Walk by City Hall

Inspired by #WednesdayWalk by @tattoodjay

All photos featured are from my collection.

This happened around the same time frame as my Christmas Shopping post.

On my previous post, I mentioned that I picked up some orders for my direct selling business. From there, I got off the public transport at the City Hall. It was the first time that I stopped to take photos around here.

Over the years, the local government has worked on improvement of the area surrounding the City Hall. More so in the last few months as a new city mayor was elected into office.

I have noticed this park-like area before, but it now has more appeal as the plant dividers now double as sitting areas for passers-by who just want to take a bit of rest under the shade of some of the lovely trees.

This area faces the front entrance of the City Hall. From here, I had to walk a few blocks down to reach the nearest shopping mall that I mentioned for my market Friday post.

After spending a couple of hours buying stuff from the mall, it was time for me to head home. Actually, my stop was at my daughter's office, but that's along the way.

This park area is at the back of the City Hall, but it is closer to the mall entrance. That's one reason why there are quite a number of people around. There are also some schools near the area, so students can also be seen around here.

The park now has a lot of open spaces. That's due to the new mayor cleaning up the flea markets that used to be located on this same spot.

This was also the first time that I was stopping by to admire the area since it was all cleared out. In a way, I'm glad of the new mayor's initiative to have more recreation parks for people.

Since it's the Christmas season, there's also a huge Christmas tree in the middle of the park. Take note of the long queue of folks by the side of the tree. I will admit to not paying much attention to it while I was taking the photos. As it turned out, it would be part of this story.

I walked all the way to the road looking for the jeepney terminal to get a ride home. I then learned that the long queue was the line for the jeepney that I was intending to ride. Que horror! That was my reaction. But of course, I didn't voice it out loud.

Being a good citizen that I am, I fell into line. Now I'm almost next to that huge Christmas tree. Just to give you an idea as to how long the queue was, I tilted my mobile to take a shot sideways to see how far it went. A jeepney could ride around 10-12 people, so I was calculating around five jeepneys would cut it. Easy peasy. It was no big deal.

Took a photo of the City Hall clock to record the time it would take me to get a ride. Oh yeah, I was pretty optimistic.

I kept myself preoccupied with taking photos on my mobile. It later on turned out that I had to wait for almost an hour to get that ride home. By the time I got to my next stop, it was almost dusk. Since Jones Bridge was along my very long walk, I decided to stop quickly just to take some shots. The lighting of the bridge was recently inaugurated to showcase new sets of lamps to light up the area.

It was rush hour, so there were lots of vehicles and traffic was moving slowly. Some folks opted to walk as it would be faster on foot than to wait it out in a public transport.

There it is! The newly installed lanterns to light up the bridge.

Home was to the other side of the bridge, so I backtracked and took a shot of the world's tallest chinatown archway on my way to my daughter's office. I didn't take more photos from here on as there's nothing but old buildings and busy street.

That's it for this week's edition of #WednesdayWalk. It was tiring but rather fulfilling. Being able to take photos always puts a smile on my face.