Stanley gets towed!

Sometimes you just have to listen to your instincts.  Today, I didn't really want to go anywhere because the weather was cloudy and it felt good to just lie in bed.  But, the weekend is when we do our grocery shopping especially for the kids' snacks for school so I really had to drag myself out of the house to get to it.

When we left the house,  it wasn't raining yet, just a little windy.  The kids were in their jackets just in case and then we all trooped to JT's Manukan Grille in San Juan.  This is our favorite chicken inasal restaurant and not just because it's owned by theater actor Joel Torre ;) Their kansi (sinigang broth) is really good, we can't get enough of it.  Their serve hefty servings of chicken and their garlic rice is really tasty! :)  Anyway, while there, the rain started pouring and we can see that traffic was beginning to get heavy.

We lingered over our meal hoping that the rain will eventually thin out.  When it did, we all got in Stanley and headed over to Shopwise Cubao.  What we didn't expect was the road going to Cubao, specifically, that stretch of N. Domingo between Gilmore and Hemady was going to flood.  It was relatively passable since traffic was moving albeit slowly.  We did notice several new cars parking off to the side, not willing to risk getting their engines wet.

What happened next was a nightmare!  Two cars moved off slowly to the curb leaving the stretch of the flooded street open.  Seeing as we weren't sure if there were potholes or large ditches along the road, we wondered if we should go ahead.  Then, a jeepney braved the flood (like they do!) and pushed hard creating waves on its side.  We followed in its wake with Patrick driving hard and fast.  I think that was the mistake.  In the middle of the road, Stanley stalled!  His engine just stopped and died.  Never have I heard Patrick shout an expletive that foul.  Fortunately, we stopped across a car wash and its workers helped push Stanley safely to the side of the road away from the rushing flood.  No matter what Patrick did, Stanley wouldn't start.

In the end, we had to call the Automobile Association of the Philippines to ask for assistance.  They can come to you and jump start your car and if that didn't work, they'd send a tow truck.  I was hoping it wasn't serious and that jumpstarting Stanley will be all that would take.  After waiting for over an hour (traffic was backed up even though we were just behind the AAP Main office and parking) he was pronounced dead.  We were told it was probably an electrical problem and that we needed to be towed home.  So we had to wait another 2 hours since the next available tow truck was coming from Marikina.  In fact, while waiting for it, another AAP Tow Truck passed us carrying an Audi! LOL

You can just imagine our frayed nerves, especially for the kids who were stuck in the car with nothing better to do.  Dylan had to pee in the street (yeah, yeah) but desperate situations call for desperate measures.  Dana didn't want to do that so we had to put a diaper on her as a compromise LOL  Thank God for my phone which I used to entertain myself hahaha

By the time the tow truck arrived, it was around 8pm and it was a miracle maneuvering around the narrow street and the mechanics having to push Stanley onto the ramp.  And they had to push Stanley with us inside ! hahaha It was a real adventure for the kids.

So here we were, on Stanley, on the AAP Tow Truck!  It was a good thing that the next day, Stanley was feeling better hehehe but we still took him to the shop for inspection.  He was pronounced okay, he just got a little cold.  After that clean bill of health we took him to Shopwise for that postponed grocery trip! :D