It is a little depressing, yet a sign of the times, to sit down in a doctor's waiting room, to find, along with the usual magazines, a collection of novels. I am sure there are places and situations where appointments are managed well, but it seems that these places are getting fewer and further between. As it happens this morning's appointment was only a few minutes late, but we were the early birds and would not normally expect the hefty delays associated with our overburdened NHS.
I was brought up to be punctual and polite. The latter tends to slip now and then but I always strive to be punctual to the extent that I am usually early for everything. When we lived on the Isle of Wight, it was a bit of a joke that whenever we went away, we were always back in plenty of time for an earlier ferry than the on we had booked.
We wait for everything it seems. Buses and trains rarely arrive on schedule, we sit in traffic queues for hours, ferries are held up by weather conditions and immigrants desperately trying to get into the country. We wait for hours at airports, both in attempting to leave and in returning to the country, and we wait to be served in shops pubs and restaurants.
On the other hand, some facets of our lives have improved and waiting times have all but disappeared. Online purchases often arrive within a day, and TV programs can be accessed at any time with ease and no more do we wait for movies to be sent by post, they are watchable at the touch of a button.
What would we do with the time that is wasted waiting? Very little I suspect, we all seem to dash around from place to place or from job to job, slaves to the clock and desperate to save time. Whatever we do the time will pass and that, there is nothing we can do about.
I was brought up to be punctual and polite. The latter tends to slip now and then but I always strive to be punctual to the extent that I am usually early for everything. When we lived on the Isle of Wight, it was a bit of a joke that whenever we went away, we were always back in plenty of time for an earlier ferry than the on we had booked.
We wait for everything it seems. Buses and trains rarely arrive on schedule, we sit in traffic queues for hours, ferries are held up by weather conditions and immigrants desperately trying to get into the country. We wait for hours at airports, both in attempting to leave and in returning to the country, and we wait to be served in shops pubs and restaurants.
On the other hand, some facets of our lives have improved and waiting times have all but disappeared. Online purchases often arrive within a day, and TV programs can be accessed at any time with ease and no more do we wait for movies to be sent by post, they are watchable at the touch of a button.
What would we do with the time that is wasted waiting? Very little I suspect, we all seem to dash around from place to place or from job to job, slaves to the clock and desperate to save time. Whatever we do the time will pass and that, there is nothing we can do about.
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