This morning, I had just parked my car when Adrian phoned me telling me Louisa's head teacher wants to see me Monday morning because that girl's mum requested to speak with me. I find it odd because for one week since my talk with the head teacher, she didn't approach me at all (both she and her daughter had been spoken to). The girl had given Louisa a card and asked if she's still her friend and we reciprocated with another card and some sweets. Why now and through the head teacher?
After the phonecall, as I was walking towards the school where my yoga class was conducted, a car on the opposite direction stopped and the bloke in the car asked me for directions to Egham. So I told him where he should head and then he asked if I could go with him and show him the way. Now this smells fishy. I told him 'I can't as I'm rushing to my class'. Guess what he said next? 'Do you have a boyfriend?'. So this was what he was trying to get at. He was trying to say more but I waved him off and went for my class. I told my friends what had happened and they told me I should have taken down the registration number and called the police. They said if it had been a young school girl (yes I know I look like one), she might have naively gotten into the car and God knows what will happen. I thought men only pick girls up at clubs and not in the middle of the road in broad daylight early in the morning.
Then! After the class had ended, one of my friends came to me and asked me not to ring her up to ask to speak to her husband (a GP) about my girls' illnesses in future with a cold, straight face. I was shocked. In fact I had felt she was treating me strangely for the past few weeks, a little on the cold side and I couldn't figure out why. I thought I was being oversensitive. Now to put things straight. I only rang them twice. Once last year when Lavigne had severe diarrhoea and just recently when the girls had HFMD. As on both occasions it was the weekends, the health centre was closed. I could ring the 'after-surgery hours hotline' to request a doctor to ring me back but from experience, it takes ages for them to get back to me. I had not intended for my friend's husband to make a diagnosis. It was more to get advice and to ask what was the next step to take. The health system here is very different from that in Singapore. Back home, we go to a GP when we're not well. Here, you don't see a doctor just because you have a cold or fever. Even if you have a cold or cough for like 200 days (I'm exaggerating), they may not prescribe anything. One will only go to the paediatric A&E when a child has had an accident or suffering from something really serious. I wouldn't want to turn up there unnecessarily. So I thought the next best thing to do was to ring my friend only because I hold high regard for her husband since he's a GP and can probably give some advice. No? So you can imagine how I felt when she said that to me. Reason? 'We don't like it. Even me, I don't like it. When our children falls sick, he doesn't treat them either. Furthermore, he can't make a diagnosis when he hasn't seen the patient'. I apologised and told her I wasn't aware that they didn't like me calling them and that I wasn't expecting him to make a diagnosis but just to get some advice. She added that once her husband's home, he doesn't want to think about medical stuff. I can understand this but certainly not about 'not treating their own children when they're unwell'. Adrian said it's perhaps that she doesn't like me talking to her husband. I felt quite hurt after she told me this. So this must be the reason for the change in her attitude towards me. I didn't call just because my girls were having a cough or cold. It was something more serious. One friend told me she always calls her friend who's a vet to ask about her dog so it's perfectly fine. This friend of mine has a strong character and is very direct. It puzzles me why she took so long to tell me this.
I really felt quite awful after this and so after picking up Lavigne from school, I made a last minute decision to go out. I took her out for lunch and got her and myself a new set of fleece jammies. My first in years because I've been feeling really cold. I'm happy with my purchase as I do feel warmer in them. About my friend? Adrian says she's weird and me? I got to know a person better.
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