Who rides a Vespa?

The story below has already been posted in the Vespinoy forum and Bimbo’s blog. But I personally felt that this particular story in the lives of Allan Malubay (scootzilla) and Shiela Montaño is meant to be shared to as many people as possible so I’m spreading the love especially in time for Valentine.

Here’s Allan telling their story.

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Hello Vespinoys! I just want to share with you the story of how I got my first ever Vespa. Let me first tell you how I got “bitten by the bug” as they say.

Two years ago when I was reading Scooterista Magazine, I was able to read this article where the Ochoas were sitting on a Vespa GS. From how I remember, it was an interesting and beautiful scooter. Then I saw in the ads section of the same magazine that there’s this store named 2211 which distributes Vespa scoots. I was already planning to go there to get some back issues and to sign up for a subscription, so I asked my fiancée Shiela to accompany me and check the place out.

When we arrived there, we saw the same scoot I saw in the mag, and Michelle (2211 staffer), confirmed that it was the same Vespa GS I’m talking about. I asked her if i can take pictures of it and maybe sit on it as well. When she allowed me to do so and I was on top of it in no time, I said to myself that one day I will also have one of these in our garage. However, the price tag did not seem to agree with me, and besides, Michelle said the GS is not for sale because it already belongs to a collection and the price is more than P100k. “What? A P100k for a scoot?” I blurted. You have to forgive my ignorance then because I only had Asian scoots and I had no idea how expensive a Vespa scoot can be. But even so i said to myself one way or another i will have a Vespa. After that I started my Vespa collection from t-shirts, stickers, keychains, bags and diecast figures but the actual scoot I continued to save for.

After two years of logging in to Vespinoy.com and MotorcyclePhilippines.com, I still don’t have a unit of my own since my budget is still not enough and besides, I’m also saving for my wedding, and one of my plans is to have our prenuptial shot taken with a Vespa. One time when Shiela and I were scouting for our wedding venue along Aurora Blvd., I remembered there was a Vespa shop featured in the magazine named Vespartz which is located within the area. We came across it, and there we saw this black and white PX150e which was nicely painted and in tiptop shape with all the upgrades and accessories. It was reasonably priced, but still I can’t afford it. Funny things is that I noticed that Sheila was really taking a good look at it and then she asked me, “Is it really a good buy?” I said yes and she just smiled back. I ended up acquiring nothing more than a Vespa keychain and I left the store disappointed yet again.Several months passed and the thought of that Vespa has already been forgotten. Until last Jan 2, 2008, two days after new year still with a hangover early that morning (7am to be exact) and I was surprised to see Shiela at our doorstep asking me to meet somebody outside the house. I was shocked to see Sonny Navarro of Vespartz standing at the street but I was more shocked to see that same black and white PX I saw at the shop a couple of months back standing right beside him.

At that point Shiela handed me the keys, which was pretty obvious what they were for. It was my so called engagement gift. I was holding my tears back because I didn’t want Sonny to see a live telenovela. After a minute of passing out, Shiela then continued to explain that they were planning the surprise months before and that luckily she was able to bargain for alower price for it. NICE!

This post is for Shiela Montano, I want to let you now how much I really appreciate what you did and it’s a gift that I would cherish forever. Love you much.

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Such a heartwarming story. Allan’s lucky to have found a girl like Sheila. My best wishes to the soon-to-weds!

Happy Valentine!

-o-
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J0HNRANA

john[dot]rana[at]gmail[dot]com