IS Series: We Just Bought A (Used) Car!

Hey there! 

I know, I know it's been too long, but I now come with great news! WE. JUST. BOUGHT. A. CAR!!! I can actually taste our hard-earned freedom from the elements, from 1 hour+ bus rides and missing buses! We can now grocery shop with utmost abandon! :P No more lugging around personal carts while waiting under the harsh summer sun or during snowstorms. We can now go to wherever we want, whenever we want! FREEDOM BEYBEEEEE

 

Okayyy, too much happiness my friend. 

So how did we go around shopping for one? Well, it started when Mr. A got serious about taking his G license. As soon as he passed (thank you Etobicoke!), we started looking around Facebook Marketplace, Kijiji, or just randomly looking around dealerships around town for good second-hand vehicles. Our criteria were:

 

1) It should be a Japanese brand (reliability factor), 

2) Not above 300,000 km, 

3) Not more than 5K CAD,

4) the body should still be presentable/the engine is not too worn out, and

5) it should be an SUV.

With our budget, however, we were working on a limited market. Used Toyotas were still expensive for <2005 models, and even then the frames are either too outdated, too rusty, or no warranties were offered. We can't risk buying one that will give up on us 3 months in. We also didn't want to consider financing just to get something brand-new, it's not a practical choice for temporary residents. 

So after 2 weeks and 2 failed trips to Scarborough and Dundas, we found Dar Motors in Halton Hills. There, we had to compromise on our above list as Mr. A fell in love at first sight with a used 2013 Hyundai Elantra GLS 2-door coupe. We had to re-work our list on multiple levels based on its nationality (Korean), pricing (>5 but <10), and that it was a sedan, albeit a coupe. I originally wanted an SUV because I felt that it was a more practical vehicle for winter and that we can carry more items on it vs. getting a sedan. However, Mr. A pointed out that its fuel economy is top-notch, and that the body is well-maintained for its age. At this point in our life, getting a car that is appropriate for our family size is what we actually need, and not a gas-guzzling, older model SUV. We also had a 1-year engine warranty plus an additional 6-month coverage on our AC. They will be taking care of registration and car detailing, and all we had to do is pay a $500 down payment at the onset and the rest of the balance on the day of pick-up. 

So I took away all my prejudices and said yes. They were also open to bringing the car to our mechanic of choice so we can get it checked, and even dropped us off at home on the way. Talk about customer service! With this in mind, we went ahead and closed the sale 2 days ago.  We even got our lucky number plates customized! Thanks again Naveed of Dar Motors, their service is truly the best :) 

If you want to get in touch with them, they can be reached at below:

See you on our next roadtrip!

Neorun Weekend

It was always on my bucketlist, to be able to run in a marathon ~ and I had tried to sign up since 2012 but it was always getting cancelled one way or another. First time was when I had to cancel because of a trip abroad and just this year, a freak storm in UAE (Color Run Abu Dhabi) T_T so of course it came to a point that I just have to make it happen -- my fitness goals were not to be thwarted! #CHAR #dramarama

HEHEHEHE no, I just wanted to run. And have fun doing it ~~ with the fiance and friends. It was like when I just got here, it was a novelty for me to find actual outdoor running grounds not located inside a sports complex - where it's safe to run (specially for women and children) even at nighttime. I just put on The Morning Rush podcasts and spend at least an hour and a half running, not thinking about anything. Come to think of it, I was majorly emo back then so to avoid pity parties, petty kabayan jealousies, homesickness and being overly tired from working night shifts with my home-based stint and dayjob at IHD, I ran.

Plus, I don't want to be idle on weekends. There are days when I go into hibernation mode but I'm all pumped up for my upcoming Turkey trip in November that I can't just sit still at home and watch Bring it On Ghost and Stranger Things Season 2 all day even if it's totally WORTH IT sooo here's where we ended up:

AUH Rescue vehicles - yess that's a Lamborghini that they allowed us to sit in later that night!

Scored a free ticket from GuavaPass! Thanks again Mehak!

However, us, the gurangs (Tagalog WOTD meaning oldies) didn't get to enjoy it much because it was mostly adolescents who were up for the party scene that attended. And I didn't get to run, mostly walked, because the path was too dark and the crowd was too rowdy.

Anyway, it was still fun and we did manage to party it up a bit afterwards for like 15 minutes. A colleague who came with her boyfriend went directly from the 5km walk to the beach and chill out but like the good ol' gurangs that we 3 are, we took selfies first then trudged on home to do laundry and watch Stranger Things Season 2 :)

AJA AJA FIGHTING!

Photocredit to Medical Coding Geeks (Brian Cui)

#UAE2017 Series: How to Sponsor Your Family For the Holidays

On a previous post, I mentioned that I wanted to share how I went about preparing my family's documents for the Eid holidays here in the UAE - and here it is finally!

Sorry, it took so long - I had a lot of things happening up until yesterday like my CPB exam, getting denied for an SK visa (HUHUHU), month-end submissions, GOT7, etc. etc. that I didn't have enough time, emotions nor brain cells left over to do the list. BUT NOWWW, I'm ready! Let's get it on!

Okay, the first thing I did, as I mentioned previously, was that I purchased the 399aed sale flights from Cebu Pacific Air. It's a budget airline from the Philippines and you have to be really alert on their flash sales (usually midnight local PH time) and subscribe to their newsletter or follow this blog to be updated the minute that things get interesting. You have to be patient though, as the website lags from too much traffic during these times.

I bought the ticket in December '16 but I only prepared their documents in June, which was a only a month prior to their flight. On their end, the documents that they needed to prepare were the following to present to immigration officials:

1. Passport (at least 6 months' validity)
2. Original UAE visa (pink copy)
3. NSO Authenticated Marriage certificate (for my parents)
4. NSO Authenticated Birth certificates (for my brother and me as proof of relationship)
5. Flight tickets
6. Hotel vouchers
7. 9 Day Itinerary

My mom is already 60+ so my visa agent told me no need to process an Affidavit of Support for her and my father's an OFW as well, so the only problem left was my brother. My brother's 27 and unemployed so it's likely that the immigration officer will have a problem with that. Setting aside that he's a med student and he has already travelled abroad (Japan) last year, I sent him all the documents I could think of to ensure that he won't be offloaded, except of course, the controversial Affidavit of Support.

VOCAB:

Affidavit of Support - that thing you need to bypass Philippine immigration going to UAE if you're sponsored by a resident.

Here's what I prepared for them, which I sent via courier along with their visas:

1. Residence Visa
2. Emirates ID
3. Passport Copy
4. Salary Certificate (signed and stamped by HR)
5. Printout of my latest OEC and OWWA membership
6. Invitation Letter

I made sure each of them has copies of all my documents in case they were evaluated individually. Good thing was, the officers didn't even look at their papers, only the UAE visas and their passports and they were able to go through smoothly!

Really, if you know you know in your heart and mind that you're really just travelling, there's nothing to be afraid of. Like with my SK visa denial, I don't take it too much to heart because I know that I would be going there only to travel and fangirl sooo - their loss, not mine. CHAROT! #antagalngsourgraping #moveonalready

Dubai Sports World

I loooove it!

Happy, honeymooning parentals♥

I'll share our itinerary in another post (again), sa uulitin! ♥

#SK2017: Planning Guide

Just want to share, Raych Ramos is really making me excited for our SK trip in September!!

#UAE2017: 9 Day DIY Eid Al Fitr Celebration

As soon as I got back from my annual leave last year, I was homesick for at least a month after ~ I kept missing my nephew and niece (self-declared #TitasofMLA), my parents, our youngest (who was already in his 3rd year of med school but was still a baby to me) and practically everybody I left back in Manila. It was my 3rd vacay home to date, but the homesickness was still as pervasive, if not more intense, as soon as I left for the boarding gate.

So 2 weeks into the post-vacay blues, CebuPac had 399aed sale flights again! Granted, it was nothing compared to their original seat sales before where you can get 300aed roundtrip flights DXB-MLA (#ErrorFare) but it was better than their most recent promos so yalla, I booked for 3 people in time for the Eid holidays! Just dropped the bomb a month after that they have no choice but to weather the sweltering heat in UAE for a week and a half HEHEHEHEHEEEE*evil laugh*

I booked the flights in early December so I had plenty of time to plan their itinerary as well as to plot the budget I'll need to allocate for their stay.

However, the main problem I encountered during this stage was actually getting the Affidavit of Support that the PHL immigration is requiring from Filipino tourists. The full list of requirements (which made me feel exhausted just by looking at it) and the need to take time off from work to personally request it from the embassy really stressed me out for a month before I was able to finalize everything a week prior to their flight.

Here's the list of requirements that the embassy needs:

Ugh.

This affidavit was originally implemented to help curb human trafficking but personally, I don't think it helps. Anybody can circumvent the process and it's just a potential avenue (if not yet) for corruption. Plus, I had to request for NSO authenticated certificates for proof, and klutz that I am, I don't have any remaining hard or soft copies on hand so what to do?

I scoured the net for possible alternatives on how the parentals can breezily go through immigration without so much as a glare. I wasn't able to find any, only opinions on just how useless this affidavit is yada yada yadaaaaa so I just made my own checklist of what they need to present to the officers and how to effectively present it to avoid being offloaded. I'll share my tips on another post ;)

Mash'allah :) everything went off smoothly and they were able to experience the mega sales that Eid Al Fitr has to offer, along with the glorious heat/ humidity, local culture and authentic shawarmas that UAE had in store for them! Till the next holidays!

Eid Mubarak!

Day 2: Halloween at Universal Studios Japan

Should've made sure before going to theme parks, you advised your parents to have a full physical or else you'll be spending the whole time being worried if your father will faint away from the bright lights of Spiderman 3D or get a heart attack in the middle of Space Fantasy.

Buuut I never did think things through sooo with our express passes on top of day passes (I wasn't able to figure out how the birthday discount can be applied huhuhu) here's us on Halloween! Buwis buhay na bakasyon but they loved it - well at least my mother did! Score! :) #YOLO

USJ Beybeeeeehh!

And what a grand day it was! Even if USJ on a weekend may seem stupid to most, and on a Halloween weekend at that, it saved me from buyer's remorse re: express passes which turned out to be a major major lifesaver. We got to ride everything without waiting (except for the Jurassic Park The Ride where we were in queue for 3 hours!) and access to the Wizarding World of course!

E-Tip: If you're going to ride the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, make sure you have extra coins to rent lockers if you have your belongings, even if it's a small body bag or your purse as you can't bring them with you.

We woke up around 8 and took the train to USJ from Namba using our 3 day Kansai Pass. However, since the Kansai pass exclude access to USJ, we had to pay extra from Nishikujo. The whole train pass/access thing was difficult to grasp at first but we got the hang of it by day 2.

Fathership's favorite photo-op and ride! Hopefully he never had to battle with great whites IRL when he's out at sea

at least nobody get to do this on the ride HEHEHEHE

Hi classmates! :P

So much fun! Fantastic way to de-stress the parentals out - and a baby brother who's obsessing over his 2nd year med exams.

We'll be back USJ and I'm bringing reinforcements! See y'all soon!!

Day 1: #AmazingNamba

Finally gone around to sharing our short but sweet stay in Osaka, Japan ~~ It should've been longer but my crazy brother had exams on Monday which he didn't want to skip ~~ even for our shared love for all things Japanese.

Waiting for our flight in NAIA Terminal 1 (Jetstar Asia Airways)

Namba City Shopping Mall

Spent a good 30 minutes trying to figure out the way outside of the train/mall area and into Namba proper. Inshallah, Google maps work inside establishments as well hahaha

Mainly we just walked around and tried only 1 ramen shop because it's much cheaper to buy food in convenience stores. We splurged a bit on the duty free shops for the milk soaps that my mom was obsessed with.

Being here in Namba made me feel like my childhood dreams were coming true and I was stepping foot in sacred land. Every corner felt like a scene in a shoujo manga/ anime, seeing all those schoolgirls (hopefully legit) and impeccably dressed women.All the action figures on sale and countless goodies that made you wanna break the bank T_T ~ I'll definitely come back to pine some more and this time I'll include Tokyo and Sapporo!

Another thing that travel has made me realize: you have to learn how to dress well if you're up and about in a cosmopolitan city. It's not even to fit in with the current style of the place you're going to or following the latest trends - it's finding your own style, dressing presentably and in comfort. It's a challenge for me because I'm at my comfiest in a shorts and a plain shirt but since moving here in UAE where shorts were frowned upon in public (specially during Ramadan) and a plain shirt ain't cutting it - I had to adjust and build a wardrobe 1 mega-sale at a time. 

That's it, random thought over - see you in Day 2!

DIY Visa Series - How to Apply for a Japan Visa in Abu Dhabi

After 10 years, I finally have the info here for you people! :) YASSSSSSSS!!

When I initially did my research on how to apply for a Japan visa here in Abu Dhabi, the only result I got was how to apply from Dubai (which is only applicable for Dubai residents btw) so I had to rely only on the details provided by the Embassy of Japan - Abu Dhabi for the visa application and a variety of travel blogs for the rest.

First off, download the visa application form here by clicking here. You can fill it up electronically so it looks neater, below is a guide on how to do it:

Then prepare the requirements as follows:

Tourist requirements (Non-UAE nationals)

1. Passport (more than 2 blank pages)

2. Copy of passport ( and residence visa page)

3. Visa application form (Don't leave anything blank, just put in not applicable where necessary).

4. Photo (1 recent clear photo, white background w/n 6 mos. and pasted on the form)

5. Copy of confirmation of flight booking and accommodations

 - I made my bookings on booking.com to avail of the free cancellation and no prepayment offers to allow adjustment for last minute changes

6. Schedule of stay - I followed the samples from these blogs:

• TinCo Was Here
• The Madaldal Kid
• Project Gora
• Wandering Waffleheads

Although I had to do a lot of revisions a month before the trip because Jetstar Asia gave us a free option to reschedule our flight back on the 3rd day so yey!! 

7. Documents to show financial capability (ex. Certificate of Employment and at least 3 months bank statement, signed and stamped by HR and bank)

** Some say that bank activity is enough to guarantee a visa approval but to be sure, always leave enough balance to show that you can sustain your stay throughout the duration of the trip. I personally recommend this if you already have concrete travel plans because if denied, you can only re-apply after 6 months.

 8. Proof of current address (ex. utility bills) - I don't have any so I just printed off my credit card statement with my home address and they accepted it.

 9. Letter of Guarantee (if a family member is a minor/ student, etc.)

Then once everything's prepared, you can submit all your requirements to the Japan Embassy, a 6 aed taxi ride from Al Wahda Mall. You don't have to set an appointment, you can walk in from 8:30-1:30PM from Sundays to Thursdays. 

The lady who processed our application was really pleasant and after checking our papers for a few minutes with a couple of questions, she said we can get our visas on the 4th day (we applied on Thursday and she said the 4th day was Monday so even weekends were included in the count).

Best part, visa is free if your visit is less than 30 days! :)

That's it~ hope my guide helped you and enjoy your stay in Japan!