Cashless Week... Day one!

I first know Roy through the Youth for Sustainable Development Assembly (YSDA) - Pilipinas. He was its Executive Director back then. Roy was a resilient and very active environmentalist. He is involve in various green alliances and networks like Partido Kalikasan, No to GMO Network and many more. This is one experience of him that I stumbled upon in his blog and would like to share with you my dear readers... (Don't forget you can contribute or share your stories as well just CLICK HERE.)

Cashless Week... Day one!
by: Roy Cabonegro

Today, I begin an experiment to see whether in today's cash-dependent realities one can survive, remain productive and creative for a week without the need to carry and use hard cash nor credits (credit card... dummy!)

At dawn, Bel and I were already up preparing the kids to school. Their school was only about 3 kilometers away (the nearest public school we can find from our house). But since we could not ask the kids to walk all the way and end up with sweating kids going to their classrooms, the three of us took a tricycle to school. Bel gave my son Hadj some money for the fare.

On my way home, i walked. It was a nice 15-minute stroll and an excellent way to observe the early morning routines of Montalban residence who were just about to open shops or cleaning their frontyard. Several parents were also walking home after dropping off their kids.

The tricycle one way cost P 40. So by simply walking home, I already save P40 that morning.

Since we have a wireless internet connection at home, I spent my morning doing some work (emails, writing articles/reports) all morning. I was able to finish my daily desk work requirement.

I had brunch with Bel. We ate a fried bangus from Dagupan, a gift from a visiting friend who came earlier to survey our local cave here in Montalban. This cave is a special one and in the future ill dedicate an entire blog entry on this.

By midday, I was already riding my mountain bike with my mini-laptop tucked away in my backpack. It was a bit hot being midday buy the fact that air pollution is at its lowest at this time of the day, somehow that compensated for the inconvenience of midday heat. I wore a sleeveless jersey, a sub glass to protect me from the UV lights.

The usual 45 minutes travel if I had taken the FX PUV only took 30 minutes by bike. Perhaps its because most of the motorized vehicle get caught in traffic jams in many points from Montalban to Quezon City via Marikina.