To remonstrate with someone about bad timekeeping.?

I accept that I will have to wait at my doctor's surgery, as he always give every patient his full attention and you never have the feeling that he just wants you out - but this is France!
If I am much too early for a visit to a friend (except Juragran, she is used to me!) I wait in my car round the corner until the stated time.

When I was interviewing for staff, I took a dim view of any latecomers.

I am also able to gauge my time of arrival pretty well, even when I am driving several hundred miles. I once arrived at my sister's house in Manchester, having driven from Kent, at 11.55 a.m. I had told her I would probably arrive about noon. She had not started to put her make-up on or do her hair (an hour's job) and when I pointed out we would be late for lunch she said I had arrived early!
I must say she has improved a lot with age, and never misses her bus to town now.

My ex husband and I used to give parties and would put the time on the invitation, or when we gave it orally, at about 9 pm. We would have everything ready and then have to sit and wait until our guests rolled in at about 10 pm., having spent an hour in the pub before they came. I have no idea why they did this, as the alcohol always flowed freely at our parties.

Being on time is not hard - just give yourself about an hour longer than you think you are going to need to get ready or make the journey.

I got so used to my doctor running at least half an hour late, I stopped bothering to rush. I was five minutes late for a routine appointment and shock horror, a locum was in and was running to time. I got severely told off.

I think it depends on the situation re the being too early. Yes if you are invited to a dinner party or suchlike, it may cause probs, but if you turn up for say an interview or you have to catch a train then surely you are better to be early than late. Sometimes it is just hard to arrive somewhere dead on time and personally I would rather be early then late.

A dental surgery I used to attend had a notice displayed to say that clients arriving late for appointments would be charged per minute.--- but they didn't pay us if we had to wait and were late back to work!!

You are so right, ginny. Being too early is equally as bad as being late. On one occasion we hosted a party of distant Oz relatives of my late MIL who all arrived one hour early and we had only just got in from work. No time to change, powder my nose, have a sly G&T and ciggie (I have long given up). And they were as rude as hell, objected to my smoking in my own home and left the room and then left without so much of a thank you. Oh and by the way my SIL and her hubbie arrived nearly two hours late saying that they had already eaten despite having said that they would share the cost with us. The money did not matter but the rudeness did.

Then there was the early and late dinner party. One couple arrived half an hour early when I had not changed and was still busy in the kitchen after work. I guessed why they were so early - a friend lived round the corner from us and must have been out when they called. They could have popped into a nearby pub but were probably too mean as they knew they would get a drink as soon as they arrived. They were Scandinavian or at least she was and in Scandinavia, or in Sweden at least, drinks are not served until the last guest arrives. The other couple arrived over half an hour late and both couples wondered why I was throwing a fit, after all they said: "it was hardly as if you were doing a soufflé". In fact, I was but gave up on it and they went without a starter. I think that is when I stopped doing dinner parties and settled for drinks and canapés - posh for snacks. Incidentally the wife of the second couple was Scandinavian too and they were late for EVERYTHING and we sat parched on a hot summer's evening waiting for their arrival and our first drink at a Swedish dinner party.

I always have to arrive everywhere early and have always been the same since being a little girl. My DDs on the other hand are always late or just to the last minute and I always panic if I am going anywhere with them cos I really hate the thought of being late for anything and again I agree, it is rude being late, I think if everone else can mange to get somewhere on time so should we and if I have an appointment , both parties time is equally important and so should be respected.

A Highlander I used to know would say,'When God made time he made plenty of it.' Need I say that punctuality was a concept unknown to him.

I have always been extremely punctual and am, as my family put it, a " now person"
My daughter -in-law is exactly the opposite. Her excuse is she is Iranian ---and Iranians are always late -her comment.Even her 2 sons use this as an excuse.
It drives her husband, me and my husband mad
Has anyone noticed that being a particular nationality gives you an easy excuse to show no consideration for others!

When we were arranging our wedding we were told that it was neither fashionable or traditional for the bride to be late. It is just plain rude to keep all the quests ,( not to mention the Groom) waiting. Our wedding was at 1.00p.pm and I walked in on the dot.

These days I am always on time but never too early. I also hate it if you have arranged for someone to be at your house at a certain time and they are miles to early.

Greatnan that's the exception - I'm never late back on organised trips. My fear of being left behind means I clock watch constantly, keep an eye on everyone else and I'm usually first back and miss half what I went on the trip to see.

Whenever I have been on organised boat or coach tours, somebody has kept all the rest of us waiting by getting back at least 30 mins after the stated time. I would be tempted to drive off without them, but I don't suppose the tour operator would allow it. Even last week, when the coach was driving round all the hotels in Te Anau to pick up people visiting Doubtful Sound, one group were not outside their hotel at the stated time, so the rest of us just sat there fuming. It is just simply rude.

However late or early I leave home, I nearly always manage to arrive bang on time for any appointment. Must be a subconscious 'arrangement' in my head that does it
annsixty I think we sat on the bus waiting for so long as we kept thinking they'd arrive at any minute and the minutes turned into half an hour!!

I think I missed out what is probably the most pertinent fact in this tale of woe; the solicitor was travelling............................... from the adjoining building!!!!

I must confess I do run a bit late sometimes as I am bad at estimating how long it will take me to get somewhere. I do apologise and as I am usually the one driving I don't feel too bad as they are waiting at home. I have been waiting for a callback from the country's largest mortgage advisor since December 2012. Needless to say I went somewhere else!

Greatnan you and I are so similar!

However, that solicitor is taking the P***. It's his way of trying to prove his superiority, but all it really shows is his insecurity. Like the little man, big dog thing.

Oh dear, I confess, I am a latey. . When I was for work I was punctual and managed my time really well - but appointments were all within walking distance. Puntuality just never spread over into real life. However hard I try I am perpetually five minutes late for hairdressers etc. Something always crops up. Mother rings, every traffic light turns red, road works appear out of nowhere. Coming home takes half the time and all traffic lights are green. Sod's Law.

I suppose my obsessive need to be, not just on time, but early for every appointment is indicative of my general desire to control my life - I am usually at the airport a good three hours before take-off!
I think regular readers will know that I love my dear sister almost unreservedly, but over the years she has caused me so much worry and inconvenience by her lateness - missing buses, trains and planes when I have made careful arrangements for her (and paid the fares!).
When I ask her why she is late, she says she had a lot to do - I have tried suggesting that she starts doing it sooner!

I think this so-called professional man needed a darned good telling off and I hope he appreciated it!

dorset you're so right "if not early" - nothing like a calm arrival in good time.

I like that phrase "in good time".

My son is always late because he doesn't allow enough time for things. The last time we arranged to meet I deliberately arrived half an hour late only to find he hadn't arrived. Doh!!!

We had reason to be grateful to one of DH's colleagues from work. They missed the train because he was late yet again, had they caught it they then would have been on the underground train that was devastated by a bomb.

I went to a school which considered unpunctuality a sin on the same sort of level as patricide so I have always been obsessively punctual – half an hour early rather than half a minute late.

I am always on time if not early for appointments, meetings etc. When you are like this late arrivals are extremely annoying. As a family we are all on time.
I have a friend who is never on time and she makes an affectation of it - always saying with a cute little giggle ' sorry you know what I'm like'. BTW she isn't ten minutes late but half an hour late - we've missed trains because of her. The last time, when it was obvious that if we waited any longer we'd miss a train, we went on it anyway. I then received an irate phone call berating me for going ahead. The next time she was on time - so the plan is that if she's late we don't wait [ooh poetry].

Sorry Galen, I must have missed it. Wasn't the original attributed to Louis XVIII – L'exactitude est la politesse des rois?

absent I said that ages ago! But I say princes not kings