AGAIN, I say this is a job that I have loved for so long now. Two things:
First, it is not a 9-to-5 thing and, if only for that, I say that should seal it. I mean, I just hate regimen. It’s like a form of imprisonment but without bars. Eight-legged essay. De kahon. For one, monotony bores you to death. For another, it practically programs your life. Shouldn’t it be the other way around: Your life must program matters according to your wishes, moods? For, what is life, indeed, if you let life chart the living. Shouldn’t it be that your living makes life according to your synopsis, to include marginal notes, and must not fear changes happening along the way in conjunction with flexibility? I mean, it is not only in summertime when the livin’ is easy; should be all year round, baby, or the catfish won’t be jumpin’.
Truly, I love Janis Joplin’s version of “Summertime.”
Second, although I didn’t dream of becoming a reporter, much more a columnist, I immediately fell in love with the job the very minute I landed it. It afforded me unlimited excitement—still does—that I had never imagined I would ever experience. Time and time again. Still, it does. It is not a high-paying work, yes, but what is money if it could not make you happy in the end? For, indeed, money can’t buy happiness. As The Beatles had crooned it so well: “Can’t Buy Me Love….” The view of an open sea seen from atop a hill will always be there for you to savor endlessly. Priceless. Certainly, if not chances are, you will miss that soulful scene if you are a 9-to-5 jailbird, but not if you are a journalist like me. Ah, isn’t the serene sight of the vast blue sea from your room at Poro Point’s thematic Thunderbird in San Fernando, La Union, a thing of beauty—from bright mornings up to the depths of dawn?
Always, I am a sucker for sights that take breadths.
My gratitude pours out eternally to Toyota Motor Philippines for the privilege and honor of getting invited to the now-fabled “Toyota Ride and Drive” journey held last weekend, virtually bestowing upon a select group of motoring journalists the much-valued opportunity of what TMP president Michinobu “The Rocker” Sugata described as “a chance to leave the Big City and enjoy a relaxing trip once more to the countryside after our very busy schedule the past 10 months of the year.”
Was the Manila-La Union-Baguio-Manila sojourn a trip?
It was, yes, but then there was more to it than meets the eye. Everything in it was profoundly awesome. Food. Drinks. Brotherhood. Laughter. And, yes, golf with such eminent guys like Sugata-san, Hosei Murase, Ricky Alegre, Migz Alegre, Rene So, Brent Co, Rommel Gutierrez, Benjie Favis and Danny “Sir John” Isla. And to top it all, how about our poker session with the likes of cunning-laden Ray Butch “Elvis” Gamboa and Sir John, Matt Mallari, Jing Atienza, Shawi Chua-Lim and Vernon Sarne at Mitos Benitez’s famous Hill Station?
In closing, my loudest cheers to Jade B. Sison, whose direction of the utterly seamless event is truly beyond compare. Take a bow, Miss Big J! I’m almost sure a hefty bonus awaits you this Christmas!
Lexus does it again
SPEAKING of unforgettable moments, the Lexus launch of the iconic RCF on Tuesday at Lexus Manila Inc. drew the usual well-heeled crowd whose passion and pursuit for perfection has no limit. While James Deakin was near-flawless in doing his thing with the mike—Sir John’s last-minute move to tap him for the emceeing job was a masterstroke—I had my own fling with glory this night of nights, fleeting it may have been but it was nonetheless an adventure of a lifetime. Amid the oohs and aahs showered on the latest Lexus muscle, I rode the RCF, with the proud owner himself behind the wheel of the electric blue de-otso. We zipped through BGC traffic in spurts of lightning speed, and it felt like I was onboard an F1 flying around the Monaco-like street circuit. It was the most thunderous 10 minutes or so of my life.
“Now you have something to write about in your next column,” said my friend, the country’s first RCF buyer. “Just don’t mention my name, please?”
So hot is the RCF to the car cognoscenti that even before it could land on Philippine soil, there were already 21 advance orders for it—and counting. Is famed car collector RSA one of them? Or has he gotten one already—if not several as his habit of gifting his friends with expensive cars has become legend. And who wouldn’t notice RSA’s SC430, which shared the spotlight with RCF at the Lexus showroom that night? What a beautiful sports car, this SC430. More beautiful than Audrey Hepburn, if not Elizabeth Taylor?
PEE STOP. Honda Cars Global City on 28th Street corner 9th Avenue, City Center, Bonifacio Global City, has started its Night Service from 7 p.m. to 4 a.m. Mark Tejada, branch manager, said the program is up to January 31, but he added, “We could even extend the service to other Ayala-owned Honda dealerships nationwide if the situation warrants it.” Call 777-8104 to 05 for details…I will officiate once more the San Miguel Fil-Am Golf Invitational in Baguio from November 22 to December 6, together with Jake P. Ayson and alternate Jim Reyes. Again, Toyota is a hole-in-one sponsor in the Fil-Am now on its 65th straight year…For the first time, I won’t be around when the “boys from the press box” assemble once more at Lexus, this time to watch the Pacquiao-Algieri fight on Sunday. I hope to watch it at Baguio Country Club, perhaps in the company of BCC GM Anthony de Leon?