Thursday, June 11, 2009
Day not seized quite as planned
The day didn't turn out as planned.
I had woken up this morning determined that we must get on with living and stop regretting grey days and leaving our loved ones in Thailand.
Depression at this sort of level can be dealt with by some positive thinking.
We should get out and explore and walk.
But first Bill had an appointment at the hospital - and that changed things.
The doctor agreed with Bill that the knees were showing signs of distress and so fluid was drained off both knees and steroid injections inserted.
Ouch! Poor Bill!
It has been some time since this has needed to be done - so we hope that the treatment will give relief and he will not be needing new knees for a long while yet.
Relief will come - but not immediately.
He needs a couple of days of rest. No hiking!
But Bill decided that we would at least drive to the top of Box Hill.
Goodness - it wasn't even exactly where I thought it was!
I think the whole area would be good to explore - but away from Box Hill village, which is not at all attractive in our opinion.
There are lots of little estates of mobile home/ bungalows.
The only time we have been up there before we must have walked up from the Burford Bridge side - so I was very surprised to see that the view from the top was overlooking Dorking.
I have seen up there many times - even from the Dorking car boot sale.
I had woken up this morning determined that we must get on with living and stop regretting grey days and leaving our loved ones in Thailand.
Depression at this sort of level can be dealt with by some positive thinking.
We should get out and explore and walk.
But first Bill had an appointment at the hospital - and that changed things.
The doctor agreed with Bill that the knees were showing signs of distress and so fluid was drained off both knees and steroid injections inserted.
Ouch! Poor Bill!
It has been some time since this has needed to be done - so we hope that the treatment will give relief and he will not be needing new knees for a long while yet.
Relief will come - but not immediately.
He needs a couple of days of rest. No hiking!
But Bill decided that we would at least drive to the top of Box Hill.
Goodness - it wasn't even exactly where I thought it was!
I think the whole area would be good to explore - but away from Box Hill village, which is not at all attractive in our opinion.
There are lots of little estates of mobile home/ bungalows.
The only time we have been up there before we must have walked up from the Burford Bridge side - so I was very surprised to see that the view from the top was overlooking Dorking.
I have seen up there many times - even from the Dorking car boot sale.
We might go back to explore.
But we didn't come away with very much yearning to go back. We have better hills in Sussex. And Leith Hill in Surrey is a favourite - though we couldn't go today for that would have involved more walking than Bill should do.
Then we ruined the visit even more by our choice of food stop.
We went to the biker's cafe at Burford Bridge - at the weekend the whole area is full of motor bikes and riders preparing for a run down the A24 to Bury Hill in Sussex.
Poor Bill thinks it was his fault and felt aggrieved at my criticism; I do think we should have had the strength of mind to walk away.
The place was just so not to my taste.
But Bill had seen the advertised all day breakfast - he just can't resist!
I saw that I could have a simple jacket potato.
So we ordered.
Then I saw that drinks came in polystyrene cups. I did not want a hot black tea in a polystyrene cup.
I asked for some water to take my tablets and was told I would have to pay 10p for the cup. What a cheek. I told them I could wait.
And then my potato came in a polystyrene box with a plastic knife and fork!
The place was soulless.
You can imagine I was not best pleased!
But life is about experiences - even the bad ones which make us laugh afterwards.
Then we went to the shop.
Jo was there and she persuaded me that the tea set needed displaying better.
That took a while.
I had to rearrange other things.
Then I had to find spaces for the things that I removed from the window display.
Bill and I both sold whilst we were there - just a card game for me - not the tea set!
We were there for ages.
We talked a lot with Jo and Hilary and customers.
Then Hilary popped out a couple of times and so we had to stay longer so as not to leave Jo on her own.
We didn't get away until almost closing time.
So a mixture of a day - but at least we have been out and doing things together.
