I appreciate the NHS!

Posted on November 14, 2025 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged general practitioner, health service, Leg, Long day, NHS, podiatry, taxes, Travel, walk in centre2 Comments

What a day!

Showered, then out for my podiatry appointment. I’d stubbed my toe last week and had a blood blister on my big toe.

Whilst being examined I told the podiatrist about my left leg. I have problems with the skin and when I showered it got very red and sore.

The podiatrist sent me off to my General Practitioner and said she would email them photos of my leg.

I got to the GPS, but they had no appointments, so they sent me off to a Walk in Centre that looks after more serious patients. When I got there I was triaged, then seen. By then my blood pressure was skyrocketing. We are going through a severe storm and it was very frightening, no wonder I was worked up.

They decided I needed to see a doctor but as the Walk in Centre was nurse led I would have to go to Accident and Emergency. That is near where I live, and I know the parking situation is terrible!

I was just getting in my car when the phone rang. The GP has given me an appointment in the morning. I didn’t need to go to A+E.

What I’m explaining is that all this was done in one day. I didn’t have to pay, because we all contribute to the health services in out general taxes. No massive premiums to be treated. Yes there is some private medicine, and there are sometimes problems, but we are very lucky to have the NHS!

I’ll never see Cardiff

Posted on April 27, 2025 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Cardiff, Gone, Memory, Poem, Poetry, Sadness, Silence, Thinking, Time, Travel, Uwist, VisitLeave a comment

We used to dream of visiting Cardiff

The Welsh capital city

Where you went to Uwist university

But I was getting ill

I couldn’t drive there

And your anxiety held me still

We’d go next summer

Before it was too late

But we ran out of time

That was our fate

Never to see the city

Where you studies science

Now there is no visit

Only cold silence.

I’ve had a varied life…

Posted on March 4, 2025 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Art, Cars, Cycling, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1867, eoroies, Hubby, Life, Together, Travel, WorkLeave a comment

You’re writing your autobiography. What’s your opening sentence?

I’ve had a varied life, most of it devoted to art, but I’ve also managed to cram a lot of experiences into it.

I would then go on to detail sow of the art work I have done, but also the adventures I’ve had with my hubby, who was a most eccentric man. Our main mode of transport when we were younger was by bicycle and then a series of pulled old cars that consequently meant we had a lot of situations to deal with. My jobs were also varied and I would talk about as much as I could without disclosing personal information. I am not sure if it would be interesting to anyone else though?

I want to go

Posted on January 29, 2025 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Coast, Feelings, Holiday, Loss, Memory, Mountains, Sadness, Seaside, Time, Travel, VisitLeave a comment

To Wales, and the lake district, and Scarborough, and Devon and Dorset. All the places I’ve been on holiday in my life. I want to ESCAPE! Get to beautiful places, see the coast, the mountains, get out of the city.

I can’t get away to the sea and sky. My mind won’t let me, my arms won’t let me, my legs won’t let me. I get worried, I think of things that might happen. I need to have company. Isn’t that strange? When I had my hubby we went everywhere together. Now he’s gone there is no one to reassure me. To make it safe. I’m fed up. Anxious, frustrated, lost, fearful.

Sorry to go on.

Driving to Plymouth

Posted on January 13, 2025 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged 1980's, bloganuary, bloganuary-2024-13, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1816, Devon, Driving, Memory, Motorways, Plymouth, TravelLeave a comment

Think back on your most memorable road trip.

In the 1980’s we went to visit a friend from college for the first time. It was a journey we would make every couple of years until he moved up to the North of England.

We lived in the Midlands and I’d learnt to drive about 6 months before. I was driving a Morris Marina.

We took the M6 then M5 motorways until it ran out and changed to an A road. We stopped off for breakfast at a service station because the journey was about 240 miles. I hadn’t been on a motorway very often and as we came out of the service station I ended up on the North bound slip road! I did something illegal. I reversed back down the road and then took the South road!

Luckily the route was very simple, we got to Plymouth, and the house we were visiting was a few hundred yards away from the motorway junction. I remember we took bicycles on the roof of the car so the rest of the week was spent cycling to beaches and visiting various interesting places. The trip back was uneventful!

This was pre satnav and we used maps to navigate. To be honest I still use an A to Z if I want to find somewhere. But my driving is restricted to short journeys these days.

Travel, Esther Chiltons blog prompt.

Posted on August 21, 2024August 21, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Accident, Bike, Car, classic bike, Cycling, Esther Chiltons prompt, Life, Memory, mixte frame, Time, Travel, Viking Queen2 Comments

Transport; I wish I could still cycle, but I stopped a few years ago. Driving a car didn’t help, the more I used the car the less I used the bike. That was because I had a accident that damaged my bike so it came apart while I was riding it a year later. It took a year to get it fixed and in the meantime I got the car. I used that for work and to travel further with my hubby. I did keep cycling for a few years, bur as I say I gradually lost my fitness and confidence. I still have the bike, it’s in my house. It’s a classic, I hope one day someone else can use it.

Written for Esther Chiltons prompt “Travel”,

I can get into the country

Posted on August 17, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Countryside, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-2033, England, Life, Midlands, Motorways, National Trust, Stoke-on trent, TravelLeave a comment

What do you love about where you live?

North… Cheshire and Peak District, Staffordshire Moorlands, East – Derbyshire, South- Staffordshire, West – Shropshire and Cheshire. Further West – Wales. Also Stoke-on-Trent has good road links to motorways and A roads. Sometimes they are a little congested, but you can usually get out into the countryside in 10 to 20 minutes. It is interesting because of the variations in geology depending on the direction you take. Farmland and flat land South and West, with the hills of Wales and Shropshire in the distance. North and East hills and moorland including the start of the Pennines.

Stoke-on-Trent is situated in the North Midlands of England, it also has canal and train connections and the local area has many countryside attractions including National Trust properties, historic railways and museums, Alton Towers is nearby and Jodrell Bank observatory is a few miles north west. You can even reach the seaside in Wales or the Wirral in about 80 miles.

Tandem Riding

Posted on June 22, 2024June 22, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Bikes, Cycle, Cycling, jamboree, Life, Memories, Nature, pony trek, tandem, titchy theatre playlet, Together, Travel2 Comments

My bike…. dont have a picture of our tandem….

We were out one day, and Hubby saw an old tandem across the floor of a garage. He went over to look at it and fell into an inspection pit. Luckily, he was OK!

We bought the tandem (which was two bikes welded together) and my hubby even took the local MP round Penkhull on it!

One day we rode 100 miles in a reliability trial with the local cycling club. It was fun and we got back in seven and a half hours, despite one of my pedals falling off and having to borrow a spanner to fasten it back in place. One chain wheel was on the opposite side of the tandem, so it had unscrewed….

All this happened about thirty years ago when I was a lot fitter.

We would take the tandem or our bikes out and explore the local countryside or cycle from Stoke up to Rochdale, or down to Walsall.

We decided to cycle up through Leek one day, then up to the Roaches. We saw a signpost for Flash so decided to take it (the highest village in England apparently). We were tired but swooped up and down the hills. But I was nervous, two of us going downhill on winding roads was nerve wracking! I was a bit scared and kept houting at my hubby to SLOW DOWN!

Eventually we came down and round a corner and……

We almost ran into a five pony, pony trek that was spread across the road. Hubby turned the handlebars and dropped us into a shallow ditch at the side of the road!

I admit cursing him for being so reckless. But we gathered ourselves back together and set off again uphill, then swiftly down again. I kept telling him to go slower. But he was enjoying himself and we had averted one disaster, what else could happen?

This time we came round a corner and just managed to stop, in front of a scout Jamboree. How many scouts and cubs? Goodness only knows. HUNDREDS of them! Hubby and I had been lucky not to hit one of them, like a skittle, probably knocking others over too!

Again, we got ourselves sorted out. By then I was ready to go home. We saw a TV mast somewhere up on the hills as we headed Westwards and soon, we were looking across the beautiful Cheshire plain, looking at peaceful and hopefully flat farmland to cycle home over. We stopped off at a place selling ice-cream before pedalling downhill towards Macclesfield or Congleton, to be honest I can’t remember because I was more bothered about the danger of going downhill too fast! I think I was probably very grateful that we got home in one piece!

Esther’s phobia prompt

Posted on June 21, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged airport, ducking, Esther Chilton prompt, Flying, jet, Memory, no, phobia, Plane, Scared, Travel, turbulenceLeave a comment

Esther Chilton has a weekly prompt on her blog giving an idea to post a comment to. This week’s was PHOBIA.

Here’s my response:

My phobia is flying. I just won’t. Most of my family fly occasionally but I just can’t face it. For years my hubby wanted me to go to a local airport to see jets taking off and landing, but just seeing planes coming over a major road towards the airport was scary. The urge to duck was immense. Big metal tubes with wings, no I just can’t.
I like spiders and snakes. I’ll visit aquaria and watch sharks. I’ve been on boats and trains, I can cope in a car, mainly if I’m driving. But the thought of nothing underneath me except air… Even if there were no windows, so I couldn’t see out and know I was in the air, and if there was no turbulence. I just am too afraid!

Wales and Scotland

Posted on June 18, 2024June 18, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Boat, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1973, England, Flying, Life, Memory, Scotland, Time, Travel, Wales2 Comments

What countries do you want to visit?

I would like to visit Wales again one day. Particularly around Tenby. It’s a beautiful and interesting place. There is a lot of history and beautiful scenery, plus what’s better than an amazing dragon on your flag?

Scotland is my other choice, mountainous and mysterious, with a possible monster in Loch Ness! I have never been, I went to Carlisle once which is on the border. It’s always felt too far away.

I won’t fly, so unless I travel by boat or train I’m never going to go much further. I think my carbon footprint is quite small and I’d like to keep it that way! Plus I don’t really do heat, and when I hear of places already getting up to 40°C or more this year it worries me. I don’t think I could cope with it. I’ve always felt I can watch TV I’d I want to see a place. I can’t afford the reality. And there’s still plenty of England to explore too!

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Travel