| While the above topic can probably lead me here into | | | | morning. Around 10 a.m. we were on our way to |
| letting out an inferior emotion, I don't mind saying it. You | | | | Quiapo. We took Roxas Boulevard and then turned |
| see, I have a problem sleeping. The nearest to | | | | right to T.M Kalaw. It was what I have long been afraid |
| medication I tried was beer. It works sometimes. But I | | | | of, riding in the highways of Manila. The being a holiday |
| have had nights drunk but take to thinking in bed all the | | | | didn't help very much, there were still many jeepneys, |
| same, until I get a headache and blame it on the sun | | | | buses and cars that made the road difficult. But |
| just rising and I can then really go to sleep. With cycling | | | | somehow I was able to hang on. |
| it is different. I ride in the morning on weekdays, before | | | | The hard part was the bridge over the Pasig River. It |
| I go to work, and on weekends I ride in the morning but | | | | led to downtown Manila and probably it was not only |
| it can last up to noon and really leave me all exhausted | | | | me who got it hard. One cyclist, a tall and wide-set |
| and all right well into the night. I don't know how to | | | | man of about 30, rounded the bus outside the curb, |
| explain it, but you try staying out of your house for | | | | rode with no hands afterwards and stretched his leg |
| most part of the day and you'll see. | | | | and arm muscles. I supposed he thought the bridge |
| This is about last week's bike push to Manila and it | | | | was hard for a bike, and showing off that he was |
| took me only now to put some sense to it, if any. It | | | | relaxed proved that I was right. Under the bridge was |
| was the Holy Week but, as was the usual, we rode to | | | | the Pasig River, and at the end were the strings of |
| the bay area in Manila. Nothing much there, that day | | | | stores selling practically anything that a person wants. |
| being Easter and most folk just coming back from the | | | | And I mean that exactly. There is nothing you want |
| provinces and all. I wasn't merely with the local cycling | | | | that you can't find at Quiapo. |
| club that day, but also with the relations of one of its | | | | By that time the sun was high and folk were really |
| members. They were some sort of headed not by the | | | | pouring in around the busy Quiapo district. I replaced |
| club member, who took to riding his bike in full cycling | | | | the sprocket on my bike with an eight-speed Shimano, |
| regalia, but by a rich relative who took a redeye flight | | | | and also got a new handlebar. My neighbor got a new |
| back to Manila for the Lent. | | | | pair of tires. The whole thing took around two hours |
| After a few rides around the bay area, rather on a | | | | probably and I witnessed that part of manila coming |
| slow and tiresome pace, about four of us found out | | | | alive. By the time we were ready to go back to |
| that each of us needed to buy some bike parts and | | | | Makati it was like an ordinary lousy weekday there in |
| then decided to make a push to Quiapo in Manila that | | | | Quiapo, not like a Sunday I supposed. (Continue... |