More than one person has made the comparison that the looming fuel shortages attributed to the ongoing conflict in Iran feel a lot like the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. And while we're not being forced to stay at home, the economic realities of rising fuel prices are making it less economically viable to leave the house as much. So it's a weird form of indirect pressure that is keeping people at home more in order to save money. And we're starting to see public institutions, namely shopping malls (because this is the Philippines), announcing shortened hours to help further reduce reasons for people to leave home.
The Philippines is proving particularly vulnerable to volatile global crude prices, given practically all of our oil is imported (figures in the news are dancing between 98-99%), and our local oil industry is fully deregulated. The Grab driver who took me to the airport the other day practically begged for a tip to help him keep pace with gas prices, and I couldn't blame him for trying.
To deepen the parallels, I was also in Singapore right before the lockdowns formally took effect. It was my last trip before things went nuts, and it would be another year or so before I'd get a chance to visit my sister again. I've joked that this might be my last trip for a while, but my sister has dismissed such concerns for now, saying that we'll figure things out later on when we get to that point. I hope we're not going through a weird echo of 2020, but the similarities are certainly there.
In the meantime, I'm still getting through work, and that's pretty mundane. We wrapped up a little earlier today, so I got to spend more time with the nephews. This included the older one once again climbing me like a jungle gym - something that's a lot trickier given how much taller he is now. After watching Hoppers together, I still had to join them in bed and read some stories to help them go to sleep. These are all truly precious moments.
I'm going to squeeze in the processing of some more O Bar videos before bed. Because of the way the schedule works out, I'll be working "from home" tomorrow, so things should be pretty chill. I wonder if I should try to make Friday night plans apart from reading storybooks to the boys, but we'll see. I'm just as happy staying in.
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