Corridor Commuter

It had not been my intention to leave things as long as I have done, interestingly when you look at the above picture as a juxtaposition to the commute of my writing companion here you might think I had more time than most given that my commute is the steps down this corridor to the room at the end. However all is seldom what it seems and time ebbs away just as easily when work is heavy and tempers are frayed. Just because time lost in travel is regained does not always mean it becomes time spent on oneself.  

Commuting under the “new normal”

Nowadays, even though it’s not as strict as during the heights of the pandemic, commuting in Metro Manila remains a nightmare specially for the working public.

Some public utility vehicles (PUVs) have been allowed to travel but with limited capacity. For jeepneys, which is the most common public transport, drivers are required to have those makeshift plastic barriers inside to maintain social distancing. And from the usual 16-18 passengers, they had to reduce it to 10-12 or less depending on the size of the jeep to maintain the distance.

To be honest, it took me awhile to ride the jeepney again. If there’s one bad side that this pandemic has brought anyone, it’s being anxious and paranoid.

Since March 2020, I’ve only ridden the jeepney for 3-5 times or maybe less. I will only ride the jeep if one, there’s just really few people inside; and two, if it’s raining. I would give up the second condition if the jeepney is crowded.

And between riding a taxi or a jeepney, the latter is safer because it’s not airconditioned. Air can rotate continuously.

Still the best option for me is either to ride a bike or just walk. I walk going to the mall, to the park, to the market, which usually takes me 30 minutes to an hour.

Lucky for me, my office is just a 10-minute walk from where I live. And I love walking.

But for others, the usual one-hour travel pre-pandemic time, takes longer due to limited supply. It is also more expensive to travel due to limited choices. 

Mmm, Beer…!

I’ve been a beer drinker for some time, not to mention a little bit poncey about it for quite a while too, by which I mean I won’t drink any old shite, I’d sooner drink a Gin and tonic or a half decent wine than a crap beer or almost any lager.

Wherever I live I like to find a nice pub where I feel at home.  There are several things that help me choose where that is going to be, it needs to be within walking distance of the house, it needs to have good beer and it needs to be a nice space.  What about the people you cry… fair point, but in my view the venue has to cater for the first 3 things and if they build it then they will come. The people that you get in craft beer outlets whether old men, hipsters or old hipsters are a particular brand of people and they are very often my people.  Everyone a people’s philosopher, every one with a schooling that goes beyond formal education and every one a taste for something that little bit finer than the norm.  Given that taste is so subjective you may begin to see the challenge that the venue may have to satisfy such a band of ‘epicurios’ but herein lies the joy, a good pub will embrace that challenge with staff who delight in telling you what you’ll enjoy and when they know you well looking forward to seeing if they’ve picked your taste right.  It is a symbiosis that makes everyone happy.  I like nothing more than entering an establishment where I’m known and the person behind the bar telling me “I’ve got just the thing for you…”

So what is to be done in lockdown, pubs are shut and the industry is flung into crisis, robbed as it is of its very particular customers for whom the selection at a supermarket barely scratches the surface and comes with neither ethical consideration nor bonhomie.  So the breweries have been forced to take on that challenge a little and have begun to increase their experimentation and produce different things often each week alongside their core range and ship direct.  What has impressed me very often is the nature of the communications and ethos of these organisations, that matters to me.  From vocal support of the #blacklivesmatter campaign to telling customers how they planned to keep their staff safe both physically and financially during the crisis.  It has shown me that the backend part of the craft beer movement is very much akin to the nature of us customers at the front end of it.  I have been pleased to be able to support brewers and help them realise some of their goals whilst supporting an industry that has been of pleasure to me. although the potential plight of the physical establishments remains a concern.  The range of beers now is so immense, single, double, triple hopped with seemingly new yeasts, new hops all the time so varied that there really is something for everyone and I would defy even the most vehement of non-beer drinkers not to find a taste they enjoy.  For me it is a quasi golden age of the art of brewing, that is to say a Double Dry-Hopped Pale age and long may it continue.