I Liked This Guy

Off to the gym.  I marvelled that after a few attempts to get my lah-dee-da blue tooth head set to work with my daughter’s computer she managed to figure it out.  You have to hold it till the blue button turns grey.  Ahh.  OK.  This morning at the gym I couldn’t get the damn things to play.  I was on the stair master cursing like a fool.  It was connected or in the colorful parlance of the industry, ’mounted’ but when I tried to play more Allman Brothers as part of my continuing tribute to Gregg, the sound came out of the phone itself, not in my ears.

I stepped away and tried to figure it out.  I restarted my phone and held the buttons down for minutes on end.  No dice.  I considered just playing the tunes out loud.  There weren’t many people in the gym.  I could hear faint sounds wafting over rom somebodies device.  But in the end I decided against this.  Then a lady of Chinese persuasion came and mounted the stair master beside me and started playing some Chinese pod cast.  I wouldn’t have cared in the least I my headphones were drowning out music.

What a kind doctor we found at one of the European embassies whom we were introduced to.  Thank you and thank you once again.  The receptionist almost scared me off when I called.  “You’re not from the EU?  Oh.  Then we can’t help you.”  But I’d been hipped to the fact that the Dr. was apparently welcoming to North Americans. I suspected we might have to wait in a long line but as promised it was simply a matter of presenting one’s passport and waltzing in.

The unfortunate things, which my regular doctor hadn’t informed me of was that because we had secured the Measles Mumps Rubella shots just the other day and this had live bacteria, we were not allowed to get the Yellow Fever shots for another four weeks.  The kids could but the Mrs. and I would need to return, approximately one day before when we were planning to depart.  Ahh but this was a creative Dr. and he confirmed that because I had had the Yellow Fever shot twenty-five years ago, I was basically OK and it was unnecessary to top it up.  “I don’t have proof of the shot, though Doc.”  “Oh.  It’s OK.  I trust you.”  Man, I liked this guy.

In the end the girls got what they needed and the Mrs. and I will need to return for the Tetanus, Whooping Cough and God-knows-what cocktail for twenty-eight days from now and at the at time the Mrs. can finally have her Yellow Fever shot so we can pass in an out of countries unencumbered after visiting Ethiopia.

Now down in Shanghai.  These super doper minivans are great.  Except or the fact that the air-con doesn’t make it to the back of the vehicle.  It’s hot outside and I‘m sweating.  It’s sweltering back here and the driver thinks I’m crazy because he’s freezing up in his plastic protected cage in the front of the cab.

Monday, 5/29/17