We were up town today For Colin’s appointment with the consultant about his back. We took the train and then tube and it was an easy journey to Paddington. The area has been developed a lot since I used to travel home to Reading and it is definitely a lot nicer. We had a coffee and cake at a coffee palace I had spotted on Google maps before walking to St Mary’s. We were still killing a little time which is when we spotted this chap taking his two CATS for a walk on leads in one of the little gardens!
We eventually got to the hospital and realised that the appointment was not where it was supposed to be. St Marys hospital is probably the oldest and must run down of the various hospitals that we have visited over the years. It took four separate people to point us in the right direction - all very friendly and helpful but the actual building was run down, dirty and covering in hoardings and scaffold. We eventually found the right place and had literally just a minute or so to wait. The Consultant was very good and certainly was not pushing Colin down a surgery path which is good news and was actually fairly positive. Needless to day Colin needs an up to date scan which always feels rather like a wasted visit as the Consultant cannot really give any more advice until he knows the current situation.
Anyway, after the trauma of finding our way around St Mary’s we returned to a food court I had noticed nearby and enjoyed excellent burgers and beer. It was at this point that Colin said he wanted to tell me something - those sort of words never bode well and I was seriously worried - until he said that he wanted to take me to Costa Rica next year but had been worried about his back. He now feels more confident based on todays discussion with the Consultant. This is amazing as it has been on my list of places I want to visit for years. To finish the day, we took the tube back to Richmond and visited Trailfinders to discuss the logistics and what they can help us with. I still have my overlay ambitious itinerary from six years ago so I need to go and study that and then get Trailfinders to put some costing together.
An interesting day of contrasts but ending on a high!!
