RAINY DAY IN TAI PO

[defrog]

So the bridal unit and I went to Tai Po yesterday to visit a Chinese medicine practitioner.



She’s been fighting a cold and she’s been having an allergic reaction to the antibiotics she’s been taking. So she takes Chinese medicine to counteract it.

The place we went to was one of those great traditional places that’s less like a doctor’s office and more like a flat, where you walk up a couple of floors, go through the metal security door and enter a room with a small couch and a teak-wood shrine. The doctor’s desk is across from that. Off to the side, his assistant/wife sits on a teak stool in front of a ten-year-old computer monitor watching translated Korean soap operas on VCD.

You get a prescription and go down to the street to a medicine shop with counters and shelves loaded with all kinds of herbs, wormwood, amaranth, garlic, something that looks like tree bark, etc. I like watching the guy and his wife using a handheld scale made of a chopstick, a small tray and a counterweight to measure out the dosage of each ingredient. Then the guy whips out a Chinese abacus made in the 1960s and with lightning-fast fingers that would make Steve Vai feel inadequate – clackity clackity clack clack clack! – adds it up and bills you.

Boring to most people who live here. but fascinating to me. But then I’m a fan of lost arts. How many of YOU could work an abacus?

Anyway, a nice way to spend the day, despite the rain. We had crispy pork and noodles for lunch, sharing a table with three old women who were very cranky about family issues.

And then we went shopping for a ceramic pot to cook the medicine in. Which is when we saw the cat in the mop-heads box.



We also saw a cat sleeping under a giant vat of turtle soup, but the picture didn’t turn out so good. So you’ll just have to take my word for it.

Heretical medical,

This is dF

Comments

[thelastaerie.livejournal.com]

I swear by chinese medicine when it comes to night coughs. While a Chinese doctor can't help you much with a running nose, they are rather effective for other cold/flu symptoms.

I know how to add and subtract with a abacus! they still taught this in school back then. at least the one I went to. Bottom beads are 1-4 and top beads present 5 and 10. but i can't do it quick like the staff in those shops!

[darkbay.livejournal.com]

You reside in a most fascinating place. I just adore your experiences and pictures. So much so, I'm gonna pimp your interesting life out on in my journal. Mind?

[def-fr0g-42.livejournal.com]

I thought you'd never ask. :)

Pimp away. And thanks for the kindness.