We're going to London tomorrow - business rather than pleasure, and Weeza is coming too. So she's going to stay the night and we'll drive down tomorrow.
I don't usually drive to central London, but we looked up the train prices and times and there's work on the line scheduled so we'd be bused part of the way, adding considerably to the length of the journey, and the cost for three of us is appreciably more than fuel too, so we might as well drive.
I like travelling by train, but they don't make it easy, nor to go by any public transport if you live out of a large town. I miss being able to turn up at a station, buy a ticket and get on a train - one has to plan ahead nowadays if the cost isn't to be prohibitive. And I'm not even trying the bus. The Sage is quite enjoying his free bus pass, but he's got more time to spare than I have and bus fares are expensive too. Ro discovered when he lived here and worked in Norwich that the cost of the petrol and the cost of the daily fare were then about the same. But then, for anyone of pensionable age, it's completely free - I've talked to pensioners who say that they'd be quite happy to have a half-price fare or pay for a bus pass, but if the pass were means tested then they'd be much less likely to use the bus at all.
It's a funny thing, by the way, that I've noticed that nearly all young people (young means under 45 or so, darlings, after that you're youngish until you're about my age when you become an old dear) who I know don't drive are men - usually because they live in London or another large city and don't have need of a car, which is fair enough of course, but they then have to rely on their wife when they want to go anywhere. I know one bloke who never got around to learning to drive, lives out in the sticks and - well, if I were his wife I'd not be best pleased about that. It's quite a burden if you've got children - there are so many after-school and weekend activities. I'm certainly finding a lot of extra time taken up by ferrying the Sage around, not that I mind because actually it makes us spend more time together, which has to be a Good Thing. In addition, however, it's that I have to do extra things that he used to if necessary, such as shopping and Meals on Wheels, and if I can't do MoW I have to swap with someone else. And all that hoo hah at the hospital yesterday - I left here early as I said, Weeza had to get her after-school childminder to take Zerlina to school, it all took almost as long as if I'd gone by bus. And when I do have the op done, I won't be able to drive back home at all, so either I'll have to see if Dilly's available or ask Weeza to bring me home - and then my car will be at her house or else she'll need a lift back the next day ... oh dear. Maybe I could stay with her overnight and hope to drive back the following day.
Should I stop worrying about it? Does this explain why I lie awake for hours every night? Why do I have a compulsion to think round every aspect of a problem and a possible solution in advance, just so I have mental resources spare to react effectively to things that do crop up and can't have been foreseen?
I used to say to the Sage in the days when I wore glasses for driving and constantly mislaid them, he might find it a bit of a trial to be married to me, but just think what a trial is was to actually be me. Not that he complained. Unfailingly polite, the Sage.
I don't usually drive to central London, but we looked up the train prices and times and there's work on the line scheduled so we'd be bused part of the way, adding considerably to the length of the journey, and the cost for three of us is appreciably more than fuel too, so we might as well drive.
I like travelling by train, but they don't make it easy, nor to go by any public transport if you live out of a large town. I miss being able to turn up at a station, buy a ticket and get on a train - one has to plan ahead nowadays if the cost isn't to be prohibitive. And I'm not even trying the bus. The Sage is quite enjoying his free bus pass, but he's got more time to spare than I have and bus fares are expensive too. Ro discovered when he lived here and worked in Norwich that the cost of the petrol and the cost of the daily fare were then about the same. But then, for anyone of pensionable age, it's completely free - I've talked to pensioners who say that they'd be quite happy to have a half-price fare or pay for a bus pass, but if the pass were means tested then they'd be much less likely to use the bus at all.
It's a funny thing, by the way, that I've noticed that nearly all young people (young means under 45 or so, darlings, after that you're youngish until you're about my age when you become an old dear) who I know don't drive are men - usually because they live in London or another large city and don't have need of a car, which is fair enough of course, but they then have to rely on their wife when they want to go anywhere. I know one bloke who never got around to learning to drive, lives out in the sticks and - well, if I were his wife I'd not be best pleased about that. It's quite a burden if you've got children - there are so many after-school and weekend activities. I'm certainly finding a lot of extra time taken up by ferrying the Sage around, not that I mind because actually it makes us spend more time together, which has to be a Good Thing. In addition, however, it's that I have to do extra things that he used to if necessary, such as shopping and Meals on Wheels, and if I can't do MoW I have to swap with someone else. And all that hoo hah at the hospital yesterday - I left here early as I said, Weeza had to get her after-school childminder to take Zerlina to school, it all took almost as long as if I'd gone by bus. And when I do have the op done, I won't be able to drive back home at all, so either I'll have to see if Dilly's available or ask Weeza to bring me home - and then my car will be at her house or else she'll need a lift back the next day ... oh dear. Maybe I could stay with her overnight and hope to drive back the following day.
Should I stop worrying about it? Does this explain why I lie awake for hours every night? Why do I have a compulsion to think round every aspect of a problem and a possible solution in advance, just so I have mental resources spare to react effectively to things that do crop up and can't have been foreseen?
I used to say to the Sage in the days when I wore glasses for driving and constantly mislaid them, he might find it a bit of a trial to be married to me, but just think what a trial is was to actually be me. Not that he complained. Unfailingly polite, the Sage.
9 comments:
Good luck! I hate trains and I hate London!!
I vote you stay overnight with Weeza after the procedure. When can you resume post-op driving?
Just hope you're not using that new apple maps thingie, otherwise you'll end up in Canada.
Has the Sage completely given up driving?
Expensive and inconvenient public transport is a long standing grievance of mine. Earlier this year, Sir Bruin used some of his inheritance money to buy me my own car and now I wonder how I did without it for so long. Car parking in Ipswich is expensive but it is still cheaper than the return bus fare into town and usually more convenient(but not at the moment due to the amount of roadworks). For the last 20 years, successive governments have banged on about getting the populace off the roads and onto public transport. Until public transport becomes more affordable and more convenient, people like me are going to continue to drive.
I sympathise with the worrying and overthinking. I've learned to do less of both over the years.
Well, I like both, but all we're going for is the meeting so it'll just be a drive through central London which probably won't be much fun. Weeza has volunteered to drive back.
Yes, probably I will. Depends on the time of day of my appointment I expect. And I should be driving the next day - it's my eyelid not my eye, so it's just a matter of the anaesthetic wearing off. I hope.
I love the unpredictability of Apple maps, Tim! I'm well up for a trip to Canada. In fact, I'm packing my passport Right Now.
Not if he can help it, Liz, but he's off-road until late January. And yes, to all you say. If you live/work in London you have no idea what it's like to be anywhere else. I blogged a while ago that all MPs and all senior civil servants should be obliged to travel by public transport, or at least receive no reimbursement for car journeys. That'd improve things overnight.
I too am an over thinker... and get really stroppy if a situation develops that I haven't pre-planned for! Silly isn't it?!!!
No, actually it isn't :-)
Sx
I don't mind reacting to things, I enjoy thinking on my feet and am good in a crisis, but I don't like being wrong-footed by events that should have been foreseen and avoided. And when that happens I am inclined to try too hard to pre-empt everything.
We have laughable buses round here. It's probably ok if you live near the town but we used to see one bus a week - we never saw it come back either, though I suppose it must have done. Now there aren't any, our nearest bus stop is over a mile away and the buses give you just enough time between arriving and last one leaving to get to two or three shops if you run all the way. Ridiculous.
And when you drive into town, you're treated as a pariah for cluttering up the streets. No wonder internet shopping is so popular.
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