NOTHING COMPARED TO WHAT SHE'S GOING THROUGH

Have you ever bitched about something then, after a while, realize that your problems are nothing compared to what another person is going though? An hour ago, I was seething mad at the Land Transportation Office (LTO). As I'm now updating my documents, preparing for my move, I realized that you can actually exchange your valid driver's licence for a Swiss licence. All you have to do is to go to the local Swiss office and do the exchange. Sometimes, they will require you to do a driving test, but most often that not, they will just give you a Swiss driver's licence. Cool, huh?

So I paid a visit to the new LTO Satellite Office in Hypermart, C5. There they told me that I had to go to the main office in East Avenue to get it renewed. Now I don't want to do that. The office in East Avenue is just reeking of corruption. You haven't even told anyone what you're there for and they're already haggling with you that the best way to get it done is through someone from the inside, with a little (fuck me if it's really little!) grease money, of course. No amount of pleading will make them hear me out. Darn, if I had known it will be this tough, I should've just went there with my wife. She can get away with almost anything, when it comes to dealing with government morons. So seeing I have little choice but to either try another day at that office or go straight to LTO, I just went home.

Then I got an SMS from my sister in Beijing, asking me to call her ASAP. So I did and I learned that her husband had a terrible accident this morning on his way to work. He was riding his bike on the way to the Embassy when he got hit (by what, I still don't know. My sister wasn't in the right mental state for her to explain what happened.). She had to take him to the hospital and there they found that he had fractured his arm. He has the option to undergo a surgery where they will have to insert a titanium brace for his arm, or just have it in a cast, which is a cheap option but they couldn't guarantee that the break will heal properly. So now they're flying back to Manila tomorrow evening and going straight to St. Luke's.

All of a sudden, my problem with my driver's licence ain't worth shit. I just feel so sorry for my sister, having to go through that all alone in China. Makes me want to go there now and be by her side.