I was late by almost an hour to the presscon that I was supposed to attend in Rockwell so I just skipped it and went straight to another presscon at BGC. The roads were hell today. Just add water = cars multiply like gremlins when it rains. Yes, it’s my fault for not alloting another hour to my travel time because I underestimated how rain can truly mangle traffic.
I’m just spoiled by where I live right now since destinations are reachable under 30 mins.
Once I arrived at Uptown Mall to park my car, I never left the area. I just walked to the venue because BGC is such a car trap: too many intersections and stoplights, too little parking areas. And oh, my parking fee was over PHP 300.
Funny thing here is that I was the most senior journo there already. The conglomerate’s head of comms greeted me and lamented that it has been a while since she saw me. I said, yeah I seldom go out these days because we have Kr to do most of the legwork and look after the other markets. It just so happens that there was an overlapping event that she had to attend today.
My car, Wendy, is still a fine old lady. Save for the wear and tear, which is to be expected, this car has been running well for almost 20 years. I just bought a new pair of Michellin tires again yesterday so that Wendy will run with four new shoes. I will have her fuel line checked to make sure it’s not clogged, clutch line checked, aircon cleaned, and everything else underneath greased.
It has carried pieces of furniture that were Tetris-ed, survived many house moves, even ferried several hundred kg of Rockwool insulation when my house was still under construction. Survived 48-hr drives, island hops, and five children (mine and my brother’s).
Yes, that’s how sturdy manual transmission cars are. The reason why we chose a car that is “everything manual” is because it is easy to repair. From windows down the transmission. When it plows through floods, I have no fear that the electricals will get shorted and die.
I will always choose MT over AT. Unfortunately, only a few models offer MT nowadays. Oh well, only a few of us can survive a zombie apocalypse—those who can drive stick shift can drive any getaway car. Those who can’t would just have to outrun the zombies. 🤣