For as long as I can remember, my body has been the receiving end of jokes and criticisms, from skinny to bones to anorexic to stick to Olive Oyl.  I had just disregarded and tossed it aside.  Jokes like that really have no meaning since first of all, it’s still the truth, and I have come to love the body that I was given.  Plus, it is because of this body that I am able to model and still be skinny as hell after all these years.  I see my High School classmates all getting fatter one by one, and lil ol me, still the same.  One of my model friends likes to joke that the body I have now was her body when she was in 5th grade.  Haha!  That was why I can still look so young and can still pass off as a teen.

So just imagine my shock and surprise when I was named as one of Cosmopolitan Magazine’s 8 Sexiest Models for 2011.  Woot woot!  I was extremely honored.  The last time the magazine had it’s 8 Sexiest Models was way back in 2005.  The previous sexiest models were Joey Mead, Rissa Mananquil, Georgina Wilson, Amanda Griffin, Phoemela Baranda and lots of other models.  What’s really funny is that this batch is composed of the skinniest models in the industry today: Ana Sideco (me, of course), Jasmine Maierhofer, Samantha Lewis and Pauline Prieto.  The four of us are skinny, skinny, skinny.  So imagine our surprise and laughter when we saw each other on the set.  We couldn’t quite get over it. We all think that skinny is the new sexy.  Haha!  The other four in the list were: Vanessa Matsunaga, Bea Soriano, Wendy Tabusalla (yep, the PBB housemate) and Jessica Yang.

L-R: Jasmine, Jessica, Vanessa and Pauline

L-R: Wendy, Ana, Bea and Samantha

The 8 Sexiest Models Party was held last November 8, 2011 at Palladium, New World Hotel, Makati.  Only five out of the eight were able to attend.  Jasmine had sore eyes, Wendy was already in PBB that time, while Pauline was a no-show.  I never did found out what happened to her.  Nevertheless, it was a fun night.  We were introduced one by one.  I was so embarrassed to be walking on stage in front of so many people.  But I was super happy and proud of myself that I achieved this honor.  Who knew that the lady teased as Olive Oyl will one day be considered as sexy.

Check out the AVP of the 8 Sexiest Models, click here.

Check out the Cosmopolitan 8 Sexiest Party, click here.

Check out my interview with Jasmine Maierhofer at the shoot, click here.

Wow!  I just realized I haven’t written in a looooong time!  Four months to be exact.  I was uber busy the past months that I have forgotten to update my blog.  For my avid followers (if i have any at all haha!), please pardon my lack of updates.  The past months have been really good for my career.  I actually have four cover shoots for this year, two had been released and two are to follow.  One will be in December and the other one is indefinite.  This year has been good since I am also featured as one of the 8 sexiest models for 2011 for Cosmopolitan magazine.  Haha!  I still can’t quite believed I’m part of that.  I will try to write separate entries for all the work I have been doing (cover shoots, shows, fashion week, ads and even my spring 2011 campaign for Avon New York.  I still haven’t gotten the time to write about that.  Hehe!).

I have been very busy coz of all the work I’ve been doing, modeling and all my sidelines to boot, so thank you Lord for still showering me with all these blessings after all these years.  I’ll try to write and update more soon.  Nonetheless, thank you to all my supporters and fans who have been messaging me in twitter and facebook.  Thank you that I still remain your number one.

Xoxo,

Ana Sideco

In just three days, my body has been the receiving end of aches and pains.  Last Wednesday, I noticed that my right eye is getting uncomfy due to my contact lens.  I didn’t mind it that much since I was at a shoot and I need my contacts to see.  That was Wednesday morning.  Come lunch time, it’s not really bothering me that much.  I went to our condo unit since there was a tenant moving in that same day.  While I was waiting for her, I accidentally slipped down the stairs and fell.  I hit my lower back, tail bone and both elbows real hard.  I slammed onto the steps, my cellphone flying and hitting the floor.  I could not move due to extreme pain.  I was fighting back tears.  That was my first mishap of the day.

After leaving the condo, that’s the time my eye really started getting irritated.  But since I still have another shoot to go to, I didn’t remove it since I was driving and I need it for better vision.  By the time I reach my shoot, my eye is red, swollen and watery.  That’s the time I decided to remove it.  It was around 4 PM already.  So I had no choice but to shoot with only one contact lens and a somewhat blurred vision on my other side.  I was still able to do my job properly though but when I got home, I noticed that my eye was really bad.

When I woke up the next morning, I decided to wear my eyeglasses.  This time I had a fashion show.  I wore my eyeglasses while driving but I had to stop 3 times since I just really couldn’t see.  I feel like even my good eye was getting affected.  I stopped at a gas station and used my contact lens on my good eye and wore shades. It helped a lot and I was able to drive to Greenbelt without anymore incident.  I think it was because the sun was too bright and my eyes were sensitive to the sun.  When I got to my show, everybody noticed my eye.  It was red, swollen and is smaller than my other one.  In Filipino terms, “I was kirat”.  After rehearsal, I decided to have my eye checked up.  They did tests and finally informed me that my eye dried up when I was using my contact lens that’s why it got irritated.  I had to pay 900 pesos for consultation and 750 pesos for the medicines.  Ugh!

When I returned backstage, my eye is still not better so the stylist gave me sunglasses to wear in both of my outfits.  At least, I was able to hide my eyes but talk about embarrasing.

This morning when I woke up, my eye is better but is still not functioning well.  Even with my eyeglasses, my right eye still cannot see that much.  It’s like this huge blur.  To top it off, my body still aches because of my fall previously.  When I woke up, I was going down the stairs, this time at my house, and lo and behold!  I fell again can you believe it?  For the second time, I fell down the stairs again.  This time, I fell farther up and literally slid down the stairs till I stopped at the end.  My mom rushed to me and pulled me up.  She made me lie down in the living room and got a hot compress pack for my back.  So in short, I just doubled my pain.

Ah, stupid lil me.  Such an accident prone person.  My entire body aches, even my neck and shoulders.  I think have to confine myself inside my room to avoid anymore accidents.  I can honestly say now that I am not safe with myself anymore. With everything that happened to me, I need to protect myself…….from myself.

Ah, winter time in New York.  I wonder when I’ll be back.  It’s a good thing I did not celebrate Christmas or New Year there since there was a blizzard and I might freeze to death.  I am still not used to cold weather.  But I do want to experience celebrating New Year’s in New York and see the ball drop in Times Square.  Maybe next time.

Anyway, speaking of New York, how did I get there in the first place.  It wasn’t by land or sea; it was by air.  And by air travel I meant riding in one of my favorite airlines, EVA Airways.  And since it’s a Taiwanese airline, they pronounce it as “ee-vi-yah” airways.  I hear it as 3 syllables instead of 2.  In America they say it “ee-vah” while Filipinos might say it as “eh-vah”.  Now EVA Airways is my favorite airline going to the east coast.  I have ridden in Continental Airlines before and ugh!  I hated the experience.  My recline was broken, the food was so-so, and the seat itself was not comfortable.  The only good thing I can say about Continental Airlines is that they have a vast selection of movies, which can also be a disadvantage because I ended up watching 3 Harry Potter movies all in one sitting.  That was 9 hours straight of watching.  By the time I finished, I had a headache because I wasn’t able to sleep.

Now, let me go back to Eva Airways.  I absolutely looooove Eva Air.  The seat is very comfortable.  You don’t have to bring a travel pillow because their chair has built-in neck support.  The back of the seat reclines and the thing you are sitting on moves forward.  Think of a lazy-boy type of chair.  It was very comfortable.  Plus, I loved the fact that slippers are provided together with a blanket and a pillow.  And this was just an economy flight.

The food was good too.  Check out the pictures to see what food they served.

The only downside I see with Eva Air is that their movie selection is not that vast.  You can only count with your fingers the movies they offer.  Plus they have Chinese movies which foreigners like me won’t really appreciate.

Overall, my experience with Eva Air had been wonderful.  Especially my trip home from New York.  Our flight was not fully booked.  There was a lot of free space and I was lucky enough to have no one sitting in front of me, beside me and behind me.  So I laid down and took up three seats.  I slept like a baby.  Actually, I felt more like a pig being fattened up to be butchered.  My trip was more than 20 hours.  I was stuck in an airplane and the only thing I did was to eat and sleep and eat and sleep and eat and sleep.  Include there also the occasional times that I watch movies, but mostly air travel means pigging out.

If you are thinking of going to the East Coast, are willing to travel for more than 20 hours and feel like a pig being fattened up, I highly recommend Eva Air.  You won’t regret it.

A week before returning to Manila, I booked a job in Los Angeles for, yep you guessed it, Avon again!  I was booked for 2 days, and wow, was it an experience.  Since I’m the only model for that job, it was for a perfume campaign, I had my very own personal trailer.  In all the years that I’ve been modeling, I have never experienced my own trailer.  Even in New York, our shoots there don’t really use trailers.  I felt like a Hollywood movie star.  Haha!  Here are some photos of my trailer:

Day 1 was shot in Malibu Beach.  The last layout was on the actual beach and it was dusk already.  The crew had to set up real fast because the light will go out soon.  This was me posing while waiting for the crew to finish setting up the last layout.  You can see the people working behind me.

Since it was already fall season that time in the East Coast, it was freezing in California.  But since we were shooting for the Spring campaign, I had to wear sheer and short summery dresses.  In short, by the time I was done, I was shaking due to the cold.  I had to compose myself because I was still shooting and my body would start shivering and shaking all over.  But over all, everyone commended my work since they said I was such a professional in doing my job.  After we wrapped up the first day, the stylist rushed to me and covered me with a bathrobe.

The picture above is how it actually looked like with all the man-made set up and light crew.  Below is how it actually looked on screen, through the photographer’s lens:

But of course this is not the final layout chosen.  I just took a picture of the screen as the pictures were downloading.  So that was Day 1 of my shoot.  We had to ride on the trailer to go back home to the city.  Here is my comment riding on a trailer, IT WAS DIZZYING!  I had such bad motion sickness riding that thing,  I guess it was because I rode while I was facing the back.  By the time I got to my limo service, I was so nauseous.  Unglamorous indeed.

Day 2 was on Huntington Garden in Pasadena.  It was similar with the first day.  Three layouts per day and whole day.  For Day 2, the hairstylist had to trim my hair.  But even if he had to trim it, my hair is still waaaaay long. Day 2 finished earlier.  When the photographer said, “It’s a wrap!”  Everyone clapped and cheered, especially me.  It was two long days.  I had to wake up at 5 in the morning and finish late in the afternoon.  By the time I get home, it was night time already.  But it was well worth the experience.

This is my last layout.  As usual, taken from a computer screen.  You can even see the “little Ana’s” on the side.  Haha!

Finally finally!  My laptop is fixed and I can pick it up tomorrow.  I can’t wait.  I am so excited to see my baby again.  I’m starting to have a laptop withdrawal syndrome, a week longer without my laptop and I think I might just die.

Anyhow, I just got home from a shoot today from Mega Magazine.  I am so happy that I was with two of my good model friends, Michelle Panemanglor and Jasmine Maierhofer.  We had so much to catch up since I was in New York for 9 months.  We just chatted and gossiped and chatted and gossiped non-stop.  I didn’t feel that I was working at all.  It was so nice to catch up with old friends.  After spending months in New York, it was nice to see old faces, speak Tagalog and work with familiar faces compared to working in a foreign country with no familiar face at all.  It can be daunting.

The shoot’s location is in University of Santo Tomas (UST) and it was my first time there.  It was kinda neat to finally see the Philippines’ oldest university. I just found out that UST is 400 years old.   The pace of the shoot was a little slow since there were three models.  In addition, there were so many students that were so curious to see an actual shoot taking place before their very eyes that they linger and watch which sometimes cause delays.  Our stylist, Angela Alarcon, had to shoo many students away so they won’t be seen in the shot.  Overall, the shoot was tiring but fun.  Till our next shoot guys.

with Michelle

with Jasmine

BJ Pascual, one of my fave photographers

Being a Maldita

Oh Manila!  How I’ve missed you!  I am back in my home country and frankly, my reaction is quite delayed already.  I have been in Manila for a week now and I have not written a thing.  Blame my busy-ness and my dang laptop.  When I left California for New York, I didn’t have a single free time on my hands.  A day after arriving in New York, I had to fly back to Manila.  Upon arrival, I had to go straight to my fitting since I was booked to do a fashion show the next day.  Then I didn’t have internet at home and when I finally had internet, MY LAPTOP BROKE!!! My baby!  Waaah!  Woe is me!  My life relies on that contraption and on the cyber world.  Huhuhuhu!  I am depressed.  I can’t believe I have to pay thousands of pesos to have my laptop fixed because the motherboard died on me.  This is already my second HP laptop.  Last year, my internal card reader broke.  So I had to buy an external card reader.  Then last month, my internal wireless card broke.  So I had to buy an external wireless adapter to have internet.  And then now, my entire motherboard will break?  I WILL NEVER BUY A HP LAPTOP AGAIN!!!  And to think that I have been taking care of my laptop as a mother would her baby.  The nerve of my laptop to break down on me.

Anyway, I had been so busy I didn’t have time to write at all.  But I promise that I would do so in the coming days.  I will start where I left off–in Los Angeles, California.  I had quite an amazing experience there shooting for the Avon campaign that I cannot wait to share it with you guys.  Till my next update.  Ciao, bella!

Ever heard of models traveling first class and drinking wine while lounging in super comfy chairs?  NOT!  Haha!  Models rarely get that special treatment.  Unless of course you’re a supermodel with lots and lots of money or the clients are willing to spend on your first class travel.  There is usually a misconception about models traveling glamorously.  I beg to differ.  It is not always the case.  Maybe so if you are a supermodel like Kate Moss or Heidi Klum, but for typical models like us, that is not always the case.

Take for example my trip from New York to California.  I did a casting for Avon, yes, that’s right.  Avon again.  I love Avon now.  They love booking me.  Haha!  Anyway, the casting was last Friday and I got confirmed on Monday.  Then I have to fly out from New York to California on Tuesday, which is the day after.  So I had to scout for tickets online, book myself a ticket and arrive in Los Angeles by Tuesday in time for my shoot on Wednesday and Thursday.  Everything was such a rush that I have to pack my bags in a hurry.  And my flight is from New York’s Laguardia airport which is in Queens.  I live in New Jersey, so the nearest airport for me is Newark.  So I had no choice but to take the flight from New York.  Going to Laguardia airport is not easy.  I had to take the train from Jersey to Newark Penn Station, path train from Newark to Manhattan and a subway from Manhattan to Queens.  Then a car ride from the subway stop to the airport.  So in short, I had three trains and a car ride.  What’s worst is that I had to drag my luggage up and down the stairs of the different stations.  By the time I got to the airport, I was exhausted.   I think it took me 2 and a half hours of commuting.  Then I found out that my flight got cancelled.  For a short while, I panicked.  Because I really have to get on that plane.  But it’s a good thing I arrived early on the airport so they gave me an earlier flight, which is better actually.

Since I am a model from New York and the job is in LA, the client actually wanted to get a model from LA so they do not have to spend for my airfare and my hotel.  Stingy, right?  So they booked me as a local model from LA.  So I have to spend for my own airfare and look for my own accommodation.  It’s a good thing I have relatives in LA, so I stayed with them.  The job is worth it anyway, so I accepted the job.  Then the client asked my agency if I can drive myself to the location or have someone drive me.  And I’m like, “are they not even gonna pay for my car service?”  So I told my agency that I don’t have a car and someone can’t take me there.  So it’s a good thing that the client provided me with a car service: my very own chauffeur and limousine.  At least I can have first class land service compared to the air travel I just had.

See?  Models really are just regular people, just minus the chauffeur and limousine.

As green leaves start to turn orange, birds migrating south and humans piling on layers of clothes, it just means one thing–it is the arrival of fall season. I have this love-hate relationship with cold weather. The following is my short list and you’ll understand what I’m talking about.

1. I love fall fashion but I hate to put on the layers. Out of all the seasons, I like fall fashion the most.  I just love wearing coats, boots, tights, scarves, you name it.  I guess it’s because I’m from a tropical country and I’m always in summer clothes all year round.  I love the outfits but i hate the layers that come with it.  I don’t like it when it’s extremely cold outside and you go inside and you have to remove your coat, scarf and sometimes boots.  It’s just too much hassle putting it on and taking it off every time.  Plus, it takes me longer to get dressed because of all the layers.

2. I love how my hair looks during cold season but hate how my skin gets. Let’s face it, you really can’t have everything.  My hair looks so much better if it’s cold out than during summer.  During summer it’s dry and frizzy but come autumn time and it looks so much better.  It’s the opposite for my skin.  During summer my skin is perfect, but come autumn, my skin started flaking and drying out.  I had to result to using Vaseline on my face because it’s peeling so badly.  Plus, since the season changed from super warm to cold, my skin reacted I currently have pimples and I have dry lips to boot.  I cannot take this anymore. Argh!

3. I love how the season looks but hate too much cold and rain. I like fall because of the way nature looks.  The hues of red, orange and yellow are really pretty.  However, I do not like it if it gets extremely cold and it rains constantly.  And there are so much dead leaves.  Actually, the leaves do not really bother me, but if I am required to rake the leaves, then I guess I would start to hate fall.  Haha!

4. I love and hate daylight saving time (DST). Today is actually the official start of DST.  I love daylight saving time because I get to sleep one hour extra but only during the first week of DST.  Once I get adjusted, I hate it already.  I do not like the fact that it messes up with my body clock then come spring, it would spring forward an hour.  Since, I’m from the Philippines, I love how time is opposite.  If it’s 10 AM here then it’s 10 PM there.  If it’s 7PM here then it’s 7AM there.  So it’s easier for me.  But since it’s DST now, I have to always take note that the time difference from my home country is now 13 hours instead of the usual 12.

These are but some of the things I love and hate during fall season.  But I am sure that once I go home, I would miss autumn since back home, it is summer all year round–not that I’m complaining. 

Yesterday had been a long day filled with  minor setbacks.  I was booked to do a shoot for a jewelry designer named Cynthia Gale and her jewelry line called Geo Art.  The call time was 8 AM and I arrived there on time.  I was so sleepy because I was up till 2 AM.  So I only had 4 hours of sleep.  They booked two female models and the other girl started first in hair and makeup.  When the other girl was about to be done with hair and makeup, that was the only time that the photographer started to setup.  As they were setting up and I was already in the makeup chair, it was around that time that the photographer realized that he had left his camera at home.  And I was like, of all the things the photographer has to forget, it really has to be his camera.  So we had to WAIT for him to return home and get his camera so we could start shooting.  By the time he returned, I was already done with my hair and makeup.  I think I was able to start shooting at 11 AM already when my call time was 8 AM.  It kinda annoyed me, not to mention that I am having a bad day myself.

Since fall season already started here, that means the weather is getting colder.  And based from past experience, my facial skin does not cope well with cold weather.  I noticed that my face had started to peel again.  It cannot be covered by  makeup since makeup makes the peeling more obvious.  It’s a good thing that my skin peeling is not that obvious and not really evident in the photos.  Furthermore, I think the contact lenses I was wearing were expired already.  Because my eyes were red and it itched a bit.  So I was not really at my best.  I was so sleepy, had peeling skin and red eyes.  Add that to the fact that we started shooting so late and the Turkey Burger I ordered for lunch wasn’t even good.  Talk about a bad day.

But I learned something cool that day.  I learned that elephants can actually hold a paintbrush and paint.  They have trainers to teach them the brushstrokes and how to apply those on a canvas.  It was the coolest thing.  I even took pictures of the paintings of the elephants.  It just amazes me so much.  They really are smart animals.

Below are some of their paintings.  I just can’t imagine how they were able to create these.  They are even better than some of the human paintings.  Haha!

I cannot believe an elephant can do this.  How can it know where to place exactly the eye, the tail, and even the shape of the legs.  Unbelievable!

And also this one.  The elephant knew exactly where to place the leaves of the tree.  This is even better than my own painting.

This one I can quite believe that an elephant did this.  Haha!  But the previous two were amazing.

I started my day with minor setbacks but, overall, I had a good day.  After 8 hours of shooting for the jewelry ad, I still had to go to my other shooting, which is for my web TV.  It was a long but, otherwise, fruitful day.