All about dad
It's a routine affair to accompany Dad and Mom to their thrice yearly blood test and review at the Polyclinic.
While sis does some of the visits with Mom, Dad's are all mine.
I think this isn't uncommon. The truth is - dad drives me nuts sometimes haha! A thought came to mind earlier that perhaps I should document some of dad's antics so I can look back at it sometime and have a nice laugh.
a) Dad presses the UP button to get the lift up to our floor, because he thinks he needs to summon it up from ground level before it can descend. I've explained to him a million times but to no effect.
b) When he is called by his alias (grandpa’s name), he explains that the alias isn't his name n it's in his ID only because grandpa made a mistake then and the birth cert registration staff was Malay and yada yada yada. I don't think the Polyclinic staff really cares. I've heard the same story some 21,853 times.
c) He tells me the nurse at the blood pressure station stays near us and loves karaoke like he does. He tells me Bryan Wong the tv personality is Hainanese like us. I've heard it as many times as the alias story.
d) He feels some Polyclinic doctors are swindlers and makes unnecessary recommendations with the ulterior motive to extort money from patients. He may be right haha!
e) He complains to me about Mom nagging at him and how unreasonable she is. He says one fine day he will pack up leave home and stay on his own. I've heard this from some 20 years ago.
f) He tells me sis is the most useless daughter because she doesn't give him pocket money and she's the exact replica of Mom. Actually sis takes after him in quite a number of ways.
g) He styles and gels his hair whenever I take him to the Polyclinic and it makes me wanna tell him it's not a party we're going to but only the Polyclinic.
h) He developed an odd habit of closing all the windows at home when he sees them open. Mom thinks he's trying to suffocate us and tells him it isn't snowing outside and to leave the windows alone.
That said, dad's hearing has deteriorated and I noticed him sometimes struggle with relatively simple tasks. I do need to be extra patient with him. It isn't easy but I'll do my best.