scary

dark, coming back from a jaunt to find the location of the end-of-month wedding...

south superhighway, heading north, just got down from the alabang viaduct.

seeing as i try to maintain a steady 60kph in the interests of fuel economy, i have taken the middle lane.

just then, up ahead. something. blinking, dim, orange. there's a car, stopped in the center lane.

i am being passed at that very moment on either side by people impatient at my lack of velocity, and there's a car behind me closing fast.

out of gear, brake and hit the hazard button on the dash. following car sees the blinking hazards and jinks to the left - car comes to a stop and there's a man there, just now setting up those triangular warning reflectors behind his 80's s-class benz. boy, his blinkers are sure dim.

with the road behind clear, i go to the left and head off, noting that there's an 80's bmw 3-series in front of the benz, and a wrecker truck in front of the bmw.

geez, the wreckers could have at least been the ones to put out the reflectors, or have better warning markings or flashing lights or something on their vehicle.

much later, closer to home; only then do i notice just how much i was stressed by that incident.

monday

sometime in the past two weeks, an officemate handed me a little card that entitled the bearer to a free training session at the boxing gym nearby.

so: borrowed gloves and hand wraps from jo last saturday, all set for monday, then.

you know the saying about the best-laid plans? well...

not that all was in perfect readiness, mind. i'd left my workout shorts at the office, for one. for another, i overslept. then there was the crawling traffic from sucat to the alabang interchange. then there was the monday morning reactivation of user accounts (that i've yet to find a way to automate).

all said and done, i finally managed to show up at the gym a full hour later than was likely good for me (and the workday to follow): 8am.

so i go up to the gym, get to the counter, and...

...the building's water pump had just gone kaput earlier, so no post-workout showers available.

hmm.

were i a little more superstitious, i'd think that i wasn't fated to box my way to better health. hehehe.

da picz

gorilla, no mist



big birdie



tyger, tyger, pacing fast



and fast asleep



taal volcano island, another view



...long way to fall...



top of stairs...



view from the bottom



lord of the beasts

zoo on the ridge

tagaytay ridge, that is.

once more, borrowed the handy little casio camera of jose with the intention of revisiting a zoo on the tagaytay ridge. it's actually part of a hotel called residence inn -- i'd been there god knows how long ago and didn't even remember where it was located.

the internet was less than useless insofar as a map of establishments on the tagaytay ridge, so it was an "ask when we get there" kind of thing.

the plan therefore was to leave bright and early (with makati housemate glenn in tow), have lunch at the bag o' beans and then inquire of the local populace where this zoo might be found.

now this would make the second sunday in succession that i'd be driving to tagaytay, so i decided that it would be a good "control" test too for something i'd noticed the previous trip: the car seemed to get excellent mileage -- provided one did not exceed 2000rpm in any gear (which equated to 60/70 in 5th). needless to say, that kind of velocity had others zooming by on either side, but what the hey.

at any rate, got to bag o' beans, lunched, and asked of the policeman/traffic aide outside where we might find the zoo. he didn't have a clue.

the only information i got from the web search was that the establishment was around the kilometer 62 marker or somesuch. in which direction, i had no idea. therefore we decided to ply the route to the people's park in the sky (which happened to be the end destination of the previous trip).

hmm. past the junction, past the rotonda, past the santa rosa road -- still no kilometer markers to be found. and no residence inn.

beyond picnic grove, on the right side of the road, finally a marker. it was in the 50's so that was good. onward then.

all the way to people's park. still no residence inn.

finally, glenn got out and asked one of the parking wardens at the park if he knew where the zoo was.

well, what do you know. it was just beyond bag o' beans.

back, back, then.

all the while not exceeding 60kph.

and then we found it. entrance fee was rather steep (200 pesos per -- then again, i have no idea what the fees are for other zoos). pictures next post.

picture taking done, another fairly leisurely drive back to makati.

i did my calculations and ended up with at least 15 kilometers to a liter. wow, twice the mileage of my weekly commute.

so the car can get quite a ways on a tank of gas, as it were.

just takes a heck of a lot of discipline on the gas pedal.