Patience is a VIRTUE

It is a cliche but it's TRUE!!!
Yesterday was a busy day. I fixed our permits to shoot --- on February 5 (Tecson Street ) and February 6 (North Cemetery) --- at Manila City Hall. It was a long and tedious process before you get the approval to shoot:

1) Submit a Letter to Director of Manila City Hall
2) But before that the secretary has to receive the letter first --- STAMP! RECEIVED!)
3) Then they will forward it to the secretary (the one who will type the endorsement letter)
4) Give you the first endorsement letter
5) Deliver the endorsement letters to the location of shoots and department concerned (like for example the TECSON STREET, I have to give the endorsement letter to TRAFFIC BUREAU first and they will give their endorsement too --- same with NORTH CEMETERY, which by the way I just got their endorsement thes morning).
6) After receiving their endorsements, you have to return to Manila City Hall to give it to the Director.
7) Manila City Hall's Director will give his approval
8) They will do their approval and agreement letter
9) Give to the Director's secretary again --- she'll give the approval letter only. Meaning, you are now ready to pay the permit
10) Look for Rm146 (They will fill up the form for you but of course, another "higher-up" will sign it)
11) Then give to Window A (I don't know exactly what they did there --- another form to be filled-up again by them)
12) Go to cashier and pay (at last!)
13) Give the receipt to the secretary
14) Secretary will ask the Director to sign the approval letter.
15) Yehey!!! Done with the "bureaucratic" system!!!

There was an annoying (but funny after) story I had while fixing the permit. The Assistant Director, Mr. Zacharias (the Director was on leave), asked me to get the endorsment letters after lunch because the computer was not working. So I had my lunch at KARATE KID in SM Manila and wandered around the mall till 1:00pm. Then I returned to city hall but Mr. Zachariaz was not back from lunch yet --- well someone said that he had a late lunch. So I went back to SM again and stayed there for about 30 mins. When I returned to City Hall the Secretary was there already and she said that the endorsement was not yet done. I went to see the one who is doing the endorsement letter (please #3 of the process, hehe) and she said, "Ay naku!!! Di ko pa nakakagawa yung endorsement letter kasi di pa nakakabili ng mouse".... I was like "Duh?!? Whaaaaaaat?!?!".... You don't have a mouse the reason you haven't done the endorsement letter yet. My gosh!!! SM was just accross the City Hall and you haven't able to buy a mouse?!? You should have told me and I would have bought a mouse for her!!!! Or she had just borrowed a mouse from her office mates. Grrrr!!! I can't believe it that they were not resourceful enough to think of a solution. But at least...finally... she just borrowed mouse from her officemate (kasi sinata ko na siya)... and that's how my endorsement letter was done!

Actually, my cousin's wife assisted me yesterday to secure a permit (it helped me a lot to know someone who have a position in the city hall). But I didn't bug her anymore regarding what happened to me yesterday because I still wanted to do the right process of securing a permit ---- LOOOONG & TEEEEDIOUS!!! It really tested my PATIENCE!!!