Sydney Stories - Week 25

Hello,

A quick week rather monotonous zoomed by. Just as I was wondering if I would get enough topics to write about, Sydney presents itself with something interesting.

It seemed like an orchestra at our place where all 4 of us were coughing and sneezing one after the other. Nandhitha was the worst hit and she picked up a fever as well. This morning I took her to a neighbourhood medical center since the fever didn't seem to reduce even after a day of paracetemol. 4 out of the 5 duty doctors available were Indians. Our luck we got to see a Korean (or Chinese?) doctor. He did the basics and suggested a paracetemol for fever and something else for her cough. I had already started on that dose for her for the past 2 days. (Oh athaan yenakku theriyme..) ("Oh I already know that...") . So he asked why are you here then? I said, I don't know, you tell me, she's had fever for the past 2 days and paracetemol by itself is not working. Doc says...Oh.. you need an antibiotic? Ok here you go.. I had to shell out $95 for this joke. 

Aussies or maybe Sydneites take security seriously, maybe a bit too seriously. I have written about the high security in my apartment lift. Have to time the entry like in Mission Impossible else I will lose the chance to get out at my floor. ;-) Maybe it's all for good. Safety is always good. However what I saw today seemed a bit over the line. Nandhitha wanted to use the bathroom in the clinic. I was shown the direction and just as I was about to move someone reminded me to pick a token. I was first surprised why I would need a token to use the toilet. The tokens were marked Male and Female with some number. Took a male token and headed towards the rooms. There was a female toilet alright. The male one had an out of order board. I thought...what the heck I will still give it a shot. Nandhitha was in a hurry as well. I tried to open the door...no luck. Thought maybe someone was inside...knocked a few times, but no sound. Then I realized I had to enter a "secret" passcode to open the toilet door. The passcode is what was given in the token. Technology.... 

Uma's b'day was spent quite uneventful since Nandhitha was not feeling well. Had to go out and buy medicines, thought will get some Malaysian. 8 PM on a Friday night the restaurant was closed!!! Ended up getting a takeaway from an Indian restaurant. Turned out pretty good. This weekend a cousin were supposed to visit us. We were all prepared and as I was just marinating the chicken (for chilly chicken ) on Friday night got a call from him that he mixed up the flight bookings and he was not coming this weekend. In a way it kinda helped because Nandhitha was not keeping well. All of a sudden Saturday seemed a bit too free since we didn't have to prepare for hosting a dinner. These days it's almost 50-50 deal with Uma on the cooking front just so I don't lose touch. Tonight made aloo gobhi (phool gobhi to be precise) with amchur masala. Had a different kick to it.

Have a great week ahead.

Chetty