April 1, 2009: Okay here goes. 9AM, I don't have much to do but to get to destination number 1: Glorietta in Makati, which will serve as my base of operations. Being April Fool's Day, I was hoping that nothing *ahem* foolish happens today. Can't afford to lose much time...
My first stop is supposed to be MRT Shaw Blvd station, to process some documents with our former agent. Why not take the car with me? First, that area is filled with buwayas. Second, traffic was probably bad in that area. I don't want to get stuck in traffic in a place I barely know anything about. When I made a follow-up call, though, they informed me that the papers are not yet ready until after lunch. So change of plans.
I proceeded with the processing of my clearance. Lots of legwork and paperwork to do. I had a bananaQ and Mountain Dew first since I did not eat breakfast earlier. I met my friend in the office and gave her my details to process the papers. Everything is in order except that it needed to be notarized. Don't know of any notary anywhere near the area. The nearest ones that I know of are the ones near the other office building where I worked before, about a half kilometer away. I went there on foot; just thought that I might come across some notaries along the way -- which I did by the way. It cost me around 100 pesos to get the docs signed, stamped, and notarized. I went back and submitted the papers and it's all set. One task down. Done by 12 noon.
I then went to a computer shop to get some more documents from my email and have it printed for task number 2 -- this is the one in Shaw Blvd. Coughing up 85 pesos for 30 minutes of PC rental and two printouts, it is a bit costly, but what choice did I have? I needed to get this done ASAP. After that, I went straight to the MRT for Shaw Blvd. It took a while to get there. After arriving at Shaw Blvd, I had to trek for about half a kilometer under the beating sun. I eventually got there, then it was a matter of simply getting the document. No fuss.
I made my way back to square 1 in glorietta. The trip is much much loinger and tiring than the actual task. I returned to Makati by 3:00PM. By this time, I'm not going anywhere without lunch. I went down to the SM Foodcourt. I was actually looking for that Korean stall, KIMCHI, the onw that is serving the spicy beef stew. No luck though. Quite delirious with hunger and no Kimchi in sight, I went for the default choice: Jollibee, C1 (1Pc Chicken Meal).
After getting my wits again after eating, I went to SPI in Paranaque to get some more papers. This time, I'm taking the car since I'm done in that part of the city. Unfortunately, the trip was anything but spectacular particularly the part of the trip in EDSA. The flyover from EDSA to the airport area in Pasay causes a chokepoint -- you woudn't believe the number of vehicles jamming up there -- the two lanes become three, taxis filling up in lines in a Caltex station just after flyover, and a well-known bus stop in Cabrera just about a hundred meters after that. Come to think about it, most of the vehicles jammed there are going to SM MOA, the sough via the Coastal Road, and to Manila via Roxas Blvd -- all of them must pass through the tiny chokepoint under the flyover.
Anyway, I had to go via the flyover (yey!) and escape the fray. After that, the trip was all... peachy... Still a little slow for my liking but still not that bad. After reaching SPI, it's only a matter of picking up the papers again and I'm done for the day! Again, the journey is the long and exhausting part. It's a few minutes before 5:00 PM.
Now is the part of the trip I'm dreading a bit -- Sucat road from SPI/Airport area to home a long stretch of road filled with malls, supermarkets, hospitals, schools, and gas stations -- and it's almost rush hour. Surprisingly, though, it wasn't actually that bad. I was home before 6:00 PM. :)
I ate dinner by 7PM with dad. By 8PM, I was on my way to one additional stop I had to make: visit Mommy Cel and David and Baby Daniel in Las Pinas. (By this time, the drive through the West Service Road was a breeze.) It's nice to see them again. It's the first time I saw Daniel and was soundly asleep most of the time I was there. :)
I went home after the visit. And so ends Day Eight.
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