Doctors and MCs

For the past few days, I was down with flu and fever and made two trips to two doctors on two consecutive days.

Day 1: It was the first time I visited that clinic. My head was throbbing so horribly that I badly needed to see a doctor. That clinic was the obvious choice since it is quite near to my workplace.

“What’s the matter?” Doctor A asked, when it was my turn.
“I am having a flu and a headache.”
“When did it start?”
“Yesterday. It started with a sore throat and a running nose.”

Doctor A then took my temperature. I did not see the temperature but he said I was not having a fever. After some examination, then came the crucial moment.

“Are you working today?”
“Yes.”
“I will write you an MC for today.” It was almost 2pm at that time.
“Just for today?” I asked.
“Yes, just for today.”

I was hoping Doctor A would be kind enough to give me another day of MC as I was quite uncertain if I would be fit to work the next day. But since he seemed quite adamant, I did not want to press on and appear as though I wanted another MC to skive from work. I was too tired to argue anyway. I consoled myself that Doctor A must have exercised his professional judgment and was sure I would be well enough to go to work the following day.

How wrong I was.

That night, my temperature rose to 38.4ºC and remained so till the next morning. There was no way I could work in such bad shape. I called in to the office to report sick, but I had no MC. That explained my second trip to the doctor.

Day 2: Doctor B who operates a clinic near my home, starts seeing patients at 9am. I reached at 8.50am and there were already a couple of people waiting outside. I managed to get the fourth slot, and by 9.15am, there were more than ten people in the queue.

Like Doctor A, Doctor B asked me how I felt, and did the usual checkups and measurements.

“Your temperature is 38.5ºC. You look alright on the outside, one can’t really tell unless your temperature is taken. It is always like that. The bosses will never understand if you tell them you are sick, because sometimes it just doesn’t show on the outside.”

This was the first time I had heard a doctor sympathize with the plight of a sick and pathetic employee and that really struck a chord with me. He told me I was suffering from viral fever and that the fever usually turns quite bad. Again came the crucial moment.

“Do you need an MC?”
“Yes.”
“Do you need one day or two days?”

I was a little surprised at this question as it seemed more like an offer. Shouldn’t the doctor decide how many days of MC a patient needs and not how many days the patient wants? Of course I wanted two days having learnt my lesson the previous day. Surely I do not want to visit a third doctor for the third time just to get another day of MC (should I remain sick, touchwood!).

But I threw the question back to the doctor, “Do you think I would be well enough to work the next day?”
“It may take a while for the fever to subside. I will write you two days’ MC, just in case.”

I am sure there are some people who try to get as many number of days of MCs when they visit the doctor, whether to get ample rest or to laze from work. I guess there would also be some who pretend to be sick when they are not. That explains why doctors have to be careful and exercise their prudent discretion when they issue MCs.

But there are also those who appreciate doctors who do not go so strictly by the book when they issue MCs. At least it meant they do not have to visit doctors twice (or worse still thrice or more!) just to get an MC and spend double (or triple!) on the consultation fees.

For me, fortunately I recovered that night after the visit to Doctor B and could go to work the very next day. Although that meant my other day of MC was “wasted”, I would still like to say thank you to Doctor B.

Getting tomorrowed

I was really surprised and happy when I saw my blog appear on tomorrow.sg on 23rd June.

Many thanks to lancerlord who read my entry on the "rain" at Novena Mrt, appreciated it and felt that it was good enough to be shared with the rest.

It's the kind of feeling you get when you send letters in to newspapers and your letters get published. Your aim in writing was to voice out your opinions or to share your thoughts, and to be chosen and highlighted meant that somebody thinks you made a point or said something meaningful, and that it should be told to more.

I hope I achieved that in my previous post.

Cheers!

"Rain" In Novena MRT

It is not everyday that you step out of the MRT, and "plosh"! There you go, you step into puddles of water, your shoes become wet, and your feet is left dripping with water.

And up above, you see "raindrops" dripping down.

Rain inside the MRT station?

It is nothing usual to be caught in the rain, but in the MRT station? That was something unusual. And that was what happened while I was on my way to work today at about 7.45am.

I was taking the MRT to Braddell and standing by the door. When the train arrived at Novena, which was two stops away from my destination, I noticed that the floor outside was wet.

How peculiar! How could the MRT be flooded? I decided to step out and check it out.

The situation caught me by real surprise. The minute I stepped out onto the station platform, my poor heels and the bottom of pants were left dripping wet!

I saw some people roll up their pants, and some even took off their shoes and waddled barefooted (smart move)!

The funniest thing was that, the ceiling of the MRT was actually dripping with water. Sure looks like a rain sight!

Where the "rain" came from? Nobody had an idea, but automatically out came the umbrellas. It is actually quite amusing to see commuters opening up the umbrellas and carrying them inside the MRT station. Isn't the MRT station supposed to shield one from rain?

The MRT station masters also carried umbrellas and shielded commuters from the "rain" in the station.

This started at around 7am, and took place for close to 2 hours before the "rain" subsided.

According to SMRT, the source of the water seepage was a construction site nearby. The actual cause of the flooding is still under investigation.

As I was at the scene, I managed to do interviews and called a photographer to make his way down. By the time he reached, the "rain" had become "smaller". I was so annoyed with myself because I did not have a camera with me, although I did manage to take some pictures (the ones above) using my handphone. If I had brought along a camera, I would have been able to take higher resolution pictures at the time when the flooding was most serious, and that would have been a big bonus to the report.

Oh well, let this be my lesson.

Danger Zone at Clementi 2

Here's a photograph I took using my handphone of the two girls (whom I mentioned previously) while they were crossing Road A at the danger zone.

See how dangerous this is!

Danger Zone at Clementi 1

A potential accident zone recently sprang up at Clementi Central.

A piece of land at the central is currently being turned into a temporary bus intercharge. Once it is ready, the original interchange will be moved over and renovation work will commence on it.

The original interchange and the MRT station are separated from the new interchange by a road (Road A) with two-way lanes.

A long pavement leads out from the original interchange and the MRT station to this road.

When people reach the end of the pavement, most jaywalk and cross Road A to the other side where there are HDB flats and schools.

There is a traffic light junction about 200 m away, but most people jaywalk because of the convenience.


My illustration of the potential danger zone at Clementi Central.

Before the temporary interchange was set up, people used to jaywalk as well, but they step up onto the road divider in the centre of the two lane road, look left and look right before they cross.

Not that this offers much protection, but the divider does make pedestrians appear "taller" and more prominent, especially so on dark nights and peak hours. As the divider acts as a barrier to vehicles’ wheels, it also makes pedestrians feel a little more secure.

The danger of jaywalking at this spot has escalated recently because the road divider has been demolished and removed, due to some roadworks.

This meant that when people jaywalk, they would have to stand in the middle of Road A, completely without defence. A potential accident zone!

Imagine being sandwiched in the middle of a busy road, with buses, cars and motorcycles zooming literally from your left and right, and having to watch out for vehicles from the main road and the side road at the same time!

I have seen pedestrians being knocked down at the junction before the road divider was removed. Thank goodness they merely suffered scratches. I do not want to visualize the extent of injuries that could be sustained without the divider.

When I was walking home today, I saw two schoolgirls jaywalking at the same spot and I was quite worried as they seemed pretty unsure. The fact that I could observe them so well showed that I, like many others, was guilty of jaywalking as well.

When we safely crossed to the other side, I turned and saw a mother holding her young daughter’s hand, an old lady and two working adults pausing in the middle of the road before they ran across.

Sweat.

Many people have tried using the traffic light junction before, but it is so much less convenient, and most gave up after just a few days. Blame it on the society and ourselves for demanding so much on efficiency and speed.

Many wrongs do not make one right. Jaywalking is wrong in the first place, and when many people do it, it is still a wrong thing.

However, when so many people are doing so out of convenience, it is a problem the relevant authorities have to face and more importantly, do something about it.

No one wants to see a tragedy take place before safety measures are stepped up.

Photography, what an experience!

This week, I had a two day course on news photography. We were not really taught the techniques of taking pictures, but rather the skills we require to take photographs of members of the public.

What I meant was, to request, persuade and convince strangers to let me take their pictures on the streets.

I must say it is really quite an experience.

In the line of my job, it is not uncommon to have to stop strangers and talk to them.

But the difference is, I always have a reason to do that—to find out the public’s response to a certain topic or current affairs etc.

To stop a stranger and ask him to let me take a photograph for no particular reason, only because I am learning photography? That seems like a tough task. Aren’t people afraid that their photographs might land in the wrong hands and be misused? How many people would actually agree? I doubt many.

I was greeted with a pleasant surprise though, when we were sent out to Toa Payoh for a practical session.

In slightly more than an hour, I managed to take shots of 14 strangers. That was a success rate of about 60%. Most of those who stopped to listen, agreed to their pictures being taken. I even had nice chats with a couple of them and they also told me quite a bit about themselves.

These are the photographs I took.

There was this Indian lady in her 60s (see collage: row 1, column 4) who was sunning clothes outside her HDB flat on the ground level. I went over with a friend and asked if we could take pictures. She readily agreed. From the glint in her eyes, I could see that taking photographs is not a common affair for her. She must have felt amused and happy at the same time. The commotion outside the flat disturbed her grandson who came out and asked what we were doing. When we explained to him, he was all smiles and even told us to have fun.

That felt so good.

The picture which I liked most is the one I took outside a hardware shop (row 2, column 3). I was attracted by the bright red, green and blue colour pails outside the shop. When we talked to the shopkeeper and commented that his shop is rather eye-catching in the neighbourhood, he sighed and said that most of the time he is all alone tending the shop and none of his children wants to take over the shop. I then decided to capture a photo showing him in between the pails to highlight his lone plight and the uniqueness of this shop.

However, during our evaluation session later, our instructor (who is a Straits Times photographer) commented that this photograph was not well taken as the shopkeeper is too small to be really seen. He preferred the other one (row 2, column 4) although he said it could be much improved as the shopkeeper does not look too at ease in his posture.

The most enjoyable chit-chat I had was with the elderly boss of a dry-cleaning and tailor shop (row 3, column 2). He was such a kind old man that I felt so comfortable talking to him. He cautioned me to be careful when I stepped onto a chair to take pictures of him from a high angle, and even told me to stop by again.

Not forgetting the two cute brothers at the basketball court (row 1, column 3) who stopped their game and patiently posed for us, the old man who jokingly coaxed his grandson to smile while he sulked (row 2, column 1), the cheerful uncle and auntie selling noodles (row 1, column 1), the jovial uncle selling fresh chicken at the market, (row 3, column 3), the two cute children playing with tortoise (row 3, column 4), the elderly selling newspaper outside his shop (row 1, column 2), and the Indian sweeper who beamed while her photograph was taken (row 3, column 1).

These are the times when you really feel the warmth of people in a neighbourhood.

Of course, not everyone I met is so nice.

There was this weird old man who refused to take a photograph and even gave my friend and I a scolding for no obvious reason.

When we saw him strolling below a block, my friend told him we were learning photography and asked if we could take a photograph of him.

He said no. So be it. We did not press on, thanked him anyway and took our leave. What exploded later really took me aback.

The old man raised his voice, “Why do you want to take a picture of me in this (he was wearing a white singlet and Bermudas)? Why did you ask me in the first place? Do you have brains? Or are you pig-brained?”

Thinking that the old man might not be in the right of his mind, we quickened our pace.

We heard him ranting and shouting in the background, shooting foul words off his mouth.

I was glad we ran fast.

In this short session, I began to understand why some people are such avid photographers. It really is something that will make one fall in love.

Much as I enjoy taking pictures, looking at the photographs I took, you can see that I am still pretty poor at it. I really should improve on my techniques and have more hands-on!

13th June

13th June 2006.

This day marks my first anniversary at work.

How time flies.

On this same day a year ago, I entered the company with the vision to produce good stories for the benefit of readers. To fulfill the mission of inform, educate and entertain.

Have I moved a step nearer this vision? Or am I running parallel to it? Worse still, am I running further away?

I think for any young person who just started working, these are the questions that will pop up every now and then. And although it happens to me as well, frankly, I think I have not given it enough thought.

In the past year, many things have happened, but still many things have yet to happen.

I have done a lot, but many things are yet not done.

Before I received the “Confirmation of Appointment” letter today (all new employees have to go through one year probation before their appointment as staff is confirmed), I had a discussion with my direct supervisor, which was meant as a mutual evaluation.

I was asked, “What news did you cover in the past year that left the deepest impression on you?”

For a moment, I was stunned, and I could find no answer to that question.

When I was in crime, I covered the two big chopped up body cases and numerous other cases. There are some which I feel disturbed, some which I fought really hard to get a scoop, some which I did not produce a good report even though the information was good, some that I managed to do a good story with a stroke of brilliance. The whole experience taught me how timing and making contacts are extremely important.

Now that I am covering general news, I saw how professionals react under adverse circumstances, and how they behave off-the-record (meaning situations which are not for publication or broadcasting). I am also learning how to work with PRs more efficiently to get interviews done.

Yes, I have gained invaluable experience.

But no, I find it simply impossible to pin-point a particular case which I have very strong feelings about.

Perhaps I have not done enough reflection over the past year? Perhaps I have yet to produce my best piece?

At the end of the discussion, my supervisor left me with these words, “Because the pace of life is so fast, it is easy for people to find themselves doing work as if it is just a routine, and it is dangerous because people lose motivation easily that way.”

How true.

A year is too short for a full report card.

I am still full of passion, hope, motivation, ideas and stamina.

Let’s see how things go for the next year.

T-shirt

I recently bought a T-shirt with the above pattern for Xiangrong. What caught my eye was the comic-like Chinese characters on it and I like the over-all cute, cartoony feel.

He happily wore it but became the "joke" of the day when his friends pointed out that the T-shirt designer is more creative than what we thought. My reaction was, "Oh yes! Why didn't I notice that earlier?", and we had a good laugh over it after that.

I must say the designer did a pretty innovative move with a good humour touch.

Can you see it?