This morning I got up in the dark, something I have not done for while. The various arrangements and rearrangements to see my doctor for a routine appointment had ended up with my having an appointment at 7.45 this morning. So I duly climbed out of my warm nest in the dark, got washed and dressed and headed out in the fading dark to the bus stop at the crossroads. I had calculated that if I caught the bus that goes all around the houses, through just about every out of the way twist and turn, at the crossroads at around 7.15, I should arrive in Uppermill in time to stroll comfortably up to the clinic without having to wait around for long in the cold. Because, boy! was it cold! My weather app said -3°! The bus arrived on time - so far so good - but at the usual left turn towards Dobcross centre it carried straight on. It turns out that there are roadworks on one of the more distant bits of the bus route and they were just not going there.
Consequently I was in Uppermill centre before 7.30 and it was still very cold! I walked round the block a few times to keep warm and then went and paced around by the entrance to the surgery. 7.45 came … and went … and the surgery remained firmly closed with only the merest light right at the back.
Meanwhile there were some very colourful clouds i the sky as the sun struggled to rise.
The doors eventually opened at 7.55. Minimal apologies from my GP but all was well. Mind you, it seems to me that if they are going to send you a text, received yesterday, reminding you to arrive promptly for your appointment, the least they can do is let you in out of the arctic cold conditions.
Afterwards I walked to Tesco in nearby Greenfield, bought various odds and ends and made my way back to Uppermill, where by that time the fishman had set up his stall at the market and I was able to buy fish and catch the next bus home in time for a mid-morning breakfast.
The other day I wrote about Iceland and their fears that their language might disappear. Today I read that an organisation called the European Language Equality Network organised a conference in Barcelona, attended by representatives of around 60 minority languages to discuss what it means to lose a language, and what it takes to save it. The speakers of those languages do not regard them as “minority”, by the way, but “minoritised”, hardly surprising as many of them have been banned in the past. The different attitudes to these languages, on the part of the speakers themselves, is interesting and varied. All recognise the importance of keeping their specific culture alive but some regard it as a holy thing fixed in time, like a fly caught in amber, that must be preserved intact and pure, allowing no influences from outside while others recognise that it is a living thing and must evolve, as do all the majority languages. Here’s a link to an article about it.
Something else in danger of extinction is, apparently, the living room. How can that be? Many young, and increasingly not so very young, certainly past student age, people rent a single room in a house, usually at an extortionate price. In these shared dwellings it is very hard for the housemates to become true housemates as there is no communal area, other than maybe a small kitchen, too small for true social interaction. And so isolation and depression set in. Problems of modern living! Here’s a link to an article about it.
Sometimes it’s a relief, no, a privilege, to have been young when we were!
Life goes on, stay safe and well, everyone!
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