Things I Love Sundays

his Sunday is turning out to be the most perfect Sundays I've had in weeks: meaning I'm completely devoid of any speck of stress, be it with work or with my personal errands. I woke up at 1 PM, felt my face {I do this every morning, why, I don't know} and it just was so especially soft! There were no text messages on my phone asking me to do this, or do that and I was free to laze around and linger in the bed and sleep some more, but I did not.

Every Sunday, I sit in a corner of my room and do something I consider artsy: add mementos and knick knacks to my overflowing scrapbook, write endlessly, reading a good book {currently reading Neil Gaiman's The Sandman}, watch an obscure I-need-to-focus-on-you movie, blog, or tinker with Adobe Photoshop. Today, the weather is perfect and after cups of hot chocolate, I want to share with you things I love today, some I had the week before but you get my drift. :P

Jumpstarting reading The Picture of Dorian Gray

by Oscar Wilde. Remember my obsession on the movie version?
Whilst tinkering with the store of the e-book reader, Kobo, on my phone

I chanced upon a Project Gutenberg edition of the book and

I was wondering why I never thought of downloading

the darn book from Project Gutenberg!

Now that I've started reading the much-coveted book, I am gripped

by the words of Wilde, as the first page reads:

The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind
stirred the trees of the garden, there came through the open door of the heavy scent
of the lilac or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn.

I know some literatis who think Oscar Wilde is "too romantic a writer for his own sake," and I don't disagree. But I love romanticizing writing, I think I have an affair with words and in real life, I fall in love over intricate, carefully-woven English words, and not Filipino {Dr. Jose Rizal, please do not strangle me}, nor Spanish, not even French. And I love {as early as now, yes!} reading Oscar Wilde's most famed work. See? I'm blushing now!

A Cause is a Cause. And I signed to help stop sex trafficking.

A couple of beauty bloggers and I dropped by at The Body Shop in Greenbelt 3 to support our ever Mother Earth/Welfare-loving brand The Body Shop in its newest cause, Stop Sex Trafficking. I was infinitely alarmed of the statistics mentioned, as Philippines is now #4 in the world ranks of sex trafficking! In the country, the one of the top places with this kind of business is Boracay. It doesn't surprise me though. This one time I was in Boracay, I talked to the massage therapists on the shore and she shared the going rates {Php 5,000 for men/gays and Php 3,000 for women.} With this kind of money, people living below the poverty line would be tempted to give in, or to participate in trafficking kids, teenagers and unknowing victims.

To support this cause, drop by any TBS branch {no purchase required!} and ask for the petition form. TBS needs 500,000 signatures to make the issue known and to put an end to sex trafficking. Or you can sign the petition by clicking here.

My iPod reverted to a vintage looking screen and iTunes prompted

a recovery mode. I almost cried in frustration as I clicked 'Yes' when it

asked if I wanted to go on and recover it {hence may be losing the 1,000 carefully-chosen songs}
but thankfully, my iPod and the songs remained intact but now I wondered why
it turned wonky like that :|

Unilever loves me! I received a giant package and I was wondering what it was

and saw all these babies! Uhm, I'd say it was the childhood sweetheart post's fault.

I wanted to extend the generosity but wasn't sure how to, so I distributed the bottles

to my work friends {one of whom has been using men's shampoo all this time, that

there was a faint 'Alleluia' from her hair when she used Sunsilk again}

There's something so amusing and powerful every time you're given

the chance to choose.

While I eventually chose a color close to my signature fuchsia shade {#FF0066},

I find that this statement applies especially when taking the time in choosing my nails'

polish. Do you take forever in choosing, too?

{Photo taken at Nailaholics, Mall of Asia}

Geez, I'm an oil mine.

Liwanag, hanapin ang liwanag.
Ang iyong ala-ala ang… gabay na sundin
Sa liwanag, ligaya ay matatagpuan
Bagong buhay ay darating.

- Memory, from the musical Cats, translated by Pete Lacaba

I originally disliked the idea of watching overly made up cats croon and reminisce their hey days. My mother, who is a fan girl of all things musical, ordered me to watch 'Cats' as soon as she read that it was coming to Manila. Being the sometimes dutiful daughter I am, I obliged, especially since three of my friends were coming, too.

While I could not exactly make out all the dialogues {the musical is rather a dated one}, I loved the intricate set, the play of lights, the Australian cast member singing 'Memory' in Filipino, Rum Tum Tugger {my favorite cat}and of course watching Tony-awardee Lea Salonga sing the famous 'Memory,' almost brought me to tears. While I couldn't reconcile Grizabella's characted with Lea {the glamour cat was supposed to be withering and super, super old}, I figured there is no other Filipina singer I would have wanted to sing it {that's just me}. Oh, and at the beginning of the musical, I totally wanted to jump onstage and dance with the Jellicle cats!

And because I'm all gung-ho on watching all the musicals that I can, I'm sharing one of my favorite songs from the broadway, 'All I Ask of You' by Cliff Richard and Sarah Brightman from the musical 'The Phantom of the Opera." This song is on repeat right now. Embarrassing Fact #75: Whenever I'm alone at home when I was younger, I would put my father's Broadway CD on play, crank up the volume, put on my blue ball gown and pretend I was Christine, wooed by my childhood sweetheart Raoul as the phantom watches from afar.