Test driving the new 2010 Subaru Legacy Station Wagon

November 21, 2009 - One of the perks of Patrick's job at Top Gear Philippines is having the chance to test drive new cars and review them for the magazine.  His first test drive run was with a Honda City and he took that to Subic (on assignment too).  This November, he was able to bring home the new 2010 Subaru Legacy Station Wagon.  This car is like Stanley's junior sister, by almost 15 years. She's blue, she's big, she's wide (almost too wide to fit in the garage which wasn't exactly built for her girth) and she's so powerful just the hum of the engine is going to drive you nuts.

Naturally, the kids were excited to ride it in and we took it for a spin going to Greenhills where Patrick had to cover another event.  Here you can see just how long Sally (that's the name the kids gave the car) is relative to a Kia.

You can see how spacious it is inside, from the backseat and even in the cargo hold:

But, see, I don't know any of the specs of this awesome car and even if Patrick tells me, I still wouldn't understand.  All I know it's still AWD with its boxer engine (this I know because we have a Subaru Legacy too), the front seats have some sort of mechanized thingy that you can custom-fit to your body in 16 different ways and it's ultra-super fast given it's size.  It's size is deceptive, very much like you'd think it's heavy and slow but you'd probably end up with your mouth wide open when you challenge it to a race hahahaha At 100, the engine is barely whispering.  At 140, you sort of hear it speak.  At 200, there's a growl.. imagine it at its top speed! woohoo!! but of course, you can't drive it that fast here hehehe

IF we had the money, we'd buy it right here, right now.  It's such a great car and even tops at safety standards and what-have-yous.. Look at their smiling faces :

SALLY, we love you! :D

Lance and Hannah's Birthday Celebration

October 18 - This was the day that Toni and Stevie rescheduled the kids' birthday celebration. It was originally meant for October 4, Sunday but the venue was also flooded and needed weeks to get things back in order. So they decided to hold the celebration at Jollibee in Green Meadows.

Needless to say, the kids all had a good time. It was rather unlucky that Rhys and Dimples and Jericho couldn't make it because Rhys was sick. Some of the guests were also trapped and troubled by the closing of the Quezon Circle route due to a marathon run so they ended up being late for the celebration.

Dana and Dylan participated in the games and even won a few prizes.














Of course, the highlight of the party was when Jollibee himself made an appearance!! Even the adults wanted to have their picture taken with Jollibee hahahaha
















All in all, kids and adults had a good time and there was plenty of food left over. After this, we took the kids back home because their car was still in the shop adn then we went straight to SM North Edsa to have Den's laptop looked at. I fear it's a virus and the system needs to be recovered. It's a good thing that the after-sales service at Gigahertz is great. They fixed the laptop with no charge :)

Took advantage of the 50% sale at the department store to buy the kids' their Christmas clothes :D

Tiring but Fun Day!!

The sun is out!

After Ondoy it was Typhoon Pepeng but he didn't pass Metro Manila. Instead he made landfall in the North, not once but three times (yes, he came back twice!). Relief and cleaning up operations are still ongoing this time in the northern provinces. The northern provinces, especially Pangasinan, Tarlac, Bulacan were left flooded. Baguio had one too many landslides and for a while the roads leading to and coming from Baguio were impassable. Rains continued for 3 days straight there. 5,000 cubic meters per second of water was released from the San Roque Dam, which may have added to the flooding of 90% of the towns in Pangasinan. Prices of vegetables doubled because most of these were coming from Baguio. Many people were left homeless, their crops a riverbed of water, and their towns once clean and green are now either flooded or muddy.

Metro Manila, this time, was spared with only a few rains here and there. Thus, we decided to get out of the house, breathe "fresh" air and maybe enjoy the sun when it comes out. We all went to Mall of Asia where Dylan got his hair cut at his regular salon. Den also went for a hair cut while I treated myself (sort of a pre-birthday gift) to a foot spa with pedicure! (oh it was heaven!!) at the David's Salon. I love this salon, they really make you feel pampered and special. That's why I keep going back there :)

The weekend after that, after Dana's Saturday class, as another pre-birthday gift, we also had Stanley's stereo replaced. We bought a Pioneer system that's equipped with a USB port for more music woohoo. Stanley's old radio had a 6 CD changer but you can only play 2 CD's and that's at the whim of Stanley LOL Next on the agenda will be to replace his speakers because one of them is broken. ;)