I’m doing a staycation

I HAVE decided to do a staycation this holiday season. Meaning, stay home and relax while the world goes into a tizzy shopping, traveling, partying and whatever else the holiday season entails. I am happy for those who have the energy and the motivation to dash off out of comfort zones and see the movie star parade at Roxas Boulevard or look for the houses and buildings lighted up in dazzling lights. Or, shop till they drop, eat out on the spur of the moment, visit friends and relatives.

It is not quite that I do not have the energy, it is just that I don’t want to waste it waiting. I remember my 12 hour trip to Baguio the day after Christmas last year due to the ineptitude of the expressway personnel going North. SCTEX was the worst offender followed by TPLEX. NLEX was not up to it either. The result five kilometer queues at the tollgates due to lack of personnel and ingenuity and a singular absence of planning. They forgot there was a long holiday season and prepare for an avalanche of vehicles. And from my observation last weekend on my trip to and from Baguio, there may be more of the same. It took 20 minutes to get through the SCTEX tollgate plaza. This was six days before Christmas yet the management could not bother to add more personnel as more vehicles lined up.