Cars, cars, cars!  At an early age I was, may I say, fortunate to have a car of my own.  And also during those tender years, my father taught me about the real beauty of the automobile.  I searched far and wide for quite a while to find the best car for myself, from classics to sports cars.Since I was young, I’ve been a big fan of different kinds of cars, but what I admired most of all were convertibles.  It didn’t matter if they were old school convertibles or late model convertibles, so long as it's a convertible.

I started driving when I was 14 years old and my first car was a Ford Escort from the 70's, it was my father's old car.  After that I switched to an 80’s Corolla  and thereafter to a 90’s Civic, and now here I am with my '96 Miata/MX-5.

It all started as a dream, like watching the television soap opera of our local celebrity John Lloyd Cruz in Channel 2, because in a particular soap opera, his character uses a red Miata.  I was inspired and said to myself that: “kaya kong bilhin yan!” (“I can buy that!”).  But then reality would set in and I’d think: "pano nga ba?"(“how can I buy that?”).  I’d just laugh it off and say to myself that “I can buy that car in the Playstation game Gran Turismo!!!” After that, every time I'd play video racing games I’d use a Miata as my race car.

All of a sudden, one day, isang araw, my girlfriend asked me to sell my car, she said: "let go of your baby Civic.  You don't need it anymore."  To which  I said to myself “she’s right, I hardly ever use it.”  It was very hard for me to do, but I did just that and sold it to a friend and thereafter just used our family’s car for myself.  A couple of weeks passed and my 21^st birthday arrived.  My girlfriend had prepared a huge surprise party for me on that day and I was shocked!  On the day of my birthday, September 4, 2003, my 21st birthday, a red Miata was radiantly twinkling before my eyes at the venue of my birthday party, It was a major surprise gift for my 21^st birthday from my girlfriend...whoo!!!

I was so very, very happy that day, my face was  indescribable!  And this marked the beginning of J.E. and Yumi's journey.
By the way, "Yumi" is the name that i gave to my Miata because its plate number begins with the letters “UMY”. I was so excited the day after my birthday that we cruised around Metro Manila from, Sta. Ana to San Juan.   From the beginning of the trip in Quezon City I already had the top down despite the pollution, of course since it was the first time!  On my first experience having the top down I was so tense that someone might vandalize Yumi.  But despite that tension, when I'm driving it “grabe” (incredible), it is so much fun cruising around Manila with the top down on my Miata!.

Best of all is when I arrive at school and all the other students stare when I pull into my parking space.

Ever since the day I got my baby Yumi, I'll never forget every second of my life after that.  Being with it, every time I drive it to different places here in Manila, people around look at me and my car and yell "wow nice car!"  Or sometimes when I'm driving at night with my street glow kit, chicks dig me like I’m chocolate and shout "I wanna ride in your car young man!”  I'm really flattered every time it happens (well it always happens). And to top it all off when I arrive for work at the TV studio, all the fans look at me like I'm a big star too, as if I were Vic Sotto or Anjo Yllana (local Philippine celebrities who also have their own sports cars parked at the artist’s parking of the studio). Of course I always park beside their cars just to show them that even a simple TV performer can also have sports cars like the celebrities have!

By the way Yumi was formerly deep red with cream upholstery, but then I changed it to electric blue with white interior when I got tired of red and cream.

 

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