Trip to London

We arrived back last Monday after spending a few days in London with Edmund & Josh. The week before last the tubes & buses were busy as usual. However, when we got into Preston Station at 17.00 there were no commuters!!! We had an hour to wait for our train to Rufford and went to the pub and watched the prime minister announce the shut down plans on the TV.

We had a super few days and we’re SO pleased we managed to get our trip in before now.

We spent a day at the Museum of London, where of course I was partially interested in the spinning & knitting exhibits.

While Edmund was on a training course we went to an astronomy photography exhibition at Greenwich Museum with his paramedic crewmate Ella.  The Cutty Sark has been fully resored now.

 

We had a wonderful stroll along the River Thames at Chiswick. We could see the river had left it’s very high tide mark well over the foot path and it appears a lot of trees had fallen during the winter.

We stopped for a pint at a riverside pub & watched the rowers & sailors in their yachts.

On our last day we went to Kew Gardens, it just happened to be the last day of an orchid exhibition. The rain arrived just as we got to Edmund’s front door.

We went into all of the big greenhouses.

The trees and bushes were all in bloom and we saw our first Egyptian goslings. 

 

Heather and Edmund

No doubt like all ambulance services the London Ambulance Service are run ragged. Just about everyone Ed & Ella have seen in the last few weeks need to be isolated. It takes a very long time for the ambulance to be deep cleaned after each patient, which is distressing them no end, as seriously ill people are having to wait a very long time. Josh in the call centre has lots of calls waiting to be answered all the time.

We had a big family gathering planned in 2 weeks to celebrate Edmund’s 30^th birthday, which he’s got a refund for. 2020 is a big year for birthdays in our family, with 3x 30^th & a 60^th . So Ed & I have decided 31 is going to be the new 30 & 61 is the new 60 & we’ll have a fab ‘do’ next year.

Lots of people have asked whether I’ll go back on the Nursing & Midwifery Council’s register to help, but they are saying retired within 2 years and I’ve been off of their register for almost 5 years now. So we are doing our bit though, by having the three grand children to stay, so Jason can continue with is lorry driving and Heather can go to work. Her hospital has been doing just emergency operations for a couple of weeks. As the situation escalates, her theatres & anaesthetic rooms are now ready to use as ITU beds. She has had to do special training this week and will have to work night shifts.

A very inconsiderate boater rammed the top gates of Rufford Lock while we were away. The gate is at quite an angle and CRT need to put a dam in to be able to drain the lock to assess the true extent of the damage. 

 

Our pair of swans are sitting on their nest, so once we see the eggs have hatched there’ll be photos of the balls of fluff.