dying to get home

I almost never go home from work at lunchtime. Almost. Today, for the first time in months, I drove back to the apartment to get some work I’d accidentally left at home this morning. As I approached the turn off the main road out of work, I noticed that there was a funeral procession further ahead, causing traffic to back up almost to the start of the street I was turning into. Funerals in the Philippines often involve a slow walking procession behind the hearse, from the wake venue (held for several days before the church service and burial) to the church and/or from the church to the cemetery.

After noting the funeral, I turned my attention back to what was immediately in front of me. This happened to be a car driven by a senior researcher from work, and “immediately in front of me” was an apt description, as I used his car’s rear end as a very effective means of coming to a stop myself. It was a decent a thud, but the damage was relatively minor (see photo of my car, above). It was all very amicable and we’d arranged replacement work cars within an hour after lunch. That it was another work car that I hit was a godsend – had it been a private car, I’d probably receive numerous hospital bills along with letters from lawyers notifying me that their client was seeking various spurious damages, despite my work insurance covering all repairs (this is exactly what happened after I backed into car in a car park – stupid, I know – about a year ago; the claims include petrol money for taking the car to the repair shop, money for developing a photo of the damage, and the ominous “undisclosed legal fees”…nothing has come of it and while I’m curious to know what happened, I’m not so naïve as to stick my nose in and ask).