Which way?

 

We were just going out of the door when the phone rang.”

I was sitting in our local pub having lunch when a couple about my age came in. They were dressed smartly.

“The voice on the other end said that my hospital appointment for this morning had been cancelled.”

The bartender listened politely and took their order for a meal. The hospital’s loss had been his gain. They had nothing else to do so they had decided to eat out. But it must have been disappointing for them when they were all ready for an appointment.

I remember once I went for day surgery and did not find out until I arrived that my operation had been cancelled. The ward had been flooded overnight and they were busy ringing round but had not got to ‘T’ yet so I did not know. And there I was complete with high hopes and hospital bag. But it was no one’s fault and I had to go home and wait.

We had to wait on the motorway too when we went to Yorkshire last weekend. I chose to go on Sunday because I thought that it would be quiet. Not many lorries travel on Sundays I thought. But what I had not thought about was that often road repairs are done on Sundays to avoid disruption to businesses.

Our Sat Nav told us to turn off to an industrial estate, but we were heading for the M62 and so we ignored its instructions. It did not make any sense. On we went until the traffic started to build up and we almost came to a standstill. Then there was a sign that the motorway was closed and that we had to take the next tuning off. The Industrial Estate started to look attractive all of a sudden. We were directed in a big loop and for a while we were heading back west again when we wanted to go east.

“We are going in the wrong direction,” I shouted. But soon all was well because we were told to turn off onto the M62 going in the correct direction. We were looking forward to seeing the sea and eating fish and chips!

Have you noticed that some people are looking forward to Christmas already? I went to a garden Centre up in Yorkshire and they have cleared out stocks and replaced them with lights and baubles already. Then when we arrived home, I had a letter headed ‘Christmas starts here’. It was a catalogue full of phrases like ‘Stars of the show, a taste of things to come and drum roll…’. We are going in that direction whether we are ready or not.