old-fashioned advice

for all its liberalism, london does not tolerate tardiness. 

- try showing up for a doctor's appointment just five minutes late, your appointment will go to the next of the 20 people on the day's wait list

- booking tickets for a popular concert only one-month ahead, forget it. Madonna's concert sold out in something like 2 hours. Wimbledon queues start the night before the game, in Wimbledon itself.

- taxi's are not an option (and due to traffic and quirky winding little roads, mostly actually gets you there slower than public transport).  

- the dry cleaners do not open on Sundays, locksmiths charge 100 pounds for call outs.

- most shops close between 6:30pm and 8pm. work does not end till 7pm.  

- there is no walk-in option for anything.

unless one enjoys doing nothing and staying in all the time, u have to do the old-fashioned thing and try to be on time, be organised, not to forget anything, show up when u are expected.

old old friends will recall how often i am in detention classes due to perpetual lateness in arriving at school. i have hilarious memories of how my entire family wakes up late and the pandemonium that ensues in the house as we all try to get ready in the same five minutes and then the crazy rush as dad drives me to school on his motorbike. 

i remember Mrs Boey (the much hated school principal - recalling how we wished the microphone will explode in her face in the middle of assembly?! :P) warning us sternly about how tardiness will ruin us for life. It is good advice, even if it came from Snowball herself. Like in yoga practice, if something takes quite a bit of effort to achieve, then you probably just need to do it more.