the big 5-0, zalora loot, and home cooking adventures

My father recently celebrated his 50th birthday. I don’t have photos of my mother’s birthday because the rains were crazy and floodwater entered the house, so I decided to come home a week later. I think this made me daughter non grata for a short while haha. But there was water inside the house!

Anyway. Here’s a giant cake from Conti’s.

My father is very happy he’s 50. “Kaya pa 1/4th! (25 years),” he told me. Hehe.

Ze Zalora loot! I received a text from them saying I am eligible to a 20 percent discount for my next purchase. I couldn’t resist.

I got:

Original Carmex Jar

Bare Naturals Mineral All Over Glow – Precious

Bare Naturals Vitamin Stix – Definite Lips

Charm Retractable Kabuki (Pink)

Wet n Wild Mega Glo Illuminating Powder in Catwalk Pink

This is my first time to use Bare Naturals and Wet n Wild. I haven’t cracked open the All Over Glow, but I’m loving their tinted lip balm, which is very pigmented. I also love Mega Glo. I’ve been looking for a good illuminating powder, but I find Guerlain’s Météorites too expensive. I think Mega Glo is a good place to start for me. (I would have just stuck with the All Over Glow, but it’s a loose powder, and I need something travel-friendly.)

And this is my first kabuki brush! I love it. Look how cute it is.

And of course, the kitchen adventure continues. Here’s some microwave bread pudding, and beef burgers with a side of cucumbers.

Okay, the burgers in the photo above were a mess because I couldn’t cut garlic and onion properly. The pieces were too large!

This is a better set, thanks to J.

Something to look out for: My story, “The Missing”, will be appearing in VOLUME One, an anthology of stories edited by Dean Alfar and Sarge Lacuesta. Launch will be in September.

The volume will be edited by Dean Francis Alfar and Angelo R. Lacuesta. Volume 1 will be the first book in an anthology series that will showcase fiction by Filipino writers, age 45 and under, selected without regard for boundaries or genres.

Hope you can get a copy. I am proud of this story, and I can’t wait to share it with readers.

Here’s the (still unedited) opening paragraphs:

The Missing

There were only six of them in the group, but several times during the trip in Thailand, Harold would think that they were missing one person. During dinner he would catch himself saying, Let’s wait for – and then realize that there was no one left to wait for, as he counted his seated friends already digging into grilled fish and steamed rice at the sidewalk stall. One two three four five six. Inside Platinum Mall, as they made their way through hordes of fellow tourists buying scarves and cheap shoes, the sudden bursts of Filipino words (Mahal, Ang ganda o, Tawaran mo pa) causing both confusion and delight, one of his friends said, Meet you downstairs at closing time?, and Harold very nearly said, Okay, but we should tell –

One two three four five six.

There was no one to tell, but Harold felt the uneasiness nestling in his bones, the same disquiet that invaded him whenever he left his rundown Makati apartment in a rush: Did I leave the light on? Did I lock the gate properly? Did I unplug the computer?

Am I forgetting someone?

End of excerpt. Eliza Victoria © 2013