All Change At Victoria!

As you all know, Harry and I have travelled to our daughter's home town by coach, which meant changing for the last lap at Victoria Coach Station.

I was going to take a picture of the inside of the coach station, but thought better of it as I thought I might end up in jail! I read in a paper that someone had got into hot water with the Police recently for taking snaps in a shopping precinct. The reason being that the snapper could be a suspect terrorist or thought to be snapping for terrorist activities. I decided against taking a photo inside the station for that reason.

While waiting for the connecting coach we heard many messages on the loud speakers  warning us of pickpockets and drug dealers and the one we thought was funny, but realized it shouldn't be, was the warning that any luggage that was left unattended would be collected by the Police to be destroyed. In other words, blown up!

There were lots of ladies travelling on their own. Some of them had been visiting grandchildren as we had been and these ladies often got talking and asked us to look after their cases while they went to the toilet, which was down a flight of stairs.

We found ourselves being very vigilant while in that area. Watching our bags and avoiding pick pockets. We thought the coach station was very busy but quite a good way to travel. We also found it was quite cheap as we could go half price, as older folk, provided we didn't travel on Fridays or Saturdays.

However on the way back to Victoria, there was a giant gridlock on the motorway and the whole coach was one hour late and we all missed our connections. Luckily there were several later coaches going to where we live, but some people were not so lucky and didn't know what to do about getting back to their home towns.

Most of the older ladies were like me and didn't want to go on tube trains. Some felt claustrophobic and some couldn't manage escalators as well as their suitcase. In our case, we were afraid we should be hopelessly lost, being completely unfamiliar with the tube trains!

Fortunately for us, we were able to be squashed onto some spare seats on the next coach, but there was no guarantee that this would happen, until it did. Our first trip to our daughter's had gone according to plan with no hiccups. However on the second journey when we missed our connection, we heard of some real horror stories of people left stranded and the fact that the staff were not particularly helpful. One lady had come all the way from the North of England and had missed her connection due to delays and she was told there wouldn't be another one, so she was put back on a return journey to the North where she lived. The next day, she had to try again and was successful that time.

No guarantees with this method of travelling!

Once again, we are about to embark on our third journey from here to Victoria and then on to our daughter's home for the funeral this coming week. We will have one and a half hours after arriving to get our connecting coach. If we miss it that will be that! Only the one coach a day to that particular town.

However, the son of a friend of ours, has given me details of a London bus that goes from Victoria to the correct train station that will go overland to the town near where my daughter lives, avoiding the tube trains altogether. I can put this emergency plan into operation if we miss the connecting coach because of delays on the motorways. Lets hope we don't have to do this, as it is going to be a long day!

Back in one week! Unless we end up stranded in Victoria Coach Station for ever!

The Hospice

We have arrived home after a fairly successful visit to see my daughter and her husband and the two boys.

The coach journey was better than I had anticipated and the three hour wait for a connection did not seem too long as Harry and I found a cheap cafe where we had a meal. The time went fairly quickly.

It was a shock to see the change in my son in law, not only in appearance, because he has no hair and has a scar at the back of his head, but because of his changed personality. The first day that we went there, he was aggressive and everywhere we went, he said that he needed us to be out because he wanted to be there. He barred us from the spare room and we had no luck finding anywhere to stay as it is a very small country town. In fact, a village compared to our city! There was nothing for it but to bed down on the floor. Luckily he had decided to go to bed early. 

My daughter was very embarrassed by his behaviour to us, but we were not ruffled as I know that the "real" him was not like that.

The next morning, there was a phone call from the local hospice to ask my daughter to get him over there within the hour as they wanted to assess him. That seemed like a gift from God and Deb struggled to get her husband ready and that was a very difficult task indeed. He made every excuse to delay things. I telephoned the Hospice and told them that they were on their way and definitely wanted that place. (A complete lie as they were nowhere near ready!) The boys and Deb were already booked in for councelling that afternoon so we packed them all some sandwiches and they piled in the car and drove off.

Harry started working on the garden as it is huge and many shrubs needed cutting back. I started to work on clearing up a bit and ironing. After we made some lunch for ourselves we got a bus from the local stop and used our wonderful free bus passes that we can now use anywhere in England and we went to the larger town a few miles away. It was good looking all around and familiarizing ourselves with that lovely town. 

Eventually Deb rang us and we met up. She told me she would love to go to see Mama Mia at the one and only cinema, so I went with her while Harry took the boys to Burger King for a pile of rubbish! He then went to the park with the boys and had to fill in two hours till we came out!

It was lovely to lose ourselves in the film, which we thought was very good.

The whole atmosphere had changed back at their house and the boys made a lot of noise and we all laughed and generally had a good family time.

After more gardening the next day and a few simple repairs and several visits to the local tip to get rid of rubbish that had been lying about in the garden for ages, we decided to go to the Hospice to see son in law and we all felt nervous, suddenly. To be truthful, we are all afraid of him, or rather his moods.

We were pleasantly surprised when we got there as he seemed much more his old self and was pleased to see us. We walked to the day room and  attempted a jigsaw puzzle between us. This was enjoyed by all but the oldest grand child who was playing on his game boy, but it didn't matter. The time went quickly and I now have a vision of him in a happier frame of mind and much calmer. Just like he used to be when the boys were little.

I don't know how long he will be in the Hospice but it gave Deb a wonderful break and a chance to be with us and to act more normally with the boys. I think she is entitled to three days with him at the Hospice every six weeks. It is all voluntary and they are wonderful staff and there is a calm atmosphere there. I must do something for hospices as they provide such a good service for weary families like mine.

Anyway, we are back home now. I feel a little bit tearful but I now feel confident to make that journey on my own even, if needs be. I learnt a lot over my stay there and it has helped Deb to feel less trapped knowing we will be able to go again in the next school holiday, as he is not well enough to leave and she used to come to see us regularly.

Thanks every one for your support. It means so much to me to know I have friends on the net routing for me! Please help hospices if you can as no one knows just how important they are to families like mine, unless you ever find yourselves in this situation and I sincerely hope you don't. Sorry no photo this time!