Who holds the top jobs?

Another day dawns, it's begun to snow, it's a cold, crisp morning. I have a lot to do, housework, knitting for the twins, yoga, but mainly housework... need to spring clean before Chinese new Year, but... I thought I'd blog instead.

On the walk back from taking the kids to the school bus stop, I got asked by a fellow neighbour, and the father of the twins I'm knitting for, how things were going for us here in Canada... here we go again, I tried very hard not to get on my high horse, and hope I succeeded.

He asked about Dave's work and I said Dave was finding it challenging as attitudes are difficult to modify or change. We all know construction can be a dangerous occupation, risks everywhere from working at heights, using heavy machinery, sites where housekeeping is poor pose all kinds of hazards. Canada has an occupational health and safety act, the laws are there and in place. Attitudes though may not be. Workers are in the mindset of,"Well, construction is a dangerous occupation, therefore, if I have an accident at work, it is to be expected. " Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! So, this is what Dave is up against, but he is making headway, as I knew he would and hopefully, things will begin to improve and workers will be working in a safer environment.

I was then asked about the education system and the school that our kids were attending. We are very happy with the school and our kids are progressing very well.  I like the Canadian education system as it makes my children think and encourages research. My neighbour though felt that his daughter's teacher was not doing much work. They have moved here from Dubai, about the same time as us. They are Canadian having immigrated from Pakistan more than 20 years ago. Their daughter was in a Singaporean International School in Dubai, and I think they notice there is  different style of teaching and learning between the 2 education systems. He thinks his daughter is not being taught very much at all, which is a shame. Mitch and Jas seem to be thriving at the school, so I had very little to contribute apart from saying, I perhaps did not apply myself that well, whilst at school in Malaysia, I think I was taught how to pass exams, learned everything by rote and never encouraged to think for myself. Therefore, when I went to England as a student nurse, I struggled to have an opinion on anything... nothing could be further from the truth now! I am so opinionated, issues on anything run and hide when they see me coming. Fundamentally though, I think at the younger ages, kids need to learn several things by rote, getting the basics on literacy and numeracy, after that, teaching them how to explore, learn by doing and experimenting, researching, performing and discussing is the way to go.

Of course, the British education system came into the discussion, and I think it's still one of the best and has tried to moved away from grooming students for exams, apart from the independent schools perhaps. Grooming students for exams and teaching them how to think for themselves may well be the perfect answer, though exams are not everything, they still seem to be the benchmark that everyone looks for.
M, my neighbour was saying that in his profession, which was IT, the top jobs were held mainly by Asian people from India, Pakistan, China. Now, this is his opinion, I have not researched to see if it is true, all anecdotal.  He said, of all the companies he has worked for globally, very few Americans or Canadians held the top jobs. I said, well, consider this. It may be because that Asians living in India, Pakistan, China, Malaysia etc are striving to make their lives better, working harder to improve their future. On the other hand, the US- land of plenty and opportunity, people do not need to work so hard as they already have all the creature comforts they need. Told you I was opinionated!  I am sure there are more Americans and Canadians who hold top jobs than he thinks. Anyhow, I do not think that this is necessarily a reflection on the education system. Getting the qualifications and being able to do the job can be two very different things. Some are academics and some are more practical.

Interesting discussion for 8am don't you think. Anyhow, must dash, Level 2 hot yoga awaits.....

Lunch with the Dragon Ladies

Doncrest Dragon

The Doncrest Public School mascot is a dragon...and today I met up with several mums from the school who happen to be Chinese.  I have decided to nickname them the Dragon Ladies.

We all met up at the library. Sue, one of the mums, had kindly given me a lift to school, she has been a parent helper at the school since her eldest child started there 9 years ago.. for this I salute her tenacity and as Ali G would say, Respect, respect man.

Anyhow, today was pizza day at school and I have volunteered to help out. The kids get a pizza option every fortnight at school for lunch and the School Council (PTA) for the likes of you and me, organise this sale. They get an individually packed slice, a packet of chips (crisps) and a box of juice, all for the bargain price of CAD 4.50, which is daylight robbery if you asked me, but nobody did, so I shall shut up! This does mean that the council does make a profit and all profits go back to the school buying equipment and other things.

What we have to do is set out the baskets for each class, they are the size of laundry baskets, put in the required number of juice and crisps in each basket. There are about 330 orders. The pizza arrives all ready packed for each class, they get a choice of pepperoni or just cheese, we place the huge pizza bags on the baskets and take them to the classes. We only deliver to the junior kindergarten, senior kindergarten, Grades 1 and 2 classes. The rest get collected by the class pizza monitors.  Not a difficult task but because there are over 300 orders, it needs about 3 people to sort out the baskets.

From Jan, 2011, the education board has introduced healthy eating in schools and therefore, pizzas now need to be made with whole wheat bases, and they cannot have pepperoni as they are deemed unhealthy. Crisps will have to done away with as they are not healthy, and so, low fat cheese pizza and juice will be the order of the day. I suggested putting in a piece of fruit for the treat, but this was poo poohed as it will require manpower to pack the apples and also they have a short shelf life. Oh well, I didn't go to the PTA meeting tonight, so I can't complain much about any decisions made.

A knitting and crochet club has been started in the school library.. run by Mrs P with the help of yours truly.  The kids are so keen but we are overwhelmed... teaching complete beginners and there are only 2 of you is neigh on impossible. Fortunately, there is You Tube! There are several videos of knitting tutorials on there, as well as crochet and this can be projected on for the kids to watch and follow, with us giving individual help as necessary.  It's pretty chaotic though, with all these eager little faces wanting to make a Domo lol. I actually brought in some of my finished projects to motivate them.  I did say that it would take some time before they could make these projects but with practice it would be possible.

Back to the title, lunch! Sue, who's like the leader of the dragon ladies said we would be going out for lunch and off we went in 2 cars, to a Vietnamese noodle house. I had the laksa, which was reminiscent of the curry laksa in Malaysia, but a lot lighter. They even had Hainanese Chicken rice on the menu. We had a lovely time chatting. It was a bit chicken and duck. 3 ladies spoke Cantonese and hardly any mandarin, 2 spoke mandarin, all spoke a bit of English, I spoke a bit of Cantonese and even less mandarin. A lot of English was spoken which is good for the ladies as they are living in an English speaking country.  My Cantonese and mandarin is improving as I am trying to speak them more and have asked the ladies to speak back to me in English. Great, huh?

For the first time since I left Malaysia 21 years ago , I have a group of Chinese friends again. I didn't have many in England despite my many years there. I had a few in Trinidad through the Asian Ladies Group which was lovely, but it's even better here. The ladies are keen to learn how to knit and crochet, especially as all their children love Domo, and so, they want to make their kids one.... fantastic!

I got a lift home, and felt very tired, was an early start this morning. The kids came home, I said I was going to have a nap. Dave returned at 4, which is unusual and we napped together, what decadence, we must have needed it as we didn't hear each other snore, which is what usually happens hehehehehe.

A New Adventure

I was having a coffee with Barbara, at the Sheppard Centre Mall, and we were having a good old moan about all sorts. As usual, I was moaning about living in Canada. Well, the hurdles I have faced so far here.  It's all about change and I have yet to embrace this move to Canada as something that I was happy to do. I feel this move was imposed on us, we didn't really have much of a choice but to come. Sounds sad, but that's how I feel.

The adventure awaits

This morning I had return to the Service Ontario at Sheppard Ave East, to try to get my name corrected on my Ontario Health Insurance Card.  A typo had occurred on my first card and I ended up with a card that said I was Sun Yin Chong. Mistake made by Service Ontario, but I have to make the journey to have it corrected. My first attempt was thwarted by their computer systems being down. Today, all systems go, and I was seen after a short wait of about 35 minutes. I explained what had happened, and requested my married name be put on the card, and showed her my marriage certificate. She wrote on the form my new name, Sun Yin Jordan..... Grrrrrrr! Luckily I spotted it, and said, my name is Su Yin Jordan, she had my passport, my marriage certificate, the form where I had written what my name should be, she even had my driver's licence.  Oh, she had my work permit too. Which she queried, and asked for Dave's work permit, which I didn't have, and why should I have it, I have my own, for effing sake. She then told me, that because my work permit was granted because of his work permit, for anything official, bring his work permit along..... I am telling you now, I really do not understand this country and it's pedantic laws, red tape and whatever effing else! A lot of swearing in this blog, sorry, but it's good to let of steam. I said, I haven't got it, she said, it's ok, as the reference number for Dave's work permit was on mine....... sigh, could she not have checked that first before making me feel as though I had forgotten something and that I was going to have to make another trip.

Anyhow, all was ok in the end, I had my pic taken again, bet I looked like a dragon,  can you blame me? Well, I can't. Things don't have to be complicated, or am I complicating things for myself, I get so confused, I refuse to think anymore, just get the stuff done and I can carry on living here with minimal hassle. I have taken a customer feedback form though. I might well suggest a few things to them so they can improve their service to newcomers to their country. My old health card was returned to me, with a hole punched in it, and a document stating that I had made a name change, which she asked me to check was correct, and it was, bye bye Sun Yin Chong, welcome back  Su Yin Jordan.

I left feeling like I had achieved something. On my way back to the shopping centre where I was meting Barbara, I picked up an unopened packet of Kleenex tissues, clean outer packaging, lying on the snowy pavement,  just what I needed and my nose was beginning to run. Lucky or what?  I got to the food court, where I had arranged to meet Barbara and wandered into a shop as she hadn't arrived and picked up some costume jewellery that was reduced. Nothing like a bit of retail therapy for that oh so temporary feeling of gratification.

My pretty bangles

It was over coffee that Barbara told me how when she had to move to Canada more than 22 years ago, she told herself that it would be an adventure. She had moved here with her 8 year old son from the UK, after a breakdown in her marriage. She found a job that she loved, and says she had a brilliant time for many years. Now though, she thinks the novelty's worn off, well after 22 years, I guess that's allowed.  I told her I have tried to see it as an adventure, but there are hurdles in the way, no pain, no gain I guess.  I am hoping the hurdles will get less and less with time and then it will just be little blips and bumps.

Is this what awaits me?

The good things about being here?  Jasmine is happy again after a sad year in Trinidad, Mitchell is doing very well in school as is Jasmine, Dave has a great job, we live in a condo with a pool and gym, Dave has a Lexus to drive, we have been skiing, I live in a mini Chinatown and have access to all foods Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian.  We have our health, we are together, we are loved... all things positive... we have shelter,we are warm, we have made some connections....Jasmine went to her first girl guide session today, she had a fantastic time. I met some parents from the school at Guides pick up time and they are trying to get me to join the PTA, here we go again...... hehehehehehehe

Yes, it is an adventure, I will learn to embrace this, next on my list of things to do is to find a paid job. I have been volunteering at school which has been great too. Upwards and onwards, bring it on.......

My next adventure?????

I don't want to be a part of this family anymore

Hoodie on, shoes on, face all huffy, Mitch was ready to leave the apartment.  This was after an argument and a brief altercation and fisticuffs with Jasmine. I want to leave, let me leave... NO, says I. Why not, says he. Because your earlier behaviour means you have lost your privileges to go out. Then the bombshell, I don't want to be a part of this family anymore! I am fed up with having to share my room with my sister,(a few expletives here, which I will not write), and I am fed up with you and dad ruling my life.  Well, you are not leaving! Why? Let me go, you can't stop me, it's a free country. Actually, I am stopping you, you are only 12, I am still responsible for your well being and welfare and what I say goes... NO! Says he, I want to leave. I'd rather die than stay here with you!

I would like to say that the above happened with Mitchell shouting and me talking calmly, but nothing could be further form the truth. I was shouting too, and not handling the situation very well. I was very close to tears, and didn't really know what to do. I said he couldn't leave, he wasn't old enough, and where would he go, it was getting dark and it was very cold out.  He said he was old enough to look after himself, which I disagreed with.

If I could live that episode again, I would handle it better. I would ask him to calm down (which would probably do not good) and say, I am sorry to hear you feel that way. Please can we talk sensibly about this when you have calmed down.  We can have a sensible conversation about what has happened and what we can do to improve things for the future.

What happened was, I stood my ground, blocking the door, and he backed off (phew!), and locked himself in our bedroom.  He refused to come out. He did not have his phone or laptop, as I had taken all these away from him earlier for fighting with Jasmine. I got on to the phone to Dave, to find out when he would be back, was crying on the phone..... how awful I felt, not in control of the situation and having my son reject us all.....I tried to put it down to hormones, but was it just hormones, were we really that terrible to live with?

I checked Jasmine was ok, and gave her a cuddle, as she had come out to cuddle me, when she heard me crying on the phone to Dave. She said, don't cry mummy. I wonder who's looking after whom sometimes, but guess the answer is that we all look after each other.  We talked and I asked if she could try to be a bit tidier in her bedroom as she was sharing with Mitch, and that was one of his biggest bugbears, that Jas cannot keep her side of the bedroom tidy. Jasmine said she would try. Then she tried to coax Mitch out of my bedroom with no success.

By the time Dave returned, all was calm, Mitch still locked away, Jasmine on the sofa with me. Dave got into the bedroom by taking off the chain to the door from the outside. Mitch went and locked himself in the bathroom then.... I had visions of him self harming....but also thought he was too sensible for that. Whilst he was in there, Dave and I discussed what we could do about the sleeping arrangements, perhaps Jasmine could share our bedroom, giving Mitch his own room. Jasmine said she would go and sleep in the bathroom! It would only be for another 4.5 months, when our lease on this apartment will end.  We will look for a 3 bedroomed apartment or townhouse...Do not worry, we weren't going to let her sleep in her bathroom, hehehehe

Eventually, he came out, and had some food, though I knew he had no appetite, neither did the rest of us really.  We had a family meeting then, and everyone was fairly calm, I apologised to Mitch for shouting at him earlier and not managing the situation well.  Mitchell had his say, Jasmine contributed a bit and some decisions were made re laptop use during school days, general tidiness of their bedroom and how we all have to practice just a little bit more tolerance and patience, but only for a while longer. Dave was calm throughout, like a referee.

Sigh, family life, full of strife at times. Kids growing up, becoming more independent and being assertive. When conflicts occur, fights are not the answer, conflict resolution is. Sometimes though emotions run high and all hell breaks loose....not nice to witness or be part of...

I am writing this about 2 days later, all is calm again, Mitch and Jas are still in the same room, hope the waves stay calm, the volcano dormant and no tsunamis are forecast......

I have learnt from this experience and should anything like this happen again, well, I will try to diffuse the situation before it escalates, but if it does, I will strive to stay calm, and talk things through sensibly. Most of all, I want the children to realise that their feelings and opinions count, they are what makes us a family, and we should stick together, through thick and thin, even if we don't like each other every now and again. We are stuck with each other, we do not get to choose our families.....

Resume the Resumé

Resume? Resume what? Resume writing my resume. I have had to rewrite my resumé as I hadn't updated my old one.  I started writing it back in the summer when I was back in Nottingham and struggled with it. Somehow trying to write down what it was I did at work was so difficult. What did I do at work?? All those years as a nurse and midwife? All the different nursing roles I have held and positions not to mention responsibilities. What about skills, as nurses we have so many, to precis it all down to one page for everything??? Education, qualification, sell yourself on one page, that's what resumés are support to do.

Anyhow, I finally sat down to write one today, with some help from the Service Canada Job Bank website, a resumé builder was available on there. I've not written one for a nursing position, as I cannot practise as a nurse as yet, still waiting for my licence to practice to be granted. The resumé builder is great, and it gives you various examples, and suggestions on what to include in your resumé. There is also a template for a cover letter. So, I finished it and printed it out, yippeeeee, gonna put it in an envelope and take it to Yogatree sometime next week.

There are 2 options that I have considered. One, working for a local supermarket, local being about 6kms away, but I really like that supermarket, and two, my local yoga centre,  about a block away, walking distance which is better.  I enquired at both and both want a resumé, so I had to get one done, nothing like a bit of motivation!  I have decided that I need to get a part time job to help save for our tickets back to Malaysia. About time I went back to work.  Have been feeling guilty about not contributing to the family finances for a while.

I really want to work at the Yogatree, here's a link to their website, http://www.yogatree.ca  I have written about them before but just in case you're interested.... It's a lovely studio and very convenient to get to, the hours are part time, and will fit in with the family.  With the supermarket, it's a bus or car ride away, and if I got a job there, I was going to work at the weekends only, maybe just a Saturday or Sunday for the whole day, which would mean one family day less at the weekend. Needs must I guess, we have done it before, and it's not too bad, Mitch and Jasmine are at an age where they are beginning to decline coming out with us. Of course, I may have to work at the weekends too at Yogatree, but at least it's not so far to travel to, though 5km is no distance, but as I have no car at the moment, and it's too cold and snowy to cycle, I would have to rely on Dave or public transport.

Am off to bed now, I am going to attempt to change the name on my health card again tomorrow, a trip down to midtown, and hopefully meet up with Barbara after. Barbara was a friend of a friend's who's English. We got in touch and have since become good friends. She took me on a few walks downtown, introducing me to Toronto.  watch this space...... tomorrow may be the last of Sun Yin Chong!

I was reading Jeannie's blog earlier and she'd had a busy day and said she led a boring life, I commented that she should live mine, which is truly boring! LOL....

Knitting for the twins

My neighbour 3 floors below me is expecting twin boys on the Feb 14th, Valentine's day, but I think they will be delivered before then. She is about 35+ weeks and the last scan showed them to weigh about 5.5lbs each, they are hugging each other in the 69 position, but both lying in the transverse, so an elective caesarean may be necessary if they do not move.

I began knitting for them not long ago and bought some easy care soft baby wool in double knitting/DK to work with.  I decided to make a couple of hats, some booties or shoes and some mittens.  There are so many things I would like to make, I love making baby things as they do not take much time, and the results are always pleasing. Cute little things.

I decided to make the bear hat pattern that came with the yarn, and it required knitting in a round which I love doing as there's hardly any need to do a purl stitch, every knit row turns out as stocking stitch.  So I started off making the lining of the hat, cast on 8 stitches and divided them equally onto 3 double pointed needles, and knitted with a 4th. It's a bit fiddly knitting with so few stitches on 4 needles, but luckily stitches were increased rapidly.

the marker marks the start of the round

Knitting in rounds produce a stocking stitch and the lining was beginning to look like a hat

Round and round we go till the correct number of stitches were increased for the main body of the hat.

To prove that it was me doing the knitting, Dave took this rather unflattering photograph of me.

Happy knitting, but not happy about pic!

I have not knitted a hat with a lining before, and so when the lining was done, I then had to knit the same amount in the main colour, in light green but in reverse. It made quite a sturdy hat, will keep the baby's head very warm, but I think it will be too big for a new born... I will make some smaller items for the twins, till they grow into the hats.

Main body of the lining, a long way to go still

 Here is the finished item, the ears were knitted separately and sewed on. The mouth was embroidered in stem stitch with some scrap yarn I had, and the eyes were buttons I sewed on securely. I don't really like using buttons for baby things for fear they come off and the babies choke on them. You know how they put everything in their mouths.

I put the hat on one of Jasmine's soft toys to see what it would look like on a head

Hat on toy mouse

I also made some little shoes/booties, very simple pattern, all in garter stitch, knits up and sewed in no time at all, I think they look quite cute, they are so small, wonder if they will fit. Dave says they will, I have forgotten how small baby's feet can be....

Here's an image of baby's feet, back to knitting, lots more to finish before the twins arrive...

cute or what?

Chong Sun Yin Revisited

This morning, I spent about 3.5 hours being Chong Sun Yin. For those of you who have been following my blog, you know that Ontario Health had got my name wrong on my Health Card and I failed to get it corrected due to systems being down when I last tried.  I had to have some bloods taken, and EKG (ECG), mammogram and bone density scan, all this an outcome of having registered with a family doctor here, she wanted a baseline to work from.

Ontario Health had said I could go ahead and use the card, and just go down to their offices, a 2 bus and subway journey, when convenient to get my name changed. As I mentioned earlier, the last time I went, systems were down. So, for health purposes, I am known as Chong Sun Yin for now.  

When you need to have bloods taken here, you have to go to the labs to get this done, it's not taken at the doctor's surgery. Same as the ECG- done at the same place as the lab. The mammogram and bone density imaging was done in the same building, so I decided to have all these investigations done on the same morning.

I cannot say my experience was a positive one but I am kinda getting bored with moaning about Canada on here.  Suffice to say that the technicians need to learn how to smile. The receptionists too need to learn how to smile, it doesn't cost anything, and it makes such a difference.  I did get a smile out of my phlebotomist, when I mixed up my birthdate...Canadians write the month first, then day then year.

As I am living in an area that is heavily populated by Chinese people, it is assumed that I can speak some Chinese.... this may be so, but receptionists should not assume that all Chinese looking people can speak Chinese! I can speak enough Cantonese to get by, but know very little medical terminology in Cantonese....

Having been on the giving end of the health system in the UK for years, and occasionally on the receiving end, I find myself mostly on the receiving end here.  I was called in for my bone density scan, and the male technician was fairly pleasant, asked me a few questions, whether I'd ever had this sort of scan before, when my last period was, my height and weight. Then he invited me to lay on the couch which had a scanner attached like an overhead arm. He explained that 2 scans would be done, one of my spine, and the other of my pelvis. Very good.. all done and dusted. Waiting times were good, I had arrived an hour early for my appointment as the bloods took less time than I had expected. I was scanned about 20 minutes of arrival.

I then waited for my mammogram, and this was a longer wait. I think the appointment time was for the mammogram, as this time came and went, and my name was not called, even though I was still in a hospital gown. Anyhow, I got called eventually, the technician had called for me in the waiting room, and I was waiting in the changing area... Chong Sun Yin, Chong Sun Yin? she called, I said I am here from the dressing area. Oh, she said and noticed I was already in a gown. Without another word, but expecting me to follow her, she showed me into the room and told me that 4 views would be taken, 2 of each breast. She asked me if I have ever had a mammogram, I said no, as they do not perform them routinely in England until a woman reached the age of 55. No reply from her. Oh my god, woman! Just not much eye contact, no rapport .... she was busy I guess, she was there to perform a mammogram, not chit chat all day, what was Chong Sun Yin thinking??? She was thinking, that the health service in this place stinks, patients are not welcomed or greeted with a smile, patients are expected to be grateful that they given any investigations whatsoever.  She explained what was going to happen, first we will take this view, one breast at a time, you will stand here, head look there, and the plates will squish down on your breast, then the other view, your arm pit here, head there and again the plates will squish your breast, if you hold your breath the pictures will be better.

Now, what she didn't explain or tell me was that she was going to have to manhandle my breasts in order for them to be positioned correctly on the plates... now, I should've known this from my Marie Curie's breast screening course that I did about 5 years ago, but I had forgotten till she started pulling me, not by the nipples thank goodness, but a lot of pulling, shoving of shoulders, clamping my hand on the other breast that wasn't being scanned to hold it out of the way of the plates, etc etc.  I know it was necessary, but she could have prepared me a bit better.  

Perhaps I have become too westernised, where I do not consider any medical, paramedical personnel to be god. They do not have a right to treat my body parts like a lump of flesh, well, I know it is a lump of flesh, but it is mine and you will ask for permission before you pull, push or shove any bit of it! I felt really violated... which is odd for me, because I have no qualms about being naked for examinations, I am very comfortable in my own skin, I do not mind cervical cytology, breast examinations, anything like that is fine as long as I am told exactly what is going to happen.

I was in quite a bit of discomfort, and mammograms can hurt, but I was already hurting from yoga yesterday, not to mention from skiing last week. My pectorals and shoulders were sore after all those planks I did at yoga yesterday... I was not a happy bunny, and could not wait for the whole thing to end. Not once through the whole procedure did she bother to ask if I was ok. The technician did not smile at all, all the time I was in with her.... how can people not smile??? I cannot comprehend, she was a fellow Chinese woman too, I am ashamed to say.

Do the Chinese people in this country put up with this because they do not know any better, or are they in awe of the medical profession and all it's paramedical subsidiaries?  Is it like this for all Canadians? I have come to the conclusion that I have become a sissy whilst living in the UK, and that I need explanations before procedures, and that I am not in awe of blooming medical personnel, and that I respond better if people would just smile and reassure me.

I am borrowing a quote from Choy Yuen, a friend of mine in Malaysia, she posted this on Facebook

Today,give a stranger one of your smiles.it might be the only sunshine he sees all day- H.Jackson Brown,Jr.

I was having routine tests, I wasn't ill. If I was ill and anxious and had to have all these tests, I think I would have sat down and cried........

The health care providers in this place could learn a lot from their colleagues in the UK, but I doubt they will bother, not for the Chinese health workers anyhow...

This is just my experience at one of the private companies providing a service for Ontario Health.......I hope this does not happen in the UK, with the government wanting more and more private providers to serve the NHS.


Update, Jan 5th, 2011.


I have since spoken to some friends about my experience and they said I was unlucky and that the majority of healthcare providers are courteous and friendly and they explain everything.  Sorry Canada, slagging you off like that. In my defence, I did say it was my experience in my neighbourhood which is predominantly Chinese.  I have hope in my heart and happy that others are getting the care they deserve.