0176A: Productive Daytime Monday

The result of today's efforts.

So I spent pretty much the morning and a better part of the afternoon getting various errands done. The real kicker was finally dealing with my long overdue commitment to get my Police Clearance, which I finally resolved after about 3 hours spent at Quezon City Hall. More on this in a bit.

Apart from picking up the new pair of slacks that I had cut to size (damn my lack of height), I found a nearby service center for my damaged Panasonic Lumix ZS7. The tech said he'd still need to call it into the head office to see if they have the parts to fix it. Then he'll contact me within the week with a quote for how much it'll cost to repair and whether or not the part is immediately in stock. If I don't opt to have them repair it after the quote, I still need to pay P600. If I do push through, it'll cost a minimum of P1200 for labor alone plus the cost of the part/s needed to fix the darn thing. And if the part is not immediately in stock, it may take between 30-45 days before they can get it delivered over here. Great.

I had actually given into impulse last night and purchased the spiritual successor of my camera - this being the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS30. Last night it seemed all impulsive and I was feeling a little bad about rushing to Lazada to get it once I had read enough reviews about the quality of the camera. But now that I know that repair for my older one will take longer than hoped, I'm glad that I pushed through - plus if I'm lucky I'll get the camera within the week. I'll just have to deal with the credit card expenses when my bill comes along next month, hehe

But the main event was getting my police clearance - which is just another requirement for my Makati City Occupational Permits for work (Health Card and Work Permit). It was either this or getting NBI Clearance, but this seemed like the lesser evil. But man, the process at Quezon City Hall is still highly inefficient and not all that friendly for folks not familiar with the steps. Even though I had done some research online, there were still a number of things that weren't quite covered - like exactly how far away some of the buildings were.

This was the start of the line - the actual treasurer's office was all the way across the courtyard.

Bouncing between the actual police clearance area and the office of the city treasurer was such a pain. Plus the queue was all crazy since the CTO is where everything is paid, ranging from property taxes or business permits. And that's not even the only payment that's part of this process! There's still a final fee for the ID card and certificate itself that you pay back at the police clearance area.

But keeping my Monday afternoon open for this process was a good idea, I suppose. At least I'm finally done with this item and I can move forward. And it should be easier next year should I need to go through this madness all over again.

I do plan on writing a more comprehensive guide to this process, just to help people avoid some of the hassles I dealt with. It should make for good website content for the Geeky Guide, I bet.