Medical Centres these days
Soon after the Subang Jaya Medical Centre opened more than 10 years ago, I remember hearing a story about someone who’d walked up to the reception area and asked for the ballroom. In those days, it was next door to a hotel (which has since closed down). In those days, too, it was one of the first private medical centres in the country, designed and decorated not to look like a medical centre. This was probably why it was mistaken for a hotel and its reception area for a hotel reception area.
These days, SJMC has been eclipsed by newer medical centres. While it still runs its own coffee shop (called The Coffee Shop), others have brand name coffee outlets like San Francisco Coffee and Dome.
I’ve spent a good part of the last two days at the Pantai Medical Centre where my father had been admitted for pneumonia. Just this evening, I found myself thinking “thank God for Dome at Pantai”. It’s not a full-fledged shop there – Pantai still has its own cafeteria – but a stall selling coffee and a variety of sandwiches and pastries. In fact, I only discovered the stall after I’d had breakfast at the cafeteria on Friday morning. But that didn’t stop me from getting a regular mocha to take back to my father’s room immediately after breakfast.
Today, on my way there, I found myself thinking of getting a cuppa from Dome as soon as I arrived but did not cuz Ethan and VaLz would be visiting later and I’d planned to have coffee with them there.
We were supposed to meet at the “sai mai loh” shop in SS2 but because of my father, I asked if they could come by Pantai instead. They did. I had a little black and white surprise for them – my VCD copy of Panda Baby, a documentary about Hua Mei’s first year in San Diego Zoo – and they had cookies (made by VaLz!), a giant panda colour fact sheet and a Christmas card with a really nice message in it for me. While mine’s just a loan (long term if they wish, as I have a copy saved inside Phoebe), theirs was a Christmas present to me, my first in many, many years. *so touched*
Thanks, Ethan and VaLz!
Er … as usual, I’ve digressed from the original topic of this entry. It was about medical centres these days, and in particular about my two days at Pantai saved by good coffee from Dome shared with two good friends!
