Liver heat and lower back dampness

Chinglish Chick and I had a zen weekend involving fasting, acupuncture and getting our Chi moving. Dr Dow, a veritable Chinese medicine doctor from Beijing, visits CC's mum's best friend for Buddhist purification rituals twice yearly. He treats practioners and from 7am to 7pm daily on four makeshift acupuncture tables ie the kitchen table covered with holly hobbit bedsheets and a pillow etc. For the fully initiated, the cleansing ceremony consists of five days of acupuncture along with a five-day fast involving drinking only hot water with honey and one red date per day. As novitiates, CC and I didn't quite make it that far.

For the curious here is the weekend in a nutshell:
One bowl of fishball soup from the local noodle joint for Nahawna

One mocha ice cream from JP Licks for Chinglish Chick (it tasted like soya sauce so technically it's still in keeping with the Zen weekend theme)

Two days of acupuncture where the only thing that was flowing faster than our Chi was the cash leaving our pocketbooks into the adept hands of Dr Dow.

Three diagnoses of blocked Chi between the two of us: A weak left side for Chinglish Chick and liver heat and lower back dampness for me.

Five translations required for a conversation between me and the acupuncture practitioner: Mandarin -> Cantonese -> English -> Cantonese -> Mandarin. Needless to say our exchanges were brief.

Eight a lucky number in China. Also the number of days of relentless rain in Boston and the temperature outside.

Thirteen hours of fasting. That's right we didn't last a full day. In fact we only made it down the steps and around the corner from our last treatment before scoffing down a mini hazelnut tart each.