Tag Archives: cars
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2008 March 19 to 22 Pagudpud Road Trip

By on Sunday, March 23, 2008

Just got back from Pagudpud aka The Boracay of the North. It’s an unfair comparison, really. Sure both have white sands, both have great water, and both are overrated beach destinations. But Pagudpud is much less congested. That alone makes it way better in my book.

It’s a trip that Bing and I have been planning for a long time. We actually planned to do it summer of 2007 but the plans fell through and Bing and I ended up at Putipot with Erwin. That was also one great trip but still not the same. So we kept the fire burning and now we’ve finally done it!

As usual, the hardest part is gathering up committed people interested in going. After considerable effort, we were able to gather nine: Rein, Jessie, Bing, and I together with Len, her friend Maye, Paul, Ann, and Val. But Len, Maye, and Jessie backed out close to the trip date. Good thing Roly stepped in and joined at the last minute. And so with seven people, off we went.

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General

Motorcycle Riding Dog

By on Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Driving home tonight, I saw a motorcycle riding dog perched precariously behind the rider. It’s so unbelievable it didn’t register for a full second or two. But as soon as it did, I whipped out my phone but it was already too late and he was gone. Maybe I should rig a forward-looking camera like those in police cruisers.

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General

Preparations

By on Saturday, March 1, 2008

The past few weeks I’ve been busy upgrading the car in preparation for the long-planned road trip. A few weeks ago, I replaced my front shocks and front shock mountings. Last week I replaced my rear shocks, tie rods, rack ends, and brake pads. The brake pads were actually still fine except for one which was way thinner than the rest. It turned out to be caused by a sticking caliper. So, I also had my front brake calipers overhauled to fix the problem. I also had the tires rotated front to back. All these I had done at Sprinter at Morato. Good quality of work. Maybe not as good as dealerships but not as expensive either.

Today, I installed fog lamps to light up dark roads, a need I discovered some time ago. I went to Banawe and stopped by the first shop that caught my fancy. I didn’t bother looking for other shops. Whatever you’re looking for in Banawe, the shop you go to usually just starts calling for whoever has that part and pick it up. They do charge a small premium (read: I probably got ripped off) but at least you no longer do your own canvassing. I got my fog lamps but because I don’t like the typical Banawe hack job, I didn’t trust them to install. Instead, I went to Wizzard at Morato for installation. The guys there did a neat and very professional job. Definitely the place to go for electrical work.

Next up would be spark plugs and oil.

It’s not a BMW but it sure is getting as close to an ultimate driving machine as it can get.

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General

Knight Rider

By on Monday, February 25, 2008

Just watched the pilot of Knight Rider. KITT is back but instead of Knight Industries Two Thousand it is now Knight Industries Three Thousand. I wonder if they will call the next model KIFT or Knight Industries Four Thousand. There are of course less subtle changes. Instead of a Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, the new KITT is now the iconic Ford Mustang Shelby GT500. Now that is a car. They should have called it HOTT! And instead of Michael Knight who’s off hiding (Malibu probably) it’s now Mike Knight. All very original as you can see. But I suppose the new target audience doesn’t remember the original Michael Knight and KITT, anyway. So what’s in store for these new fanboys (and girls?) ? What else but the usual cars, gadgets, guns (if you don’t have a car like KITT you should have guns, lots of guns), and hot girls. What more do you need, right? After all, boys will always be boys.

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2007 December 28 Aquaventure Reef Club, Anilao, Batangas

By on Saturday, December 29, 2007

Went to Anilao with Billie for her annual dive. We got there quite early and had to wait for the divemaster to finish breakfast. When he arrived, it turned out to be Jake, the same divemaster from my previous dive. He asked us where we want to dive and we chose to dive Sombrero and Twin Rocks because he said he saw turtles there on his last dive.

Unfortunately, we didn’t see any turtles. But we did see some dolphins from afar on the way to Sombrero, an octopus (under a rock), a ray (my first sighting of one out in the open), a school of jacks, a school of juvenile barracudas, and of course the clouds of tiny colorful fishes. The last is always a very pretty sight. Who needs an aquarium when the sea is your aquarium, right?

Oh and I didn’t get majorly lost during the drive to and from Aquaventure. And no relying on my GPS unit at that. Just a good old map that I printed from the web. Or maybe it’s just that my co-driver/navigator has improved :))

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