Only miss it when it's gone

One thing that I have definitely taken for granted back home

(next to the 1001 other things which will need their own blog entries)

is the fact that health services are readily available when you need it.

I remember the many trips I made to the doctor's at ridiculous o'clock 

because I was so sick during my school days,

and some half-asleep doctor from a 24 hour clinic would always be there to greet me.

Here, doctor's surgeries operate on office hours, and shut for lunch breaks. By 5, you would be turned away from the door. What's worse is the fact that it is so difficult to get hold of an appointment for that day itself and by the time you do get a scheduled appointment, you would have already recovered (or possibly died). You cannot make an appointment until you register with the doctor, which again conveniently takes at least a day to do. So much time goes into making one appointment that now I just pretty much rely on Google and Wikipedia to diagnose me. Of course, medication cannot be obtained here without a doctor's prescription, which again takes you back to the appointment that never was. I cannot remember a time that I successfully saw a doctor for all the stuff that has happened to me since 2008, except the one time I made a trip to the A&E for being in excruciating pain.

And now, with my wisdom tooth paying me an uninvited visit I remember all the dentists back home whose clinics scatter across the city and in the phone book, where I would just have to pop in and get everything fixed in a jiffy. I lie here, with one cheek the size of a basketball, wondering whether I should start blending all my food into mush, miserable as ever,

cursing myself for all the times I have said to my dad,

"why are there so many dental clinics in KK? do we really need that many?"

god bless every one of them. 

I hope to God I won't have to pay a visit to some dental A&E.