Noël à Paris

... PASKO SA PARIS (PSP) is an event, which Amba Cristy envisions to be an annual thing. It is meant to showcase the Philippines to the French (culture, food, products, etc.), hoping to encourage them to visit the Philippines and experience the Filipino Christmas firsthand. The big(ger) thing will be next year, but these events havealready used PSP to start promoting the idea this early.

• PSP: A FilCom Christmas Party - As a token of appreciation for hosting last July's Pista sa Paris, Kuya Abet, the President of the Coordinating Committee, invited Cesar Molina and I.
  
  Ate Cory, Dennis and I took the opportunity to promote the Pinoy Jam Christmas Concert and a snippet of my performance is in this video (9:40);
  
  
  
  
• PSP: A Pinoy Jam Christmas Concert was successfully held at the Embassy last Saturday, December 10.
  
  Instead of doing the traditional house-to-house caroling, the Pinoy Jam group thought of staging an intimate acoustic-type, yet highly-entertaining concert, which aims to proudly share the spirit of Filipino Christmas through (food and) music. The group prepared a repertoire, which basically reflects both the joyful spirit of Christmas and the loneliness of the season especially for those who are not with their loved ones.
  
  It was indeed a pleasure celebrating Christmas, an extremely important and revered holiday for most of us Filipinos, with the people who came... the Pinoy Jam way!
  
  

Il y a deux semaine.

I can't believe that it's been 2 weeks since I started working again. Shifting from vacay to work mode was not as hard as I expected, but I admit that I miss not setting the alarm and getting up later to enjoy the comfort of our bed longer.

Time passed by so fast and it didn't help that I've been busy with some non-work-related things.

Simple joys the past weeks, which make my heart smile:

• WORKING again!
• Another invitation for October to be an EMCEE, a career I never thought I will venture into;
• A great weekend in Nantes with OLD AND NEW FRIENDS to celebrate Tita Rose Ann's birthday;
• 10th Anniversary of 9-11 - The good that came out of it and this very poignant Empire State of Mind tribute:
• This article by F Sionil Jose on "Why we are shallow;"
• MOULES FRITES with Tita Cora and Tita Siony;
• SINGING with the UNESCO Choir and Orchestra at the 2010 Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize Ceremony (recipient - Argentina's "The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo";
• IKEA's 2012 Catalogue distributed at the Cambronne métro exit;
• PINOY JAM group's planned caroling/concert this December

Last night, Pete and I went to the Embassy to welcome Philippines' new ambassador to France, H.E. Cristina G. Ortega together with other Pinoy community and business leaders. I honestly didn't know what to expect. All I know is that she's from U.P. and she's been serving the government for a long time. I was impressed the moment I saw her and it stayed that way until we left the reception. Here's to the new "administration" and to praying for more exciting projects for the Pinoy community in Paris!

Une tasse de café est tout ce qu'il faut...

A cup of coffee is all we need... to have a good conversation!

Marj and I promised that we will catch up on what we've been up to when we're both back in Paris and that's what we did last Friday, my last free week day before going back to work. There were a lot of things, which we talked about and experienced, but these stood out:

• NEW (INEXPENSIVE) DVDs: I went to FNAC before meeting with her so I showed the new additions to our collection: "Interview with the Vampire," "The Sound of Music," "The English Patient," "Munich," "The Last King of Scotland," and "Singing in the Rain;"
• GAME OF THRONES: The last time we were together, she was talking about this great series with Deepa and I did get curious, but it was only this week that I finally got to watch and finish it. Now I don't wonder anymore what my friends are raving about. I can't wait for the next season to begin!
• AN ADORABLE GUY SERVING AT SEGAFREDO PROUDLY WEARING THIS STATEMENT SHIRT!

Mon premier (et j'espère pas la dernière)...

Oui, finalement... my first post (and hopefully not the last)! :D

I've created this account before I moved to France more than a year ago so you might be wondering what prompted me to start. I got the idea from a friend actually. She decided to put Facebook posts and other stuff, which "moved" her to her blog so she can access them more easily. Very brilliant!

Why now? Plain and simple. Because it's the start of a new month (and perhaps because it's already Christmas in the Philippines?! LOL!).

The past few weeks have been spent mostly at home, taking advantage of my free time before I start working next week. Looking back, I have been pretty productive:

• doing post-church wedding stuff;
• following-up on government-related matters;
• attending the after summer break rehearsals of the UNESCO Choir;
• enhancing the ACS website;
• fixing our files (papers, papers, papers and others);
• starting a scrapbook (yay!);
• making (and finishing!) a digital photo album of our South of France exploration

Let me share with you some of the things, which made my heart smile the past few days:

• COOKING COMPLIMENT RECEIVED: "I like your cooking a lot!" - from the hubby's petite-cousine (his cousin's daughter) who dined with us for a couple of days last month. *BLUSH*
• ADELE'S MUSIC: One of my staple playlists while working. Her most recent performance at the 2011 Video Music Awards is just perfection personified. Too bad the link's already removed on YouTube, but I hope this live rendition in her own home will do: Someone Like You. P.S. The hubby surprised me with a copy of her album when he got home from work. Awww...
• THE BUCKET LIST: The poster I chose above is the less popular one, but I like it better. This movie never fails to move me to tears and it succeeded again just an hour or so ago.
• BEYONCÉ: Who she is as an artist is a source of inspiration. Here's "Beyoncé: Year of 4," which "documents the year-long personal and artistic journey that inspired Beyoncé's fourth solo album, 4."