Up The Farway Tree

Back from London.....off to Newcastle!

Both myself and Andrew had a weeks holiday (have to use mine before I move job!) so we were down in London for a few days. We headed down last Friday on the train, along with my friend Claire and her boyfriend Giuseppe. We were staying the weekend with another friend and then me and Andrew were staying another few nights in a hotel. Over the weekend we visited Borough market, did the London bus tour, which was good and visited Tate Modern - for a taste of culture ;-) We also had a couple of lovely meals out and visited a comedy club - the first two acts were good, although we were not impressed with the main act. The London crowd were very polite...I'm sure in Glasgow some bottles may have been thrown! It was lovely catching up with my friends though, which was the main purpose of the trip, as well as celebrating my friends 30th birthday.

Andrew and myself then headed to our hotel, which was really nice, and four of our old flatmates from uni, who now all work in London, and their partners, came over for dinner that night. It was great catching up - I really miss them all as we did have a lot of fun at uni! We also managed to catch up with Corey for a long overdue catch up. The weather was a bit dodgy but we managed to visit Covent garden, the Tower of London and also fitted in some shopping, of course! After being accosted in the street with a buy one, buy one free ticket, we ended up on some London Bridge Experience - people dressed in period costume explaining the history, then a kind of London dungeon experience. Basically walking through dark corridors, with strobe lighting, heads hanging from the ceiling and people in costume jumping out. Now normally I am a very jumpy person and fully expected to squeal my way to the finish however the lady in front of me started totally freaking out and I thought she was going to have a panic attach. Being a psychiatrist I couldn't really help myself and ended up pacifying her all the way round. I had to lead the whole group, opening doors ahead of this lady so I could tell her what to expect and reassuring her all the time. In the end I was so NOT scared...maybe I should have asked for my money back :-)

I forgot my camera but Claire said I could use some of her pics..

On London Bridge

Stopping for some lunch from Borough Market

Me and Claire with the invisible man!

Borough Market

Tower bridge going up - see the road markings?!

The most amusing, albeit very embarrassing story, occurred on the journey home. It involves a toilet and a bare bottom. The train had one of those new fancy toilets - you press an electronic button and this curved metal door slowly opens. Once inside you press one big button to close the door and another to lock it - the lock button flashes continuously to tell you the door is indeed locked. So I follow all these instructions, use the toilet and stand up.....with jeans around ankles. I then think it's getting a bit drafty before realise in horror that the curved metal door is very slowly opening to reveal a very surprised lady on the other side. It happened in slow motion - the door slowly opening - and the fact it wont respond to the close button until it has damn well finished opening. The lady on the other side very helpfully hid to the side of the door - but unfortunately we had also just pulled in at a platform so I am not certain of the exact number of people to view my little derriere. At least it's quite a small derriere and not too distressing to view (in my opinion). I would rather not display it mind you. I had to wait for what seemed like hours before the door would start closing again - but sadly the damage was done! Never shall I use the toilets on a train again.

On a less traumatic note, since we got home we have taken Seb on quite a few off lead walks and he is definitely getting bolder! He like to run ahead until he can't see us...then I know he is just waiting to be called so he can get a treat. Not daft! I have also been teaching him to walk to heel off lead and he is doing really well. Yesterday we had to pass two other dogs straining on their leads to get to Seb. At first he tried to run over but when I called him and told him to walk to heel he did it! The other dog owners were really impressed - I was largely just surprised but pretended as if Seb is always this well behaved:-)

I have routine transplant clinic in Newcastle on Tuesday morning and then I am having another endoscopy in the afternoon at a different hospital. This is a follow up on the surgery I had in January because I have still been getting abdominal pain when walking (which only started after the surgery). I don't really expect them to find anything but just have to go through the process. We will probably have to stay at mums friend on Tuesday as I will have been sedated so maybe not in state for getting home that night. I will update my blog with results as soon as I get the chance.

Leave you with a pic of my bedding plants..

May

June

July (think I put too many plants in one container, lol?!)