If I had a £1 or a $1 for every Zit I'd had in my life I would have.......well maybe not enough to buy a house, but certainly a half decent Car. I was thinking this inain thought the other day as I waited in the Doctors Surgery. It's a modern building, clean almost sterile. An attempt has been made to make it Child and Adult friendly but like so many newer designs the Architect had clearly never taken the trouble to sit in a waiting room and just look, think and feel. One would have thought that at sometime they had sat waiting somewhere for something, maybe they were so worried about the something that they didn't think to look and analyse the somewhere.
Apart from the poor Zit covered teenager who I had spent the last 1/2 an hour facing there were the rather obvious collection of patients waiting in a resigned dignified silence. Each like me hoping the electric board that displays a name along with making a nasty zapping twang that blares each time the Doctor summoned the next victim would display theirs. Every time the tinnie sound emitted it caused us all to jump a little, heads swung upwards eyes scanning the board, disappointment followed by frustration for all but one lucky soul who moved towards the door conscious that all eyes were on them.
Finally my name flashed up, I rose up and tried to stroll nontantly to the Consulting Room. It's noticeable that the Doctors are all beginning to look younger than me........this does worry me a little.....do they really know there stuff? Pops into my mind, unbidden, uncalled for but it does nag away.
The Doc was a nice chap, mid/late 20's, he welcomed me and gestured to the vacant seat. The normal formalities were observed before I explained my problem, there then followed a very quick diagnosis and before I knew it I was the other side of the door clutching a prescription and an old man was pushing past me; eager to enter.
Waiting in a Doctors waiting room can evoke the same feelings for me that I get at a Munch. I know strange but true........We went to a Munch a few nights ago and as we arrived I realised that we didn't know anyone. Sometimes I'm really good at mixing and engaging with new people, other times I'm not. Unfortunately this was one of the latter and I struggled. In this case I could fathom out why.........a few days ago one of my Engineers died. He was at his home late at night......not even 60. He was a lovely man who would do anything for anyone. The thing that has made it worse is that apart from being a Top Bloke, he was a disaster with money, even worse so was/is his Wife. There isn't enough money to lay him to rest! He had been on long term sick leave and had been receiving SSP, that's a reduced monthly amount that comes from me, his boss, I then get it back from the Government. It's not perfect but it's more than many get in the world. I've now fiddled it so that he got a full months wage, I've then had to get the bank to let me draw his wages out in cash. In the UK it's getting harder to draw out large amount of cash due to the money laundering law. I had to jump through hoops to get the cash. It had to be cash because if I'd just given him a cheque it would have been swallowed up with all the debts.
Please don't think I'm trying to impress, I'm not, I feel it's my duty and honour to help. The funeral is going to be hard, the young trainee will struggle, it's his first one.
My final thought is that you really never know when your times up. My kind, warm hearted Engineer has gone, he will have died not doing all he ever wanted to, we all will suffer with that problem. I guess the main think is to do as much as you can as fast as you can, it may be an old cliché but none the less true.
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