Bank holiday travelling

I do not seem to to be able keep up with myself. This bank holiday weekend is nearly at its end and I have not written and I had said I would - a task I had given myself.

Naomi arrived on Friday and she basically crashed out after her exams. We went to bed early so as to get to the station early the next day - my chair was nearly out of charge when I got to the station to meet Naomi. This weekend can be said to be a weekend of wheelchair blues.

We got to the station bright and early- because I knew that there were going to be railworks and so no train but would have to wait for Coventry to sort out alternative transport for me (because the buses/coaches ordered  for the other travellers/passengers  are not accessible. We had a lunch appointment with David at the Portrait Restaurant to celebrate his 70th birthday.  So as my luck would have it- Coventry station has this dispute or something with the taxi rank and therefore, inspite of the taxi rank being 10 feet away from the station-the staff has to call a taxi from somewhere else. We were there for almost an hour before they got a taxi to take us to Leamington Spa and then we missed the 10.30 connection. To cut it short we didnt get to Marylebone Station until 12.30 and had to get a taxi to take us to the National Portrait Gallery and it was pouring with rain. David was patiently waiting for us and luckily our reservation stayed good inspite of being half an hour late.

We had a lovely lunch - I had confit de canard with smoked chicken for starters and pan fried salmon. The view is spectacular even when obscured by mists and rain!

Naomi went off to do a spot of shopping while David and I exchanged news. She was much hampered and dampened by the incessant rain- we made our way to Covent Garden-we found that sharing an umbrella meant that she had water running down her back and onto my lap-we both got wet!

She did manage to buy a skirt and we ended by having dinner at Buffet Joi with Yin for 6 pounds each! Yin knows the owner and we ate great vegetarian food and went home with her.

The next day turned out quite nice but neither of us fancied more shopping-we just went home.

We went to Birmingham on Monday for shopping. This time  it was  very smooth  - somebody else had ordered assistance and didn't turn up. We  got there on a nice van all the way to New Street station and the guy arranged for us to be picked up again at 9pm after our dinner with Rachel and her hubby scheduled to be at Cafe Soya. (This seems like we are having a non stop eating weekend. )

I did not manage to get my book of Andrew Motion's poetry  - and ended up with a nice one of Philip Larkin's instead. Naomi bought some more clothes  - we had separated on our individual shopping needs -  and on the way to the restaurant-the  bracket  of my  armrest gave way and  it was  tricky driving  the wheelchair the rest of the way. Sigh!

Luckily I had already made an appointment for a chair service. I just changed it so that they came to pick up the chair instead. So today all we did was grocery shopping at the market-bought a tilapia to grill and veg and fruit for the week.

We also made it to the cinema  to see  the  last  sequel to X Men.