Kuala Lampur, May 20 -- MAY 20 - "Would you like a cup of tea?"

It was not a question I expected, as I stood there at the entrance of SunnyHills Cafe in Taipei, bedraggled and a little damp after trying (and failing) to figure out the city's buses.

Just 20 minutes prior to arriving at the cafe a harried bus driver had yelled at me for taking too long to get off the bus.

My post-cancer treatment legs were still too stiff; going down steps was and still is a painful affair and while the pain has ebbed a little, the stiffness keeps rushing back like waves to sand.

So I wasn't angry at the bus driver, I couldn't even understand what he was saying.

But from his frustrated tone, I get that he was upset.

If I was a much older woman, if I s...