Four Wheeled Box Package And My Training Regime

After not writing anything at all, let me write about pretty much the most awesome thing I got this year.

One day, sometime in May this year, I was hanging out with my friend Gael (and her friend whose name I forgot to remember) in Greenbelt. Then this text message from my father comes in that says…

‘UMUWI KANA MAY KOTSE DITO SA BAHAY MISTUBISHI LANCER 98 KUNG GUSTO MO KUNIN KO BUKAS KUNG DI KA UUWI KALIMUTAN MO NA LANG’
[come home now there is a mistubishi lancer 98 here at home if you want it I’ll get it tomorrow forget about it if you won’t come home]

But I had to wait for my friend and her friend to finish girl talking so I went home at around midnight. After excusing myself and leaving Gael and Potpot to drive home, I took the first bus I saw because I was intrigued about the unexpected offer. So I hurry home, open the gate like mad and see this piece of machinery with four wheels on it. Being familiar enough with most car makes, I was surpised becase I saw a Lancer Boxtype, and not a Pizza as I was expecting because the text message said ‘98’. Turns out my father was drinking with his comrades and all. I didn’t give much thought about it because it wasn’t all too pretty to begin with – caked with dirt, the interiors were dirtied and messy. But what caught my eyes at first glance was the tachometer, which was smack center and shoved right through the dashboard. I move around the car and you gotta admit, It had nifty looking rims. The paint isn’t all too bad – a wash and some waxing will do it good. I peer in an find a Momo wooden racing wheel and knob, a Pioneer HU and a mix of RA and Pioneer SEPS.

So in all it wasn’t too bad a car, it just wasn’t good either. Anyway, I shrugged it off but replied to my drunken father that the car looks ok enough and that he should decide on it. And so I slept that night. I wake up in the morning to find the garage empty and thought it was all a joke. But then, a car comes honking at the gate and my father opens up – that car from last night just came back, and looks like it had its first decent wash in about a year.
Ok, so it’s here to stay and it didn’t look so bad after a trip to the carwash.
 

I got a car, next thing was to get a license. My father needed to get this non-pro license renewed so I tagged along that day and also got my own, a student’s license. I thought I was gonna learn how to drive that thing on the streets in a matter of hours. But then, my father thought up of a training program for yours truly. So what he made me do was something I never learned when I had the Corona – move the car within the garage. See, when I started to learn how to drive as a high schooler, I was immediately put on the street, which, in hindsight Is just plain wrong. Imagine, a fifteen barely sixteen boy behind the wheel of a car who’s out on an errand buying water. What my father had me do this time is to have the car move in small increments up the garage, then back down, then up again. The point was to get a good feel for the clutch, and the subtle footwork to make the car move, skills one would need in traffic locked Imperial Manila. Another point in this claustrophobic exercise was to learn the right reference points around the car, great stuff for avoiding people lest they get mowed down. So I had about a week and a half of that, then my father thought I was ready for the street. And I thought I was too! The street was a totally different monster than our cramped garage. Suddenly, I had cars moving around me and nothing seemed to stop for you. After finding a safe and less populated street in New Zaniga, which took me thirty minutes to drive to, we practiced parking. Now that got me worked up real bad. See, my Lancer doesn’t have power steering and I got a fancy MOMO wooden steering wheel, which made matters all the worse. My foot work was ok, my hands were bad – so bad that one attempt to back up and head another direction wound up with me twisting my hands into something like pretzels, only I was sweating my ass off.  To make a long story short, it was a good five months of constant berating from my father. After suffering through a broken fuel pump with my friends in tow and driving Marie home to Cavite in the rain, without wipers and my then grounded-to-heck headlights and a run-in with the law for a minor violation, I thought I was good enough to go on my own. I saved up some cash and went down to LTO in San Juan and applied for a non-professional license. My father thought I was game enough to take on the lawless road on my own – the very first trip I made with my newly found skill and license was to take Marie home from her grad school class and go to work. Since that night, I’ve been going out quasi steadily, and been going out all the more during the weekends for more practice and to hang out with my newfound driving buddies in Mitsulancerph, which would pretty much be ‘the club’ for Lancer enthusiasts. I belong to the newly established, and still quite unofficial, San Juan Crew, which encompasses the Mandaluyong and San Juan areas, along with parts of Quezon City, Manila and Pasig.

Happy driving!

~

Ah c’est la vie!
 

Old Shots Re-Visited : Elle

Reprocessed this one to well, give it a more processed look haha.

One of my outtakes from the Edge of Light session. I swear never to come to a shoot with a hangover.

**shot with Nikon D40, 18-55mm @ Edge of Light Studio

~

Light In The Black

Last night was like the semi-worst black out for the year. Power was gone for about 24 hours in our place.

The title is a nod to the old Rainbow song.

 **shot with Nikon D40, 18-55mm

Scared Shitless

This photo was taken almost completely by accident. I was walking from Baclaran to the corner of EDSA and Heritage hotel last Friday evening when I decided to take a long exposure shot with Wicca. I set up beside the flower pot and already opened the shutter for the 15 sec exposure. Almost halfway through, two men were approaching me fast from the Baclaran side. Fearing for my camera and my innards, I put the cap back on and walked hurriedly while tying to stuff the camera into my bag. I was still well ahead, then I crossed Roxas Blvd., right under the flyover to escape my ‘assailants’…

…turns out the assailants were errand boys delivering eggs to the vendor on the corner of EDSA. 

**shot with Canon S5IS

Funshoot @ UP : Gael

 My friend Gael, who brainwashed err stormed me to come up with this particulat project. 

**shoot Nikon D40, 18-55mm, YN460