This afternoon, I visited the clinic for one of my regular blood tests.
Technically, it's just a blood drawing exercise and not the actual test. But still, you've got to wait in line for almost an hour. And you'll invariably notice that most of the folks before you are the wrinkly sort. Some have been made to fast for hours before their appointment. They jump the blood drawing queue because they are starving. Behind the curtain, one lady cried, 'I'm hungry!'
The blood drawing didn't last 5 minutes. The needle was stuck in, blood gushed into the test tube, the needle came out, and a plaster put over the resultant hole in the crook of my arm. I was then sent off to counter 1 (payment, of course).
'$12,' says the cashier. As I got my wallet out, something else was happening. By the time I looked, trails of blood were flowing down the crook of my arm.
'Oh my god,' exclaims the cashier. All the cashiers stare. I stare back. I know I don't have any tissue in my bag, so I am waiting for someone to give me some. I eventually received 2 pieces and am dispatched back to Diagnostics.
'It's because you're carrying this heavy bag!' they say. Now I am given a large piece of gauze to stem the flow. I have to keep it in the crook of my arm for 10 minutes.
While the sight of all that fresh flowing blood was interesting, I was actually more concerned none of it got on my white skirt.
Later, it reminded me of the recent bizzare episode in Thai politics. Blood spilled for democracy isn't too far-fetched, but when it's all collected so civilly with people wielding disposal needles and then splashed on the gates of government house, it just screams 'bio-hazard'.
