Yo MC MC

in a classic example of local english, sick leaves in singapore are called MC. what does MC mean, you might ask? medical certificate, as in that little slip of paper from the doctor. people don't stop to think about it, but i wonder if anyone actually realizes that they say "i am on medical certificate today." (what else can you expect from a country whose government campaign for speaking grammatically correct english is called "speak good english", a phrase which in itself is grammatically incorrect? ah, the irony.)

i can't bring myself to use this turn of phrase out loud. i've only used "MC" in texts to my boss. and it's always along the lines of "the doctor gave me a 2-day MC." or to our office manager, when turning over said slip of paper "here's my MC, jane." this is like that whole regime/regimen debacle. i just won't give in. 

apart from its vulnerability to grammatical abuse, the other annoying thing about MCs is that it's standard policy for local companies to require one every single time you go on sick leave... even if it's just for one day. forget being sick for three days before having to traipse to the doctor for an MC -- that's sooo third world. 

first world progress means that if you have a fever for just one day, you have to spend a couple of hours of that single day of rest to haul your ass to a doctor, expose yourself to various germs in the waiting room, and pay anywhere from $40 to over $100 in consultation fees and medicine. doctors here LOVE to over-prescribe; i think it's how their clinics make money. for example, a recent stomach upset caused by eating spoiled food got me five, count em, FIVE different medicines -- a painkiller, one for killing the bacteria in my stomach, one to settle my stomach, and goodness knows what the other two were for.

so it's day 2 of my SICK LEAVE, and my 2-day MC expires today. the fever has gone down, although i'm still woozy from the medicines and the antibiotics are drying my throat so i sound uncannily like inday badiday. tomorrow i will be back at work bright and early at 9, and my boss tells me there's tons of work waiting to welcome me back. apparently projects with rush deadlines have been flooding in like crazy. i wonder if it has occurred to anyone to turn anything down considering there are only four designers working on everything and 2 production people (me plus the intern).

looks like i'm really going to deserve that new york trip by the time these next two weeks are over. for now, i'm going to take advantage of the rest, because i know i'll be expected to be fully functioning, as if i never got sick, ready to attack my share of the workload the minute i step back into the office. don't you just love it.