Thursday 7 April 2016

Visiting...

Yesterday saw us on the train down to London, visiting our family member who has been diagnosed with cancer. Other than the shock of the diagnosis, and a whirlwind of appointments, scans and tests, they are remarkably well. Operation should take place next Tuesday. We say should as they have been told if it looks worse once they open them up, no operation will take place, so we are keeping our fingers crossed that is not the case.

We spent a few hours with them, had some lunch, saw another family member and generally had a lovely time. The journey down was good. We had to use the underground to get to another major station, then onward from there.

The journey back was not so good. We were afterall, returning in the rush hour so stood from where they live to said major station. Back on a heaving underground to the station we needed to leave from. Managed to catch a train that we thought stopped halfway (we were willing to wait for the connection back home).

Our plans for eating during this wait backfired as the train we caught, stopped somewhere else than we were intending, the back 4 coaches were uncoupled so we all had to move into the front 8, which then took us home. We stood for about an hour of this time, no young or old knights were willing to give us their seats:(

Mind you, on the heaving underground, still standing, as a person got up to exit the train, a foreign chap pointed to the seat and we declined as we were shortly due to get off. We thanked him though for his offer and he sat down and fell asleep.

We were away from home 12 hours, more than half of which were travelling. I hate cities, I hate London in particular, my skin felt like it was suffocating, lungs likewise.

Once home, we had a bath, a hot cup of very strong tea and a bowl of cereals. A short time later we were in bed.

Today we are still pooped but have done our weekly shopping, DB is about to tackle the ironing but other than that, we plan on taking it easy.

5 comments:

  1. I'm in London next week on a course, I'm not looking forward to the travel! Sorry to hear about your relative.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I find travelling exhausting, especially around London. At least you enjoyed your visit. I hope all goes as well as can be expected for your relative next week. X

    ReplyDelete
  3. Glad you got to see your relative, I hope that all goes as well as it can for them. xx

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm glad that you managed to visit. Having been in this situation a few years ago I understand how draining a long day of travelling to see a very sick relative can be. x

    ReplyDelete
  5. I got that late afternoon train back to Norfolk last time and it was crammed especially after ELy. Ridiculous to have lost those coaches at Cambridge as they were definitely needed. We have found a way round the underground by walking over to St P's and using cross rail to go across London - it was empty! Nice to be home!

    ReplyDelete

I love hearing from you, will read all your comments and try and answer any questions you leave. Please leave comments in English. Don't forget to come back and read my reply! All comments are moderated so if you try to link it to a commercial web site, it will not be published.