For SALE: Nissan Serena @ P500,000

2002 Nissan Serena - QRV-R Limited (w/ VCD Player)
Php 500,000
Mileage 66,000 km
Plate ending 5
Silver, In very good condition, 1st Owner

Additional Setup:
- American Racing Chrome Mags
- Dunlop Lemars Tires (90% Thread)
- Fog Lamps (Original Japan, Newly-installed)
- HID (High and Low: 8000 Kelvin)
- Newly-installed Velvet Seatcover- 3M Tint

See link for photos: http://cdsaint.multiply.com/photos/album/34/For_SALE_Nissan_Serena_Php500000

For interested parties, just send me a message here or email me at snb.cdsaint@yahoo.com

Rainy Days & Sundays

I woke up at 330AM on this rainy Sunday with intermittent electrical power and typhoon Frank knocking on our door (both literally & figuratively). By 4AM, our street completely lost all electrical power (and I guess a big chunk of Metro Manila) and I completely lost whatever sleepiness I had in my body. In other words, by 4AM I was wide-awake with nothing to do. This got me thinking...what can one actually do on a rainy, "electrically-challenged" (did I just coin a new word?Ü) day? I obviously can't watch TV or surf the internet, so I got my iPod and portable speakers and played some of Chico & Delamar's Top 10 which I downloaded and have stored in my iPod. Good thing I just recently charged my iPod so I had full battery power, but I can't say the same thing about my mobile phone (which is about to conk-out any minute now).

So aside from listening to your iPod (or any mp3 player), what else can one do? After a bit of thinking, these are what I came up with:

THINGS TO DO ON A BLACKOUT & RAINY DAY:

(1) Listen to AM Radio. On a bad weather day, this is the best thing one can do to be updated with what's happening in the surroundings. This requires that you have a working battery-powered radio & batteries to power it. Good thing we had a working radio requiring only 2 AAA batteries since the other two radios we had requires 8 medium-sized batteries, which we unfortunately didn't have on stock at home. So, moral of the story: stock-up on batteries that can power any battery-powered radios you have so that when the situation calls for it, then your home will be "battery and radio-ready."

(2) Blog...which is what i'm doing right now. If you have a laptop with a bit of battery life left, then good for you since you won't have to re-type everything you've written down. If not, then do it the "old-fashioned" way: using a pen and paper (like what i'm doing now). If you're not into blogging, then just write on your diary (if you have one) or just simply write down any thoughts you have on your head. Try it out, you just might like it and who knows, you might just discover that inner writer in you.Ü

(3) Clean or organize your room/cabinet/drawers. This requires a bit of dedication seeing as cleaning is not really on top of one's list of favorite things to do. But hey, what better time to do such thing but on an electrically-challenged, rainy day seeing as the list of things that you can do are limited on such days. So rather than just sitting and doing nothing, go grab a flashlight (or if your room is situated in a place that reaches the light of day, then a flashlight is not necessary) and start cleaning and organizing. I'm sure, once the lights are back on and the rain has gone away, you'll get to appreciate more all those hard work on cleaning and organizing any what-have-yous in your home.

(4) Call a long lost friend using the landline. Gone are the days when the only means of communication was through a PLDT landline. In this day and age when accessing the internet is easier and mobile phones are a necessity, a lot of us have replaced long talks on the ever-reliable landline with texting, instant messaging, and short conversations over the mobile phone. Which begs the question: Is it really worthit? Replacing juicy & friendly conversations with SMS or instant messaging where the only emotion one can view and convey is when the other party sends a winking ; ) , smiley =) , or lonely =( face? I don't think so. So on a day when going out to the mall is out of the question (since it's rainy), texting is kept to a minimum (so as to conserve as much of your mobile phone's battery power as possible), and the internet is not within reach (duh! there's a blackout!), why don't you try picking up the phone and check if you still know how to dial a phone number in your landline. Who knows, aside from learning what's up with a friend (and hearing someone's reaction on what you're saying rather than "reading" it), you might just get to catch some juicy gossip as well.Ü

Well, that's all that I got to think of for now (since the lights just came back on...YEY!). If you still have some ideas on what to do on an electrically-challenged, rainy day, let me know by posting a comment here. Hope you guys enjoyed reading this humble blog of mine. 'Til next month's blog! Ciao!

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As a post script, I'd like to ask those reading this blog to offer a moment of silence and prayer to the victims of typhoon Frank and to those who perished in the sinking of M/V Princess of the Stars. May their souls rest in peace.

GrupoRAV4's Subic Fun Run

http://www.gruporav4.com/

A convoy of RAV4s on the road? Why not! And that's exactly what we did last Saturday en route to Subic. True enough, the line of RAV4s traversing the expressway is a sight to behold. Add to that the numbered bond paper that was placed infront and at the back of the cars, to make lining-up in sequence easier and ensuring that those in the convoy would indeed standout from the other vehicles in the crowd. It would have been better though if there were ribbons tied to the side mirrors to make the convoy more distinguishable, but the identical vehicles was enough to steal the show.

So...what does one do on a fun run, actually? I was at a loss at first but as it turns out, it's just similar to an outing planned by a group of friends. Except that this assembly of sorts was fueled by the group's fascination about anything RAV4 and I think (with emphasis on the "i think") that some of these guys haven't even met in person at all. This is just an assumption since I saw some of them shaking hands just like introducing one's self when meeting someone for the first time.

For this particular fun run, the group prepared an itinerary with the following activities:

6:00AM - Meeting @ Petron NLEX
7:00AM - Depart Petron
7:20AM - Stop at Total or Shell NLEX regroup
8:00AM - SCTEX Expressway
9:00AM - Subic International Raceway (orientation); Need 750 pesos and helmet / swimming @ Camayan just in case walang gusto mag-circuit
11:00AM - Zoobic Safari/ Ocean Adventure / Extreme Adventure
12.00NN - Lunch @ Boardwalk
1:00PM - Shopping @ Royalle
2:00PM - Carting, Horse
3:00PM - Freetime
4:00 or 5:00PM - Go back to Manila

As with any other plan, there were quite a few flaws with this one, but none that would spoil the fun for everybody. First off, we got to depart Petron at 8:30AM instead of 7AM as planned. Hence, we only got to do one activity in the morning which was running the circuit (sorry guys but I don't really know the correct term for this Ü) at the Subic International Raceway. If racing is your thing and you love the smell of burnt rubber, then I strongly recommend that you try this one which seems like an adrenaline rush from what I've heard from my brother and the rest of the gang.

We were all hungry and sweaty by lunch time so we specifically wanted some place airy (with airconditiong if possible) to eat so we ended up at Pancake House in Subic (of course!). Afterwhich, we went to Royal Subic (I can't remember the name exactly...memory gap...hehe) for a bit of shopping and cooling off since it was really just too hot outside. When we were done, we went to Zoobic Safari, which we were supposed to have gone to earlier in the day. It was already almost 4pm when we got there and the tour apparently lasts for about 2 hours. Since we (my family and I) had to be back in Manila by 8pm to pick-up my older brother from the airport, we weren't able to join the group at Zoobic Safari anymore. Too bad since we were looking forward to seeing what Zoobic Safari has to offer. Anyway, there's always a next time, but little brother was a bit miffed about it, which is understandable. I, on the other hand, was actually looking forward to the Extreme Adventure part of the itinerary, which seemed interesting after having read the printout lying around the house together with the above itinerary. As it turns out, the group wasn't able to do that either (i'm really not sure since the events that happened after we left are a bit hazy to me...obviously...Ü). Well I guess we'll just have to do that some other time.Ü

All in all, even if we (my family and I) didn't get to join the group in all the activities, I had fun seeing and checking out new things, mingling with other people, and learning a lot about cars, RAV4 in particular.Ü By the way, for those of you wondering, I was just a 4th wheel in this day trip seeing as it's actually my not-so-little brother who's a ka-GrupoRAV4.Ü So, who are the 2nd and 3rd wheel? My dad and mom of course, who enjoyed this day full of activities as much as we all did.Ü So...if you own a RAV4, then I suggest you sign up and join http://www.gruporav4.com/ and learn anything and everything that has got to do RAV4 and meet fellow RAV4 enthusiasts.Ü