HK Livin'
It
didn’t dawn on me until the day was underfoot but March the second had a bit of
extra meaning to it, in more ways than one.
Ah, but what am I getting at? The
day in question was the same calendar day eight years ago that I first made
contact with… my future wife. I don’t
know why such a detail stuck in my Swiss cheese memory but it did and it’s
become a pleasant miniscule personal holiday for us. We don’t celebrate, shoot off fireworks, get
too drunk to walk, have a luxurious dinner or even do more than acknowledge
with kind words how long its been but I suppose it’s one of life’s little
bonuses for us now. Now I’m not
deterring from my main point but rather setting it up.
This day has another significant
attachment to it, although it may only have special attention this year. It’s my daughter, Scarlett’s, first month of
life to the day. (Holding for applause) Up until now she has been newborn in behavior,
as any parent would know so I’ll not bother with such tedious detail. She did have her first doctor visit which was
quite a neat experience so that I’d like to make my case study for Scarlett.
The appointment time was 8:45am which at
any time in my post high school and pre-baby era of existence would be asking
more than I could ever give, proved moot now.
Awake by seven and waiting to leave was more like it. I was slowly moving about but nonetheless on
my feet. The journey out wasn’t to be a
fantasy epic in getting there although meeting a talking tree trunk would have
added quite the spunk or funk to my rather bland story. My wife and I hoofed it there in no time
through the streets of Hong Kong, that’s right for those who don’t yet know. Scarlett fussed a bit until we arrived
outside and a brand new world, outside of the apartment she’s been forcefully
held captive in thus far, appeared before her eyes. Wide binocular vision and, a hushed silence
overtook her.
We arrived first which couldn’t have
been better, when I saw how many seats were available it could have been quite
a timely stay. We don’t see the doctor
until 9:15, so much for being punctual.
The wait area gains a few fresh rears in some chairs but mostly vacant,
spacious even. Now we know there’s
plenty of open seats and I’d chance at a most obvious guess that people would
naturally space themselves throughout the room before cluttering up, no, NO,
not in Hong Kong my friends. Another
couple, the first to arrive after us in fact, decides to sit directly at our
backs, as the seats have a musical chair formation to them, back to back. I’m still trying to gain full awareness and
the dude behind us uses me as a backrest of sorts. I’m tall already and this Chinese guy
happened to be as well, the seats had low backs, come on man. Sit up straight and conform to your spatial
surroundings! I look around. Empty seats everywhere why sit at my
back? Possibly I’m playing this too much
but it seemed socially a bad move, I believe Jerry Seinfeld and his crew would
dub this couple, “close sitters” or something of the like.
At last we take our little squirt in to
get weighed. I had a sweet feeling she
was on pace with her size, hey I don’t want an enormous monster baby on my
hands. She scaled in at ten pounds, well
a shade over ten but otherwise just a scratch above average. Of course the doctor said that was actually
better so there it is. A bit further on,
after bouncing around from room to room she needs a diaper change. No, slow your roll, no nightmarish poop turd-flinging
scene takes place although along with a talking tree trunk I’d be onto a swell
kids story eh? One day little Danny was
walking to school when a talking tree trunk flung a giant turd at him! We head into a room with a few other babes
and parents, etc. Scarlett fusses a bit a first, probably wondering why she’s
being exposed in public, when she hears the other babies cry she abruptly
quits. It’s amazing she doesn’t want to
be another mere face in the crowd. To
skip ahead but for a moment my wife asked me just before we leave what I did
with the dirty diaper from earlier. Well
I tossed it in the trash, no headline story here. I told her I stuffed it into a nearby closet,
she only looked at me with those eyes which spoke all, that I was as full of
what the diaper was – love it.
Let’s jump to the vaccination, the first
shot I see Scarlett get. OK so I was
interested to see how tough she was. We
enter into a small damp room with flickering lights, a broken window with a
spider web as patchwork and a constant drip, drip, drip from somewhere we can
hear but not see. That’s creepy isn’t
it? Too bad none of it is real – would
go well with a talking tree trunk and diaper bomb of poop. My wife holds her down properly then the needle
gets the classic syringe squeeze by the harbinger of pain, eh nurse, to show
the drop of fluid peak at the needlepoint.
This woman actually sneers then laughs at us then shifts her eyes to
Scarlett, no she doesn’t. Waiting,
watching, not a peep from baby… the needle withdraws, Scarlett turns red, and
her face contorts, the wail of horror shatters my eyeglasses. Bandaged up quick we turn to the exit and no
more enter the hall, the screaming stops.
So I’d say I’m pleased with her response. Took the hit, cried but recovered in no time. We walk down the hall, going by the people
who are next in this assembly line of torture to the seating area, which again
is rather empty…
No more than we sit and sigh, maybe even
fart, then a couple plops down right next to us. Twice now, what do you do in this case? My wife gets up first and we move elsewhere
undisturbed for the remainder of our time there. A lesson I learned, Chinese people have a
different social structure when it comes to area seating arrangements or I’m
totally trying to make a big deal out of it just so you’ll keep reading. Either way it was an interesting enough
couple of hours and hopefully you made it through to the end of this silly but
mostly true study of Scarlett.
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