on as they say.
So thank you to my special tribe, you know who you guys are. And thank you for life's wicked curve balls.

Attroversiamo!

A love letter..to the first man I have ever loved.

Dear Dad,


I miss you!
Next to I LOVE YOU these are the first three words I can remember saying and writing down in a lifetime of letters, texts, hasty scratchy phone calls, emails and even small post-it notes.
Its no wonder really, what with the nature of your job. You are forever on the go, going out there, working overseas for 6-10months and to the best of your abilities putting food on the table. And for that I am forever grateful. I think its safe (or perhaps, easy for me to say now) that we, in part grew up without your daily presence. You were always there, naturally, everytime we say a prayer before bedtime, we always say one for you. "PLEASE KEEP DADDY SAFE LORD" and "MAY HE BE HOME TO SPEND CHRISTMAS WITH US THIS YEAR." Yep, those were the exact words.


I am not begrudging you of your work of course, how can I when it is that very nature of work, that provided for us. I know its not easy, and the sacrifices you have made are great, but we have always been here dad. (ME and ATOT). 


We never really talked openly about the separation, but I remember you telling us the first time how it has to be. I know you and mommy had problems, but I also thought that you guys were working on it, so when you told us that night 
( i can't even remember exactly), it came as quite a shock to us, to me especially. You were the mature parent that time, explaining to us the difference in our arrangements, why you and mommy can't make it work, and that even if things are different now, you would still love us and that you still love mommy "AS A BROTHER LOVES A SISTER". (whatever that means..)
I know it was hard explaining that to an 11 and a 12 year-oldadd (girls!i might add), but somehow you managed to try to make the best of an apocalyptic situation for your school-age girls. and for that, again, THANK YOU! I also remember you making a promise that night.. that no matter what happens, you will always love us and that you will always be here for us and that we can always talk to you. 
And without a doubt, I know you still very much love us, but we can hardly talk to you now,  so Im not sure if you are still there for us as well. I don't know if its because, the two little girls that you left behind are not little girls anymore? And somehow you were robbed of fathering little angels, instead you got stuck with teenagers full of angst?


Guess what daddy, those teenagers grew up too. And I know this may seem unlikely, but they grew up level-headed. Damaged yes, but very level-headed and practical.


I know I have always constantly tried to prove to you and to the world that we weren't affected with the separation, ( we didn't go into drugs, got pregnant, flunked out of school or even went to jail) but boy was I ever wrong (again!).
And somehow as we grew older the world's opinion mattered less and less, and
no one ever comes out if it unscathed, and I mean no one. Not you, not mommy, not Atot. We came out badly bruised and damaged as we fumbled with the oddities and the awkwardness of having two separate lives, both with two very different parents. (time and time again, I always find myself asking..HOW ON EARTH DID YOU TWO EVER END UP TOGETHER?) 


But I guess, you both had your reasons and I respect that. And to clarify, I never hated you and mommy for breaking up, or I never thought you both as "SELFISH" for having to give-up that easily, what always got me riled up was how callously you two handled the whole separation and how immature you dealt with each other. You see, in all honesty I really want to see you both happy. Be it with mommy (eeewww...please LORD GOD NO!) or another life companion. I just want to see you happy and loved dad.


Because in my heart of hearts, I know no other woman will ever love you more than we love you. I may not understand you (and I wont even try). But, this doesn't have to be so hard you know, we can always talk it out and try to discuss things as we used to. 


After all, a girl never forgets her first love.. the yardstick of all future lovers, the big omnipotent being that can do anything from lifting her up in the air and catching her, to opening a jar of pickles to always rebuffing the mothers' nagging tirade.. their fathers.


I love you daddy..I know I don't have to get you, but I do know that I love you.
I will always be here.






Love,


9tha