Afternoon visiting hours are over.
And so you come down to the lobby for a bite of lunch.
This is one place where everyone- staff or patient or visitor- gathers at some point in time. This is where you come for snacks and drinks and meals. A few times already I've sat here waiting, and that's for this one situation alone. A few months ago, I came down more often, particularly when it became too warm to wait upstairs in the lounge where the seats were hard and the heat was burning through my brain and it was stuffy and it was just so uncomfortable that I couldn't even pay much attention to whatever was showing on TV, whether it was a game show, a variety show, a TV drama in English, Mandarin or Tamil.
I'm here at Starbucks again.
It's crowded here this time. Less crowded that it was the last time, but there're still plenty of people. Staff come here for meetings. Relatives come here to have a drink and discuss each other whilst discussing the medical condition of the patient upstairs. Students bring their books here to study, biding their time between visiting hours. Others open laptops and tablets to get some work done.
I've had a drink at this Starbucks the last time I was here.
Not this time though. I'm waiting for lunch, and we've already decided what we're going to have.
Bowls of Don. :)
I could have trays of salmon sushi, or bowls of Udon. The in-house Umisushi offers me both. I could also have the bento sets, but in the last couple of times I've gone for the bowls of Don instead. I've tried the beef with its runny poached egg on top but today I'm going for Oyako Don.
It's hard to describe it in words, but this gives me a strangely comforting feeling after having come down from the wards. Maybe because the meal is served really hot. Maybe because there's a roundedness to the whole meal. Here, the rice is warm and fluffy and filling. There's scrambled egg on top which is done just nice and below that are the strips of well-fried chicken dribbled with mayonnaise. And I get a bit of soup on the side with a touch of seaweed.
And so you come down to the lobby for a bite of lunch.
This is one place where everyone- staff or patient or visitor- gathers at some point in time. This is where you come for snacks and drinks and meals. A few times already I've sat here waiting, and that's for this one situation alone. A few months ago, I came down more often, particularly when it became too warm to wait upstairs in the lounge where the seats were hard and the heat was burning through my brain and it was stuffy and it was just so uncomfortable that I couldn't even pay much attention to whatever was showing on TV, whether it was a game show, a variety show, a TV drama in English, Mandarin or Tamil.
I'm here at Starbucks again.
It's crowded here this time. Less crowded that it was the last time, but there're still plenty of people. Staff come here for meetings. Relatives come here to have a drink and discuss each other whilst discussing the medical condition of the patient upstairs. Students bring their books here to study, biding their time between visiting hours. Others open laptops and tablets to get some work done.
I've had a drink at this Starbucks the last time I was here.
Not this time though. I'm waiting for lunch, and we've already decided what we're going to have.
Bowls of Don. :)
I could have trays of salmon sushi, or bowls of Udon. The in-house Umisushi offers me both. I could also have the bento sets, but in the last couple of times I've gone for the bowls of Don instead. I've tried the beef with its runny poached egg on top but today I'm going for Oyako Don.
It's hard to describe it in words, but this gives me a strangely comforting feeling after having come down from the wards. Maybe because the meal is served really hot. Maybe because there's a roundedness to the whole meal. Here, the rice is warm and fluffy and filling. There's scrambled egg on top which is done just nice and below that are the strips of well-fried chicken dribbled with mayonnaise. And I get a bit of soup on the side with a touch of seaweed.