If you’ve been to a Robinson’s in the past few weeks you may have noticed an ATM-like kiosk with the “GoTyme” branding. For the unfamiliar, GoTyme is one of the newer digital banks in the Philippines forged as a partnership between the Gokongwei Group (hence Robinson’s) and Tyme.
There’s a bike route I’ve been following more often. And the irony is the trail is within a mall.
The Festival Mall canals are really something else. In a way it reminds me of the huge ponds of the former QUAD (now Greenbelt) in the 1980’s and Virra Mall but on a larger scale. Festival Mall’s humongous expansion extends the mall towards Asian Hospital with new outdoor areas around a forum that follows the freshwater Alabang Creek as it makes its way out into Laguna de Bay. The creek itself isn’t a sight to behold, and to be honest I have doubts of how “safe” that water is as I’ve seen freshwater fish floating dead in some of the more stagnant waters. But easily accessible bodies of water are a rarity in the urban sprawl, and in this case — it IS the urban sprawl.
Read on to see the photo gallery.
I asked ChatGPT if AI will be the future of tech reviews. This is what it said:
I never really thought about year-end goals until I checked my Strava account. Ever since my wife got me a bike last year, I’ve been trying to clock in rides every week. Some days I have daily streaks of 20km rides. Other times, every other day but longer distances of 30 to 40km. In the beginning I used to come home with aching legs but as the time passed, I have been breathing better, making less pit stops, and exerting less effort on my rides to go faster.
It wasn’t always like this. I spent most of my 30’s finding an excuse to not exercise — or at best to try to be inspired by those “from couch potato to hero” motivational workout regimen. There was a short time before the pandemic I got into kettlebells, but again, knowing me, I could not last. I fear gyms in general because despite all the movement, I’m stuck in a room.
Fast forward to the pandemic.
I’m writing this while confined with a mild case of COVID. After two and a half years of evading the virus, it finally caught up with me. Thankfully, symptoms are very mild, with slight cough and fever the first few days.Â