It's Friday, and as usual I am taking a day long abstinence from actual work. I hope everyone's TGIF is going well so far, but not good enough so that you dun continue reading. Trust me, the sordid details are near the end of this post. Wink wink nudge nudge and the occasional 'hur hur'.
But first, let's not talk about the sharing of bodily fluids, and talk more about antiques and rare sightings in modern Singapore. I came across a technology so ancient, I nearly mistook it for a sculpture symbolising days gone by.
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| try to name the object in this picture |
It is called a 'Payphone'. or 'Public Telephone'. Google it, these are real things!! You see, once upon a time, phones were not mobile. They had lines connected to them, and if you had coins, you could take a 10 cent coin and call someone for 3 minutes. You also learnt that in those 3 minutes, you could give and receive clear concise information on where to meet, what time and what were the plans. You also learnt that most people have bad breath, and use the handset a bit too close to their mouths. If you liked guessing what random people had for lunch, the public phone is a godsent.
If you have watched the latest Deadpool 2 trailer (seen below or via link), you'll
notice that he got changed into his costume in something similar,
except that one had doors.
He also mentioned Superman, cos Blue
Spandax Flying man also used these as a changing room. Superheroes are such
exhibitionists. I wish SuperGirl was like that too.
If you read the next part, you'll notice I cleverly referenced Deadpool because it is rated M18 on our shores, meaning it is adult themed. Let me show you the conversation I had with my friend just yesterday.
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| yes everyone, I'm talking about the WestGate beside Jurong East MRT! |
Because we can't get ourselves so exhausted too often, we only meet up to go there every 3 months or so, and only when we are in the pink of health. I mean come on, all that probing and squeezing, and ultimately the draining of our bodily fluids... Mmm mmm mmm...
So here goes, we might not have a blood shortage at the moment, and we can thank the many many donors for always being there to top up the reserves. This is where I have to further mention that if not for our foreign talents coming in and stepping up, we might be facing a shortage already. In fact, each and every time I go for an appointment, at least 50% of the other donors are foreigners. I applaud you.
Another special of course goes out to our NSmen. No, they were not arrowed to donate by their units during reservist, they were serving their reservist at the BloodBank! This meant that there were enough staff to handle a large group of donors, and to speed up the waiting process by handling the 'prep work' and basic process briefing. Of course, I was lucky enough to be one of the few who also allowed them to refresh their medic training by inserting and removing the needle.
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| I got a cute toy out of donating too |
While it can't be felt through reading, there was a 2 hour delay from the earlier paragraph to this because I had to go for a lie down. It's not that the NSmen medic were inept, far from it. I barely felt the difference between the usual nurses doing the actual poking and removing of the needle.
Shit, brb.
Ok, I shall attempt to finish this post before it takes more than 4 hours it already has. Again, I need to stress that I actually have a horrible fear of needles, and even if you got that cute doctor who took my blood pressure and deemed me suitable for donation to do the actual blood drawing process, I'd still be sweating buckets. So I commend the NSmen for doing their tasks with the passion and care in making each and every donor feel at ease.
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| too lame for me to leave this out |
I also apologise for not feeling at ease, cos it's not you, it's me. And it's also because of me that 3 huge goblets of blood spurted out of my arm when the needle was removed. 1 landed on my arm, 2 on the arm-rest of the chair I was seated in. When I panic, my blood pressure shoots up, and seeing NSmen remove the needle probably didn't help matters much.
But regardless of my fear, I do implore each and everyone to be a blood donor if you qualify. The ones who need it might one day be your friend or even family member. In my case, I might be growing a new breed of alcoholics on the streets, since I'm pretty sure my blood is laced with booze. There's also free flow of Khong Guan biscuits, Milo and h-two-o for those who need further enticement. Did I mention the doctor yesterday was really cute?
A close friend who was too chicken to donate told me to call the BloodBank and tell the doctor that I left something in her check-up room. If she asks what is it, I just have to say "My Heart."
To conclude, please be a good Samaritan and donate. It's free FFS.
Signing off,
KJ
Fun Fact: Blood red is used to describe the hue of red that looks like the colour of blood.
