Yesterday was such a glorious moment: blue sky, a light breeze, smiling people. I even managed to take the camera out for a little spin; after the flatmate's inner ear required the attention of a doctor.
Living in one of the noisiest parts of town, you get used to inserting earplugs on a nightly basis. But on this occasion, it would seem the plug insertion was carried out a little bit too forcefully. Personally I put it down to a simple case of the flatmate overstressing the body the week before.
The options were:
- going to the local gp as emergency and waiting nearly four hours to get seen, or
- trying out the nhs walk-in clinic tucked away just off the main road in victoria.
Luckily there's a direct bus (which on this occasion looked as if it hadn't been cleaned since it was introduced) route. Twenty minutes later we walked in to a practically deserted, modern, clean, fresh smelling reception, with (and this caused a little stumble) an actual smiling receptionist; who took down the details and said the flatmate should be seen in about 15 minutes. It took ten. Ten minutes on the NHS to walk-in and be seen. People came, people left and the doctors and nurses quietly, efficiently, went about their duties.
Even heard one person upon leaving, congratulating the receptionist, "I didn't know you were here, but I'll be using you in future."
And there's the rub.
It's currently good, efficient, with a relaxing - almost healing - atmosphere because it's not stretched to capacity. Once that happens, it will end up like any other gp's surgery. Everyone bad tempered, cursing the day they set foot in, and with a two week plus waiting list.
But the pictures. Not of the surgery but of a couple of other lines that caught my eye...
Which ended in a glorious moon...
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