Errogie
01-Nov-08, 10:32
Over the years I've overheard fragments of conversations or exchanges which have sometimes left me puzzled, amused or just plain intrigued. Some of these from many years back have stayed with me like the occasion I found myself sitting in the poorly sound proofed doctor's waiting room.
An elderly gent had just been taken into the sugery by his son. The old boy was obviously hard of hearing so the discussion on his weight loss was being conducted at a healthy decibel level and, O.K you're sitting there trying to read a back copy of the Field or Sporting Life but what is happening on the other side of the plasterboard is just becoming a whole lot more interesting.
So they were going through his general health, aches, pains, sleeping, bowels, the usual stuff and then they got down to his diet and it turned out that the old boy was starting his day with some very weak porridge, followed by soup at lunch time and some sort of gruel at the end of the day, a largely liquid based intake.
And then Eureka! I arrived at the answer just a fraction of a second before our general practitioner. The problem was in his mouth, to be precise his false teeth which he'd given up wearing because they'd become so uncomfortable.
I have to say that following this brilliant intuitive diagnosis I found it hard to resist the temptation to take a mid career change of direction in favour of medicine.
And then there was the occasion in about my 10th. year when the all engrossing hobby was breeding pet mice in a large tea box built into a complicated mouse city along the lines of the old hostel at Ormlie. The breeding programme was concentrated on devloping particular combinations of colours in multi coloured mice by careful selection of parents. My folks were standing at the kitchen window when I overheard my mother say to my father "Do you think we should tell him about the facts of life?" and the old man said "Don't bother I think he understands it pretty well already".
So what have other Orgers overheard which may not have been strictly meant for your ears?
An elderly gent had just been taken into the sugery by his son. The old boy was obviously hard of hearing so the discussion on his weight loss was being conducted at a healthy decibel level and, O.K you're sitting there trying to read a back copy of the Field or Sporting Life but what is happening on the other side of the plasterboard is just becoming a whole lot more interesting.
So they were going through his general health, aches, pains, sleeping, bowels, the usual stuff and then they got down to his diet and it turned out that the old boy was starting his day with some very weak porridge, followed by soup at lunch time and some sort of gruel at the end of the day, a largely liquid based intake.
And then Eureka! I arrived at the answer just a fraction of a second before our general practitioner. The problem was in his mouth, to be precise his false teeth which he'd given up wearing because they'd become so uncomfortable.
I have to say that following this brilliant intuitive diagnosis I found it hard to resist the temptation to take a mid career change of direction in favour of medicine.
And then there was the occasion in about my 10th. year when the all engrossing hobby was breeding pet mice in a large tea box built into a complicated mouse city along the lines of the old hostel at Ormlie. The breeding programme was concentrated on devloping particular combinations of colours in multi coloured mice by careful selection of parents. My folks were standing at the kitchen window when I overheard my mother say to my father "Do you think we should tell him about the facts of life?" and the old man said "Don't bother I think he understands it pretty well already".
So what have other Orgers overheard which may not have been strictly meant for your ears?