wasting time, wasting money and the book of mormon

Good news people - for the first time in 6 weeks I do not have a headache! It is amazing, I had forgotten how nice it is to be able to see clearly and not be in pain. I have no idea how long it will last, but at this moment in time I actually feel OK! I mean my neck and shoulder are still pretty painful, as is my right knee but it is definitely a step in the right direction.

However this is not down to any physiotherapy. Oh no, that is something I got very grumpy about. I went down to my local GP practice on Thursday as planned for my physio appointment, checked in and took my uncomfortable seat in the waiting room. And then I waited...and waited...and waited until almost an hour had passed. When I went back to the reception desk to query my unusually long wait I was told the physiotherapist was off that day. So why did the reception staff let me check in and then leave me sat there for an hour when they already knew she was off ill?! Pissed off doesn't even come close and I am drafting a letter to send to the practice manager about this.
On the plus side my wait did give me a good chance to observe the other people in the waiting room and three things in particular stood out:

I live in an area with a large muslim population (it was 50% at the last census and has risen since then) and as such there are quite a few women in the area who sport the ultimate sun protection look which leaves only the eyes visible (and in some cases even these are hidden). So I was quite surprised when one of these ladies, dressed literally head to toe in black walked into the waiting room and was immediately recognised by another woman across the room who called her straight over for a chat. How did she know who it was?

I was also amused by the conversation of two men who were sat on the chairs behind me, who were discussing some building work one of them had recently had done. The man whose property had been extended was not happy about the quality of the work, so the other man asked a few more questions and advised the man to take the builder to the small claims court. The first man replied that he couldn't do that because he had been refused planning permission for his extension and so had hired an immigrant friend of his to do the work illegally, cash in hand! The phrase "you reap what you sow" comes to mind.

The last thing made me more angry though. The woman who sat next to me in the waiting room was a muslim lady who took her seat next to me and said hello, took out an English woman's weekly magazine and started to fill in the crossword puzzle. Now I reckon that to read a crossword clue, come up with an answer and correctly fill it in requires a relatively good grasp of the language in question. So imagine my surprise when the doctor called the lady and she said in good, if accented English, that she could not come through until they found her an interpreter.
This makes my blood boil. Firstly, if you do need an interpreter then book one before you arrive for your appointment. Secondly if you do not need an interpreter then don't waste the resources and the money. It costs the NHS millions to provide interpreting services for all the many languages spoken by the people in this country and the experience of friends and relatives working in the NHS is that a large number of people booking interpreters do not actually require one.

Last thing for today, when I was in the city centre earlier I was approached by two besuited Americans who wanted to talk to me about the Book of Mormon. Well, I hesitated for a second, thinking to myself "shall I take them to pieces or shall I just smile and see what they actually have to say?" and I decided to be nice. I am genuinely fascinated by religion, why people believe it, what makes them follow it, how different religions grow and flourish and others fail so I thought I would see if he could tell me anything interesting. My boyfriend however decided to go to town, especially as one of the men was rather rude and aggressive. I stood back and watched the mormon try to argue against the atheist scientist and it was all rather amusing, especially when the mormon actually tried to use the watchmaker argument (rather badly), refused to believe that atheists had emotions such as love and ended up walking away sweating profusely and refusing to talk to us anymore. That really cheered me up a great deal. I got chatting to the other, friendlier mormon and asked him what he hoped to achieve by stopping people in the street. Apparently he is on a two year "mission" to the North of England to spread the word of the Book of Mormon. I asked if I could have a copy of the book to which he called over his colleague, Angry Mormon who extremely begrudgingly handed over a copy. So I now have a new addition for my fantasy fiction shelf along with my bible and my koran. I will let you know when I have read it.