Yesterday, I was driving back along with some officemates to the office from lunch when the engine suddenly died. Luckily, there was a nearby Rapide branch and I was able to coast to just outside their doorstep. They did some diagnostic tests and were able to immediately isolate and fix the problem to the spark plugs. My bad. I haven’t replaced them for almost a year already. The bill went to around P1,500 including the cost of the replacement plugs. Which was okay. Could definitely have been worse. Lesson learned: replace spark plugs regularly. Ignore those long-life plugs stories.
Coding Day Blues
Today is my coding day. You know, MMDA’s futile and short-sighted attempt at reducing traffic in the metropolis. I wanted to be at the office early so I left home early. It was smooth going all the way till I ran smack into the congestion called Ortigas. I was stuck there for over half an hour. The minutes ticked by. Soon it was already way past 7 and and I was still stuck. As I crawled through the congestion, I tried to hide my plate number by staying close to the vehicle in front. But as luck would have it, I ended up being the last vehicle through the traffic light. Worse, I got stuck in the middle of the intersection with my rear plate exposed. Soon enough, one of the blue boys walked up and knocked on my window. Good thing he let me go when I explained I just got stuck in the congestion and that I’m just on the way to the office of a government agency which the company shares the building with. Talk about [agency] name dropping. Whew!
UPDATE: Learned it’s the first day of classes. No wonder traffic was horrible.
Formula 1 Singapore
Got a heads up from Melvin that Formula 1 is coming to Singapore in 2008:
Singapore will host a Formula One race in 2008, and it may be a night race, Minister of State for Trade and Industry, Mr S. Iswaran told press conference today.
He said Singapore has won the right to host the race for five years, with option to extend for another five years, and it expects annual tourism receipts from the event of about S$100 million.
The rights were secured by Singapore property tycoon Ong Beng Seng, who has been leading the charge to bring the F1 race here.
The first race will take place in September or early October next year in a street circuit around Marina Centre, said the beaming minister, and it could “potentially” be the world’s first night race, but organisers are still looking at safety issues.
“A night race will be unique, different and allow the Singapore event to reach out to television audiences in Asia, Europe and the US. Safety is of paramount concern to all of us,” said Mr Iswaran. Therefore, we will proceed with a night race only if the safety and operational requirements of all parties including the FIA, FOA and Formula 1 teams are fully met. If not, we will revert to a day race.”
Looks like it’s time to plan a trip to Singapore. More here.
2007 May 5 to 6 Puerto Galera, Mindoro
Went with the IT Department to Puerto Galera in Mindoro last weekend. I decided to drive to make it more convenient for the girls as well as for GPS data gathering. So with my Garmin Foretrex GPS unit recording a track, I picked up the girls from various points early in the morning. The rest of the boys took the bus.
The trip took about 3 hours taking us through the South Luzon Expressway, the Star Tollway, several national roads, and finally to the Batangas Port where we caught the 5AM boat.
We were informed that boats are scheduled at 15-minute intervals. To our– and the other passengers’– irritation, “15-minute intervals” actually was just one boat waiting for a whole hour! Thankfully, the boat eventually filled up and finally left the pier and in about 2 hours we were in White Beach in Puerto Galera. Aby– who organized the trip (Thanks Aby!)– and her friend Maica welcomed us to our accommodations.
E10 Blues
It looks like E10 is not as green as it should be. Because in the US and Mexico ethanol is derived from corn which is a food staple for both livestock and people, it has caused higher demand for corn which in turn has led to a drastic increase in the prices of corn and meat products.
But meanwhile, sugarcane-based ethanol producing countries won’t be as much affected since sugarcane derived foods are not really food staples. In fact, sugar is not even fashionable these days.
This should be a temporary situation as the corn growers ramp up their production to meet demand from food producers and fuel manufacturers. At that time, prices should stabilize. But this is a window of opportunity to export sugarcane-based ethanol.