Waiting

I've had several NHS appointments where waiting seems to be the norm & is just taken as routine. Fine, I suppose, if you are retired like me, but patients do have lives to live & places to be. A patient being kept waiting for a long time may well have a knock on effect on work colleagues, friends & family.

I've also waited interminably for buses which don't arrive because of the horrendous traffic problems in and around Oxford. It is literally gridlock in all directions.

I had to chase up an order for made to measure curtains & a pole from a well known UK store. Quite a long delay & then the pole doesn't fit the window, despite being measured by them. I'm now waiting to find out what they are going to do about it 2 months after the initial order.

My new, under guarantee, second hand, car, supposedly MOT'd & serviced by a national dealership was very noisy at speed & then made a loud noise from the rear going over bumps. Again I had to chase them up & am now waiting for the repair at the beginning of November.

I could go on, but what's the point? I'm sure we can all relate to this. It is the new normal to have to wait, for something or someone. The thing I find tiresome isn't actually the waiting. I take a book if I'm going to a NHS appointment & enjoy having some downtime to read for example.

What I find irritating is the casual acceptance that it's OK to keep someone waiting for something. Plus the fact that it isn't routine to keep people informed as to why there is a delay & how long it will be.

I can be calm & accepting if I know what is happening. I can be very reasonable & understanding if there is a mistake & an apology. What I can't be is anything other than very irritated if those considerate & polite behaviours are conspicuous by their absence. Then I can be a force to be reckoned with!

Of course I am in God's waiting room & who knows how long that will be.