Just time in London

Well, last weekend we had some fun and games. We needed to go to the doctors on Saturday morning to pick up a regular prescription. As the doctors here live a life of leisure, I cannot see one without taking time off work - twice! Once to register (if I can find one willing to take me on their books), and one more to see the actual doctor. So, there is a chain of medical centres at train stations around London, and we figured we could see one there easily enough, as you pay money rather than the NHS paying for it.

11am we were there, and I filled in the forms, and waited with Mike in the waiting room. Soon enough, the doctor came asking for Mrs Gilbert. I kept reading my paper. He said it again. I remembered that was me. Got up, spoke to him for five minutes and we left to get my prescription. Easy.

We had to be in Wimbledon for 12:30 lunch with a colleague of Mike's. We thought we'd be running close, but only by five minutes (perfectly fashionable). However, when we got to Parsons Green on the District tube line, we had to switch to a bus replacement service as there were engineering works between there and Wimbledon. An hour later we got to Wimbledon. And it is only a ten minute sort of distance.

We still got lunch anyway. Mike had plans to then join a Monopoly pub crawl - starting at Old Kent Road and ending in Mayfair with half a pint in each pub. His friend from Dunedin, Brent McMillan, was organising it, and Mike had thought about doing it last year some time. I'm more interested in doing some more organised walks. We did a Jack the Ripper one when we first came to London, and it was very enjoyable. I would like to try a Fire of London walk - see where it started, what change it made to buildings and stuff like that. Now, before you all think I'm very morbid (what, with serial killers and huge fires - actually I wonder if there is a Black Death walk????), these are just some historical highlights. I have also seen some historical sites with pleasant associations. Hampton Court, Tower of London. Hmmmm... Perhaps London just has a violent history. It is a huge melting pot of people after all, and has been for some time.

We had a lovely lunch that took us through to around 5pm. We took the train back to Waterloo to try and avoid the bus trip back to Parsons Green. Had a nice chat to an older retired couple in the queue to get me an extension into the Zone 1 of the train system. We chatted about New Zealand (they had noticed either our accents or our T-shirts). As we were passing close to Simon Haley's house, we rang him and I ended up dropping in to say hello. Originally it was just for coffee, but we ended up staying for dinner, and Mike arrived after a visit to two pubs only. The original starters were well on their way to drunken stupor, so Mike felt a bit out of it.

By the time we got home just past midnight, we both felt like a good sleep in the next morning. Unfortunately we had planned to go to Neath in South Wales (and call in on Jennie & Stephen) to watch a trials competition. Which meant a 6am start! Needless to say, that idea was scrapped!

So, a nice slow start to the day, which picked up when we realised it was a Superbike round weekend. So we watched the first round and then switched to the Formula 1 at Monaco. Inbetween, I went to check on the dishes I was washing, and smacked my wee toe on my right foot into the couch near the kitchen door. I writhed around in a bit of agony while Mike spoke to Richard & Theresa, and tried to comfort me at the same time. Then we put ice on it after it did not stop hurting. Two hours Mike insisted I have an icepack on my wee toe.

By evening, I could say that the motor racing was good. (Slight had a good result, and Coulthard won the F1.) The toe was not. Mike kept on saying we should go to A&E. I said it was only bruised.

Next morning it was a real struggle to walk the eight minutes to the tube station. I decided a trip to A&E was not such a silly idea after all. So, Mike & I organised that he would drive der Bus to the tube station after work, and I would hop in and we'd go to our local hospital. I had to go into town to meet with my accountants to be, so I got to Hammersmith tube station just before 6pm. It was peak hour traffic around the 'Roundabout of Dodgems', and we could count the number of times we have driven around this roundabout on two hands (not very much anyway). As the traffic was virtually stationary, it did not pose much of a problem for us. I waited at a convenient place, and hopped into der Bus as Mike pulled up. As we sat waiting to edge slowly into the main roundabout traffic, a brand new BMW 3 series hit our back bumper. He was trying to change lanes from behind us to the next lane, and judged it too fine. Mike jumped out, and we had suffered no damage (well, we do have huge steel bumpers back there, and he did hit us with nice soft door panels). He couldn't see a problem with the Beemer, and that driver (a man in his late fifties I'd say) never even got out to check his car. Incredible! As he drove past, I told him I could see no damage. Unfortunately as he moved further ahead I could see I had been checking the passenger door, and he had rippled the back door. Hopefully he won't be too cross when he sees it later. From his behaviour, I think it was probably a company car, as he didn't seem too concerned.

We got around the roundabout eventually, and travelled about 500m down the next road before we got to the hospital. mike had purposely not told me how close the place was as he knew I would try and walk there. We were in for the long haul, and after an initial check on how urgent my case was (not very- my foot was in no danger of falling off), we settled in for the wait to be seen. Mike was excited (strangely) when I told him the nurse had found a code in the computer for Stubbed Little Toe. Muttered something about some RHA codes or something. Sad. Well, we were prepared for the wait with books and the like. Mike even said at the end of the wait that it was the most relaxing evening he's had in a long time. Three and a half hours after getting there, after a X-ray (the highlight of my visit) they put the equivalent of a Band-Aid on my little toe. Ok, they told me there was a crack in it, but they may have been humouring me after waiting for three and a half hours. They also said the treatment would be the same for a broken toe as well, but I imagine the so called 'strapping' for a broken toe would have been more impressive than the thirty second bandaging I got from the nurse. Judging from the sloppy job, I thought they may have got the cleaner to do a bit of bandaging.

Anyhow, here I am on Friday evening (still at work - running a long tedious process) and my toe is not very swollen anymore, and I have taken the pathetic Band-Aid off. It still twinges from time to time, but I should be able to play squash in another week or so.

So, this weekend I need to come in and work on Sunday. Saturday will be a day of shopping for someone's birthday soon. That'll be nice.