31 March 2016

How To Be Nadine Lustre: Be A Beautiful Alpha Female


A writer named Jacqueline Arias wrote an article for Preen about my current favorite local female celebrity - the other half of my most favorite love team - Nadine Lustre. The title was a total click-bait: How To Be Nadine Lustre. Of course, her younger supporters (those aged between 13-20) would most likely read it in the hopes to become as talented and successful as she is. As for us not so young ones, we read it because we love her. We want to know everything that's written about her. But no, it's nothing about her being a loving daughter or an awesome artist. 

The article was full of negative crap.

Did the writer know that Nadine navigated the drone used for the amazing top shots in On the Wings of Love when they were in Lake Tahoe? Has she seen the video N edited like a pro? Was she aware that N went straight to her mom in the hospital when she came back from the States? Did she know that N is also a budding fashion-preneur through Phosphene on Instagram?

I only knew about the article when her gorgeous and talented boyfriend, James Reid posted on Twitter about it. I rushed to Google to search for that one hell of a write-up that made this calm, suave guy tweet his frustration. At first, I thought to myself that maybe James and my fellow Jadines are just overreacting. As I went further the following paragraphs, though, I felt uneasy. It was such an awkward trying-hard piece of satire. It was not satire even - it was a direct attack to belittle Nadine's personality and achievement as if Arias felt she's god. With fangirl disappointment, my curiosity led me to "researching" how this writer looks like. In my head, I was like, "you better be prettier than N or else..." 

Bam - I saw her photos. Look for it yourselves and be the judge.

30 March 2016

Currently | 03



I like how I believe in the strength of words. There is power in words, really. When I told myself in the beginning of the year that I'd blog more this year, facing the Blogger dashboard has not become a chore. It just feels natural to share my thoughts here every now and then. I now feel freer. And what else can I say? My 4th blog anniversary just passed by! Fine, I need to write about my four years here in my tiny space in the cyber universe for posterity but I don't want to force myself and give you a litany of randomness. So instead, let's do a currently.

Currently...

THINKING. Of why some bloggers have to make things so complicated. I know that some of us here make blogging as their bread and butter and that earning from it is so cool (can't think of a better adjective, lol), thus, investing in it is a must. But why is it that when Instagram has announced of changing its algorithms, a lot of bloggers have reacted negatively about it? Instagram is just an extension of a blogger's site so no need to panic as if they will be losing their online life for good. I think they forgot that Instagram is all about community-building. A user has to follow people, like posts and comment to remain relevant. An in-depth explanation about the latest social media shenanigan can be read here. Sure, I loved micro-blogging on IG last year 'cause I was lazy to even turn on the computer but I realized that nothing beats creating content for the blog.  
SEEING. The scratches in my eyeglasses. I need to have its lenses changed asap. No, I want a new pair of specs. I've been eyeing (love the unintended pun) this one. Hope my trusty Hidalgo Street has like that. 
SMELLING. The fragrance of my Marks and Spencer silky talcum powder that I got from an event. I love sweet and saccharine scents for my body. 
HEARING. The silence of 4am.  
TASTING. Nothing, actually. Oh gosh, that makes me crave for sinangag and longganiza! My kumare gave us a kilo of batutay (Nueva Ecija's sweet beef sausage) last week. It's so good, I tell ya. 
TOUCHING. The crazy, getting-bigger lump in my left arm. Huhu. It's gross and thinking of having it taken out scares the hell out of me. I need my mama. 
EXCITED ABOUT. The results of Sophia's examination and interview at the new school. Yes, my husband and I decided to remove her from her current school. The reason why I shall blog about soon. I can't wait to share it with you all. 
HAPPY ABOUT. How steady things are in our domesticity lately. We sold our old car, kept the new and never returned to Uber. My work pays its monthly mortgage. Bebeng's Kitchen is doing fine. I had a few posts boosted on its Facebook page and fortunately, more people have come to known about what my shop has to offer. Having a business has its ups and downs but it's nothing that I can't manage. I don't think I'm in #girlboss levels already but I'm happy to feed my family the delicious food I bought from my hard-earned money while managing our home and raising a girl. 
PRAYING FOR. A beach vacation this summer. 

*Photo from Unsplash

23 March 2016

Summer Swimming Class

I totally intended to write about this in super late fashion. Surely, there are parents who are now looking for swimming class for their kids this summer. So, here it is!


I enrolled Sophia in Marooners Swimming Program last year. My husband, R and I have long thought about it. We don't want her cooped up here at home doing nothing but watching movies. You know, kids must sweat out their energy so they'd be more behaved when they're out. Seriously, our girl is a water baby. I think her real parents are merpeople! We could have made her take swimming lessons early on but we knew her window of readiness wasn't open yet so we waited for the right age. 6 years old - basically young to have a clean slate of mind for new learning but big enough to follow instructions. Marooners Swimming Program has graduates of Bachelor in Physical Education and Sports from Polytechnic University of the Philippines as instructors and they do their lessons every summer in few cities in Metro Manila. They hold two here in Marikina - one in Palmera Centro and the other in Marquinton Residences. We're lucky that the clubhouse in Palmera is just a few blocks away from home. 

14 March 2016

Rayala Dialogues: Last Year's Conversations



On my previous post about sharenting, I mentioned there that I chose to be selective on what I share in my social media channels. As a mom blogger, flood of photos and anecdotes of my daughter is inevitable. If food bloggers take photos of food first before saying grace, mom bloggers take photos of their falling kids first before they rescue them, hahaha! Hey, that's a joke. Or not? :D

Anyway, sharenting again. This time, these are the statuses I posted last year on my Facebook --

Sophia: You're the best mom ever, 'Nay!
Me: Aww. (hugs her) Really? (fishes compliments, hehe) Why?
Sophia: You always love me, you buy me food, you cook for me, you bring me to school, you read me books... and you tell me the right things to do. 
Ang ganda. Pang-Mother's Day. Touch na touch ako. Pero meron pa. 
Me: (hugs her really, really tight) I love you, babe.
Sophia: I love you so much, Nay, Don't feel sad. You are never alone, you always have me.
Me: (gulat na gulat) Ha?! I'm not sad! Saan mo nakukuha yang mga sinasabi mo?!
Sophia: I just thought of it lang! Ehh you're not talking and laughing eh. When you're happy, you're noisy. 
Take note, D. Always be noisy.

11 March 2016

The Day My Daughter Knew That Life Isn't Perfect


We all know that by now - life isn't perfect. It is easier for us adults to face the struggles and trials that come our everyday. We have already explored all the possible emotions that any human being possesses. Experience is the best teacher, they said. Truth, indeed. Sometimes, you wouldn't know how happy you can be with someone until you have lost him. You wouldn't know the importance of something until it was taken away from you. You wouldn't know if you can win or lose until you tried. Life is like that for us adults who have tried, made mistakes, regretted and learned.

What if, all of a sudden, in the midst of your daily mundane house manager activities, your 7-year-old child came to you with tears in her eyes? Mine did yesterday. I allowed her to surf YouTube. Her 4th examinations ended on Wednesday and I knew how bored she can be.

I asked her why. She said, in between sobs, "I feel sad." I probed. "Why does life have to be so sad?" My forehead wrinkled. She continued, "I don't want to lose you and Tatay." Without even thinking where she was coming from, I said, "but you will lose us soon. All of us will die eventually." She cried harder. How stupid can I get? I forgot I was talking to a first grader! I hugged her quickly and figured out it must be a video she watched on YouTube. She showed it to me, sat on my lap and clicked the replay button.

09 March 2016

Angel Hair Pasta with Tuna and Tomato

Perfect for the coming Lent. 

I love food and cooking, sure. It's evident in this blog, my small biz, and my work. You see, I'm one of the community managers of a multinational food and beverage brand. I also do social media management projects for Kim that revolves around salivating food photos. I sell homemade sidekicks and treats over at Bebeng's Kitchen. There's no way I can avoid food. Did I hear you say, "oooooh, that is why she's fat"? It's okay. Round is still a shape, haha. Also, I need to cook because even if my little foodie loves Mc Donald's nuggets and Jollibee Chicken Joy, she still prefers my classic chicken adobo and steaming white rice any day.

However -

There are lazy days. A home-based working mompreneur like me is not an exemption to this unavoidable epidemic. When it attacks, I call McDo delivery to save our dinner. Or when there's tinge of energy left in my system, I open a can of whatever I have in stock and do what I can do with it. My husband's favorite is sardines with misua! Mine's sardines with fresh minced onion and calamansi juice. My girl loves tuna, especially the flavored ones.

05 March 2016

Please Remind Me To / 02

I have a blind item. I don't like this certain local showbiz love team. For me, lately, they exude so much negativity and haggardness. Keep them in mind because they played a vital role in this story. Also, please guard your hearts if you are a fan girl of any celebrity like I am.

Be still, my heart.

My husband came home last night to spend a weekend with us. We are one of the few privileged military families who can get to have our soldier home even for just a weekend. Never fails, whenever R comes home, our girl becomes the theatrical Annie Bennett. She has this signature giddiness. There's a squeal, a giggle and a few gallops like her favorite ponies. Then she'll automatically throw herself to the man who looks like her. Her happiness is contagious, always. Dinner last night went smoothly and very motion picture-like: The father comes home, hot and sexy mother prepares meal, kid is happy. Then we finished our delicious Arroz ala Cubana like famished laborers. 

03 March 2016

Old and New

A quick hi.

As you may have noticed, I did a merging of my old Bebengisms page and the new Royal Domesticity page. But since the old one has more followers, Facebook chose to keep it. The number of likes merged but sadly, the photos didn't. Huhu. With that said, I'll be reposting photos on the page from my IG in the coming days as to kind of update that part of my cyber home. Please bear with my throwbacks and flashbacks and senti moments, mmkay?


Anyway, the merging of pages symbolizes that I'll be back to my old blogger self but with a new vision for the blog. No, not going back to doing coverage of events one day after another or having a slew of giveaway in a week (please do not unlike, haha). Instead, there will be stories of our simple and small family life that revolve around our dreams, the drama that pops in from time to time, and the delicious food we ate in between dealing with all those.