Chop tye ah

ahma
生日快乐! 我有时间就会立刻把这个文章翻译让你读!
(哈哈。恐怕翻译后会变得太过简单。)
不知道为什么今天就是
很像很像
到你店去玩!


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"Chop Tye Ah"
Dedicated to Ahma.(even though i first wrote it for school)


starting from para2:
“Chop Tye Ah” was the name of my grandfather’s Chinese medicine shop, located on the main streets of Chinatown. I remember visiting the shop regularly as a child. Vague memories often come to mind, of the old wooden signboard that hung over the shop front, with three Chinese characters written from right to left. Along the walls were rows of cupboards containing stones, minerals, metals, plants, herbs, animals, vegetables, fruits, cereal crops of unusual shape and sizes, some looking far from palatable. As a child, I recall squeezing through the many shelves of bizarre objects that towered over me, to eventually find my grandfather amongst the dense space, treating his patients in his cramped, box shaped office. Boasting decades of Chinese medicine practice passed down from my great-grandfather, my grandfather often talked about how he could “understand the full complexity of symptoms and dynamic balances”. (Until today, I have yet to comprehend the meaning of that statement.) Firstly, he would take the patient’s pulse with a light feel to the wrist. “Ah. I see,” he would remark in Chinese, then scribbling down illegible Chinese characters in typical doctors handwriting, on his large black notebook. During his free time, he would allow me to role play as the doctor. I never failed to enjoy doodling on his large notebook, taking his pulse and mimicking his deep voice, “Ah, I see, I see.”

Near the stall front, was where my grandmother worked, packing the medicine that my grandfather had prescribed. Her trusty old equipment was her “ti zhong ji” or Chinese herb scale, which was a plate and pendent made of brass, used to measure herbs and medicine. She would scan the rows of cupboards frantically, looking for an assortment of herbs, later to weigh them and combine them into paper packages for the patients to take home. I often marveled at her ability to find the many plants, herbs, animals, vegetables of all sorts at such a quick pace at her age. For someone in her sixties, she was a perfect living example of the benefits of consuming Chinese medicine, keeping strong and healthy. To lighten her burden, she taught me how to work the cash register, collecting money. With the aid of her shop worker, I did my mathematics, keyed in numbers, collected the money, always feeling the sense of accomplishment with every successful cash-in.

The atmosphere of the shop was often lively, with the shop workers constant shouts, “Pass me the dried seahorses!” or “This customer wants to buy top grade birdsnest!” Every time I visited, it was practically stepping into a world with exotic bizarre findings and weird encounters, always interesting, always refreshing. However, slowly, with time, the customer numbers decreased, so did the shop earnings. Perhaps people lost interest and belief in traditional medicine, choosing to opt for western treatment over Chinese. Thus, it was inevitable that “Chop Tye Ah” had to close, raking in greater losses than earnings. I was just twelve at that time, but truly devastated at the news, for that was a place that brought so many memories, of carefree days, frolicking and playing among the rows of cupboards and examining the bizarre. On the last day of business, my grandmother gave me a dried seahorse. I recall the deep feeling of loss as she said “Girl ah, this seahorse cannot import already, extinct already.” The shop, just like the seahorse, it was to be extinct, gone.

The bubble tea shop and “Hang Ten” clothing store that has since replaced my grandfathers medicine store often makes me smirk when I pass by its store front. They seem so out of place next to other businesses selling ethnic clothing or traditional Chinese delicacies. But they are a fond reminder of the “Chop Tye Ah” which used to stand in its place. Those memories can never be erased even if the shop is gone. I will continue to find them in the heart of Chinatown.

“Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”

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(Sometimes..)

Cut off some of the beginning.
Sorry for the abrupt start,
some really minor made up details
and mediocre writing i rushed to finish:)
(I'm wishing i wrote up to my p6 standard, it was better then seriously.)



Thank you God for creating today,
and for creating me special