Charing Cross hospital is not anywhere near Charing Cross!

I have been all round London looking for the easiest way to Charing Cross Hospital to see my mate, Andrea, who had just had her major operation. I was dumbfounded when at Charing Cross station they told  me that the hospital is away in Hammersmith. I figured out the bus route and went round Trafalgar Sq several times looking for the right bus going the right direction, and had been on 2 buses before I gave up on public transport and hailed a taxi and then was stuck in chock a block traffic. At that point I decided to abort the planned visit and turn back because  the taxi driver told me that we were going to move at snail's space. The last time I went that way was to go to Rakesh's wedding and it was £30 taxi fare. At any rate, I was due to have dinner with Catherine, who was over for the weekend and staying at Morgan hotel in Bloomsbury (very inaccessible). So we sat at at Taz, 22, Bloomsbury Street. London. WC1B 3QJ. telephone:. +44 (0) 20 7637 4555. They were very friendly, didn't seem to mind that we were drinking tea for ages before dinner. This restaurant has level access entrance but the loo is downstairs in a platform lift. Catherine introduced me to her friend, Tatiana, a Russian law student who is staying at the Docklands.

The next day I set off from Wimbledon  and negotiated my way to  the hospital, changing only twice. Andrea was suitably impressed by all my travelling and I was disappointed the staff would not let me bring in the flowers I got for her into her room. On the way back I managed to bring Hammersmith bus station almost to a standstill because the wheelchair ramp got stuck when the No. 10 bus to take me back to Euston got its ramp out. to let me in. There's nothing to make you more popular than doing that at peak travelling time. The station master explained its because some times the ramps find the pavements too high - it is a peculiar attribute of this station that it was build when there was a different generation of buses. So be warned fellow disabled passengers!

So it took me as long to get to Euston as it did to get back to Coventry. London Oxford Street was very crowded. The trains were overspilling too. Reminder to self - try not to travel on a Friday night especially not at that time.