Calax

Sometime ago I took photos on the stretches of Nuvali blvd toward Laguna Blvd, and the same blvd leading toward the Mamplasan toll exit through Greenfield's road.  I remember posting a photo of a flowering Narra tree on an island just recently.

Boy am I glad I did.  Because really, the road side is now unrecognizable.  Some pylons are already up along that technopark road, along the San Jose villages.  I gasped upon seeing there is actually now a gas station right outside the entrance of the Tamayo's Dalta Royale estate...which is next to Verdana Mamplasan.

I'm sorry.

We cannot have it both ways...the small town ambience, with small roads and trees, and the growing population and volume of vehicles needing more roads.

In the Narra's place will be a major intersection with a flyover.  I do pity the residents along the rear of the Santarosa Estates 1 and the Santa Rosa Villages.  When you buy property, you never imagine parts right outside it will become a highway.

When we bought the lot we are in now, we asked...and asked...about the raw land that is both our green view and beyond our village.  Who owns it, what might their plans be for it?

Alas...we see more vehicles on a road there.  I have heard of friends feeling lost when Waze directed them there rather than the usual road from bgy. Tibig.
I sense a change coming, if not that being actually the Calax's route.

I have largely felt backward and silly, selfish and so not "progressive" ranting about these "developments".  But the other day I also felt assured that this OA of mine is not really OA...I am not the only one being OA (over-acting) about it.
Another mother who also moved here around the same time less than ten years ago, expressed the same...

The same OA that says dang, we are not in Kansas anymore, let's move.

My other friends joked about how insane it is that we complain about the "traffic" on the Santa Rosa-Tagaytay Rd...when it is nothing compared to MANILA traffic.  But really... it is not OA, the dismay is real.  

So is the sight of plastic, paper and other trash on the parking lots (especially of the gravel parking) in Solenad, Nuvali on Monday mornings.

As for NOISE pollution...let me talk about the Nuvali Light and Sound show some other time. I can freaking hear it when I open my windows at home.  The wind carries the sound. And the search lights are no fun either.  But wait, I already ranted about this last year. I remember seeing the bothered birds illuminated by the lights.

I don't know...the show is really COLD.  First, in the daytime it is nothing but an ugly mess of plastic and wires on the green field.  For the show, it is just too techno for my kind of Christmas.  I mean, I grew up in the ear of COD Department store animated displays... and that was HEARTWARMING.

This light show?  No Christmas warm fuzzies at all. Just so...synthetic. Sorry.

New roads, car stickers and rice paddies

     Residents of Ayala Land villages this side of Binan and Sta. Rosa, get the Greenfield Parkway stickers for a shortcut to home.  We exit the SLEX via Mamplasan, and go through the parkway.  It is a big deal to be skipping the traffic when exiting via the Sta. Rosa toll exit. Going past and reaching the Paseo de Sta. Rosa area via the Eton exit is alright, scenic, but more expensive and longer. 

   Recently I learned there is yet another stretch of 'scenic' road from Mamplasan to the Laguna blvd, and that cuts through the entrance of Verdana Mamplasan, and the Tamayo estate, among others.  I hadn't heard about this place before, so I really don't know if there are lots for sale, or if it is some sort of club.

   I actually hope the rotunda from the Greenfield Parkway to Verdana never changes.  There are rice fields, their accompanying egrets, and banana plants by that small roundabout.  It's nice and green, and I consider it very important for our children to view it. When I was growing up, we passed roads to Pasig with rice fields as well. I remember my mother practicing driving with us as passengers...and my fear of her driving us to the edge of the road into a muddy paddy.

   Driving through the new roads to Nuvali, I still saw some cows, and various birds.  I believe the bird population from the Laguna blvd. to Nuvali has dwindled though...

   So I guess I can't decide...rural or urban. I want to live in both.