Wanted: Paradigm shift following moving for love
About that time I went to the wrong surgery location two different times
Can we talk about the absolute saga of me trying to find my mum’s eye surgery location last week?
I ended up driving to TWO different places before arriving at the correct one. Nearly an hour late. Thank God the surgery thankfully proceeded as it normally would, so all was well in the end, though I don’t think I can ever quite meet the doctor without wanting the earth to swallow me whole.
One would think that a person would know better than to get the hospital address wrong, right?
EXCEPT - I am still operating with a small town girl brain (and my brain certainly felt very small last week). This is my frame of reference: I come from a country where in its early days, you only had one mall, and generally, one hospital per district. Every subsequent mall had been christened anything but The Mall, referred to instead by its location. There are also five hospitals, each with a unique name.
So when you move to a bigger country where surgery is scheduled for Mount Elizabeth Novena Royal Square, the last thing you want to key into Google Maps is “Mount Elizabeth Novena”.
Because Google will helpfully autocorrect you to Mount Elizabeth, the actual Mount Elizabeth, never mind that:
1. There are actually TWO hospitals called Mount Elizabeth in Singapore, and
2. There’s also a day surgery branch called Royal Square.
Oh. My. Freaking. Goodness.
Common sense is not common.
This is a paradigm shift was earth-shattering. I don’t only need to uproot myself geographically, but update my internal GPS? Same shop, multiple locations within a few kilometres of each other? A country where branches are common place and they’ll keep the name to signal the brand? It’s like Oxford Street in London all over again, where there is a Costa and Starbucks round every corner.
To my husband’s credit, he sat me down and talked me through the abundance of hospitals, shops, etcetera, on that disastrous day of the Incident.
Thus, if you’re conquering a long distance relationship and one of you moves to a new country, please add geographical orientation to your spousal duty so it saves a lot of heartache.
Epilogue:
As I was writing this saga, my husband peered over my shoulder, and went:
“Eh, I thought there are more than just two Mount Elizabeths.”
So we looked it up together.
Turns out, he confused Gleneagles, a completely different sister hospital to Mount Elizabeth, as being the third Mount Elizabeth.
He thought it was Mount Elizabeth!
HE LIVED HERE MOST OF HIS LIFE.
Even locals get confused!
I am VINDICATED. My husband, adorably sheepish.
But the point still stands: Always ask for a bloody pin to the location and double triple check it. Otherwise, Google Maps may send small town me on yet another dance!