Wifey rides a Vespa!
It’s my first time to have my wife as a pillion passenger outside our immediate vicinity. I asked her to docu our mini-adventure Vespa Ride to UP. She recounts her ride experience below with pics and captions. 🙂
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I was told yesterday we are going to meet Cox today and ride daw kami sa Vespa. Taka ako why? Wala daw para ready daw kami if we go Europe haha taray diba? And then I found out may Valentine Irog Ride and Vespa Club… hmm set up yata ako. Well whatever the reason is, I did have fun and it’s another thing we get to do together since there are now little stuff we do since the kids came. Actually year before Laya came, we started to have a couple’s life na tapos nagka Laya so you can imagine. hahaha. Til the next ride Didda!
The ride begins! Eto trying to capture a shot of myself to remember this ride by... di success kasi isang kamay lang pwede sa cam and aside from takot akong ma snatch takot din akong mahulog phone ko while at the same time nagbabalanse para di mahulog hahaha. At this point di pa ako feeling confident but I kept shooting kasi near our house pa ito so di pa madaming tao (ergo less chances of snatchers). Si Abet natatakot din panay sigaw hawak ka! hahaha
I saw our reflection sa isang car na dumaan and I knew it would be a great shot... so attempt ako ng attempt but it was not easy pala hahaha! This is at the stoplight in EDSA cor Boni Serrano kalalampas lang ng Camp Crame. Snatchable area bale.
so off we search for a black car kasi black car yung nakitaan ko ng magandang reflection, but we were too close to the car na shy ako may picture at mag ayos pa ng angulo hahaha kaya eto one shot then click ang tago agad... deadma lang nuni nuni. Camp Aguinaldo na stop light ito... confidence level eh mataas taas na.
di ko pa din nakukuha yung solo pic shot ko, so attempt ulit. still at Camp Aguinaldo area... mas may confidence na ako... di naman pala ganyan kabilis malaglag sa motor 🙂
eto naghanap na lang kami ng parked car along Katipunan baka dahil nagmamadali kaya pangit... nyeks di pa din nakuha yung gusto kong shot.
eto lampas na kami sa flyover ng Katipunan, along Ateneo na ito. Sanay na ako sa ride, naeenjoy ko na din ako at this time kasi ganda ng weather, ganda ng ride namin walang traffic diretso lang and ganda nung time of day 430ish ito eh. Basta super enjoy ako ditong park. Didda Abet hanap ka ng mala ganyang area ride tayo ulit! I saw our shadows and I knew it would be a nice shot and easier one to take...
Couple shot! Yohoo got a shot! Pero di pala ganyan kadali kasi minsan malakas ang araw...
minsan hindi...
ito ang maganda, I knew I got a nice one after this shot... di ko nga lang macheck if the shot is nice kasi nga umaandar kami while this is being taken.
eto nasa UP na kami kaya mas mayabang na kaya ko nang itaas yung cellphone cam...
Di ka din dapat magtaka kung ma snatchan ako noh? 1.. 2.. 3.. look Didda!
eto ang backrider's view
UP Oval
arrived alive! Me nakapila sa isawan ni Mang Larry. I missed you Rose, Ayvih, Jayson, Jo Anne, Maeline & Paul!
Rana Family by Cox! He's why we went on this trip.. to meet Cox and get the drawing he made for our fam 🙂 *thanks Cox* Cox is Didda's Vespa Friend na artist... his style is Tingala, a top view perspective of his subjects. According to him kaya Tingala it's because he started by painting Mang Larry and his isaw stand, since food ang subject niya the best way to present the food is via top view like the cooking shows, and since gusto niya may subject and di maganda if bumbunan ang nakukuha naisip niya yung tingala angle and the rest is history 🙂 Read more on Cox by clicking the image above.
Ride na, table pa! San ka pa? Yung ice cream dito sarap din, love the avocado ice cream 🙂 Yung isaw ni Mang Larry bagong salta lang sa areang ito, noon yung isang isawan lang ang andiyan, specialty nung isa is yung orangey yung kanya and also he has pig's kidney din and it's yummy ha. Thanks Cox for recommending it.
Walang magawa sa may traffic light. Pauwi na kami, ganda ng kulay kasi sunset na. This is at the intersection of Wilson & Ortigas na.
Red light! hahah di pa din ako tapos sa aking mirror shot! The End! Nice experience. Am sure mauulit ito. Thanks Didda! Let's go to Italy na and gaya Veluz & Rene!
More of her Vespa/ride kwento in her blog. 🙂
on Flag-themed Vespas and micro-blogging…
The Philippines
Above is my own scoot inspired by the Philippine flag, I searched thru my harddrive and Google images for other custom painjobs inspired by flags of other countries. Here’s what I’ve found so far . . .
Italy
United Kingdom
U.S.A.
Vietnam
If you know of any other flag-themed Vespa, post it on the wall of Who rides a Vespa? in Facebook and I’ll add them in our gallery there. For obvious reasons, that page is updated more frequently than this blog. 😉
Posts are also tweeted via @AbetRana if you wanna follow. 🙂
See you there!
~Abet
Getting high. It’s more fun in the Philippines!
The Department of Tourism in the Philippines has just launched a new campaign slogan and logo via itsmorefuninthephilippines.com. At the center of this tourism campaign are the Filipino people who makes the visit of any tourist in these islands. The tagline is simple and pretty straightforward. But when it is paired an action + an image of sights in the country, it does it’s magic!
Consider these images found it the tourism website . . .
Inspired by the new campaign, I did this layout to drive across the point that a fun way to see the beauty of the country is by riding a Vespa. 🙂
Our very own Vietnam Vespa Adventure!
I’ve been wanting to ride a Vespa in another country.
Maybe in Rome or in Tuscany where Vespa Tours are readily available. I’d also like to ride in Pontedera, Italy to visit The Piaggio Museum and see the birthplace of the very first Vespa. But traveling to Europe isn’t in the immediate plans.
But in January 2009, I got to see Top Gear – Vietnam Special where Jeremy Clarkson rode a vintage Vespa from Saigon to Halong Bay. I said to myself, “I could do that too!”
By June 2009, a Vespa buddy (Aries Guinto) posted an FB link to Vietnam Vespa Adventures (VVA), and my wife & I got interested immediately. I also learned from Aries that there’s an existing Vietnam Vespa Tour thread in Vespinoy where interested riders could sign up. So I did. But my wife Benz & I agreed that if the Vespinoy initiative doesn’t push through within the year, she’d join me on the pillion just so I’d have company. She already sent our queries and got the rates. Until she got pregnant with our second daughter. All our travel plans for that year and the next (2010) went on hold. 😦
But my dream to ride in Vietnam lingered. This picture/ad of riders scooting by the Red Dunes of Mui Ne made me want to go there all the more!
Fast forward to 2011.
I brought the idea of doing the Vietnam Ride as an official ride of Vespa Club of the Philippines. Good thing our current president (Uriel) was also one who’s eager to ride abroad. Initially, a good number of our members were also interested to join. But taking a week-long leave from work isn’t that easy to sort out. Plus the tour rates aren’t exactly peanuts. But Uriel & I agreed that we’ll still push through with the ride even if it’s just the two of us representing the club.
So we set the date: November 07-14, 2011. The very first International Ride for Vespa Club Pilipinas. We booked the tour and our flights. I even designed legshield banners to put around our rented Vespas in Saigon.
VVA even posted a countdown in it’s blog of our club’s arrival. Another club member (Tim) had also booked and was suppose to join us, but had to cancel a month into our flight due to changes in his work schedule as a airline pilot.
But Uriel & I still got to Saigon alright. Aside for the paid tour with VVA, we also got to rent a couple of vintage Vespas for a self-guided city tour of HCMC. (Special thanks to Hil — a Filipino expat in Saigon who’s also into Vespa –who hooked us up with the right people.)
Uriel at HCMC Town Hall
xin chào!
Thru Hil, we also got to meet-up with local Vespa riders in Saigon to join them for a night ride of fun & food!
by the Saigon Opera House
See more of our nice pictures as posted by Đá Nguyễn aka The Scootereist (checkout Meet Filipino vespa riders in Sai Gon) as shot be his girlfriend, Quynh Skulls. 🙂
There are tons of pictures documenting our seven-day, fun & exciting Vietnam riding adventure, but only 200 images can be posted in an album in Facebook. I posted them chronologically with captions so you could virtually take this adventure with us. 🙂
Xin chào!
VA VII – Vespa Attack 7!
DEC 10, 2011
MORNING CITY RIDE
8:00 am to 9:00 am
Meet up at HOTROCKS LIBIS
(Route will be posted later)
Leg shield banners and Button Pins will be distributed to all participants
11:00 am to 12:30 pm
Lunch at MOA area by the Bay
EVENING ACTIVITY
5:30 pm on wards
Salo-salo at HOTROCKS LIBIS
As suggested, lets make this as OUR Vespinoy “Ves-Mas” Party
Everyone is encourage to bring their Exchange Gifts worth 300 pesos.
Drinks and Food KKB
KITAKITS!!
checkout updates about VA7 in live threads posted at Vespinoy and Vespa Club forum.
Yesterday, while celebrating my wife’s birthday in a Chinese restaurant, an idea of a Chinese pin up girl on a Vespa came to mind. I have seen vintage ads from China before so I knew what keywords to search for in Google images.
I was hoping I’d finish the deconstructed artwork before her birthday ended, but it wasn’t meant to be. I finished around 2AM the next day and pleased how it looked like:
The writing below is “Happy Birthday” in Chinese (sheng ri kuai le). Traditionally Chinese use red in texts to denote a celebration. To use black is a no-no as it denotes death.
The image above is a composite of five (5) other artworks that I put together much like the technique I used in the Pinay Vespa Pin Up. I specifically used for Chinese paintings for the background to give the “feel” I wanted. Here they are:
I do hope to make other Asian Vespa pin ups when inspiration strikes me. 🙂
In the 50s or 60s, Vespa released pin up calendars with images of women in different parts of the world. I have seen a number of scoots with pinup-girls stuck on the legshield or the glovebox cover.
The thumbnails below are just but a few examples. But the one in the middle (the Filipina farm girl with the Mayon Volcano as backdrop) “my” rendition of a Pinay Vespa Pin-Up. Since I got zero talent in drawing, I relied on a Filipino master (National Artist, Fernando Amorsolo) for inspiration and creativity.
I used bits & pieces from Amorsolo’s four paintings to bring the image together. Here’s how the original arworks look:
With the help of Photoshop, I traced (and flipped when necessary) the body parts or landscape I needed to complete the vision I had. The scooter artwork was lifted from one of the pre-existing Vespa pin-ups. Here’s how the finished product looked (postcard layout) without the clutter.
Now, this Filipina pin-up girl would look good on my scoot. Gotta have my own sticker made soon. 🙂
sakay. takbo. lipad. (ride. run. fly.)
Here’s a nice Filipino poem forwarded to me by Uriel. It’s written by Ron Magbuhos, a Vespa rider he met at the 5th Angono Round-Up. I’ve been told that Ron wrote this paean for riding after the ride to Angono. ‘steeg! 🙂
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Nag-anyaya ang hangin na ako'y sumabay
Sa kanyang paglipad, atubili akong nagpa-unlak
Nag-aalalang hindi maka-agapay sa kanyang pag-indak;
Hinawakan nya ang aking kamay at kami ay pumailanlang.
Sabay kaming sumayaw sa saliw ng awit ng kalikasan
Sa bandang sinkupado at pagaspas ng dahon at kawayan,
Sumisikad ang binti, tatadyak ang paa at kakalabit ang daliri
ang kamay ay pipiga, sisisid ang mukha at matinis siyang titili;
Nakipag-ulayaw sa ispontayong kalsadang kukurba-aahon
Sinalat ng talampakan ang nagbabaga nitong sementadong daan
At doon ay lumikha ang aming mga puso ng mga palatandaan
Humalo ang amoy ng 2T at petrolyo sa aming hinahabol na hininga
Pinadulas ng tumatagaktak na pawis ang humahalinhing na makina
Lipad, sige pa, lipad, at sabay rumurok ang aming pinag-isang silakbo.
A Rider’s Playlist (a collection of songs for riding)
a compilation of 14 tracks - including two written by me 😉
Angkas na! (Join me for the ride!)
I’ve been meaning to make a CD compilation of all the songs that I have featured in this blog. A playlist that any rider could simply load in his iPod and listen to while riding. Well that plan has long been in the back-burner until this song, which I blogged just recently, came up.
This week, I’m rushing everything (re-mastering, replication, and packaging) before I switch on my vacation mode with my family by weekend. Special thanks to Mark Laccay for taking care of re-mastering all the tracks. Mark & I even had to rebuild one track from the ground up, just to make it sound good for this album. I plan have only limited copies made to give away to friends, especially those who are into riding. The CD sleeve was designed by me (layouts) and my ever-supportive wife, Benz (packaging), and it’s currently in the press for printing and die-cutting to make it to our deadline.
This collection is dedicated to:
all my buddies whom I had the pleasure of riding with in-and-around the country
the men & woman (hi Kat!) of Vespa Club Pilipinas
all my readers in whoridesavespa.com
our listeners in Pinoy Scooter Podcast (PSP)
If you happen to receive a copy soon, happy listening! 🙂
Noah & Laya: Future Vespistis
- Vespa Onsies
Yesterday, my wife Benz bought these two Vespa onesies. I think these were displayed at the boy’s side of the infant section but she bought the while one for our daughter, nevertheless. With the discount she’ll get if she gets two items, she bought the other color (blue) with the intention of giving it to a baby boy named Noah.
- Noah Laccay (born August 2010) w/ daddy-o
Noah is the third and the youngest child of my neighbor and Pinoy Scooter Podcast (PSP) partner, Mark Laccay (No, they didn’t name him after Santino’s character in another teleserye). By virtue of being the unico hijo, it is safe to assume that this lucky boy will be the future heir to his dad’s Vespa.
- Laya Rana (born March 2010)
Born five month ahead of Noah is my youngest daughter, Laya. Here she is doing her “balancing act” on Pyke. I was actually behind her & the scoot ready to catch her as Benz took this shot, but she didn’t budge from where she was seated.
- Daddy-O Ride (August 2010)
On the same month Noah was born, our friends from Vespa Club organized the “Daddy-O Ride” for me, Mark, and Joseph (another member with a new baby). It was actually my first out-of-town ride after my long hiatus. That was also my first time riding with Mark. Looking back, that ride was sort of the trigger that got me back into riding.
- first meeting: Noah & Laya (with my eldest daughter, Kite) at the Laccay’s Residence
But I digress. As for Pyke’s future caretaker, my eldest daughter Kite agreed to give way to his little sister as the rightful heir of my Vespa as long as we buy her a car. What a caring big sister. 😉
These two babies could be future members of Vespa Club of the Philippines. And who knows, maybe they’ll be a good tandem in continuing what we started in PSP. We’ll see. 😉
Who rides a Vespa? 
