Wah....... Cow.....

You know you’ve been away from home far too long when you suddenly find it difficult to get used to the dialect and accent, and the mannerisms of the local townspeople. The people and things you surrounded yourself with as a child suddenly seemed almost alien to you these days.

It won’t be long before I’m off for a little vacation somewhere out there. Not exactly the best time to go travelling. The last time I checked (i.e. 5 seconds ago), the A/H1N1 flu (also known as “swine flu”) death toll has exceeded 700 worldwide since the outbreak of the disease in April.

The current total of reported flu cases currently stand at 139,556 with 781 fatalities in 139 countries and territories. A crazy friend I know might just say, "Oh, 700 deaths out of 139,000 cases- the ratio's not that bad...."

Better safe than sorry, mum and dad sent me to a vet hospital for a medical checkup and a flu vaccination.

The hospital was really nice. The reception area had a fountain, a few little waterfalls, and marble-encrusted seats and walls. Pretty swanky, hey? And right along one of the many labyrinthine walkways of this swanky hospital, you get to see this…

Hospital tagline: PLEASE YOU IS OUR PLEASURE (you may click onto the picture for a better view of that retarded sentence)

That’s the swanky hospital’s tagline, directly translated from another language, I suppose. This is almost like encountering the hunkiest surfer dude you could ever meet during your summer vacation at a popular beach… until he decides to open his mouth to say something…

Matthew McConaughey in “Surfer Dude”

It took me around 45 minutes to wait for my turn to see the doctor… and just about 10 minutes to actually see him, out of which about 3 minutes was spent on having him show me a little pamphlet and encouraging me to read it on the spot. Why, doctor? Why??

The doctor then took another 3 minutes to give me my flu vaccination. The other couple of minutes were probably spent on him giving a short description of the flu vaccine: “This is the flu vaccine. You can keep this box and read from the paper given here… oh wait, it’s in Spanish…” *hoorayyy?*

INFLUVAC 2009- vacuna inyectable contra la influenza- temporada 2009- según recomendaciones de la OMS Hemisferio Sur

It almost sounded as though I was the first person in this part of town getting that flu shot.

So I finally got my flu vaccination, thanked the doctor, and proceeded to another area to have my blood drawn and tested, conveniently forgetting about one particular empty box and paper.

“Wait, you forgot this…” the doctor said to me.

Noooooo!! Not that box and paper!!! I don’t speakee Espanol, senor!

I turned around and took the now-empty flu vaccine box and pamphlet from him: “Thanks. I’ll probably learn up Spanish this week and read from this little paper here…”

Sheesh. Anyway, a nurse then told me to follow her to another hospital wing to have my blood test done. I was told to wait at a big room that looked like a lab.

Two ladies in that room were chatting. I minded my own business. And all in a sudden, a cute-looking guy in a lab-coat suddenly appeared at the door…….

Picture is for illustration purposes only

I looked at the guy and said nothing. He looked at me and told me to take a seat at another corner in that room where all the needles and syringes were placed.

I took my seat and prepared to pass out while blood was being drawn… *I'm exaggerating, sort of*

Before I could pass out, the cute-looking guy in the lab-coat stood near me and quietly said, “Do you remember me?”

Again, picture is for illustration purposes only.

At that time, the possibility of me losing consciousness while having blood drawn out from my arm was suddenly tremendously lower than that of looking at that cute-looking guy in the lab-coat. That second glance at him instantly made me remember many things from my past...

We have not met in almost ten years. He sat behind the class and I never bothered to speak to him back then. In fact, I never bothered to speak to a lot of people during those 1.5 years at this crazy place that I never wanted to be in. If this guy in the lab-coat should suddenly decide to kill me with a needle out of sheer revenge due to my past unfriendliness, I don’t blame him…

“Oh my gosh. It’s been almost 10 years. I haven’t seen you for so long. How do you remember me? How could you even recognize me? You’re Tan, aren’t you?” my usual nonsensical verbiage started.

If he was flabbergasted with my sudden delirious reaction, he didn’t show it.

“Uh, no. I’m not Tan,” he calmly replied.

“Oh, I’m sorry… You’re…….” I shifted my eyes a little to look at the big plastic name-tag he was wearing around his neck, “that’s right, you’re Khow!”

What the cow! His name is Khow! Why’d you call him “Tan”?! Tan was the guy who sat next to him in class, you id10t!!

I said out his full name from there, and everything was sunny and bright again- sunshine, rainbows, bunny rabbits and all. He was surprised that I still remember his full name (note: his name-tag didn’t display his full name).

We didn’t talk much. Khow is still the quiet person that I once knew. So am I.

I then left the hospital building feeling abnormally happy.

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The above entry is just an attempt to revive my amateurish blogging skills (‘cos I’m dead bored recently). I used to have a blog somewhere else but somehow got rid of it. Not a good thing when almost the entire college community that I used to be in was reading from that blog (just about 100 maybe-student-readers on an average day, with only 1 or 2 people commenting- 'tis pathetic); and almost every English-speaking manager in that community was reading from that blog as well. People (i.e. Nosey Parkers) thought I was demented when I was merely practicing my writing skills.

*Khow, if you’re reading this, you should know what a somewhat convincing writer I had been back then (and now, probably).