The Fire and the Hospital

Don't freak out Mom!
So we had a little incident in our building . . . one of our darling neighbours decided to throw out something flammable into the communal trash room. Ryan and I were relaxing just before going to bed when we smelled something a little strange. This is actually not a strange thing in our building as the vents for the air conditioners seem to be connected somehow and we can sometimes note a hint of some unpleasant odour coming from our vents. In this particular occassion, however, the smell was quite strong. We knew something was definitely up when we heard what sounded like someone dousing a fire with a large amount of water. We peaked out our door and the hallways were quickly filling with smoke. We grabbed our essentials: passports, wallet and purse, and headed for the door, praying that our belongings wouldn't reak of smoke upon our return.
After about an hour of hanging out in the foyer, and seeing the local police officer and fireman (yes, only one - wearing a tee-shirt claiming he was a Thai Firefighter) we were allowed back upstaris to air out our apartment. The fire was not serious and was put out before any damage could be done, but our hallway still holds the faint hint of smoke. What was really funny is that the day after the fire, someone decided to 'hide' the smell of smoke in the hall with some wonderfully scented cologne. So for a week our hallway stunk of smoke and cheap cologne.

Our trip to the hospital was totally unrelated. We are quite well as a matter of fact. We needed to have a doctor write a letter stating we were healthy and that they should extend our visas. So off we went to spend hours in a dank waiting room, waiting for the nurse to call our names, watching all the people come in and not get served . . . oh wait, this isn't Canada!
Our hospital trip was nothing like either of us had ever experienced before. We showed up early for our appointment, it was a lot closer to our place than we thought, and were greeted by a lovely Thai man whose job it was to make sure we went to the right area. He showed us to the admin desk where they asked us to please fill out some paperwork, and would we like some water or cold tea while we waited. The waiting area was more like the lobby of some resort than a hospital, with big comfy chairs surrounding small coffee tables with an assortment of newspapers and magazines. No sooner had we finished our paperwork, when we were escorted to the next area where we waited about 5 mins before the doctor called us in. After a quick check it was decided that we were not alcoholics or drug addicts, and no, we did not suffer from elephantitis or leprosy, and we were the picture of health and should be recommended for an extended stay. Again we were ushered to another area where again we were asked politely to wait while they wrote up our letters. After about another 5 mins we were called to the desk, given our letters and asked to pay a small fee for their services and we were on our way.
All in all a pleasant experience.