Transition to success

I have tendencies to exaggerate. I do. But really, some of the things which have happened to me in the past few days have been too hilarious or too dramatic.

Like take Monday for an example.

Jas calls me up from her office, and I thought someone from some company was calling me. (Don’t blame me, she usually calls from her cell, I don’t know what made her call me from her workplace.)

She goes….”….er you want to come for this convention? I am bringing a friend along, I want you to meet.”

Firstly, from all that hype and anticipation I was feeling, when I heard her voice, I was crestfallen….and she went to ask me to follow her to some convention.

So I asked her, “What convention? When, What time?”

She says, “Its on broadband solutions. My whole office is going. You want to come Wednesday evening, we can have dinner”

I wanted to wring her neck. BROADBAND SOLUTIONS? Of all things….. I could listen to Green Peace protests or some Political speech but broadband solutions? I know my broadband service provider is Aztech, they bill us every month and if there was a problem, I call up the company to get it fixed. But that’s the only equation I have with Broadbands and its the only way I would like it. To actually listen to how it all works on a financial level…..

I go, “Er….. huh? you are inviting me to a convention on a wednesday evening?”

Then she changes topic mid-sentence…which gets me real suspicious, was her friend her new boyfriend? hmmmmm… A thought to ponder. “Hey, come out this sat, we are having lady’s day.”

I’ve only heard of lady’s night….my friends here function reversibly. We have lady’s days instead.

So I said, okay. Etc, etc etc and she says we need to do a few things from Chris…I nod nod….And she was about to put down the phone when she goes, “So you coming on wednesday?”

Hmm…Jas….it would be too boring for me.
She’s a finance student, or atleast that’s what she graduated with. So these things would be cool for her and she’s going to be sitting with her company colleagues, if I go what in the world will I be doing? SLEEPING.

So I told her, I was not meeting her this wednesday. But I will see her on Fri and Sat.

Case closed?

Yes.

Today However,

I was at the National University Hospital with my Gran and Brother. I wasn’t seeing the Doctor, my brother was, a follow up for his leg swellings….which is a whole different story. (His case is a puzzling one, simply because his leg has swollen up twice and both times the Doctors donot know why its happened. He’s okay though. Healthy and all except for his leg. The leg has return to its usual form but its still decoloured, 1/3 of his leg is black. Literally, no kidding and I am not trying to be funny about his skin colour, he really is dark so when he’s has a swell, its usually darkish brown-black in colour. )

What I wanted to type about was the drama I witnessed.

This malay guy was in the Cardiac unit for his checkup. The nurse had just collected his blood in the blood collection room, after which she told him his Doctor was busy and couldn’t meet him so his checkup for that day was cancelled.

Oh my GOSH.

The drama that ensued….it could have been a TV drama episode.

The malay guy started shouting, “WHAT CANCELLED? YOU JUST CANCELLED MY MEETING AFTER YOU TOOK MY BLOOD. WHY YOU COLLECT MY BLOOD FOR? YOU THINK ITS SO EASY TO COME HERE IN A TAXI AND GET TOLD MY APPOINTMENT IS CANCELLED? YOU THINK I SO RICH IS IT? WHEN YOU WANT A PAYMENT YOU’RE SO SWEET ABOUT IT BUT YOU DIDN’T YOU EVEN THINK FOR A SECOND WHEN YOU TELL ME MY APPOINTMENT IS CANCELLED ” And I kept hearing him repeat this over and over again until the nurse told him to leave the room and started talking to the guy’s wife.

The malay guy started talking in malay while onlookers were staring at him. I didn’t blame him, if I get told to give my blood only to be told later that my appointment with my Doctor is cancelled, I would be mad too.

My Gran speaks malay and I understand malay alittle, so awhile after the commotion fizzled out but was still ongoing, we found out the story from a Malay couple seating a row infront of us. My detective of a Grandmother spoke to them. Somehow the couple knew the story because immediately after the malay guy left the blood collection room, he started talking to others to seek justice. He spoke not only to the malay couple sitting infront us but to an indian couple sitting across from us.

This is what happened.

Usually when a Doctor can’t see you for some reason, NUH would call you. As far as I know, they’ve always done that for my Aunt. She has been visiting NUH for the past 20 odd years and always, she’s told when her Doctor can’t meet her.

But with this guy, the Nurse/Clerk or whoever is incharge had not called him to let him know his Doctor couldn’t meet him.

He came for his appointment at the said time with his wife and their baby. Imagine, its not easy travelling with little kids especially babies.

And when he arrives on time for his appointment in a cab, he’s told his appointment is cancelled after he gives his blood for some tests.

And the guy isn’t a normal guy, well aren’t all patients who come to the hospital not normal, they’re sick you may say. But this guy had a dialysis bag attached externally to his body which he carries around. And each time he visits the hospital he pays $500 for his treatment. $500, you know how many meals I can have with that kind of money?

Imagine the trouble, the pain it took for this guy to come to the hospital only to be told his Doctor wasn’t in.

The drama ended well though.

A Doctor, I am unsure if its his regular Doctor or someone new, gave him his due checkup. Good Doctor! That’s why our hospitals are world-class. And NUH is a real nice hospital.

And the malay guy was real nice. After visiting the Doctor, he sat infront of us and was soon found chatting with my Grandmother.His wife and he told us about this fruit sold in Bintang which is good for diabetes. The setback however is, if you consume this fruit you can’t take your medication. Erm, if anyone is interested, let me know I will give you the name of the fruit, its a word I don’t recognise and can’t remember, but its risky isn’t it, to forgo western medicine?

Somehow, I think I learn from the experiences I witness everyday or whenever I witness them.

I am glad Jas called me, even though she was really not thinking straight when she asked me to follow her to a finanical convention. It just shows that she wants me to know about her working world. And besides, I have been laughing and thinking about her conversation since Monday. Me at a financial convention. But you know, I shouldn’t be sceptical. Don’t I watch movies even if they’re 3hrs long? Maybe one day I should listen to a finance lecture, for now, I shall stick to what I like best.

And the episode in the hospital has thought me quite abit. You know if you’re providing a service to someone, especially if you’re a Doctor, a live depends on you. If you can’t make it, you let your patient know. Because only God knows what pain they must go through to see you. How many people sacrifice their time to meet you and how many of them actually have the money freely accessible to them?

Okay, if there is more drama, I will let you know. with me its quite often, like last friday, I was nearly attacked by a scrawny orange stray cat. I am over my phobia of cats, I really am. I have people to testify that statement. But this cat is different. He purposely followed me. We were both walking in different directions, and it was about 2 metres away from me. I take a step forward and it took a step towards me, I take another step and it took another step towards me. In the end, I screamed and ran back. And the cat stopped following me. I think the cat was too scrawny to run. If it was a healthy one, I was to die for. I would be then typing about the many scars I attained from a cat fight, literally.

till then, s_malfoy.