My
Dutch friend Peter, has confirmed that patients are allocated doctor
appointments at only two minute intervals. The logic is that this
senseless system will be rendered at least partially sensible by the
high percentage of no-shows. In the UK, each patient is given closer
to 10 or even 15 minutes, so I guess there are fewer no-shows there.
I'm left wondering whether the Spanish system bothers to identify
people who fail to turn up on more than one (or possibly 2) occasions
and then punishes them in some way. Or whether it's just treated as
an immutable aspect of Spanish life.
Talking
about respective cultures, I'm learned from the blog of my colleague
Trevor the Baldie that there's a science around the “cultural,
behavioural, and sociological aspects of spatial distances between
individuals”. Its name? Proxemics. From the same root as
proximity, I guess. Reading a bit about the way they go about this
science I was put in mind of one particular aspect of Spanish
behaviour which always amused me and my French partner. We would go
early to a crepe restaurant in town and take a table in one of the
two alcoves off the main dining area. Then we would wait to
see where the first Spanish diners of the night would sit.
Inevitably, this wouldn't be in the other alcove, nor in the main
dining area but at the table right next to ours.
There are other
examples of this (innate?) Spanish habit of aggregating but I'll
leave them for another day. And I'll finish this brief dissertation
with the proxemics statements that:-
Every
culture has a set of hidden cultural rules concerning the physical
space between people when communicating. Breaking any of these rules
could be interpreted as impolite or even threatening.
And:-
Cross-cultural
training programs will give you a better understanding of the concept
of proxemics and of the reasons why someone from Spain might perceive
their North American counterparts as being rude when they recoil from
close physical proximity.
Or
vice-versa, when Anglos have their personal space invaded. Which
happens a lot if you live in Spain.
Talking
of cultures . . . I learned today that Pontevedra has a place where
divorced parents can hand over kids without having to face each
other. It's called a 'Meeting Point' but this, of course, should be 'Anything-but-meeting Point'. Is this exclusive to Pontevedra?
Spain? It is essential, as suggested, to avoid violence?
The
winter rains have been slow in arriving this year but have certainly
hit us in the last two days. Giving me the chance to note that not
just leather boots but also green wellies are considered fashionable
this year. Possibly every year; I'm not very observant when rain is
lashing my face. Boots I can understand. But wellies, in the middle
of a town?
Next
year's Tour de France is to begin in England. Specifically in
Leeds. Somebody big in cycling there was quoted as saying how proud
he was that this honour had been given to the county of Yorkshire.
And the question occurred to me – Has Britain avoided much of the
nationalistic nonsense one sees in Spain simply because county
and country are virtually the same word? Possibly not. But it
had to be asked.
Just
going back to my attempts to get tablets from two pharmacies the
other evening – I guess it was a nice example of that tag line from
one of the sketches in the Little Britain comedy series – The
computer says No.
Finally
. . . Today I watched a cat in Toni's garden stalking a football in
the middle of the lawn. As the ball was black and white, I can only
assume the cat mistook it for a plump magpie.
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