Tales (tails) from the Waiting Room

Working on a Reception at PHP we pride ourselves on our good relationships with our clients, we build up a trust with people over time and they feel part of our ‘family’.

When I am working and people are waiting to see the vet, we often have interesting conversations that I find myself thinking about them afterwards, some interesting claims to fame can come up in passing.

When I was new here, 17 years ago, it was at the time Gerry Rafferty (Baker Street) went missing; a story running in the media. I remember sitting on the Reception Desk one day  and a journalist poking their head around the door to ask if the vets had had any sightings ... I thought this was extremely random!  It was only several months later, when I was talking to one of our clients who ran a B and B,  that the subject of famous guests came up.  Out of blue she said, Gerry Rafferty had been  living in the big house with the electric gates in the road near her……it transpired that apparently he had spent the last years of his life secretly living in Upton!

Another interesting story was when I had a regular client in waiting to see a vet and she had her little grandson with her.  He was absolutely full of beans and during the rather long wait, we did everything we could to amuse him ... Eye Spy, word games etc and when he eventually left, I was feeling rather exhausted.  A year or so later, this client visited us again ... without her grandchild.  She asked me if I remembered him, to which I replied I certainly did!  She excitedly told me that he had got the part of Gavroche in Les Miserables in London on the West End ... She very sweetly got my husband and myself tickets to see him and he was incredible.

My most recent interesting story was last week.

We had a client visiting us to obtain documentation to travel abroad with his dog.  I looked at his details, and saw he was actually from the Wirral.  Liverpool was very much in the news and so we got talking about it and I said I would love to visit one day, partly because of the Beatles. The man said when he was a baby he was often woken up by noisy music playing next door and his Grandmother was very frustrated by it ... it was only years later when they were watching the TV and the Beatles came on that she said, ”that’s those lads who used to practice next door!”  

He said with an ironic smile that he had actually heard the Beatles play ... but not really appreciated it at the time!

I find so many interesting stories when passing the time on my Reception Desk and I think that people love to share their experiences,  it bonds them to us and us to them. Everybody has an interesting story to tell, little nuggets of gold.

I enjoy our tales from the waiting room.