Thermos

Just finished with the licentiate examination.

The drama in itself was smooth. Nonetheless, in the middle of the morning session, a hospital amah appeared. She was pushing a trolley of thermos bottles - it was time to have some fresh hot water for the patients.

AL, our chairman's secretary, was taken aback, "Why are they so obsessive in changing the thermos bottles ?"

"That's the sign of a modern civilized society." My answer was as vague as the speech of Alan Greenspan.

You know what, before the mid 1970s, patients in a public hospital needed to give red-pocket money (利是) to hospital amahs in order to get some hot water. It was therefore a great step forward with the establishment of ICAC: thermos bottles are changed regularly and available to all patients - free of charge.

Despite all the hiccups, our society did advance a lot.