This morning I had to go back to the eye hospital for a post-op checkup. They always run massively behind schedule, so I wasn't overly concerned about running 10 minutes late for my appointment. As it happened, this time, there was even a queue just to check in at reception, and the waiting room was bulging. For the first time a noticed a little sign at reception saying something along the lines of "we know we have long waits, please be patient, we often have emergencies come in, and have to slot them in, and we'll always spend as much time with patients as is required, regardless of the schedule etc etc". I don't have a problem with it too much. I'd rather see the doctor knowing they're going to spend the appropriate amount of time on me, rather than try and rush me in and out in 30 seconds because they're running 30 minutes behind schedule. I actually used the time to do some further work on that assignment, so the wait (about 30 minutes) for me, wasn't an issue at all.
There are always a lot of elderly people in the waiting room. I figure they must do a lot of cataract surgery or something. Today was no exception. There was some particularly old bloke in the waiting room, with a woman who I presumed was his daughter (she seemed too young to be his wife, but she was reasonably old herself). They were bitching and moaning at the top of their lungs (I think because he must have been a bit hard of hearing) about how they'd been there for an hour and twenty minutes. And the bitching and moaning was ongoing. I could have ignored it easier if it wasn't so loud. It really started to irritate me after 10 minutes. Fortunately I didn't have to wait that long, and fortunately they were called in to see their doctor not too much longer after they started irritating me. I don't see the point in getting all worked up about the doctor running late. It just makes you all bitter and twisted, and doesn't make the time pass any faster...
Oh, and I apparently have very near to 20-20 vision now. Yay me.