The INQUIRER.net office, on Mola Street in Makati, is so near to where I live — a quick walk of two blocks — that I’ve never taken the option allowed by management, under certain conditions, to work from home.
Rain or shine, holiday or regular working day, I preferred the ritual of walking to the office and on the way grabbing some take-out food to eat at my work station as I started my 4 p.m.-to-1 a.m. shift.
From nearby stores, I would usually pick up any of the following — a dozen pork-shrimp siomai from Hen Lin or a Cheesy Beef Pinatubo from Jamaican Pattie or a spicy beef doner with cheese from Turks or a Baecon Ko burger from Frappe Connection or a two-piece fried chicken with Yangchao fried rice or panic canton from MarJim’s Chicken Corner — or in a rush, even some random items from 7-Eleven.
And after work, I would usually pop in at Z Bar, just a few blocks from the office, for few beers — that is, if I get off work before the 4 a.m. closing time. Otherwise, I would walk a few more blocks down Kamagong Street to Tapadera, a 24-hour watering hole (except on Saturdays and Sundays when it’s closed).
Anyway. I wasn’t trying to impress the bosses with my insistence on being at the office. I was merely avoiding the obvious domestic distractions, which for me were mainly a bed beckoning for me to take a nap, which could easily stretch out to two hours, and a guitar teasing me into trying out a song I had just learned from a YouTube tutorial as if the other internet click-bait distractions weren’t enough.
