Don’t feel bad about the pictures of celebrities and models in magazines, or in televisions. You’d look great too if you had a professional makeup artist, a stylist, and a professional photographer armed with lights and reflectors. And magazines have one tool that ordinary women don’t have: Photoshop. They clean up flaws pixel by pixel on the computer screen.

And there’s a beauty treatment that sort of works on the same principle: Manhattan botox, It’s like a treatment of moderate to severe frown lines between the brows in people ages 18 to 65. Be aware of the most common side effects (based on my research) following injection include temporary eyelid droop and nausea, localized pain, infection, inflammation, will arise but it subsides after a few days. Just be very sure that you are emotionally and physically ready with the procedure.

Last night I got a call from a friend who is based in China. She told me “I love the Philippines, but I didn’t want to die without experiencing life beyond the islands.” Beijing, being an Olympic city, with so much excitement, hustle and bustle, seemed to be an ideal place. While Rome wasn’t built in a day, it seems this city was.

Bethany misses everything, and until she left, she never realized she could be such a balikbayan cliche. When in the Philippines, she makes sure she gets her fix of Max’s, Barrio Fiesta, tinola and sinigang. Guarding her figure, she is now looking for spas and salons that could compare to the standards of San Diego day spas, which she had been dreaming of visiting.

She told me that Philippines is and will always be her home. She will always be Filipino. She wouldn’t have it any other way.