My Dream Vacations

Today at work wasn't as hectic as the previous days. We rendered overtime two days in a row so we could catch up with the volume of work before the long weekend begins. I finished my tasks earlier than usual and that gave me time to daydream. Hehehe.

I really, really wanted to visit these places but I think that'll only happen when pigs fly. Lol! Why? Because we're not ultra, ultra rich so it's really impossible for me to afford to travel. So these places might only be just in my dreams but then, who knows?

Santorini, Greece  (source)

Santorini, Greece is my ultimate dream. I am just so awestruck by how beautiful this island is - the pristine white structures, their blue roofs, the expanse sea surrounding the island.

Venice, Italy  (source)

I want to experience riding a gondola in Venice and listen to the gondoliers sing.

Paris, France  (source)

The romantic city, surely will not be out of my list. 

Niagara Falls  (source)

The hugeness of the Niagara Falls is pretty scary but I still want to see it, nevertheless.

Big Ben, London  (source)

I want to see Big Ben on New Year's Eve just before the clock strikes twelve. 

Dream to Reality

As I've shared in my previous post, we were set to purchase an Altis from Dennis of Toyota. Our car loan application to PSBank was already approved and we even paid a certain fee to reserve the color that we wanted which was either black or medium gray. During this time, we were still waiting to receive a call from another bank, BDO, to know if our car loan application to their bank was approved as well.

If you're wondering why we applied for two car loans from two different banks, it's because PSBank is Toyota Dasma's affiliated bank while BDO car loan is the preferred bank of AutoTrust Philippines, a car financing company in Quezon City.

We chanced upon AutoTrust's Sulit ad and got interested in an instant. The SRP of the Toyota Altis is the same but they offer more freebies than Dennis of Toyota. We then inquired and asked for a quotation and it appeared that even if we have to pay the same amount of down payment, the monthly amortization is still lower by a few hundreds than that of Toyota's.

June 17, we finally received a call that our car loan from BDO was approved and almost at the same time, AutoTrust's agent France, told us that our preferred Altis in medium gray was already available and can be picked up the next day. Before making a decision, we sent a text message to Dennis asking if he can lower down the monthly amortization that he quoted us. If ever he can give us a closer amount to that of AutoTrust's, we'll definitely get from him. But, as I've said, it took him a day before he sent us a new quotation and it's still higher than AutoTrust. So, the decision has been made.

We initially planned on going the next day, Monday, but we decided to go on Tuesday instead because hubby still needed to open a checking account and I still have to secure a Certificate of Employment from my company.

On June 19, the three of us - hubby, myself and Johan - were on our way to achieving one of our dreams. We left the house early around 8am and met up with hubby's cousin who is a policeman, for security purposes, and my sister who wanted to take part in one of the happiest days of our small family.

When we arrived at AutoTrust's office, we were welcomed by a sad news. Toyota North Edsa didn't want to give us the 3 year LTO registration which was included in the freebies that we discussed with France. This is a huge setback because that meant another Php13,000 which we didn't want to shell out in addition to the 20% down payment that we'll be paying that day. Good thing is, France's boss, Alex, was able to talk to Toyota North Edsa and they agreed to include the 3 year LTO registration. France later on told me that Toyota didn't really agree and that her boss, Alex, shouldered the additional fee because he didn't us to back out of the deal and he was embarrassed that all this had to happen when we're already there and excited to pick up our new car. Now, if that's not great customer service then I don't know what is. Though, our deal with them is not yet done because we are to get our plate from them in a month's time. Hopefully, we get it by July.

All in all, it took us almost the entire day signing the paper works and waiting for the car to be ready for pick up. We had lunch at around 2pm in Hap Chan - SM North and passed the time until 5pm came and the car is finally ready. I would say that it was a very teary moment for me. I can't believe that we finally have our dream car.

It pays to dream coupled with hard work and double up with your prayers. God indeed is good.

I Own It

Remember this picture from my "I'm Owning It" post? That is the before photo.

This is the now photo: 

We were finally able to save enough for the down payment and gathered enough courage to sign 48 months worth of post dated checks in the amount that gives me the nerves everytime I think about it. Hehe.

Although, we didn't get a Toyota Vios as I previously posted. We got a Toyota Altis 1.6G instead - which is way better than the Vios but also priced waayyyy higher. The decision was made after much deliberation between the husband and myself - weighing the pros and cons, setting the budget and who to pay this and that, prioritizing and basically planning on how to survive the next 48 months.

I am just so proud of ourselves for finally making this huge decision for our family. This is one dream that came true ahead of time and honestly, almost sent me to tears when we finally met "Joey". 

Yup, we named our car Joey, in recognition to our national hero Dr. Jose Rizal, because we took Joey home on the day that Jose Rizal was born.

More about Joey in the next posts.

I'm Owning It

I've been reading the book The Secret and I am living everything I am learning from the book. It is basically about keeping a positive outlook, banishing all negative thoughts, attracting positive energy and living a life as if you own everything you ever wanted.

You may call it coincidence or whatever but I attest that it works. After I applied for a new job, I was told that they will just call me if I passed. I am confident that I did great in the final interview and I called out to the universe that the HR people will call me on Tuesday around lunchtime. Tuesday morning, I kept on thinking of receiving that most awaited phone call. I acted like I am already hired. Hubby kept on looking at me as if I'm crazy but I kept doing it and around lunchtime, I received a text message:

I immediately showed it to hubby and gave him a look which says, "I told you so." Hehe.

Anyway, now that I am a true believer of The Secret. I am applying it in all aspects of our life. Like for example, my goals for myself and our family. I know, it's kinda materialistic but these are all for the long run, believe me. You may find it weird that I inserted our pictures but what the heck, I am owning it.

Finally our own car will be ours just in time for Johan's 2nd birthday

I will be 100,000 pesos richer before Christmas

How about you, what are you owning?