Rosemary

I have a tendency to give people 15 to 20 mins grace and then I will leave.

Rosemary

Fredbargate

A large portion of my life both work and leisure has been involved with the sea.

Time and tide wait for no man.

Rosemary

Old habits die hard as they say. Do you give people any leeway at all?

Rosemary

jimenato

Only when he's three sheets to the wind.

jackytoo

No excuse these days without an explanation. Easy to let people know if running late.

We were invited to dinner by Spanish friends. They said to come at 9pm. We arrived the traditionally 20 mins or so late only to find them just arriving back from a shopping trip no dinner even prepared. I think we sat down to dinner about 10.45pm after sitting mainly on our own whilst they were cooking!

jimenato

I've had that - with Brits though. Twice at BBQ's we've arrived at the right time and found we were virtually the only ones there - not even the hosts in evidence.

At one of them the host was in the pub which was where I wanted to be - we were left drinking the beer we had brought on our own. The hosts' beer arrived an hour or so later - warm - to be put in the fridge for an hour until it was cold enough. The host arrived back from the pub after another hour just as I was leaving and asked where I was going.

'To the pub' says I.

'That's a bit rude isn't it when you've been invited to a BBQ'? says he.

'**** off' says I.

Dick Dasterdly

Much the same with my Spanish neighbours, hence I always arrive at least half an hour after their appointed time and I'm still always too early.

two tubes of toothpaste

I did read in a learning Spanish language book, sometime ago, that if you want an appointment to happen at a specific time in Spain, you qualify it with the phrase 'horas ingles'. I've never heard it used.

Is it true ?

Rosemary

Never heard that one before nor have I heard it used.

Rosemary

Rosemary

One of the reasons that I put this question to you all was because all of my friends are excellent time keepers and they all comment on the fact that most Spanish people are lax and the English are ALL always punctual. I am sure that I do not mix with the only good time keeping Spanish people here and this is not just my friends because every time I have had anyone here to do any work they have been equally as good, in fact many come early and ask if that is alright.

Once I was being invited to join a special walk for the people in my town and a couple of people emphasized that I had to be punctual to which 3 or 4 of my friends snorted and said "she is English, of course she is punctual".

As I said at the beginning I know a lot of English people who are terrible time keepers so the people here thinking that we are all punctual does not fit for me. Obviously there is a mix of bad and good in both nationalities and yet Brits are stereotypically always on time and the Spanish are stereotypically always late. Strange.

Rosemary

steviedeluxe

I've heard the expression "punctualidad inglesa"

steviedeluxe

Yep, some of the most tardy people I've met are from Britain. But there are plenty of people from back home who are punctual. In my case I have tended to be over-early for appointments, and generally need to take a coffee or tea somewhere. Here in Madrid I find people tend to turn up on time for appointments, but since in a large number of cases they are foreign to either Madrid or Spain, it's hard to draw conclusions.
A common excuse in a big city (and my impression it happens more often in London, which is a huge city) is that people get delayed by traffic or public transport.

jackytoo

Yes we sort of guessed that would be your view

I used to go to a few conferences in Europe. You won't be suprised to know the Germans were always first in their seats, papers organised and ready to go. The Dutch and Swiss are the same. The club med countries vied with each other to be last. The Spanish always had the bleary eyed just got out of bed look

Have to say although I usually manage to arrive more or less on time, it is always a last minute panic dash. I have almost missed a few flights.

steviedeluxe

Since the vast majority of people I've met in my lifetime have been Brits, why would you expect any different? I notice too that spinmaster Jacky left off my next sentence "But there are plenty of people from back home who are punctual."
But if we're talking about Spain - here's a warning to those who believe the "always late" myth. Don't turn up late for a cinema viewing, don't turn up late for your train journey. You may find they are a bit more punctual than given credit for...
(and yes, on the other hand their late payments record isn't something to crow about).

jackytoo

Spaniards always manage to be punctual for local fiestas when the free drink is flowing