newskin™

I had to commute to work today, my car is banned to roam the streets of metro manila because of the color-coding scheme. This was the first time in months that I had to commute, I used to do it everyday, but ever since I had a car for myself I haven’t managed to do it again. I was suppose to borrow my dad’s car but my aunt was able to get to it first … tough luck.

I was thinking of just getting a cab to get to the office, but I remembered not having been able to ride LRT 2 (Light Rail Transit 2) yet, which is almost near our vicinity, so I decided to just do it the old-school way (though, not nearly as old-school as riding a jeepney!).

12:00 pm - took a bath, dress-up, got coins/change and other things that’ll make my trek a little less harsh.

12:33 pm - on my way to work, I first had to ride a tri-cycle to get to the village’s gate, it cost P6.00.

12:39 pm - still waiting for either a jeepney or an fx cab (a cab that has at least 10 passenger seats) to get to the train station. I opted to ride the cab because of the heat … init sobra! tang-haling tapat kase! (baket kaya ‘di makulimlim ngayon?).

12:55 pm - arrived at the foot of the station, it took awhile to get there, the cab driver must have been weary about his earnings that’s why he keeps stalling (almost in a stalking manner) to every person on the street (sobrang bagal talaga! nakakabato!).

01:02 pm - a single ride ticket cost me P12.00, very inexpensive! I think I might be riding here more often to save me some bucks to add more aesthetics in my own ride. Anyhow, it took about 2 mins. for the train to start taking in passengers and another probably 2 more mins. before it started to move. The ride was quick with no hassles, if i’d have driven the same distance with my car it would’ve probably taken me 45 mins. to an 1 hour to get to point A to point B.

01:18 pm - after at least 15 mins. I was in my 2nd stop, cubao, I had to pass through the halls of the newly built “gateway” mall then into farmers plaza, then to the other train station, MRT, it probably took me a good 10 to 15 mins. walking that distance, It was good though, since having my car I haven’t had time to have long walks, so this was actually a good exercise.

01:27 pm - after almost 10 mins. of waiting, the MRT train came in with already an almost full passenger caravan, I had to squeeze myself to get in, can’t say much about it, it’s always been this way, it’s probably the busiest train station in the metro, so I guess some things never do change.

01:50 pm - the ride took almost twice as what I had previously ridden, most probably due to the volume of people coming in and coming out, I can’t complain even though I had to stand all throughout the ride, I just hope the try to manage the volume of people in each train, it’s extremely uncomfortable (ok lang sa’kin, kaso kawawa naman yung mga matatanda na nakikipag-siksikan).

02:15 pm - a 20 min. walk down ayala ave. I’ve finally reach the office building, I wanted to grab a bite but instead I went straight and logged-in on the HR server before I even forget it. After logging-in, I went back down to the canteen to get lunch, bought 2 rice and a beef-sauted watchamakaulit (‘di ko maalala tawag dun sa ulam), then I went down to the ground floor to hit a smoke … *puff *puff.

The whole trek was … hmmm … effing daunting! though it’s been a nice change of pace from the more accustomed way of me getting to work, I won’t trade the convenience of having my own car though, there’s absolutely more people in the streets commuting now than it was before, which makes it a little bit more harder to do. Thank goodness, I’m one lazy bastard.

Now, my next problem would be getting back home … my shift ends 30 mins. before midnight, wish me a big chunk of luck!