August seems to be a favorite month for bookstores here to do their book sale events. Not sure why it’s so. In any case, these events and next month’s Manila International Book Fair mark a particular season here that time of the year that bibliophiles look forward to each year. And make no mistake there, bibliophiles are not a small, insignificant demographic. A visit to these events would elicit at least a surprise and a realization just how much of underrated sector is the bibliophile sector. And actually, the Urban Roamer did just that: a visit to the two major book sale events happening this month.
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Six Years and Still Roaming…
Just like that, it has been already 6 years since I first started the Urban Roamer. It’s no exaggeration to say I never expected to see what started out as a simple, inconsequential (as I thought then) venture would go this long and this far. And now that the Urban Roamer is 6 years old and counting, my work on this little “venture” is now the longest job tenure I have ever held in my life. And that says something, I suppose.
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Here Comes the Beep Card and Other Mass Transit News
After some delay and glitches along the way, the much-await tap-and-ride reloadable transport card for the Metro Manila mass transit system, the beep card, was finally unveiled to the public last July 20 on a trial run basis. The beep card is envisioned to be the sole ticketing system to be used for all of Metro Manila’s mass transit lines: Lines 1, 2, and 3 and future lines. It is also envisioned to be a system that other modes of transport like buses could use, not to mention as a mode of payment for stores. Much like how Hong Kong’s Octopus card and Singapore’s ez-link card are used besides train ticketing.…
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The Case of the Ayuntamiento: A Costly “Restoration”?
Recently, the Urban Roamer came across an interesting news item through one of Facebook groups dealing with Philippine heritage news and issues. The news item was actually part of a series of reports broadcasted on CNN Philippines last February that talked about the “restoration” of the old Ayuntamiento de Manila building to become the new home of the Bureau of the Treasury. It would have been an interesting read, had not it been for the maliciously anti-heritage slant put forth by the report of Fiona Nicolas, which put the restoration as “costly” and that the Php 1.188B spent on this project would have been better spent elsewhere like poverty alleviations,…