ROUND ONE

Another medical appointment today, preambular to the yearly physical. Which means blood tests (make sure the old bastard is still juicy), eliminative samples (is everything functioning properly down there and see if all the right chemical thingies that should be present are but nothing else), an hour or so in radiology (to check him with a geiger counter just in case he's becoming a beacon for the space aliens), and, at my cardiologists office in another two months, the stress test on the treadmill. Which last I am not looking forward to.

[Blood tests: 驗血 ， 血液檢查 ('yim huet, huet yik gim chaa'). Phlebotomy (drawing blood): 靜脈切除術 ('jing mak chit cheui seut'). Blood laboratory: 血驗室 ('huet yim sat'). Stress test: 心臟壓力測試 ('sam jong ngaat lik chaak si'). Electrocardiogram: 心電圖 ('sam din tou'). Blood pressure: 血壓 ('huet ngaat').]

What I am anticipating, keenly, is toddling off to radiology to set an appointment. The last time I was there a severely old lady with a wheelchair and a few minor sentience hiccoughs would, every few minutes, burst into song and treat everybody to a cultural revolution aria in Mandarin, obviously stuck in her head since her childhood, whereupon everybody else in the waiting room had that facial expression that says "oh Jesus I thought we had put that behind us years ago', then she would continue talking in Cantonese. Many of the other people there had their partners and at least one child who speaks English, because if you need a translator and moral or emotional support, why not make it a family event?
The kid did not understand the songs or the reactions.

I seem to remember that there were five different communist ballads while I waited in line for the window. When I got my appointment date and was leaving I leaned over and told auntie clearly that indeed she had sung splendidly. In Cantonese. Which no one had heard me speak until that moment.

Far down the hallway at the elevators I could still hear the ruckus. And she was singing again. All she needed was a gentle word of appreciation. I am a helpful sort, and 'encouragement for the arts' is second nature to me.

So anyhow, maybe she's there again.
I sure hope so.

They are good people at the hospital, and I always enjoy seeing them. And my doctor there has a sense of humour. Lord knows she needs it to deal with some of the elderly fossils who stumble in.

[Radiology: 放射科 ('fong se fo'). CT Scan: 電腦斷層掃描 ('din nou duen chang sou miu'). Thyroid nodules : 甲状腺结节 ('gaap jong sin kit jit'). Respiratory system: 呼吸系統 ('fu kap hai tung'). Lungs: 肺 ('fai'). Esophagus: 食道 ('sik tou'). Pharynx: 咽 ('yin').]

Often I'll pass the same old fossils I see in the clinic waiting room when I leave the building, lighting up on their way to the bakery to deal with diabetes. They didn't bring the kid this time. That way the younger generation can't lecture them.



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