Ahh I remember the moment. I was still studying my A-levels back then when my grandmother told me over a family dinner. She said to me in Hokkien “You should study to be a “loke-kun” (a doctor). Doctors make a lot of money”.
I just smiled and nodded. I didn’t want to be a doctor! I wanted to be a banker. Well back then I wanted to be a banker, 10 years before then I wanted to be a postman and when I was 5 I wanted to be a soldier. Look at where I am now… none of the above. I ended up being… Fourfeetnine’s boyfriend. Haha
Anyway today I went to see this skin clinic near Imbi by a doctor named Doctor Ting. I was supposed to see him to get some medicine from my pimples. You normally queue up for 3 hours to see him, then he sees you for like 2 minutes and then he gives you the same medicine he probably gave another 300 growing boys that saw him earlier that week.
You can’t book an appointment in advance for Dr Ting. You have to call the clinic up at 8.30AM when it opens and then rush to get a number. So at 8.30AM, Rina started calling the clinic up for me but she didn’t manage to get through. The line was engaged throughout… you know as if they were giving away free money to anyone who called that number. So about 10AM I decided I was done waiting so I went straight to the clinic. The lady told me that I was the number 56. And I probably had to wait till 6PM or so before I could see the doctor. The clinic was full with a lot of other people waiting.
So there you have it. Every day, people rush to get an appointment and wait all day and pay just to see a skin doctor. Plus you only give them enough medicine for a month so they have to keep coming back to you each month. Damn I would’ve been so minted.
I should’ve listened to grandma.
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space