Red Tape

     I had a pretty rough afternoon today. Not as hard as the previous day, but still, it exhausted me. Good thing I was with my mom and my little sister so it wasn't really that tiring at all.

Mom. On our way to the barangay hall.

The first transaction for the afternoon was to secure a barangay clearance. I didn't know where the barangay hall was so again, mom had to go with me.

Passed by this scary looking house along Simoun St.

We got there and asked the guy in charge if we could get the barangay clearance and he asked me to write down my name in the paper he provided and return after 30 minutes. Since our house is near the barangay hall, we decided to go home for a bit.


On our way home, Mamang (that's how I call my mom) bought some banana covered in lumpia wrapper (I don't really know how that's called).


After resting for a bit, we went back to the barangay hall to claim the clearance that I needed. We then proceeded to the next goal: NBI clearance. So we rode the LRT to reach Monumento where Victory Mall (the site to get NBI clearance) is.

View from the LRT Station

This is the view from the LRT Station in Blumentritt. It's amazing how dirty and filthy a place can get. Too many offensive odors that make my head hurt. I was thankful that I have colds *sniff sniff* because I have a very sensitive nose. There are so many people and cars cause this place is a wet market. The dead fishies and meat explain the foul odors that you can smell in this area.

I wasn't able to take pictures about the process of getting the NBI clearance because I was too preoccupied and upset about the system. There are too many lines and a lot of stalls (which should contain employees paid by the government through the people's money) are empty. The most irritating part was when it was my turn to pay to the cashier and this guy walks in front of me and hands the cashier some money along with the clearance and the cashier took it without hesitation and made that transaction first before doing mine. Arrrgghhh! FIXERS!

Because of this really bad experience, I had a very bad picture in my NBI clearance. I look like a member of the mafia or something haha! Makes me laugh everytime I look at it. Here's the picture:

I'm actually laughing again hahaha! I look like a psychopath ready to have a spree killing. I told my mom that I learned a very valuable lesson for today: Even if you're really pissed off, always remember to smile, or else -- you'd look like a mafia psycho like that girl on the picture. And no, that's not good.