No violin class in August + AH1N1

Yes, no violin class again for this week, cause the teacher is required to quarantine himself at home for a week.

Next lesson will also be cancelled, cause it is a public holiday eve, whereby the road going down the the music centre will be closed for national day parade on 31 August.

So, I have skipped the violin class for one whole month. I hope that the teacher will get well soon.

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With the AH1N1 things going round, we must take care of ourselves. However, there are a few incidents in my company that tick me off.

The first case is our document controller, her husband somehow got a flu, and spread it to her 3 months old baby, and she herself was feeling ill too. The baby had fever for 3 weeks, and all they have done was just bringing the baby to see the same doctor again and again.

She continued to come to work with heavy fever. Despite our suggestions that she should get herself and her baby checked thoroughly at the government hospital, she refused. The reason being, her husband doesn't allow the baby to be brought to hospital. And she doesn't know how to drive.

We insisted that she should take a taxi to the nearest government hospital to our office, as many of our colleagues have young kids at home, we do not want any AH1N1 suspect to roam around freely in the air-cond, enclosed office. It is also better for her to take care of herself before tending to the work. She said she needed to wait for her husband to come to fetch her.... Her husband was already more than 200km away from our office, going to his factory (around the edge of the state) to start his day.

Anyway, we managed to shover her into a taxi and sent her to the hospital in the end.

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Another case was our cleaning lady, she came into office crying on a Monday morning, claming that her youngest daughter fell ill with high fever, and her boss didn't allow her to take leave to take care of the kid. (Our cleaning tasks are out-sourced)

Upon questioning her, we realised that her daughter had been ill since Friday, and the matter dragged onto Monday. Her husband didn't want to bring the kid to hospital. So our HR gave her some time off to go home.

Again, she doesn't know how to drive, her husband came from home with motorcycle, picked her up and went home. Together they brought the child to see the doctor. However, on Tuesday when we met her again, she said he husband didn't bring the kid to hospital, but brought the kid to general clinic, which costs them 50 over bucks.

Only until the case gone worse, later that week, her husband willing to send the poor kid to the hospital, and the kid has been hospitalised.

All these incidents has given me some thoughts: women really need to be strong and independent. In a country like this, whereby one is practically disabled without owning a vehicle, women particularly need to know how to drive. You can't rely on your husband all the time, moreover a stupid and irresponsible one. Women must not lose the connection to the society after getting married, or else, we will only become a mantelpiece (that's if you are pretty enough, and age-proof) at home.

Anyway, the main thing is still to take care of yourself, as no one else will take care of you any better than yourself.