There are events, sometimes we call them milestones or ?bridges to cross?, or even bucket list items. More by accident than design I recently ended up with three in reasonably close succession.

Firstly, the Dental check-up. Unusually I had the first appointment on a Saturday morning and the waiting room was empty as I presented myself at the desk. The receptionist didn?t bat an eye. After a couple of minutes a nurse came to fetch me. There was a momentary disconnect, I was still the only person there, then she led me to the dentists room.

We exchanged pleasantries as usual and then he carried out the check-up, took a couple of X-Rays, and then passed me over to the hygienist for a scale and polish. All done and back out front to pay. Nobody said a thing, all just completely normal.
A few days later I am at the Doctors to keep an appointment made so long ago that the original illness had cleared up. Again, an early appointment and an empty waiting room. No reaction from either the receptionist or the Pharmacy staff working nearby. Very shortly the Doctor popped her head out and called for Mr. _____.

I stepped into the consulting room and described my issues. A quick blood pressure check, a listen to my chest, some advice and a prescription and I was done. Absolutely nothing out of the ordinary.

At the end of the week I had a blood donation appointment for early on Sunday morning, which, having had a bad night on the Saturday, I was regretting and thought briefly of ditching the plan of attending dressed in return for extra ? hour in bed. But no, I had wanted to do this for a while. It wasn?t my usual location, which although unintentional, probably calmed the nerves a little.

The greeter gave me the form to fill in, the booklet to read and pointed me to the water station. She was nice and helpful but think she had worked me out straightaway. I joined the others already waiting and filled in the form but had barely flicked through the booklet when I was called (nobody seems to notice). Stupidly I admitted I hadn?t fully read the booklet so was sent back till I had done. As I already knew, it hadn?t changed.

The nurse is lovely and we chat about skiing mostly. It doesn?t take too long before I am heading over for the tea and biscuits (only place I ever eat Club biscuits nowadays). It is a bit crowded round the table and the greeter is chivvying the slowest into moving on before helping me to not completely destroy the new-fangled tea machine. Nobody pays any attention.