A WACKY WAITING ROOM

An hour ago, I had two protruberances of the kind you acquire with age - well, phooey, age, I'm not playing! - burned off my forehead, for the sake of fair vanity rather than health, I should add. This was a three- minute procedure but the waiting time was three hours!

However, the waiting room was great fun: everyone greets everyone else, which we wouldn't bother to do in Britain, being more inclined to just sit there like statues, then the newcomer ambles through to inform the nurse of his / her arrival. More salutations ensue when he / she returns to take a seat and of course we are also kept busy wishing a "buona sera" to all who come out of the doctor's room. So there is no time to read a book or a magazine, what with all this head-nodding and politeness!

Sicilians in general having more pazienza than us northern folk, no one seemed worried about the wait until about 8pm., at which juncture we all started asking each other what time our appointments had been made for. [Mine had been 5.15 pm!] Every now and then , the nurse would appear to call the next patient in or, more often, call someone for il controllo - a check-up on a previous procedure not requiring an appointment - and you gradually lost heart. At precisely 8.10 pm., a lady came in and announced that her appointment was for 8.15 and we all fell about laughing! So, after checking the waiting time with the nurse [which none of the rest of us had had the sense to do] she and her family sensibly repaired to the bar across the street.

Anyway, finally I was "in and done" and everyone was very kind and full of apologies for the delay. I've been here long enough now to be grateful once I am attended to and I have to say that once you are seen you are not in any way rushed, are encouraged to ask questions and you come away feeling that you have had very good care - which, indeed, you have.