MANILA, Philippines - Original. The dictionary defines it as ?new, fresh, inventive, novel; arising or proceeding independently of anything else; capable of or given to thinking or acting in an independent, creative, or individual manner.?

TNT?s interview this week is with the jeweler, entrepreneur and style arbiter Doody Menchaca-Tuason, who is just that, an original.

In a magazine article, journalist Marge Enriquez writes, ?She?s got imagination, humor and a grasp of the unpredictable, which invariably makes people curious about her fashion statements; thus her title, ?Style Iconoclast.??

Doody has been in the jewelry business for 20 years and in home furnishings for 10. She opened her highly successful lifestyle boutique, Mentxaka, in 2002. ?I feel blessed as this is what I have always wanted to do.?

In the home front, she celebrates her 25th anniversary this month to businessman Severo ?Conkoy? Tuason and has two sons, ages 21 and 19. ?I always say I am a wife first, a mother second and an entrepreneur last; but my passport says ?home maker.??

This is her world.

DMT: I love the memory of coming home from school in the afternoons, going to the kitchen that?s still warm and wafting with the smell from the oven of newly-baked cookies or bibingka that my mom would always have the cook make. Also, the evenings my dad would gather us around him after dinner, to read to us when we lived in Dagupan City. There was no television there in those days.

What has motherhood taught you?
Many lessons! But, to love unconditionally would be the greatest.

Your favorite thing to do with your family?
I love travelling with my husband and kids to anywhere. Particularly road trips, ?cause we are with each other for long hours! We talk about everything under the sun.

Who is the love of your life?
The love of my life is my husband, Conkoy! Like all couples, we have our moments of being out of sync with each other. But we are all a work in progress and what matters is that we work for the betterment of ourselves. He has always been there for me, rain or shine. A faithful friend.

What do you do when you?re not working?
I love to ?vege? and catch up with my reading. I have mountains of books and magazines that sit unread due to lack of time.

What makes you happy?
Many things, from the thought of my children safely asleep in their bed to the rain, a project successfully completed, a good check-up result, and my husband telling me he loves me!

What is your poison?
Champagne.

How do you relax?
A drink, a cigarette and a comfy chair!

What makes you laugh?
A good joke well told, ?funny? people.

When was the last time you laughed?
I laughed so hard just a few days ago recalling Carol Garcia in Amanpulo trying to coerce a poor, sick friend to smoke a cigarette if she wanted to ?belong? to the group.

What is your worst habit?
Smoking.

What do you fear?
I fear many things; I am trying to work them out one at a time. I?ve inherited my mom?s ?worrywart? mentality. I am mortally scared of snakes.

What would improve the quality of your life?
Time management! I seem to feel 24 hours a day is short. I seem to be constantly running through everything.

The trait you most deplore in yourself?
I deplore my tendency to think with my emotions! Also, I have a tendency to procrastinate on things that don?t interest me but has to be done.

Do you have any regrets?
No regrets. Don?t believe in crying over spilled milk. My attitude is, ?And now, what do we do?? and get on with it. Too much precious time and energy wasted on something as useless as regret.

What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Not to judge! It is a very difficult lesson especially from the kind of Catholic indoctrination I?ve had all my life. This was the ?fire and brimstone? variety that gives rise to judgmental tendencies. Mercy and compassion was sort of only doled out to the ?deserving.? And of course, subject to the infallible, dogmatic truth of what my religion deemed good and evil. There was no room for considering circumstance.

What do you consider to be your greatest achievement?
For the moment, I would have to say, having worked out some issues with myself that resulted in an epiphany of greater inner joy.

Best advice you?ve ever been given?
?Walk quietly with a big stick!? You can interpret this in so many ways. It must have been a hunter who coined this first. But for me, it means, as you go through life, it?s best to be humble, to listen to what others have to say. But be well equipped with what you might need to attain your goals.

Who would you come back as in another life?
Sorry to disappoint, still myself.