Leaning Towards an Altis

Photo taken when the Altis was sold.

My dad sold the Altis at P 260,000, when I saw Altises of the same year and similar kilometer readings at the P 300,000 to P 400,000 plus range in Sulit.com.

Anyway, since his friends got Santa Fes, he was thinking of getting one, too. We headed to the Greenhills dealership, where my mom couldn't hop onto it or the Tucson. So my dad asked about the Camry equivalent, the Elantra, and the Altis equivalent, the Sonata. He wants to get a Korean car because he's worried about a Japanese-Chinese war. When we got home, I saw on TV that North Korea is threatening South Korea.

The Tucson.

Anyway, I thought that since the office has an Innova and a Fortuner, that a sedan would use up less gas when you're transporting four people without cargo, and it would be easier for my 3i, my mom and me to get on a sedan, especially when we're wearing gowns. The Altis was the special request car for my mom and 3i whenever we went out.

MA said that his mom prefers the CRV to a sedan, because his mom doesn't have to stoop to get in. My dad says that Hondas have low resale values and have expensive parts. My concern is that my friend says that the sold Altis has a better turning radius than her Civic. I'd like to take all the cars we're considering for test drives.

I looked up the prices online and came up with this grid:

Car Comparisons
Honda v Hyundai v Toyota
A/T
					Secondhand
Make	Model	Engine	Variant	Price	Year			% of brand new	Km
Toyota	Altis	2.0	Pearl	1,155,000.00
			Standard	1,140,000.00
	Camry	2.5G 6	Standard	1,451,000.00	2006	2.4G AT	685,000.00	47%
		3.5G Q	Pearl	2,097,000.00
Honda	CRV	2.0 V		1,325,000.00	2006	Mdl Matic 4WD	558,000.00	42%	50,000
		2.4 SX	White Orchid Pearl	1,545,000.00
Hyundai	Elantra	1.6 GL		888,000.00
	Sonata	2.0 GL S 2.4 gas 6		1,388,000.00

Dr. Harvey Uy's Binondo and Makati Clinics

Drs. Harvey Uy and Sheri Liquete, the anesthesiologist.

My friend, who, with her parents, were Harvey's patients in Asian Eye Institute, wanted to know what his clinic hours are, and urged me to blog them.

The new name of all his clinics is Pacific Eye & Laser Institute.

Yesterday, its first day, I was the sixth patient in the history of the Makati Surgical Center. It is located where The Spa used to be, at 50 Jupiter St., Bel-Air. The eyp interactive map is here.

From Kalayaan, I turned left to Makati Avenue, turned left to Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue (because you can't turn left on Jupiter St., contrary to what someone not connected to Pacific had advised me), turned left on Paseo, then turned left on Jupiter. It's a few buildings down on the right. Parking is ample, but with tricky curves. DFC parked in the closed building at the corner before it.

Pacific Eye & Laser Institute calling card.

I almost hit a curve, if not for my co-IRB member, Atty. Bernard Kaw, the first time I tried to park in the basement, so the last time I was there, I parked in BBQ five buildings away on false pretenses, so I have to be creative--again--the next time I go there, if Pacific still does not have valet parking.

Anyway, from Jupiter, the best way out is to go towards Makati Avenue, turn right at Polaris, turn left after Anzo, turn right at P. Burgos, right at Kalayaan, right at Amapola, follow the road until it becomes Rockwell Drive.

Dr. Harvey gives Dr. Sheri and me a tour.

Going to Makati Med, the best way is turn left to Nicanor Garcia from Jupiter, turn right at Gil Puyat, turn right at Zuellig Loop (I think, it's the street before Ayala Extension), turn right at Malugay, cross Sen. Gil Puyat to Tordesillas. The rightmost lane was long, so I took a right after H. V. dela Costa, turned right to Leviste, turned left to Rufino, crossed Ayala, turned right to dela Costa and parked in the parking lot on the right, at the corner of Geronimo and dela Rosa. (The Google Map seems to be missing Geronimo).

I thought that this was going to be the Lasik room. Laser room?

If you take the rightmost lane, you can turn right at dela Costa, cross to Ayala to Geronimo, turn right at Amorsolo, follow the road until you reach Makati Med, turn right up to the driveway for valet parking. The parking building entrance is after the driveway, and the entrance to the parking lot beside Makati Med is after the parking building entrance. Both are almost always full, so I've resorted to parking at the treeful parking lot on Legazpi Street. From dela Rosa, turn left at Rufino, turn left at Legazpi Street. It's on the right. Walk to Salcedo Street at the right. turn left at dela Rosa until you see Makati Med, where there's a side entrance.

Anyway, Harvey texted me today that he is in Makati on Wednesdays and Fridays, 8 to 5. He is in Binondo Mondays 9 to 5, and Thursdays, 2 to 5. His Binondo clinic is on the Ground Floor, Pacific Center (formerly Pacificbank), 460 Quintin Paredes St. Dr. Sheri's husband told me that it's near the old Dragon Seed, Jollibee and Red Ribbon. Dr. Sheri and I know people who are excited with his Binondo clinic, as it is quite near where they live or frequent.

He is at St. Luke's Quezon City on Saturdays, 8-5, Room 611, South Tower, Cathedral Heights. When you enter St. Luke's from E. Rodriguez, Sr. Ave., it's the building on the left. The last time I was in St. Luke's last month, in the evening, so I parked at Cathedral Heights. I went up the driveway, then turned left to the parking building.

The appointment numbers for all clinics are 890-01-15 or 0917-8749202. The email address is appointment@pacificeye.com.ph. For St. Luke's Quezon City, the appointment numbers are 411-41-12 or 723-01-01 loc. 2611. I tried to access pacific.com.ph and got their login page.

The only clinic which will have an optical shop is Makati. The optical shop will open end-January. Across his Binondo clinic is Crystal, an optical shop owned by ex-AEI optometrists who he said I would recognize.

Incidentally, my previous post on his clinic still got 20 out of the 123 views yesterday.

Except for the calling card photo which I scanned today, all photos were taken yesterday at Pacific Eye Makati. I tried to access the website and got to their login page.

Queen of the Night

Unfortunately, my camrea was low-batt when it bloomed.

My friend, who has seen the Queen of the Night bloomless, has been asking me to show the photo of the actual plant in bloom, even though I had posted in my Fb soup of albums.

I have been going to Tagaytay every couple of weeks since last year, and it was only last August 19 that I got to catch it.

My cousin and -in-law would even drive all the way from Metro Manila to Tagaytay on a weekday evening just to see it in bloom, then drive back to Metro Manila.

10:43 pm.

I found it so intriguing that when my friend was thinking of plants to give to her aunt based in Antipolo, I suggested it, since I know of someone who grows it in San Juan, although their version is smaller than the Tagaytay version. My friend said that it was not practical, since the objective was to beautify the garden.  How can you beautify your garden when the plant is green most of the time?  Oo nga no.

Anyway, it was certainly more beautiful than I had imagined, and more beautiful than I could photograph.

Samsung Galaxy Tab

Galaxy Tab 2.7.0 Wifi costs P 12,990. 10-25-12

PLD asked me to find the lowest-priced Samsung Galaxy Tab in town. I asked Mic Abasolo for help, as Samsung is the sponsor of his inboundpass.com. When I showed him the price list that I got from Digital Hub VMall, he asked me to email it to him.

Dr. Harvey Uy's Blog

Harvey at the Kuang Chi Awarding Ceremony last March 11, 2011.

As my Harvey Uy post is again the top post in this blog, and since I got a call from his patient's wife and daughter asking me where he is, may I direct everyone to the Uy Eye Clinics blog, which I taught Harvey how to set up last Friday, November 2, at HEAT in Edsa Shangri-La Manila, where he treated me to breakfast buffet. Thanks again, Harvey!

While I had said in my previous post that his Binondo clinic will open in mid-November, the Uy blog says that it will open in late November.

Greenhills & SM Megamall Open Today

All Saints' Day posts totalled 406 views.

Even though I was planning to write this post today, I was still surprised when I checked my stats and saw that last year's All Saints' Day posts dominated the top positions. What most surprised me was the surge in views, and the Dr. Harvey Uy post being the top one.

Pageviews surged 59.22% today, from yesterday, from 667 to 1,062.

Anyway, I went walking in Greenhills this morning from around 9-11 am. Since it was hot, my friend suggested that we park in the building across VMall , where I went through the No Entries since there were no cars, and went to Mercury Drug in the same building for the first time.  On the way to Unimart, we saw a lot of people walking around, including a guy with a shirt that said, "I support the draft" with a beer photo.  Haha. Flapjacks, McDonald's and Krispy Kreme were open. In fact, my friend could smell Krispy Kreme.

We also went into another Mercury Drug near Chinabank where my friend went to the cashier near the door because the pharmacists manning the pharmacy ignored her.  Then we went to Japan Home Center, next to DIY, which was also open, of course. At Japan Home Center, my friend pointed out a bra hanger for me, which I might buy because our maids tend to flatten my bras. I wish I could post a photo here, but I think that I was stopped from taking photos here or Saizen.

On our way to Unimart, we saw that Mister Donut was open but Chowking was closed. At Unimart, everything was open, even Aunty Vicky's stall where we got sagot gulaman and Haw Flakes, Kookie Monster with its Halloween cupcakes, and Dolor's where I wanted to buy rellenong bangus for
P 300+ but forgot to.

When we walked to the car, it was already 11 but VMall was still closed to the public, but the employees could go in already. At the parking building, a maintenance lady told us that the elevator will be operational at 12, when VMall opens.

My friend told me that Megamall is also open.

Dr. Harvey Uy's St. Luke's Clinic

My friends, their family, their family's in-laws and so on are Dr. Harvey's patients.  As Harvey has left Asian Eye Institute, he is now the best eye surgeon at St. Luke's.  Or so he claims. :)

Dr. Harvey Uy (center) at the Kuang Chi Awarding Ceremony last 3-11-11.

My friends' reactions were varied.  One friend hoped that his new clinic would be at St. Luke's Global City, while Madam Upuan said, 'I am fervently praying he means St. Luke's QC and not in Fort?"

I told Madam Oop to fervent away, as Harvey will hold clinic at South Tower 611 starting October 27.  He will also set up another clinic at Pacific Center (formerly Pacific Bank Building), 460 Quintin Paredes St., Binondo in mid-November.

The Kuang Chi Awarding Ceremony was held at Xavier School.

This is his second clinic in Binondo.  Before joining AEI, he held clinic at State Center, when I was holding office there, too.

If not for this coincidence, we would not be friends today.  I took the elevator to his clinic and told his secretary that I just wanted to say hi. He came out and invited me to play badminton and we became good friends after that.