Flu No Bird

Posted byYan Sham-ShackletonPosted inGlutter's Hong Kong

Hong Kong.

I have caught the flu, it should not be a big deal because it’s just a pain in the butt thing and it will go away. Except here in Hong Kong, having the flu makes people so wary of you. The woman in the lunch place just glared at me everytime I sneezed, as if I was about to spread death and destruction of SARS to her and her whole family.

I called my friend and said, “Hi, I wodt e able to madke it to tolighht. I have the wrdr flu.”

“You have the BIRD flu?” He said,

“No! I have the worse flu!” I say coughing in the phone.

“Whatever it is, you stay home, I don’t want to catch it just in case.”

I know he was joking but all these were diseases going around is really strange. How do I know I don’t have it?

Published by Yan Sham-Shackleton

Yan Sham-Shackleton is a Hong Kong writer who lives in Los Angeles. This is her old blog Glutter written mostly in Hong Kong from 2003 to 2007. Although it was a personal blog, Yan focused a lot on free speech issues and democratic movement in Hong Kong. She moved to the US in 2007.

8 thoughts on “Flu No Bird”

  5. oh take care there, yan!
    the weather is kinda fxxked up these days, many of my students are sick too…and all the teachers are required to record our body temperature every single day at school.
    today my assistant coughed (coz she choked only) once she got into the office, then the receptionist kindly gave her a gift right away — MASK!! laugh

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  7. Good point.
    I wouldn’t want the next time any of you hear about me is through the news:
    “The New Killer Disease that has once again taken over Hong Kong and brought panic and economic downturn has been traced back to one female living in the western district. How she caught it remains unknown.”
    No, that is not how i want to be remembered, destroying my home city because some strain of flu mutated into me.
    Sigh…
    Y

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  8. I had the West Nile virus for about two weeks during the summer…
    Get enough rest, Yan. And drink plenty of fluids, preferrably see-through fluids with vitamin C. Take care of yourself; your health is priority during this time… My thoughts are with you.

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