despite nursing being a really PR job, i have to admit that i've never really liked working with people in general. simply because people have feelings and as a fellow person, you are obliged to take into consideration of that person's feeling in whatever you do. this can be rather irritating when you have to factor in the feelings of twelve other patients who are under your care, most of them prolly in pain or at least some form of discomfort. to top things off, you now have the added weight of a preceptee who's constantly asking you questions and making you feel horribly guilty for returning the answer with a fleeting look of irritation. and then there's the colleagues, most of them women and really emotional and gossipy ones at that.

this is perhaps one of the reason why i like working with men. not because i'm gay and am constantly on the prowl for medical sex. but rather, men have been proven to be more rationale when it comes to work. from past experiences, the women tend to play 'The Blame Game'. they have this inherent need to find out who did it, why they did it, when, how, the instrument of murder, the time of death, the victims and if possible, the clothes the victim was wearing at that point of time. the men however, just play 'The Game' by focusing on the problem at hand and generating solutions. which is all fine and dandy for me as i simply don't have the emotional capacity to entertain the women and all their crap. i have prolly offended a number of women with my scathing, stereotypical remarks. well... hate The Game, ladies, not The Player.

there are a few people in the ward whom i don't mind working with though, Pangkeng being one of my top favorites. his hulking frame and massive hands give him that brute strength to carry patients independently, rendering me free of having to assist him. his hoodlum, ah-beng nature terrorizes the patients into taking toilet baths or doing whatever he wants them to do, once again rendering me free of having to assist him. he gets along very well with the attached nursing students whom i can't be bothered to befriend, of course rendering me free of having to assist him. and who can forget his trademark brand of language which revolves around a wide variety of body parts that would get you into trouble with the police if you were to expose them in public? he does his work and i help him when i'm less occupied with the paperwork and appointment tracing, which all works out very fine. plus, being men, we don't even need to explain the entire situation at hand to understand each other. a typical conversation between us can go something like that:

Pangkeng: Eh. That's 26/2 damn fucking irritating.

Jon: Yah, I know.

it's this sacred brotherhood between us that seems to transcend language and give us this capability to understand one another. of course, not every single person that works with Pangkeng sees it this way. especially the ladies. sometimes, the attached nursing student can't seem to see that Pangkeng is the perverted person that he is and his language just stays at that, a means of communication with no harmful intentions. take today for example, he was at one of the patient's bedside with two female nursing students. the curtains were screened and he called out for me when he heard me entering the room:

Pangkeng: Jon, come here!

Jon: (peeks from the curtain) What.

PK: Hoi. You want to see sneak preview?

Jon: What you mean by sneak preview?

PK: The student is going to do dressing for the patient now. Later when she bends over you can see sneak preview already lor!

PK & Jon: hur hur hur...

it doesn't just stop there, though. sometimes our conversations get really gay-friendly. in fact, a tad too friendly for my liking:

PK: Oi. Why you never tell me that 26/7 no need to fast anymore?

Jon: I forgot lah.

PK: Fuck you lah.

Jon: Fuck you back. With a condom.

PK: Safe sex, i like...

Jon & PK: hur hur hur...

as much as i love Pangkeng as a brother, i hope that he's not gay or anywhere near being bisexual. because that would definitely screw up the delicate balance of straight and gay boundaries between us now. not forgetting to mention our usual post-work sessions of binge beer-drinking and cigarettes. it's a common practice for the both of us to head to the nearest convenience stall from the hospital to chill out post-afternoon shift. this is the time where we would talk about our futures, our pasts and share things that we don't share with other people in our ward. Pangkeng, who doesn't give a shit about the public does it in his uniform. i, a bit more fashion-conscious, do it in my civilian.

it always surprises me how people of two different sexualities, upbringing, social status, education level, or even age, can get together and talk about life. truth be told, if not for work at the hospital, i would have never imagined the both of us ever forging a friendship together. he being brought up as a gangster. while i being brought up to be whatever i was supposed to be. i know this is going to sound like a cheesy United Colors of Benetton ad, but i guess what matters most at the end of the day is the friendship and memories. i have this worrying feeling though, that like many other friendships that have come and gone, this one between Pangkeng and i would prolly not last outside the workplace. you know the type of friendships where you can only see functioning in a workplace. outside of work, the both of you tend to talk about work and nothing else. yeah, it's a tad like that between us sometimes.

but i guess it's more like carpe diem for now, huh.

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