This morning I got up early to walk to the doctors’ surgery for a routine matter. It was a fine morning to be out and about early.
At the surgery I came across contrasting examples of human behaviour.
First the positive, outgoing stuff: a young lady (any age in her twenties or thirties, I suppose - it’s very hard to tell these days) told me how nice my trousers were. (We laughed at the fact that I had had to chop an inch or two off the bottom and re-hem them. So called “regular” trousers are much too long in present fashion and ai can’t be doing with trousers that scrape along the pavement, not at all practical in our usual weather, and not even in the unusual sunshine we have at the moment. She sympathised and said she has the same problem - short legs! Well, no, in neither case are the legs disproportionately short; it’s just that they make trousers very long.) Then my doctor asked if I had had my hair cut and said how nice it looked. Two compliments in one morning: not at all bad!
Then the negative side of things. I came out of my doctor’s room and headed for the reception desk to arrange something. A small amount of chaos was going on there. A queue had formed, as it often does, despite the surgery having an electronic, computerised check-in for those with appointments. There was a certain amount of shouting going on, centred around a rather dishevelled elderly gentleman with a walking frame and a couple of rather bossy people.
It transpired that the old chap had come into the surgery, looked around and gone straight to the head of the queue to ask for information of some kind. The couple, who could not called young but less old than the dishevelled chap, were telling him off, pointing out that there WAS a queue, that THEY had been waiting patiently (which I doubt, given how grumpy they were) and he had come along and PUSHED IN, and at his age he SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER! When the old gent something about this being his first time in the surgery and that he had been told to report to reception, they set about him again, exclaiming in amazement that HE WAS NOT EVEN FROM AROUND HERE! They went on and on, berating the old chap while the receptionist tried to sort out his needs.
Eventually the receptionist found out that old chap should have been in Greenfield, a few miles down the road, not in Uppermill at all. Could she call him a taxi, the old chap asked. No problem! Well, yes, because the angry couple now exclaimed about his expecting the receptionist to be a taxi service too! I had to bite my tongue as a part of me wanted to tell the couple (who seemed to be about my own age) that at their age they should know better than to go on and on and on in that fashion to a rather confused and not very mobile person. But I kept quiet, probably thus avoiding a similar tongue-lashing!
Another member of the queue told him his taxi was waiting and yet another made sure he knew where he was going and helped him deal with the doors. A little kindness goes a long way!
Here’s a link to an article about what’s wrong with shouting at children. I think the same goes for shouting at old people, or indeed at anyone in your queue!
I went on my way, did a bit of shopping and caught the bus home
Here’s a story about a student who was rescued from the slopes of Mount Fuji, Japan … not once but twice:
“A university student has been rescued from the slopes of Mount Fuji of twice in the space of a week – the second time during an attempt to retrieve his mobile phone.
The hapless climber, a 27-year-old Chinese national who has not been named, was airlifted from Japan’s highest mountain last week, only to be the subject of a second search four days later.
It emerged that he had returned to the scene of his first rescue to retrieve his phone, Japanese media reported.
The student, who lives in Japan, was found on Saturday by another off-season climber on a trail more than 3,000 metres (9,800 ft) above sea level.
“He was suspected of having altitude sickness and was taken to hospital,” a police spokesperson said on Monday.”
That’s how important en influential our mobile phones are!
And now, here is a list of words to pronounce as if they were the names of famous ancient Greeks - think Sophocles, Androcles, and so on:
Articles Barnacles Bicycles Chronicles Icicles Monocles (clearly then older brother of Spectacles) Obstacles Particles Tentacles Vehicles and Ventricles.
Isn’t language fun! Enjoy them!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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