The bus that goes nowhere (Taipei)

Old friend Simon from SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) days went travelling in the East after he graduated.  Those were the days when people would take off and travel around the world, then come back and start looking for a job.

I’d asked him to look up my old friend Daniel when he got to Taipei.  Simon got on the bus to Daniel’s place — very brave for an Englishman with no Chinese. 

The bus in question is visually presented on the front as 0 南 and 0 北, said aloud as líng nán (“zero south”) and líng běi (“zero north”).  The 0 is not zero but represents a circular route, rather like the Circle line on London’s Tube, with the “north” and “south” indicating the direction: clockwise or anti-clockwise.

When he got back and told me about it, Simon said he thought it was “the bus that goes nowhere”.  

I had visions of this non-Chinese-speaking foreigner getting on, happily letting the bus that was going nowhere take him to nowhere.  Haha.

Can this count as sort of Kafkaesque?

Googling produces this:  

Quote 

…the word Kafkaesque is often applied to bizarre and impersonal administrative situations where the individual feels powerless to understand or control what is happening.  

Unquote

(Taipei, 1980/1)

Coincidence? (London/Singapore)

When my mother first broke her hip, sitting down too heavily on the sofa (probably misjudging the distance), I couldn’t go over immediately to visit her because I then had a bad fall myself, breaking two fingers.  By the time my fingers had healed sufficiently, she was heading for the end, so my brother-in-law (who’d been handling her affairs) said to get over there as soon as possible.  In the meantime, they’d asked the doctor to give her an injection to keep her going until all the three children abroad could get home in time.

I emailed my brother-in-law with details of my progress every step of the way, so that he could tell my mother and give her something to look forward to.  (I’m the youngest and her pet.)

Going out to buy my air ticket today.

Bought ticket now.

Flight is leaving London on xx day at yy time, arriving Singapore aa day and bb time.

My flight out took off at 9am London time.  Singapore time = London +8 hours in winter, therefore 5pm SG time.  That was the time my mother died.

I don’t think it was a coincidence.  I believe she’d been hanging on, waiting until I was definitely on the plane.

(London / Singapore, 2016)

Polyglot punning (London)

January is mega-stress month because it’s tax return deadline month.  Every year, a crisis of some form will present itself, related to my efforts to file in time — or incur £100/day in penalty.  No exception this year, of course.

Anyway, when it was finally achieved, I texted Cecilia (a Malaysian Chinese student friend) to say I’d done it, and was going out to the garden to do some weeding to celebrate.  (I mentioned weeding 拔草 bá cǎo / “pull-up/-out grass” to her only because she’s a retired dentist, so it’d be good vocabulary for her to know, as 拔牙 bá yá = “pull-out tooth”.)

Cecilia:  Make sure you pull the weeds, not your hair!

Me:  沒有頭髮可拔了 / 没有头发可拔了 / méiyǒu tóufà kě bá le / “not have head hair can pull anymore”

Cecilia:  Ha ha, 可拔了 [kě bá le] in Malay (kepala) means head!

Triple language punning!  哇，太神了 wa, tài shén le / wow, amazing.  

With students like that, I’ll be out of work soon...

(London, 2023)

Read also my blog on kepala and spoonerism:  

https://piccola-chinita.blogspot.com/2011/07/spoonerism-kepala-and-kelapa.html

Pre-death phenomena (China)

Further to the story about what my mother said she saw before her death, here’s one by an ex-colleague from mainland China  about her father’s last moments.  

Her mother and sister had been staying in the ward during her father’s illness.  This is common practice out East, with family sleeping on a mattress on the floor beside the patient’s bed.  Comforting for the patient to have family with them round the clock, but it also takes some of the workload off the hospital staff.

Her father’s ward was the second last one down the corridor.  The last ward was empty.  

On the night her father died, out of nowhere a thunderstorm blew up, with thunder and lightning.  The lights and TV in the empty ward next door suddenly came on.  The nurse said to my colleague’s mother and sister, “大鬼来带小鬼了 / dà guǐ lái dài xiǎo guǐ le / The big ghosts have come to lead the small ghost.”  

When the father died, the thunderstorm stopped, and the lights and TV in the empty ward next door went off.

(China, 2008?)

Pre-death hallucinations (Singapore)

Reading up on terminal lucidity after writing the previous blog (of the same name), I come across this:

Quote Visual or auditory hallucinations are often part of the dying experience. The appearance of family members or loved ones who have died is common. These visions are considered normal. The dying may turn their focus to “another world” and talk to people or see things that others do not see. Unquote

My mother had a hip fracture in 2015.  Sat down too hard on the sofa — probably misjudged the distance, and broke her hip.  I was going to fly out to see her but then had a bad fall myself, breaking two fingers, so the trip had to be postponed.  In January 2016, I was told to make my way over as soon as possible, as she didn’t seem likely to last long.  The doctor had been asked to give her an injection to keep her going until three of her five children could get back from abroad.  After the second jab, the doctor said it wouldn’t be kind to keep giving her injections just to prolong her life.

During my time there, my mother’s Indonesian maid told this story of her last days.

My mother was in a ward with six or eight beds, but she was the only occupant at the time.  The maid Yanti was with her.  My mother suddenly said to Yanti, in Malay, “Banyak orang (Lots of people).”  Yanti looked around behind her.  Empty ward.  Yanti said, “Tak ada orang (Not have people).”  My mother insisted, “Banyak orang,” adding, “Satu perempuan (One woman).”

My mother’s sister died in 1988, her mother in 1989, so that lone woman could have been one of them.

I’ve heard stories about beings from the other world coming over to guide the newly departed soul to the other side.

(Singapore, 2016)

Terminal lucidity

Playing a Chinese crossword puzzle game on my phone, I come across a saying 回光返照 huí guāng fǎn zhào / “return light reverse shine”, from an 1120 A.D. compilation of the sayings of a Zen master.  This refers to clarity of the mind or brief excitement in someone on the point of death, called terminal lucidity* (coined in 2009).

This immediately called to mind something about my last landlord, Terry, though not to do with his mental lucidity, rather his appetite.  

He’d been diagnosed in Nov (2008) with lung cancer and had gone off his food.  Although I’d moved out (in 2006), I still went to see them every week, mostly Friday after work.  Friday being Fish Friday, I’d go along with a portion of fish and chips and try to tempt him into eating some.  Each time he’d refuse.  In January (2009), he suddenly tucked into my fish and chips, eating most of it.  I was rather pleased that his appetite had come back.  He died a week later.  (No, not from food poisoning from my fish and chips, in case you wonder, but from a heart attack.  Being a hypochondriac [his wife’s description], he’d probably frightened himself to death about his lung cancer.  Kinder this way, in my opinion, not having to suffer a long illness.)

Told an old English friend Simon about this.  He had a story to tell about his mother:

Quote

[She] didn’t eat or drink much at all in the 3–4 weeks before she died of Alzheimer’s. The nurses and I struggled to get anything more than a sip of water down her. The night she died was the hottest yet recorded here in the UK. That evening as I was leaving I tried one more time to get some water down her. She had not responded other than vaguely to anything other than touch for a good few days. She suddenly gulped all the baby bottle of water down I was holding up to her. She never woke again after that. I mistakenly told my brothers and the nurses I thought she had turned a corner.

Unquote

Another friend, Daisy from Hong Kong, said her parents had asked to be helped up into a sitting position after lying in the hospital bed for a fortnight or so.  Went into a coma the day after, then passed away.

*Terminal lucidity, also known as paradoxical lucidity, rallying or the rally, is an unexpected return of mental clarity and memory, or suddenly regained consciousness that occurs in the time shortly before death in patients with severe psychiatric or neurological disorders. This condition has been reported by physicians since the 19th century. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminal_lucidity)

 

Google says:  Quote Some people experience a brief surge in energy in the hours or days before death. This may last from a few minutes to several hours. During this time, your loved one may talk more, be interested in engaging in conversation, or interested in eating or drinking. Unquote My landlord Terry fits the last case.