20th
Rant On
So, today I delivered my poop sample and gave blood. Results back Wed for poop, but upto 2 weeks for blood. Strange.
While in the doctors waiting room I was reminded of my pet peeve. Contractual inequality. Why should it be that the organisation is always given preference over the individual. This applies as much to social contracts as it does to written contracts. For example, I bust a gut to arrive at the doctors prior to my appointment, but the nurse makes my wait 20 mins. This is an okay day, past medical experience has seen me wait for over an hour. Being a nice guy I accept this without comment, as I appreciate that sometimes the world doesn’t go to plan. But what if I was 20 minutes late because, say my bus was cancelled? Most practices have a 10 minute policy, and if you arrive outwith the limit, you have to re-arrange another having wasted maybe an hour or so of your day. This is what I mean by contractual inequality. Contracts always favours the organisation over the individual. I have loads of examples of this across all organizations- both public and private. Flights, for example. I have to check-in 45 mins. If I am late, I lose the flight and my cash. If I made a mistake during the booking process, the same. And yet flights are frequently delayed, and twice this year they were cancelled. Again, as an individual, I just have to put-up and shut-up. I only get some benefit if the delay is by a number of hours, or a flight cancelled mid-transit. Airport “security”, is another one. I book a flight back home to Edinburgh which takes me via Heathrow. I am told that to enter through Terminal 5, I have to submit bio-security data. If I refuse, I will miss my flight home. Yet, when I booked my flight, this was not made explicit. I might have chosen Amsterdam instead, given this attack on my personal liberty - just so I can pass through a terminal. So, there you have it. My pet peeve.
