As I have gotten older and if I say so myself, much wiser, I eventually outgrew my excitement towards malls. Back in the day (those long gone student days), the common hang-out place that easily came to mind, was the mall -- the mall here, the mall over there, and the mall everywhere. The centralized air-conditioning may have attributed to the popularity of these enclosed and integrated complex in the country. Given that we practically have sunny days all year round or when it rains, one can while away inside the mall, yet again.
But having gone out of my comfort zone, I came to realize that there's more to life and the world, than what the malls can offer. An alternative that requires less the dough is much more welcome.
So, what about parks? Parks where the community can come together. Children can play real games aside from the console. It will be a refreshing patch of green in a city of concrete. Like the famous Burnham Park in Baguio City.
This is how I got ridiculously chirpy while my family and I were on our way to Burnham Park. What can I say? A park is one of my happy places. Even "Manong" in blue couldn't quite fathom what came over me that moment.
But unfortunately, the only thing that we had done was boating in the man-made lake in the park. If rain hadn't caught up with us, we could have roamed around the park more. Sigh.
Having turned down the offer for someone to row our boat, we then had the boat all to ourselves. Thanks for my brother who was very serious on learning how to row and he quickly got the hang of it, much to our relief! We didn't want to entertain the thought of our boat capsizing! The horror!
When huge rain droplets were already pouring, we decided to seek refuge on land and by that, we ran towards the nearest "CR" (Comfort Room), otherwise known as restroom or toilet. With Baguio's cold weather, nature calls seem to happen too frequently! Finding a toilet is not very difficult in Baguio because this fixture has been put up as a business with Php5 per person as fee. The upside is that the toilet is being kept considerably clean.
A quick snapshot of my adorable parents who were so game with our impulsive itinerary. With only two umbrellas for the five of us, we pretty much walked under the rain while we figured out our way after Burnham Park. And guess what? We're heading to SM Baguio which is a mall! Fine, I'm eating my words just when I'm ending this post.
But seriously, one of the things I hope for the Philippines is to have well-maintained parks, especially in the city. We ain't turning into some mechanical robots anytime soon that we can enjoy just as well within the confines of endless concrete. Because that would be downright ridiculous. We need the outdoors, the flowers, the plants, the breath of fresh air, the insects (yes, them included), other people and of course, the light of day to come to our senses. Perhaps, a different venue can give us a better perspective towards our problems and life in general. That may be a little too deep but you get the point. I also hope that people will stop considering parks as "jologs" (tacky) because they're not. They have no idea what they're missing out in life.
o-O
No comments:
Post a Comment