Ruminate

After a moment of silence, I asked, "My dear, how about the teaching evaluation of your hospital? I suppose it's all plain sailing?"

"Yes and no. It took probably two minutes to go through the feedback of my hospital, and the only solid suggestion that the students put up is we should give them fewer free sessions during the attachment."

"How could that be? I think all students like some leisure time? How did you respond?"

"I told the students that they are expected to make good use of the free sessions and see patients in the ward."

"That sounds reasonable but, if I were you, I would give a figurative answer."

"Which is...?"

"By choosing to become doctors, the students are expected to lead a life of donkey or cow, and they need time to ruminate after feeding!"

Absent

(My lunch-time discussion with Vivian continued.)

"My dear, I suppose feedback meeting of this kind is just a formality, isn't it? What keeps you so late?" I asked.

"Not this time. The consultant surgeon from Portland Street Hospital was obviously irritated and gave a lot of comments. Em... I think he has good reasons. You know, many students assigned to his hospital did not turn up. On several occasions, only one or two students, out of ten in the group, attended a bedside tutorial!"

"Alas... All I could say is my friends VM and JW would be very happy to hear this news - the problem is not restricted to our own students!"

My wife gave me a cold stare and went on, "It's not only a problem of attendance but, more importantly, attitude. You know, the student representative was not at all apologetic. He kept putting up excuses, one after another, to justify their poor attendance rate. In fact, towards the end of the meeting, the student representative and the consultant were literally discussing with their fists!"

Meeting

Lunched with Vivian in Central on a Saturday.

You may wonder, as my wife works in Kowloon and I north to the Lion Rock Tunnel, why the two of us ended up in the other side of the Harbour. The explanation is simple: Vivian had to attend an academic meeting in our sister medical school and, by the time everything was finished, it was well after two o'clock.

But, what brought my wife to the academic meeting? Again, there's little mystery: She is involved in the teaching of medical students from the other side of the Harbour.

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When the two of us finally settled in the Loyal Dining of Wellington Street, it was close to 3 PM.

"My dear, what meeting are you actually attending?" I asked once after making the order.

"Mid-term teaching feedback. In short, representatives from each and every hospital that helps in the teaching are there to discuss the performance of their students. At the same time, there are representatives from each group of student so that the department could also listen to their feedback about the arrangement of the teaching program."

I must say that sounds a good idea.

Tattoo

During a casual chat, I found that a few of my senior nurses were obviously not happy with the quality of the new generation doctors and nurses.

"You know, looking at how competent they are and how they treat the patients, I am tempted to make a tattoo on my chest - Don't touch me." one of them said.

"Alas, do you mean no CPR?" Another nurse asked. (For visitors with no medical background, CPR stands for cardiopulmonary resuscitation.)

"Yes, of course. If I fell unconscious, just let me die. I don't want to be tortured by them." She explained.

"No, you mean more," I laughed, "What you really want to say is Don't touch me, because I want to live longer."

Everyone looked at me - none seemed to disagree.

刀削麵

自費城返港前中午有空，天色清朗，卻仍極寒冷，便又逕自往唐人街吃麵。

這次是午飯時間，加之是週末，四處人頭湧湧。好不容易在內街找了間外表企理卻仍有空位的店子。雖要搭枱，亦無關宏旨。店稱是拉麵店，但看看四週，大多本地人卻是吃刀削麵，便依樣畫葫蘆，叫了一個。

麵旋踵便上，份量便如前次般大。喝一口湯，極熱而略油，濃兼帶葯味，是台式紅燒牛肉麵的湯底。夾一塊牛肉，卻是半潮半港式的鹵牛展，炆得夠腍而入味，只嫌切得較薄，少了食趣。再吃麵，是真箇山西刀削版本。雖略有粗幼不一，卻有咬口而富麵粉香，是極有水準的。其實刀削麵吸湯不多，講究的便是麵彈牙而湯可以分開喝，這裡做是對辦的。

一頓麵不過二十分鐘，倒也吃得溫暖飽足。埋單是七塊半，非常合理。其實嚴格來說，這麵也不過拉雜成軍，難言正宗。只是每一部也恰如其分，亦無須吹毛求疵。

Dress

In another dinner gathering, I met BL, a senior physician from Scandinavia. As always, he has all sorts of humorous stories to tell.

Here is a good one this time:

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In a dinner party, B meets a seductive woman, who is wearing an exquisite evening gown.

The woman comes to B and starts a conversation, "Hello, Mr B. It's been three or four years since we last met. Do you recognize me?"

"Yes, of course. You are Mrs M, aren't you?"

"Oh! You do remember me. How fantastic! You must have a very good memory for people's face."

"Not really. Just that you were wearing this same dress four years ago..."

Questions

(Our dinner conversation continued.)

"You know, there are three kinds of people - or three kinds of questions - that turn up in a scientific symposium," JP began his mini-lecture, "First, there are people who really want to ask something that they do not know. They are, unfortunately, in the minority."

"Yes...?"

"On the other hand, some people ask questions simply because they do not agree with the speaker and want to express their own opinion. Oh, sometimes they actually try to give another lecture to prove that the speaker is wrong."

"How horrible..."

"And, there are others who have nothing to ask. All they want to do is to say something in the public so that everyone know that they are there!"

We all laughed. The phenomenon that my friend described certainly happens outside America. After all, Homo sapiens is the only animal that has an obligation to prove their own existence.