When fuel prices are high, let us eat cake!

Desserts-to-die-for at the newly-launched The Cake Club of the Manila Diamond Hotel at the second floor of Rockwell

2008 may as well be the year of the Pinoy commuter and alternative means of transport like the E-jeepney. In 2008, we celebrate the cause of the hoi polloi who brave the long lines of the LRT/MRT and hang on to pesky PUJs for dear life. Riding around town in a 3.5 gas guzzler with the impudent wang-wang is out! Commuting is in, especially as it’s the only way our great middle-class can cope with ever-rising gas and diesel prices.

You just know the situation is serious when you load up on gas at a greater frequency than before and the full tank you bought at a thousand bucks previously is now just half of it. Moreover, fuel price hikes are announced almost every week and your car-owning friends begin to ride public transportation…. sure signs of worse times ahead.

A few of the suggested ways to beat the fuel crunch:

1. Carpool. Self-explanatory, but beats the unglamorous option of taking public transport and smelling everybody else’s sweat.

2. Plan your trips, cut down on meaningless trips. Know the shortcuts of each location you go to. Traffic is such a pain in the ass gas!

3. If possible, live in an area accessible to public transport. This way, even if you have a car, you will still have an option.

4. Be the ruthless social climber and boyfriend/befriend only those capable of taking you to places in their shiny wheels. Hah!

5. Make commuting a lifestyle. Eventually, you won’t mind it if it becomes a habit.

6. Commute in style. Keep your sunglass/hat/MP3 player and poise on!

7. Relative to No.2, have a good reason to get out of the house. Having to plan my trips now, I realized that being a homebody is good.

The bad news is that I no longer say ‘yes’ to every invitation, especially if your invites entail me to go to Pasig,(!!!) Taguig and heck, Quezon City. Sorry to say, but the schwags are just not worth the cost of travelling anymore 😀 Unless the invites require me to go out of town or out of the country, in that case I live very near the three airports, and I can give it a try. 😛

Now that the hard times are getting even harder, we can probably listen to Marie Antoinette and eat cake. Didn’t scrimp on my gas and attended The Cake Club’s opening. Among the procession of desserts on display were tarts, cheesecakes, creme brulees, macarons, panacotta, pies and our very own ensaymada. Never really had a sweet tooth but can’t resist these ones!