have i yet mentioned that my housemates are from the school of public health? "ah, singapore, we know all about medishield and medisave," they and their friends say to me each time i am introduced, and in fact, one reveals he'd written a paper on medisave and medishield for the WHO several years ago. i quickly tell him about the new medishield coverage for babies, because he can't know about that yet, and i happen to have taken an interest in the announcement two weeks ago, but the experience is surreal and, initially, unnerving. "do you have medisave?" one asked me, and, when i replied in the negative, immediately followed with "because you haven't worked yet?" we've become so used to people (sometimes even very learned ones) thinking we are somewhere in china, that for others to toss around knowledge about us that is both specific and specialised is unexpected and i find myself quite overcome.