Good week this week overall despite big pain issues (see later)

I was at work Monday / Tuesday but Karen and I spent the rest of the week down South. Marie came up on Tuesday night as she was kindly looking after the dogs during our absence.

Wednesday
We were up at the 8am (crack of dawn for Karen) and took the plane from Newcastle to Heathrow. It was the first plane trip we had decided not to take our wheelchair but instead we were going to use the airport wheelchairs. All went swimmingly, picking up a wheelchair in Newcastle to take us from checkout to the plane. When we got to Heathrow, we waited for 20 minutes for our bag to come out of the single carousel that was at the end of the corridor, until we realised that we were waiting at the wrong carousel Our poor bag had been going around and around all on its own ! PLUS a porter had been waiting with a wheelchair for 40 minutes for kp ! You live and learn.

kp was keen to partake of some “fresh” air, and got a bit agitated when we passed a “smoking” room, and I said we couldn’t stop, because the porter pushing the chair would have to wait. Her mood continued downwards when she realised that she wouldn’t be able to have a smoke until the Heathrow Express got us to Paddington station. Tempers frayed a little and there were quite a few tuts and dirty looks coming in my direction. At Paddington station, the start of the long walks began ! Half of a mile from the train carriage to the taxis (no wheelchair) – kp was flagging. Taxi to the hotel. The Thistle Marble Arch is supposed to be a 4 star hotel, but the customer service was more like a poor 2 star. After being ignored at reception for 5 minutes we checked in. We got the key and headed to the room (Room 834). Room 834 was the furthest room possible from the lift. And the corridors were HUGE !!!! They went on and on and on and then we turned a corner and they went on for twice as far. Poor kp.

Here she is halfway down one of the corridors.

I am not exaggerating when I say it was probably a quarter of a mile’s walk to the room from the lift. That was no good for Karen, so I went down to change rooms and we got one right next to the lift – yay ! You’d think they would have noticed Karen’s stick and had a bit of thought in room allocation, but I doubt they even saw her slow walking speed approaching reception.

kp was out for the count as soon as we entered the room. Knackered.

We slept until 5pm and headed off to the first show “Mamma Mia”. It was raining when we left the hotel, and there wasn’t a taxi in sight. kp didn’t want to do the tubes, because of the steps involved. But we didn’t have much choice as there were simply no taxis around. I reassured her that there wouldn’t be many steps, as they are all escalators. DOH ! It turned into a right fart on, with steps after steps after steps. It didn’t help when we changed tubes to get on to the Bakerloo line, and had to go up more steps. Unfortunately, in me attending to karen, I hadn’t spotted that the steps we had gone up were “Steps to Street Level Only”. So, we had to go BACK DOWN them. It was now rush hour, and the trains were heaving. We missed one, thinking the next one would be better, but it was worse, so we had to get on it. I had to push kp on, and I only just got in. kp doesn’t stand well at the best of times, and on a moving train heaving with passengers and rocking from side to side, it was an awful experience for her. She couldn’t keep herself upright, so I had to hold the overhead hand rail, putting my other arm around her and wrapping my leg around her other side so I kind of had her in a grip. It knacked me, so I know kp must have been a lot worse. We made it in the end and had a gorgeous meal at TJI Fridays right next to the theatre.

“Mamma Mia” was excellent and we both thoroughly enjoyed it. Good story and of course the excellent Abba music !

Thursday
Got up just in time for breakfast. Went back for a snooze that took us nicely to Ronnie’s visit. She had took the afternoon off work. It was nice to see her. We had some drinks/chat in the bar. Here are Ronnie and kp….

We then went out to Covent Garden (taxis all the way from hereon in) for some dinner and some entertainment. It was lovely. Great meal. Nice to see you Ronnie ! Thursday night was the big one and the one we had been waiting for – Connie Fisher as Maria Rainer in “The Sound of Music”. The tickets were £70 each and worth EVERY penny. It was a truly awesome spectacle. Connie was note perfect and there wasn’t a poor performance in sight. Captain Von Trapp was superb, as was the Mother Abbess (not Leslie Garrett, as she doesn’t work Thursdays). The kids were wonderful. This show can only be described in superlatives and the end was truly magnificent. Standing Ovation all round. Marvellous ! Karen and I detest London as a place to visit, but this show made it all worthwhile. Would thoroughly recommend it to anyone.

I tried to persuade Karen to ride in one of the bicycle taxis that hovers around the theatres at “kick out” time, but she wasn’t having it. After 10-15 minutes and a bit of a walk, we managed to get a taxi.

Friday
Breakfast and Checkout. Here is Karen looking forward to leaving the hotel in a few moments time….

Receptionist :- Did you enjoy your stay ?
dp :- No, not really

Not a word wondering why we hadn’t enjoyed the stay !

dp:- Please can I see an itemised bill ?
Receptionist :- I need to take payment first before I can print out the itemised billing ?

That about sums up our Thistle Marble Arch experience.

We took the train from Waterloo to Southampton where Tracy picked us up. We were dead excited to see Megan (Tracy/Mark’s daughter). kp was too tired to walk to her school to pick her up, so I went with Tracey and the other mothers to pick up their bairns. I felt a bit awkward swinging Megan’s pink Barbie brolly, but by carrying by the sharp end, I felt I retained a modicum of masculinity. Perhaps not…

It was great to see Megan in class, and she was dead pleased to see me when I caught her eye in class. It was story time, and I think it was frowned upon for them to be distracted when they should be listening to the story, so Tracey and I stood out of the line of sight.

Hugs all round when she came out.

Roast Pork for tea and it was gorgeous.

Saturday
Lazy morning, followed by the swimming baths in the afternoon. The ladies watched on as Mark, Megan and I went for a swim in the kids paddling pool. It was lovely and warm. Megan had a whale of a time. I was like a prune after 30 minutes and made my excuses to join the ladies in the spectator area.

For tea, it was Roast Pork (it was a big pig !) and X Factor. Megan was really tired by this stage, and I was chuffed to bits that she came to lie in my arms and fall asleep I love that. Dad took her upto bed and we all watched Celebrity and then chatted for a few hours. It was a lovely time. Mark has a fart machine (not his mother-in-law, Margaret). It runs on batteries and was situated besides Karen. It works by remote control and whenever Karen would get up from her chair or get down into the chair, he would let it rip. It does a very realistic farting noise (different one each time you push it). It was absolutely hilarious. It sounds corny, but with the timing just perfect accompanying Karen’s slow descent/ascent from the chair, it was funny as hell. I think the only person who tired of the joke was Karen, but she was laughing at the fact we all found it so funny. Here is kp going out for some “fresh air” with 2 coats on as she was so cold !

Sunday
Mad rush Sunday morning. Megan had promised to come and wake us up. By 9am (flight took off at 11.05am), she hadn’t been up. I rang down to get the “terror sent up”. Within minutes we were both wide awake. Megan assisted on getting Karen ready. She helped her onto the loo, into the shower and helped dry her down.

kp:- Can you dry my bottom please ?
Megan :- Yes. Oh, it’s a big bottom isn’t it ?!

We were in stitches !!! From the mouthes of babes……..

That’s our long weekend. We loved every minute (apart from the non-show bits of London). Thanks to Ronnie for meeting up with us and to Tracy and Mark and Marge and Megan for putting us up for the weekend. Tracy and Mark slept on their sofa so we could sleep in their bed in the penthouse.

Back to work and reality tomorrow. Bring it on !